Showing results by author "Granger" in All Categories

When Meredith Mitchell agreed to stay with her actress cousin, Eve, in the run up to Eve's daughter's wedding, she anticipated a degree of drama. But she can hardly have expected it to include murder, blackmail, and unrequited love. Or to involve a certain Chief Inspector Markby, a middle aged divorcee.

It is 1864 when Lizzie Martin takes up the post of companion to a wealthy widow who is also a slum landlord. Lizzie is intrigued to learn that her predecessor disappeared, supposedly having run off with an unknown man. But when the girl's body is found in the rubble of one of the recently demolished slums around the prestigious new railway station at St Pancras, Lizzie begins to wonder exactly what has been going on.

The two elderly sisters of the Oakley family live in poverty in an ancient mansion and have decided to sell up to live comfortably from the profits. However, things become more complicated when a young Polish man appears claiming rights to half the fortune. When he dies in circumstances familiar to the Oakley family, the sisters are haunted by the shadow of crime, and Superintendent Markby must look back at the events of a century ago to find the killer.

A Campbell and Cater mystery. Crime in the Cotswolds just got deadly. When Lucas Burton arrives at a deserted farm, hoping to conduct a business deal, he stumbles across the body of a girl. And that's just the start of his problems. Penny Gower, from the local stables, spots his car leaving the crime scene, and when her friend Andrew Ferris calls the police it's only a matter of time before Lucas gets a visit from someone he'd rather not see...

Born and Razed recounts the author's gripping and deeply personal journey. Beth's life began at Grenville, where her parents were teachers. The picturesque campus on the banks of the St. Lawrence River masked a dark reality: behind its idyllic facade lay a world of strict control, religious zealotry, and emotional abuse.

It is with some trepiditation that Meredith Mitchell returns to the Cotswolds: the Bamford district holds memories that, to put it generously, are bittersweet, and Christmas is a difficult time to find oneself a stranger in a new area. Yet she receives a kindly welcome, in particular from her old acquaintance Chief Inspector Markby and from her new neighbour Harriet Needham, a striking redhead with whom Meredith immediately feels a certain kinship. But Meredith has barely got to know her neighbour when Harriet is involved in a shocking—and fatal—accident at the Boxing Day Hunt.

It sends a shiver down Detective Superintendent Alan Markby's spine when he hears that a rambler has stumbled across human bones in Stovey Woods in the heart of the Cotswolds. Twenty-two years earlier, as a fresh-faced young inspector, he had a rare failure, in the hunt for a brutal serial rapist preying on local women. After the third rape, the attacker went to ground, never to be heard of again.

A rags-to-riches story with a delightfully original spin, Not All Tarts Are Apple is narrated by seven-year-old Rosie, who grows up in a cafe in 1950s Soho, watched over by her eagle-eyed Auntie Maggie and Uncle Bert, and visited on occasions by her mother, the mysterious, and often drunk, Perfumed Lady. But it soon transpires that the Perfumed Lady's family - landed gentry who hail from a country estate near Bath - are desperate to get their hands on Rosie, and will stop at nothing - even kidnap - to acquire her.

When Meredith Mitchell's old friend, Toby Smythe, turns up on leave, she is delighted to see him. But Toby has a problem - or rather his relative, Alison Jenner, has - and he wants to enlist the help of Meredith's fiancé, Detective Superintendent Alan Markby.

A French musket ball to the leg takes Captain Hugh Fanshawe from the battlefield and leaves him enduring long, quiet days compiling paperwork at Horse Guards headquarters. He knows his lameness makes him the object of pity and distaste at the stifling social engagements he dutifully escorts his mother and sister to, but everything in his orderly life changes when Colonel Theo Lindsay arrives.

Where Old Bones Lie is set on an isolated archaeological dig in the Cotswolds. When a body is found near the site, the suspects, witnesses, and clues all conflict, and the disappearance of a group of New Age travellers just seems to add to the mystery. Superintendent Markby and Meredith Mitchell must untangle the mess, and in doing so find themselves in a dangerous and uncompromising situation.

The sixth Inspector Ben Ross mystery. On a cold November night in a Deptford yard, dock worker Harry Parker stumbles upon the body of a dead woman. Inspector Ben Ross is summoned from Scotland Yard to this insalubrious part of town, but no witness to the murder of this well-dressed middle-aged woman can be found. Even Jeb Fisher, the local rag-and-bone man, swears he's seen nothing.

London, 1867. As Inspector Ben Ross of Scotland Yard walks homeward one Saturday night, the fog that swirls around him is like a living beast. After it has lifted a woman lies murdered in Green Park. Allegra Benedict was the beautiful Italian wife of an art dealer. As Ben begins his investigation, his wife Lizzie looks into Allegra's private life and uncovers more than one reason why someone might want her dead...

Victorian London is brought vividly to life in Ann Granger's fifth historical crime novel to feature Scotland Yard's Inspector Ben Ross and his wife Lizzie.... A hanged man would say anything to save his life. But what if his testimony is true? When Inspector Ben Ross is called to Newgate Prison by a man condemned to die by the hangman's noose, he isn't expecting to give any credence to the man's testimony. But the account of a murder he witnessed over 17 years ago is so utterly believeable that Ben can't help wondering if what he's heard is true.

In the cold light of dawn, a dead body is found in the smouldering remains of a burnt-out Cotswold manor. Key House has stood empty for years, but its owner, Gervase Crown, was seen nearby just before the blaze. Is he responsible, or was he the intended target? As Campbell and Carter begin their investigation it becomes clear that Gervase wasn't particularly popular and his return reawakens old memories, not all of them good.

It doesn't take Meredith Mitchell long to regret giving up her lovely Cotswold cottage in favour of living in London. In addition, the fact that her job gives a whole new meaning to the word "tedious" does little to improve her mood. What she needs is a holiday. So, when Alan Markby's sister wants a house-sitter, Meredith jumps at the chance. Alan himself is overloaded with work following the discovery of two bodies, one of which, at least, is a murder victim.

Meredith and Markby are almost ready to leave on a long planned canal barge trip, but Meredith is having reservations. Then the 12-year-old corpse of a missing teenage girl is dug up in the local graveyard. The vacation is off (to Meredith's relief), but the investigation is on.

When Meredith Mitchell bumps into her old school friend Rachel Hunter at the Chelsea Flower Show, she is shocked to discover that she was the first wife of her companion, Chief Inspector Alan Markby. But the meeting is not the only surprise; before the afternoon is out, Markby has a death on his hands.

As young children, Josh Browning and his sister, Dilys, stumbled across a dead body while playing on the outskirts of their Cotswold village. Terrified by what they'd seen, neither of them told a soul. Now, 20 years later, Josh finds the dead woman's charm bracelet among his sister's possessions. Who better to tell than his trusted friend, the man he gardens for, retired Superintendent Alan Markby? As Markby listens to Josh's confession, alarm bells start to ring. The dates and details tie in with a missing person case that was never solved.

Two years ago, Miff Ferguson chose to opt out of the rat race. Since then he's been living rough and happily so. That is until now. For, as the first signs of winter approach, everything changes. While looking for shelter, Miff stumbles across the dead body of a young woman inside a dilapidated warehouse. Quickly realising he's not alone, and what's worse he's been spotted, Miff becomes embroiled in a game of cat and mouse with a killer that forces him to abandon his life on the streets and take refuge with his aunt and uncle in the village of Weston St Ambrose.