Detective & Mystery Stories

Meet Laura Thyme and Rosemary Boxer, two women who come together in the midst of life-changing crises; when Laura's friend Sam is killed in a car crash, and his business partner falls from a balcony, the two women join forces in their search for the truth.

They thought they were kidnapping the mistress of one of London’s most powerful gangsters. But they’ve taken the wrong woman. And crossed the wrong detective. Detective Max Wolfe's hunt for the missing woman takes him from New Scotland Yard’s legendary Black Museum to the glittering mansions of career criminals, from sleazy strip joints to secret sex dungeons – and to unspeakably dark deeds committed decades ago.  Book 6 of series.

At eighteen, easy-going Benedict Juliard has no stronger ambition than to ride as an amateur jockey. His father, immersed in politics, asks his only son to enter into a pact that neither of them will commit any act that could destroy the father's burgeoning career. Ben agrees lightheartedly, but ten years later finds himself targetted in a vicious attack mounted by his father's increasingly violent political enemies as he makes his drive towards the Prime Ministership. In practice, a 10-lb penalty is the maximum extra weight a winning thoroughbred is normally set to carry in a race. A 10-lb penalty can be a killer.

1222 metres above sea level and the worst snow storm in recent Norwegian history is raging. Marooned in a mountain pass, 269 travellers are forced to abandon their train and decamp into an old mountain hotel. But as dawn breaks one of them will be found dead, murdered. Retired police inspector Hanne Wilhelmsen is asked to investigate...

Detective Lindsay Boxer has everything she could possibly want. Her marriage and baby daughter are perfect, and life in Homicide in the San Francisco Police Department is going well. But all that could change in an instant.

Lindsay is called to a crime scene at the Four Seasons Hotel. There is a dead man in one of the rooms, shot at close range. The man checked in under a false name with no ID on him, so the first puzzle will be finding out who he is.

In the room next door are a dead young man and woman, also shot. They are surrounded by high-tech surveillance equipment. Could they have been spying on the man now dead in the room next to them?

And in the utilities cupboard down the hall is the dead body of a house maid. The murders are all clearly linked and professionally executed. But what is the motive behind it all? Lindsay will need to risk everything she has to find out.

A LIFE FALLING APART

Fifteen months ago, Detective Lindsay Boxer had the perfect life with her beautiful baby daughter and her loving husband Joe. That was before she discovered everything she knew about Joe was a lie - and his betrayal cuts deep.

A SILENT KILLING SPREE

As Lindsay grapples with her personal life, a wave of mysterious heart attacks strikes across San Francisco, killing seemingly unrelated victims. Is it just chance - or is something more sinister at work?

AN EXPLOSIVE TRIAL

At the same time, a maniac bomber captured by the combined efforts of Joe and Lindsay is on trial - and his defence raises damning questions about Lindsay and Joe's investigation. Before long, Lindsay faces the prospect of her being the one on trial...

THE TABLES ARE TURNING...  Book 16 of series.

Random House presents the audiobook edition of 17th Suspect by James Patterson, read by January LaVoy.

A series of shootings exposes San Francisco to a methodical yet unpredictable killer, and a reluctant woman decides to put her trust in Sergeant Lindsay Boxer. The confidential informant's tip leads Lindsay to disturbing conclusions, including that something has gone horribly wrong inside the police department itself.

The hunt for the killer lures Lindsay out of her jurisdiction, and gets inside Lindsay in dangerous ways. She suffers unsettling medical symptoms, and her friends and confidantes in the Women's Murder Club warn Lindsay against taking the crimes too much to heart. With lives at stake, the detective can't help but follow the case into ever more terrifying terrain.

A decorated officer, loving wife, devoted mother, and loyal friend, Lindsay's unwavering integrity has never failed her. But now she is confronting a killer who is determined to undermine it all.

As the only woman homicide inspector in San Francisco, Lindsay Boxer has to be tough. But when a brutal maniac begins viciously slaughtering newly wed couples on their wedding nights, Lindsay turns to Claire, a leading coroner, Cindy, a journalist and Jill, a top attorney, for help, and the Women's Murder Club is born.  Book 1 of series.

Attorney Rhonda Bird returns home to LA to bury her estranged father, and discovers that he left her two final surprises . . . The first is a private detective agency; the second is a teenage half-sister she has never met. Going into his old office to close down the business, Rhonda gets drawn into a case involving a young man who claims he was abducted. But what at first seems to be a simple investigation, soon takes Rhonda to a dark and dangerous place . . .

Will she live to see her twenty-first birthday? When a distraught mother pleads with reporter Cindy Thomas to investigate the disappearance of her daughter, Tara, and her baby granddaughter, Cindy goes straight to SFPD Sergeant Lindsay Boxer.

The prime suspect is Tara's husband, but he tells a conflicting story that paints Tara as a wayward wife, not a missing person. Is this a tragic case of domestic violence? Or is the truth linked to a more complex network of killings? As the case grows into something far bigger than any of them could have imagined, the Women's Murder Club will need to work together to unpick the truth from a web of lies.  Book 21 of series.

22 seconds... until Lindsay Boxer loses her badge - or her life.

SFPD Sergeant Boxer has guns on her mind.

There's buzz of a last-ditch shipment of drugs and weapons crossing the Mexican border ahead of new restrictive gun laws. Before Lindsay can act, her top informant tips her to a case that hits disturbingly close to home.

Former cops. Professional hits. All with the same warning scrawled on their bodies.

You talk, you die.

Now it's Lindsay's turn to choose.  Book 22 of series.

The thrilling new novella in the globally bestselling Women's Murder Club series plus two gripping new short stories. 

23 ½ Lies: When SFPD Sergeant Lindsay Boxer is called to investigate a crime scene, nothing can prepare her for what she finds: her estranged father gunned down execution style. The case will soon reveal to Lindsay a series life-altering truths... 

Fallen Ranger: A series of armed robberies are linked to a gang of motorcycle bandits. Rory Yates, the hero of Texas Ranger, is tasked with hunting them down.

Watch Your Back: A starving artist is paid to expose his client's cheating wife. But no amount of money can protect him from a world of corruption...

Detective Lindsay Boxer put serial killer Evan Burke behind bars. Now a new killer has recreated Burke's most infamous crimes-and disappeared without a trace. Detective Lindsay Boxer put serial killer Evan Burke in jail. Reporter Cindy Thomas put Burke on the bestseller list, in her true-crime book about the case.

An obsessed fan is studying every detail-and committing fresh horrors that carry Burke's signature. Now Lindsay's tracking an elusive suspect, one who's penning a deadly playbook featuring Cindy's name in blood-red ink.

Monty Brogan starts a seven-year prison sentence for dealing drugs tomorrow. As he re-evaluates his life in the remaining 24 hours of his freedom, he knows one thing for sure; after he goes in, he will never be the same. X rated, contains offensive language.

Journalist Madison Webb never thought she would be investigating her own sister’s murder. She uncovers evidence that suggests that Abi was a victim in a series of killings that have been hushed up as part of a major conspiracy. With her life on the line, Madison must give up the story, or face the consequences…

Elspeth sees a man strangling a woman in a passing train. But who will take her story seriously? The indomitable Miss Marple of course.

A young mother is recuperating in a top San Francisco hospital when suddenly she's gasping for breath. The call button fails to bring help in time. How and why did this happen? Lieutenant Lindsay Boxer discovers that this is not the hospital's first suspicious case. Other patients have taken unexpected and devastating turns for the worse just as they're planning to go home. Are these just appalling coincidences? Or is a maniac playing God with people's lives?

A string of fatal arson attacks has broken out in San Francisco. The targets have one thing in common: they are all rich, successful, married couples. With four couples dead, Detective Lindsay Boxer is determined to put a stop to the killings and trace the murderer. Michael Campion was a people's hero who publicly battled against a rare and debilitating heart illness. When he vanished without trace, the search to find him, dead or alive, hit the headlines. But what is the link between the Campion case and the arson attacks? Lindsay, and her friends in the Women's Murder Club, must race to find the suspects and stop the cold-blooded killer, and fast.  Book 7 of series.

There's a serial killer on the loose, bent on working his way through the alphabet. And as a macabre calling card he leaves beside each victim the ABC Railway Guide open at the name of the town where the murder has taken place. There seems little chance of the murderer being caught - until he makes the vain mistake of challenging Hercule Poirot to frustrate his plans...

When two boys vanish under mysterious circumstances, the local community is filled with unease. Assigned to the case, DCI Banks and his team are baffled by the mystery laid out before them. As they struggle desperately to find the missing boy who holds the key to the puzzle, they find themselves in a race against time where it's their turn to become the prey . . .  Book 22 of series.

Schoolboys are disappearing all over Aberystwyth and nobody knows why. Louie Knight, the town's private investigator, tries to find out what is happening. Is Lovespoon, the Welsh teacher, Grand Wizard of the Druids and controller of the town, more than just a sinister bully. And just who was Gwenno Guevara?

An investigator from the Carabiniere, looking into the illegal hauling of garbage, asks for a favour. But the investigator is not the only one with a special request. His father-in-law needs help and a mysterious woman comes into the picture. Commissario Brunetti soon finds himself embroiled in a dangerous investigation into murder and corruption.  Book 18 of series.

December 1918, the World War is over and suffragette Nell Bray is standing for election in a constituency where the former candidate was blown up at a celebratory firework display. Nell is asked by the widow to discover the truth about his death.

Heather Malone has lived in Lake Henry for fourteen years. Out of the blue, she is arrested for murdering a man in California. Her partner Micah, her lawyer Cassie, and her best friend Poppy Blake, all work tirelessly to clear her name.

After years of silence, Texan lawyer Scott Fenney receives a devastating phone call from his ex-wife. She has been accused of murdering her boyfriend,Trey, and is being held in a police cell. Now she is begging Scott to defend her. If Rebecca is found guilty, she will be sentenced to life imprisonment. As he prepares to take the stand in the most dramatic courtroom appearance of his life, Scott is forced to question everything he believes to get to the truth - to save the life of the ex-wife he still loves...

Having returned from his trip to Britain, Falco takes up employment with Africanus and Italicus, preparing an affidavit for the trial of a senator. The prosecution is successful, but a month later the senator is dead, apparently by suicide.  Book 15 of series.

Rosslyn has a mission to destroy a syndicate engaged in crimes against children, including pornography. X rated, explicit sexual content.

Ten-year-old Amy has been abducted from Acid Row. The revelation that a known paedophile has been re-located to the area leads to rioting, which, after five hours of savagery, leaves three people dead. X rated, contains offensive language and explicit sex.

Flavia Petrelli, reigning diva of La Scala, had attacked the men with a speed born out of anger and surprise. She had routed the strangers from her beautiful home on the top floor of a fourteenth-century Venetian palazzo. But she had been unable to save her lover, Brett Lynch, from a terrible beating at their hands.  Book 5 of series.

Philip Fletcher takes an undemanding job at the Chichester Festival, but his detective skills are soon in demand as a friend is pursued by a stalker.

At a Christmas house party on Dartmoor in 1935, Raymond Gentry's dead body is discovered in a locked room. Obviously not a suicide, so how was the murder committed? One of the guests, crime writer Evadne Mount, is on hand to investigate.

Minty's fiance, Jock Lewis, was supposed to have died in the Paddington train crash. When his ghost appeared before Minty, and even touched her, she decided to protect herself from this shadow man and started to carry a knife!

The investigation of a young woman's murder twelve years ago sets off a terrifying chain of events.

Struggling to make ends meet, writer Iain Lewis finds his home broken into. Oddly the intruder hasn't taken anything but has left something very valuable instead.

Arson, accident or murder? After a fire rips through a North London tower block, two bodies are found locked in an eleventh-floor flat. But it is the third victim - the MP Geoff Armstrong - that requires the presence of detective Maeve Kerrigan and the murder squad. It appears that Armstrong, trapped by the fire, chose to jump to his death rather than wait for rescue. But why? And what was the controversial right-wing politician doing there in the first place? As Maeve picks through the wreckage, she will uncover a secret world where everyone has something to hide . . .

When Cora is savagely murdered, the extraordinary remark she made the previous day at her brother Richard's funeral suddenly takes on a chilling significance. At the reading of Richard's will, Cora was clearly heard to say: 'It's been hushed up very nicely, hasn't it! But he was murdered, wasn't he?’. Hercule Poirot studies the case.