Showing results by publisher "Soundings" in Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

When a convoy of 45 ships tries to make it from Halifax to England, it finds progress sabotaged by an onslaught of enemy submarine torpedoes. Terror strikes the crews who are forced to witness their comrades drowning or becoming human torches amid the burning oil spilling from the ships. Engine failure forces the SS Regal Gesture to drop out of the convoy and make her way across the hostile waters alone and undefended.

It's 1919. The Derbyshire village of Wenfield is still coming to terms with the loss of so many of its sons when the brutal murder of a young girl shatters its hard-won tranquility. Myrtle Bligh is found stabbed, her mouth slit to accommodate a dead dove. During the war Myrtle volunteered as a nurse, working at the nearby big house, Tarnhey Court. When two more women are found murdered, Inspector Albert Lincoln is sent up from London.

When Laura Harcourt accepts a temporary position in the north of England she does not dream that it will change her life forever. Wainthorpe is a small town set amongst a dense concentration of woollen mills, where the thriving Cross Ings mill is one of the most prosperous. Its respected owner is Ainsley Beaumont, whose family wealth derives from centuries in the woollen trade. However, when Laura arrives she finds that behind the façade is a family still torn apart by the memory of a disastrous fire.

Derbyshire, 1921. When an MP goes missing in a Derbyshire village, Scotland Yard detective Albert Lincoln is sent to investigate. A grim discovery has been made in a cave next to an ancient stone circle: the naked body of a middle-aged man mutilated beyond recognition. The local police assume it is the missing politician, but when Albert arrives in Wenfield he begins to have doubts.

During a blackout on the streets of London in late 1944, a young Polish land girl, Rosa Nowak, is suddenly and brutally killed. But the police, their resources already stretched by war regulations and the thriving black market, cannot find any reason why someone would want to murder an innocent refugee. For the former police inspector John Madden, the crime hits close to home. Rosa was working on his farm, and he feels personally responsible for not protecting her.

Recovering from a broken leg after his ignominious fall from the Titanic, Lestrade should have had a peaceful time convalescing. But an attempt on the life of his future father-in-law makes him realise that a policeman is never really off duty. What is particularly puzzling is the arrival of a letter which simply reads, "Four for the Gospel Makers", and it isn’t the first Lestrade has been sent. So begins one of Sholto Lestrade’s most mystifying cases, encompassing both the present and the past.

Kelly Ingles's case should have been one to tug on the public's heartstrings: a young woman missing in the run-up to Christmas. But Kelly wasn't perfect - she liked to party, enjoyed a drink, didn't always make the best decisions. And when evidence of her drunken antics appears online, it becomes clear that Kelly might not just have been in the wrong place at the wrong time; she might also be the wrong sort of girl to encourage public sympathy. It's a case that's right up Maxie Reddick's street. But can she get the police and public on board before it's too late?

When Kirsten Harbourn is found strangled on her wedding day, DI Wesley Peterson makes some alarming discoveries. Kirsten was being pursued by a stalker, and she had dark secrets her fiancé knew nothing about. But Kirsten's wasn't the only wedding planned to take place that day. At Morbay register office a terrified young girl makes her wedding vows, but a few days later her bridegroom is found dead. Wesley suspects that his death and his bride's subsequent disappearance might be linked to Kirsten's murder.

February 1933. Receiving a mysterious summons from her cousin Laurel, Amory Ames and her playboy husband, Milo, set off for the Lyonsgate estate posthaste. The house was the scene of a tragic accident seven years ago, when a reckless party of wild young things got out of hand, but it seems a mystery lingers on as the same guests reassemble, and Amory is sure that the notorious Isobel Van Allen stands at the centre of it. When a desperate person turns to murder, it’s up to Amory and Milo to sort through a web of scandal and lies to uncover the truth and the identity of a killer.

GP Lizzie Browne moves from London to a small coastal town looking forward to a quiet life, but when she finds a murdered patient on her first day it seems that perhaps Stibbington is not so quiet after all. DCI Adam Maguire and colleague Steve Grayson welcome this break from their normal routine, except that there seems to be no apparent motive for anyone to kill a harmless young dropout. But Lizzie’s peace is to be further shattered when a second body is found in her own garden.

The discovery of a human skeleton and a red rucksack amongst the roots of a fallen tree jolts memories for DI Wesley Peterson: a hitchhiker who went missing in 2008 and was never found. Meanwhile, in the small Devon village of Petherham, a famous TV psychic is the main attraction at a supernatural weekend. But when the psychic dies in suspicious circumstances Wesley discovers a connection between the dead man and the vanished hitchhiker. But was he responsible for her murder? Or has a shady organisation called The Burial Circle been revived in the present day?

On a bright spring morning, John Hyde opens the gates to the grounds of Moreton Corbet Castle, a local medieval ruin, and discovers the body of a homeless man with his throat slashed. Detective Inspector Alex Randall and his team soon face some disturbing questions: was this a random attack, or does someone have a vendetta against the homeless? For coroner Martha Gunn, establishing the man's identity is essential, but there are no clues.

Skeletons have a habit of revealing themselves eventually.... When a human skeleton is discovered on the boundary of a 20-year-old property development, it seems there are a large number of people who may know the identity of the corpse and how it got there. But 20 years is a long time, and those individuals were very different people back then. Skeletons are being revealed in all senses, and there are many prominent local figures who are beginning to feel uncomfortable and afraid.

1818, Carluke, Lanarkshire. Mathew Fleming returns home to Scotland following heroic service at the Battle of Waterloo. After seven years away, he is a ghostly presence to those he left behind. But Mathew is ambitious and soon becomes a man of influence in his country and beyond. Yet through all his success, he still hides the loss of his one true love. When a terrible act of murder occurs, Mathew must choose between the rule of blood and the rule of law.

Glaswegian author Bill Knox brings us a chilling story of kidnap and revenge in The Alibi Man. Manny Davis is being held prisoner in a cellar with no recollection of how he got there, whilst parcel bombs and other strange things have been happening around the city linked to a man matching Manny’s description.

At two pm on a Monday in 1966, Ned Balfour wakes in Corsica beside a beautiful woman. In the same instant, back in London, fellow art dealer and Dachau survivor Sam Weiss falls 10 storeys to his death. Ned refuses to believe that Sam's death was intentional, and his investigation thrusts him into the deceit and fraudulence of the art world, where he unmasks more than one respectable face. First published in 1967, this thrilling tale of vertigo, suspicion and infidelity is a long-forgotten classic with an intriguing plot twist.

In this addictive collection, master crime writer Peter Lovesey prescribes 15 fiendishly clever stories featuring the man in the street along with the ever-popular detectives Peter Diamond and the self-important Bertie, Prince of Wales. Here, the genteel mix easily with the sordid in a nasty but effective concoction of mayhem and suspense. It’s a mixture that will make your heart beat faster - and there are twists that will take your breath away....

The murder of Richard Daws, 14th Earl of Hartwood and a senior official at the National Crime Agency at his home - the highly secure Hartwood Castle - has sent shock waves through MI5, MI6 and the Met. Patrick Gillard and his wife, Ingrid Langley, face their most formidable task to date when Patrick vows to find his killer.

Lord Curzon, the ambitious Viceroy of India, decides to invade Tibet and recruits Simon Fonthill, veteran of so many of 'Queen Victoria's Little Wars', to lead 2,000 men over the ice-bound Himalayan passes to Lhasa. Fonthill sets out on another expedition with his wife, Alice, reporting for the Morning Post, and his old comrade, '352' Jenkins. It is machine guns against muskets as the cruel, brave monks fight on their own terrain among the clouds, opposing the invasion.

There was no doubt in Lt. Mike Gibson’s mind that he was going to die. As a lieutenant in the Royal Army Medical Corps, death and carnage had been with him every day from the beaches of Normandy to the crossing of the Rhine. One moment eclipsed all others, in a forest clearing in Germany; where he had the experience of hell on earth. He owed his life to one woman, Lily de Howarth, the woman he adored. And now he was planning to kill her in the name of love.