Showing results by narrator "Jan Cramer" in All Categories

Meet Detective Inspector Zoe Finch. She's ambitious, determined, and damaged. And she's about to uncover evidence that could make her career... or get her sacked.

It's summer and Lyme Regis is rammed with tourists. DC Tina Abbott is hoping her kids can have some fun on the beach with their granny Annie, who in turn is enjoying time with her swimming club. But then Annie and her friends’ morning swim is disturbed when they spot the body of local artist Clifford Muldoon, floating near the Cobb. Tina has things under control. But Annie, emboldened by her involvement in Lyme Regis’s last murder case, wants to get involved. And could the swimmers have information that might help solve the crime?

With a long-term target finally in custody and the appearance of a key witness, DI Zoe Finch might have expected everything else to fall into place. But when the body of a man she knows is found inside the Port of Workington, the investigation takes her team in some unexpected directions, and working with unlikely allies. Why was he killed? Is there a connection with the missing mother of a local businessman? Can Zoe’s team even keep the case in the face of a bitter territorial spat?

Three more chilling cases test DCI Lesley Clarke to her limits as corruption, organized crime, and personal betrayal threaten to destroy everything she’s built. In this third box set of the bestselling Dorset Crime series, Lesley faces her most dangerous investigations yet – and discovers that the truth can be deadlier than any killer.

Christmas in Birmingham means the Frankfurt Christmas Market. Loved and hated by brummies in equal measure, it certainly makes life interesting for West Midlands Police. But when the body of a homeless man is found behind a market stall early one Sunday morning, it looks like Christmas might be cancelled for DI Zoe Finch and her team. And when they discover that the victim has a history that makes his death politically sensitive, things get even more complicated.

When DCI Lesley Clarke suffers an injury and is told to relocate from Birmingham to rural Dorset, she's expecting some peace and quiet. But before she even starts her new job, she witnesses a murder at the iconic Corfe Castle. Lesley must get to know her new team, learn a new patch, and solve the mystery. What's more, team are mourning the loss of her predecessor, DCI Tim Mackie, who allegedly committed suicide. But was Mackie's death suspicious? And did it involve someone in her team?

When DCI Lesley Clarke suffers an injury and is told to relocate from Birmingham to rural Dorset, she's expecting some peace and quiet. But before she even starts her new job, she witnesses a murder at the iconic Corfe Castle. Lesley must get to know her new team, learn a new patch, and solve the mystery. What's more, team are mourning the loss of her predecessor, DCI Tim Mackie, who allegedly committed suicide. But was Mackie's death suspicious? And did it involve someone in her team?

It's Christmas in Lyme Regis, and DC Tina Abbott is looking forward to some well-earned time with her family. But then her mum Annie, true to form, reports a crime. The pottery shop has been broken into and the owner Peg, Annie's friend, attacked. The evidence is scant. A solitary fingerprint in blood, but nothing stolen, at least as far as the police can tell. But when Annie discovers a gaudy pottery reindeer that was left at the scene of the crime, she and her swimming club friends get drawn into the mystery.

Italy, 1958: Rachael is a young widow with a small child. After a lifetime of running for survival, of not knowing who to trust and where to call home, she finds herself in a place of safety. On a sun-drenched Italian island for one carefree summer the troubles of her past fade away, and she falls in love. But will Rachael’s new-found happiness bring her further heartache?

After the death of their father, sisters Elinor and Marianne Dashwood face financial ruin. At the mercy of their half brother, John, and his greedy wife, their only hope is to make a good match. But reduced circumstances make courtship difficult - especially after being turned out of their home. While responsible Elinor takes a practical approach to matters of the heart, Marianne throws herself in unreservedly. In Jane Austen’s first novel, two of literature’s most iconic characters discover that love demands a balance of passion and pragmatism.

An old enemy and a new colleague bring twin problems for DCI Lesley Clarke. Lesley and her team think that their battles with Dorset's organised crime gangs are over. The Kelvins are all dead or in prison and Trevor Hamm's Birmingham gang have given up their attempts to expand into the county. But then a man's body is found on Chesil Beach, his fingertips and teeth removed. And his DNA isn't on the system.

For centuries, the mysterious dark-robed figure has roamed the globe, searching for those whose complicity and cowardice have fed into the rapids of history’s darkest waters—and now, in Sarah Perry’s breathtaking follow-up to The Essex Serpent, it is heading in our direction. It has been...

The trail has gone cold, and the authorities believe he has disappeared forever. But Erica knows her father better than anyone and feels his presence lurking in the shadows. When journalist Pierre Cloarec uncovers a massive financial fraud–the same method Sterling used to fund his escape–his investigation leads him to a seemingly quiet coastal village. There, a new friendship with a mysterious American takes a dark and disturbing turn, and Erica’s instincts tell her this is no coincidence.

Twelve-year-old Lewis Stevens disappeared from a seafront arcade. Eleven-year-old Noah Reid vanished from the pier stretching out over the beach. Detective Kim Stone doesn’t play well with others… but as the investigation into the missing children stalls, she is sent halfway across the country to join the hunt. When she knocks on the door of Lewis’s house, she’s expecting to meet a desperate, hopeful mother, and to promise she’ll do everything in her power to bring Lewis home.

DI Zoe Finch has a lot on her plate. New job, new team, new county. And on day one, she’s plunged straight into a murder investigation. Zoe has to hit the ground running. She needs to manage a new team with its fair share of challenges, get to grips with a new boss who might not be all she seems, and worry about her reputation following her north to Cumbria. Can she settle in quickly enough to solve the murder and quell local tensions, as well as coping with an unfamiliar environment? The Harbour is book 1 in an exciting new series for the star of the bestselling DI Zoe Finch series.

On the fourth floor of Chaucer House, two teenagers are found chained to a radiator. The boy is dead but the girl is alive. For Detective Kim Stone every detail of the scene mirrors her own terrifying experience with her brother Mikey, when they lived in the same tower block 30 years ago. When the bodies of a middle-aged couple are discovered in a burnt-out car, Kim can’t ignore the chilling similarity to the deaths of Erica and Keith - the only loving parents Kim had ever known.

When Detective Kim Stone is called to the home of Samantha Brown, she finds the young woman lying in bed with her throat cut and a knife in her hand. With no sign of forced entry or struggle, Kim rules her death a tragic suicide. But a visit to Samantha’s parents rings alarm bells for Kim - there’s something they’re not telling her. And, when she spots a clue in a photograph, Kim realizes she’s made a huge mistake. Samantha didn’t take her own life, she was murdered.

I open the creaking oak front door of my beautiful country house to see a stranger on my doorstep. The woman is stunning with glossy red hair and flawless make up. "Can I help you?" I ask. That was my first mistake. Alexis tells me she is a distant relative and shows me a DNA match on her phone. She has no family and would love to get to know us. My husband Hugh invites her in to join our dinner party. As we drink wine, she opens up about her sad childhood. Her amber eyes are mesmerizing, and I can see my husband is being drawn in by her story. Then she asks for our help.

In Elizabethan London, no child is safe. Children are misused and exploited by parents, masters, strangers, and society at large. Even the children of the rich are in danger. When a five-year-old heiress to great estates is kidnapped, Christoval Alvarez, the players of James Burbage's company, and a disreputable group of child beggars all become involved in the search. At Seething Lane, matters are approaching a crisis.

A victim killed with a single, precise stab to the heart appears at first glance to be a robbery gone wrong. A caring, upstanding social worker lost to a senseless act of violence. But for Detective Kim Stone, something doesn't add up. When a local drug addict is found murdered with an identical wound, Kim knows instinctively that she is dealing with the same killer. But with nothing to link the two victims except the cold, calculated nature of their death, this could be her most difficult case yet.