British Historical Crime

Christmas at a snowed in country house. You know what happens next… Not necessarily. Agatha Aston is invited to spend the weekend before Christmas with some old friends. Accompanied by her Machiavellian Basset hound, Talleyrand, Agatha encounters murder, ghosts and romance at a country house where nothing is as it seems. While Agatha has her hands full solving a murder, Talleyrand has his own problems in the shape of Bismarck, the hosts’ unfriendly German Shepherd. Expect fireworks. Containing a short ghost story within a story, The Christmas Murder Mystery is a twisty box of delights, ...

August 1893. A young heir lies dead on a Scottish Highland estate. A loaded shotgun. A trusted tutor. Life insurance policies worth twenty thousand pounds, signed mere days before the fatal shot. The local authorities call it a tragic accident. Sherlock Holmes takes the next train north. At Ardlamont Estate in Argyllshire, Holmes and Watson uncover a crime of breathtaking calculation — and beneath it, something far larger: a systematic industry of fraud reaching from the Highland glens into the drawing rooms of London's most powerful men. Alfred Monson is meticulous, well-connected, and ...

Britain’s Most Haunting Unsolved Murders: From Jack the Ripper’s era to modern forensic mysteries. When Darkness Fell investigates ten of Britain’s most disturbing unsolved murder cases — spanning 140 years of British criminal history, from Victorian London’s Thames Torso Killer to the modern mystery of “Adam,” the unidentified child found in the Thames in 2001. This meticulously researched true crime investigation draws on police archives, trial transcripts, forensic reports, and century-old newspaper accounts to uncover the forgotten victims behind Britain’s coldest cases....

Eleven new investigations. Eleven moral reckonings. A cartographer dies at his desk, pen in hand, drawing a map of no recognisable place. A celebrated tenor contrives to die on stage at the Royal Opera House. Mysterious photographs appear overnight in a locked darkroom. Chalk marks on Whitechapel walls conceal a message no one was meant to read. A mathematician vanishes from his rooms at Cambridge, leaving his shoes, his coat, and an unfinished proof. From the gaslit streets of London to the flat silence of the Fens, from a cathedral tower at midnight to the tunnels beneath Kennington, Dr. ...

The multi million copy bestseller that has enthralled generations of readers. A haunting tale of obsessive love. A mesmerizing psychological thriller. In Monte Carlo, our unnamed heroine is swept off her feet by the dashing widower Maxim de Winter and his sudden proposal of marriage. Orphaned...

The most original crime novel in years - British ‘Golden Age’ sleuth meets American hard-boiled crime! It’s the summer of 1920: Kit Aston travels to San Francisco for his cousin’s marriage to the mysterious Dain Collins. When a private investigator tailing Dain Collins is killed, Kit Aston, his fiancée Mary and Aunt Agatha team up with Pinkerton detective, Dashiell Hammett, in a case involving murder, kidnap and the theft of a certain legendary bird from Malta. The latest Kit Aston mystery is a delightful reimagining of some of Dashiell Hammett’s greatest novels: the Maltese ...

Christmas at a fairytale German castle turns into a nightmare for Agatha and Eustace… Agatha and Eustace along with their Basset hound, Talleyrand, agree to spend Christmas with their friend Ernst Marlow at the castle of his friend in the middle of Germany’s Teutoburg Forest. They expect a holiday filled with snow-covered landscapes, roaring fires, and festive cheer. But as they arrive at the ancient fortress, they are met with a chilling atmosphere that feels more like a scene from a Grimm’s fairytale than a cozy winter retreat. The castle, steeped in legends of dark forests and ...

All chess games end in a murder... It's 1920, the murders of a trade unionist, a knight and a bishop shock Britain. The finger of blame seems to point to Russia. As the body count rises, Kit Aston plays a deadly game of chess with a Russian grandmaster where checkmate is a matter of life or death. The latest Kit Aston whodunnit is a gripping historical crime thriller, full of twists and hilarious one liners which fuses classic murder mystery with a spy novel. The Kit Aston mysteries mix real life historical characters and events with crime thrillers full of red herrings. No books are the ...

The worldwide phenomenon from the bestselling author of The Pillars of the Earth, World Without End, A Column of Fire, and The Evening and the Morning His code name was “The Needle.” He was a German aristocrat of extraordinary intelligence—a master spy with a legacy of violence in his...

London, 1888. Fog-choked streets. Lamplit alleys. A killer who moves like a shadow—and a secret far darker than history ever recorded. When barrister Montague John Druitt makes a desperate bargain with a mysterious Gentleman in black, he believes it will save his collapsing life. Instead, he becomes trapped in a waking nightmare as the pact twists his thoughts, fractures his mind, and drives him toward the Whitechapel murders that will echo through history. As the bodies multiply, Inspector Frederick Abberline follows a trail of fear through the East End, unaware that the monster he hunts...

Bubble, bubble, toil, and murder... When a woman is found dead near her village in Norfolk, the verdict is suicide. Not everyone agrees. Detective James Simpson is ordered to investigate and he brings Agatha Aston, a young woman high of intellect and low in patience, Betty Stevens and a lovelorn hound called Talleyrand, with him. They stumble across a tale of murder that stretches back two centuries. Part occult story, part murder mystery - this creepy tale is steeped in witchcraft and strange rural festivals where everything is not as it seems. The second Agatha Aston murder mystery is ...

Why would anyone steal a man’s underwear? And how could Holmes’s drawers lead to a network of kidnapping, extortion and murder? In January 1891, Holmes was despondent because of the lack of challenging cases. So, Watson suggests a short vacation to Torquay to give Holmes’s mind a chance to be refreshed. On the third day, items start to go missing. A pretty, buxom maid is suspected. She denies everything. Holmes knows she is lying. But Holmes knows there is nothing so unnatural as a lie told for no gain. His investigation turns up first one murder, then another, then people start ...

Sherlock Holmes must contend with his past upon returning from the great hiatus. Unanswered questions linger in his mind. Holmes is aware that Watson is hiding something, but Watson struggles with the secret. The veil begins to tear by a visitor at their door, and what seems a simple request turns into a life or death encounter.

Five books. One sprawling conspiracy. A city drowning in blood and secrets. Alderman James thought atonement would be quiet—keep his head down in Georgian Dublin, solve petty crimes, and bury the sins of his youth beneath duty and discipline. Then the Dolocher tears its first throat open in the snow-choked Liberties, and James discovers that some cases don't end when the killer hangs. They metastasize. Over five novels spanning years of murder, manipulation, and mounting dread, James descends into a nightmare where every solved mystery reveals three more lurking beneath. Copycat killers ...

In 1922, Edith Thompson was hanged for murder despite no physical evidence linking her to the crime. Her conviction rested entirely on passionate love letters that a jury interpreted as conspiracy. Modern DNA analysis would have proven her innocence immediately. Before forensic science existed, innocence couldn't be proven and guilt couldn't be certain. Victorian and Edwardian Britain witnessed a golden age of murder mysteries not because killers were more clever, but because the science to catch them barely existed. Poisons were undetectable. Blood couldn't be typed. DNA was unknown. ...

“Watson, there is not a moment to lose. If you care to join the chase, pack your bag at once!” Likewise, enthusiasts of the greatest detective will not want to miss this opportunity to join Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson in a whirlwind of exciting new adventures… A daring thief penetrates the defenses of the Tower of London in search of a secret treasure. A profligate young actor is accused of murdering his exemplary sibling. From the safe of a prominent London banker, a priceless heirloom is stolen. Upon a high cliff, a ghostly assassin commits an impossible murder. A kingpin of ...

"Come for the banter, stay for the intrigue, and enjoy this fascinating tale of the American Revolution.”—Christian Science Monitor A riveting reimagining of the young woman who almost ended the American Revolution. Philadelphia in the 1770s. Peggy Shippen longs for the war she’s living...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER Amateur sleuth Flavia de Luce, along with her pestilent younger cousin, investigates the murder of a former public hangman and uncovers a secret that brings the greatest shock of her life. “I love the Flavia de Luce novels! Flavia is the best female detective I’ve...

A novel in The L.A. Quartet. Internationally acclaimed author James Ellroy presents another literary noir masterpiece of historical paranoia. Los Angeles, 1958. Killings, beatings, bribes, shakedowns—it's standard procedure for Lieutenant Dave Klein, LAPD. He's a slumlord, a bagman, an...

A mystery novel set in the rural English countryside during the early 20th century. Centered around the enigmatic Stillwell family and their silent steward, the loyal butler Frommer, the story takes an unexpected turn with the return of a long lost family member. The resurgence from the past creates ripples through the tranquil countryside life, revealing deep-rooted secrets and chilling surprises. Set in the early 20th century, the novel paints a vivid picture of historic English aristocracy, family intrigues, and the timeless pursuit of power." The Mystery "Immerse yourself in the ...