Edward Marston

May 1915. With thousands of Britons fighting in the trenches, a severely depleted police force remains behind to keep the Home Front safe. Scotland Yard is already overstretched when the sinking of the Lusitania sparks an unprecedented wave of anti-German riots and arson attacks.

Among the victims is the immigrant tailor Jacob Stein, found dead in his burnt-out shop. Initially Jacob's killing appears to be the tragic excess of wartime hysteria - but when it transpires that Jacob had been stabbed, his safe ransacked, and his daughter Ruth raped, the possibility that these assaults were long-premeditated crimes becomes unavoidable.

Detective Inspector Harvey Marmion and Sergeant Joe Keedy must take on this case of cover-ups and contradictions and track down Jacob's killer and Ruth's assailants.

December 1669. The Thames freezes over and a frost fair is held on the thick ice. Architect Christopher Redmayne and puritanical constable Jonathan Bale are both visiting the fair when one of Bale's sons gets into trouble on the ice. They rescue the boy but in the process make a grim discovery - a frozen corpse...

1916. Inspector Marmion and Sergeant Keedy are assigned to the case when the body of a young conscientious objector is found bludgeoned to death. Public sympathy is lukewarm for conscientious objectors and some people even claim that a "conchie" deserves to die if he won't fight for his King and Country. As the detectives identify one suspect, others pop up in the most unexpected places. Everyone speaks well of Ablatt but is he really the saint they describe? Marmion and Keedy have to dig deep in order to unearth the instrument of slaughter and the person who wielded it.

Chaos, death and unbelievable destruction ensue when the Brighton Express derails just outside the Balcombe Tunnel. Could it simply be a case of driver error? Detective Inspector Colbeck thinks not, but digging deep to discover the intended target of the accident takes time and the killer is preparing to strike again.

In 1851 as London anticipates the grand opening of the Great Exhibition, the London to Birmingham mail train is derailed and robbed, killing the driver and some passengers. Detective Inspector Robert Colbeck of the new Police force fights to untangle a web of murder, blackmail and destruction.

The small village of Maldon is controlled by the wealthy and rapacious FitzCorbucion family, led by Hamo FitzCorbucion, the lord of Blackwater Castle. When his eldest son, Guy, is found murdered, an enraged Hamo demands justice. Into this charged atmosphere arrives a tribunal, led by soldier Ralph Delchard and lawyer Gervase Bret. Surveying the lands of Maldon, the tribunal detects irregularities in various deeds, and plans to call the FitzCorbucion family to account. With tension high between Saxon and Norman factions in the village, Ralph and Gervase find some relaxation in the gentler company of nuns. But Guy's murder, and Hamo's quest for revenge, force Ralph and Gervase to deal with dangerous matters far beyond their original duties.

Captain Daniel Rawson is a soldier, spy, linguist and ladies' man - a man on whom the Duke of Marlborough can always rely. In this first Daniel Rawson adventure the Confederate army treks across Europe to meet the French and their allies at the battle of Blenheim.

Ralph Delchard, a soldier who fought at the Battle of Hastings, and Gervase Bret, a talented lawyer, have been commissioned by William the Conqueror to look into irregularities brought to light during the compilation of the Domesday Book. Their investigations take them throughout the kingdom, but the pair often find themselves embroiled in more sinister mysteries in the towns they visit. The King's work is a dangerous business.

A man's body is found mutilated in Savernake Forest and the residents of Bedwyn sleep uneasy at night, fearing a monster stalking the town. When Ralph Delchard and Gervase Bret arrive, they discover that the locals are harbouring dark secrets and that the real killer may be a little closer to home...