Showing results by author "Peter Howell" in All Categories

It's the 22nd century. Humanity has taken its first steps into the galaxy, and we've found ourselves in a vast playground of alien races and cultures. As the newest players on the universal stage, though, we're at the bottom of the food chain. Welcome back to the Four Horsemen universe, where only a willingness to fight and die for money separates humans from the majority of the other races. While some of the stories deal with mercenaries, others introduce listeners to the other guilds, organizations, and races that make up the landscape of the Four Horsemen universe.

Three more 1940s cases for Detective Chief Inspector Philip Bryce. The first two are set in 1949, and follow on from The Bedroom Window Murder, The Courthouse Murder, and The Felixstowe Murder. The third is a ‘prequel’, going back to 1946, when Bryce – having returned to the police after army service – was a still a Detective Inspector, based in Whitechapel rather than Scotland Yard. 1. DEATH IN AN OFFICE KITCHEN In the office kitchen of a London advertising agency, a man falls to the floor, dead. Natural causes are presumed – until evidence emerges showing this cannot be the case...

It is 1949. Sir Francis Sherwood - WW1 hero, landowner, magistrate - is shot dead while standing at an open bedroom window in his country house. A rifle is found in the grounds. The county police seek help from Scotland Yard. Detective Chief Inspector Bryce and Detective Sergeant Haig are assigned to the case. The first difficulty for the Yard men is that nobody with even a mild dislike of Sherwood can be found. But before that problem can be resolved, others arise...... Philip Bryce is an unusual policeman. A Cambridge-educated barrister, he joined the Metropolitan Police in 1937 under ...

A waitress at one of the great London 'Corner Houses' dies while at work. It is quickly realised that she has been poisoned. Her death is initially thought to be suicide, but doubts soon arise. It is then found that on the previous day another 'nippy' was poisoned at a different restaurant owned by the same company. This girl is still alive - just - and it was initially believed that she had appendicitis. Even when the hospital reported that she had been poisoned, the message was misinterpreted and the restaurant management assumed that the problem was one of food poisoning. Eventually, it ...

Due to horrible physical deformities, he spent much of his life as a fairground freak. He was hounded, persecuted, and starving, until his fortune changed and he was rescued, housed, and fed by the distinguished surgeon, Frederick Treves. The subject of several books, a Broadway hit, and a film, Joseph Merrick has become part of popular mythology. Here, in this fully revised edition containing much fresh information, are the true and un-romanticized facts of his life.

A young provincial journalist receives a telephone call from a man who won’t give his name. Anticipating the scoop of his career, Marcus Cunningham arranges to meet the informant at Liverpool Street station. Subsequent events quickly draw in Scotland Yard detectives Chief Inspector Philip Bryce and his colleague Sergeant Alex Haig, as they conduct a complex murder investigation.

In July 1939, three men are shot dead within a few days of each other. The incidents are all in Lancashire but in different police force areas. When it is eventually realised that the cases are linked, the various constabularies agree to call in the expertise of Scotland Yard. Detective Chief Inspector Adair, who has been holidaying with his wife and daughter in the same county, is tasked with investigating the crimes. These do not appear to be random shootings. It seems that the gunman has a motive for killing each of the victims. But what could that be? And is the grudge against each one ...

In 1939, two days after the declaration of war, tens of thousands of children are being evacuated from areas in London, Liverpool, and other British cities, where heavy enemy bombing is expected. Daisy Beck gets on a bus with the other children from her school, to be taken to Cannon Street railway station. There she will board a train to take her to relative safety in a Kent village. She is seen off by her parents. The eighty other children from the East End school arrive at Borough Green, and walk in a crocodile to the local school, where they are to be allocated new homes. The little girl...

1936. In Lincoln, two men are on trial on charges of manslaughter. The trial has hardly started when one of the jurors dies in the jury box in the courtroom. It is quickly found that she has been poisoned. Chief Inspector Acton, already present in the courthouse for other reasons, takes charge of the investigations. A suspect soon emerges – and anonymous letters point the detectives towards the same man. But is all as it seems? And even if the suspect is innocent of this murder, are his hands quite clean? DCI Acton and his colleagues filter out the red herrings, and arrive at a solution.

Two more cases for Philip Bryce 1. In the City of London, a well-respected barrister is murdered in his chambers.The City Police ask for the help of Scotland Yard, and Detective Chief Superintendent Bryce investigates. 2. The Board of a large pharmaceutical company is meeting. One of the directors dies suddenly. The cause is clearly cyanide poisoning. But was it self-administered, or could it be murder? The local police inspector believes it was a case of suicide, but when he is taken seriously ill and admitted to hospital, and his sergeant almost simultaneously has a mental breakdown, ...

After a shooting in a seedy London public house in 1945, the female killer was never found – never even identified – by the local police. Six years later, Scotland Yard is asked to investigate another murder. No other senior officer being available, Philip Bryce takes on the case himself. It soon becomes likely that this murder was probably committed by the woman who shot the man in the pub years before. Bryce, assisted by DS Lomax and a new officer, DC Firth, look into both matters. Their hunt requires them to involve police in other cities in both England and Scotland. Not everything ...

The Master of a Cambridge college is killed – in an unusual way. Because of the man's links to the Secret Intelligence Service, a very senior officer with security clearance is required to lead the investigation. Chief Superintendent Bryce, an old Cambridge man himself, is the obvious choice. The time of the murder, and the design of the old college buildings, make it almost impossible for the killer to be an outsider. But that still leaves some two hundred and fifty students and staff. Bryce's logical mind leads him to concentrate on the college's eleven remaining fellows and four ...

In July 1949, an unpopular and deeply unpleasant man is stabbed to death in the courthouse of an English city. As the murder has been committed in a room to which the general public doesn’t have access, it seems probable that the culprit is someone involved with the business of the courts. Suspects include a number of lawyers, police officers, and magistrates. For various reasons, the local Chief Constable decides to ask Scotland Yard to investigate the murder. Chief Inspector Philip Bryce and Sergeant Alex Haig are assigned to the case. Theirs is a recent partnership, but the two men ...

Two more cases for Philip Bryce. 1. An affluent elderly lady dies. The death certificate cites ‘natural causes’, but the servants are uncomfortable. A parlourmaid decides to go to New Scotland Yard, and talk to someone there. She is fortunate, because Detective Sergeant Haig happens to pass through the foyer while she is trying to explain. The busy desk officer intercepts him, and asks to him to listen to the maid’s story. Haig listens politely, but is ready to dismiss the story as tittle-tattle, when he hears one thing which makes him take notice. He goes to report to his boss, DCI ...

Two fourteen-year-old girls go missing from an exclusive boarding school. Did they abscond, or have they been kidnapped? The girls’ parents - and indeed the parents of many other pupils – have considerable influence in very high places. Pressure is quickly brought to bear to get Scotland Yard involved. Concern for the girls’ safety is paramount. Detective Chief Inspector Adair and three of his officers are assigned to help the local police. Initially there is little to go on, but Adair soon determines that the children didn’t leave voluntarily. The first step – to ascertain how ...

In August 1949, Detective Chief Inspector Bryce and his new bride Veronica are holidaying in the East Anglian resort of Felixstowe. During afternoon tea in the Palm Court of their hotel, a man dies at a nearby table. He has been poisoned. Reluctant to get directly involved, Bryce nevertheless agrees to help the inexperienced local police inspector get to grips with his first murder case, turning his honeymoon into a ‘busman’s holiday’.

A burglar is found shot dead in the home of Viscount Tallis, a wealthy industrialist. The man was equipped with a stethoscope, and appears to have been attempting to open a safe in the study. Tallis himself is in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, on his way to America on Government business. Although various members of his family are present in the house, together with guests, nobody has access to the safe – nobody even knows what it might contain. It isn't even clear if the safebreaker succeeded in opening it. Detective Inspector Tommy Rees is given the case. Rees is approaching ...

There are at least two reasons why Robin Whitaker wants to eliminate his wife, Dulcie. He is not allowed to drink any alcohol, nor to gamble. Dulcie controls his life to an extent that he finds intolerable. But she is also wealthy, so merely leaving her is not an acceptable option. In most circumstances Dr Whitaker thinks and acts like the very intelligent and highly-educated man he is. However, he has somehow convinced himself that the action of killing his wife is justified. He is also certain that his innate brainpower will give him a significant edge over any police detectives, and ...

In 1950, Philip Bryce is suddenly given two pieces of unexpected but welcome news - one domestic, the other work-related. He is also given a new case to tackle. It’s a change from the murder cases he spends a lot of time on, but it’s tricky. This is one involving ‘demands with menaces’ – the offence commonly known as blackmail. And the first three victims are very high-ranking people. Bryce investigates, with the newly-promoted Inspector Haig alongside him. But who is the blackmailer? From where does he or she acquire the information? And just how innocent are the ‘victims’?

A man dies after falling in front of a London underground train. The following day, another man dies after being shot while walking along an Essex road. It is soon found that the first man has not committed suicide, as first thought. He has been shot. Are the two incidents connected? Scotland Yard detectives, led by Chief Superintendent Bryce, investigate. Are the two men who they appear to be? Who would want them dead? Then there is a third murder.