Patricia Knight-Webb

Early one morning Guido Brunetti, commissario of the Venice Police, confronts a grisly sight when the body of a young man is fished out of a Venetian canal. All the clues point to a violent mugging, but for Brunetti the robbery motive seems altogether too convenient.  Book 2 of series.

Commissario Guido Brunetti digs deep into the secret lives of the once great and good, and in a seedy Venetian bar uncovers an evil crime network reaching far beyond the laguna. But it will take another violent death in Venice before the forces of justice can even begin to proceed ...  Book 4 of series.

The Commissario's visitor is a nun who has left her convent after the deaths of five patients. By asking him to investigate, has she put her life in danger?  Book 6 of series.

Foolish and bad-tempered, King Lear divides the kingdom between his two wicked daughters, disowns his honest youngest daughter and banishes his friends. As the kingdom falls apart and Lear's humiliation turns him mad, will he finally realise what he has done? With Notes on Shakespeare and the Globe Theatre and Chaos and Old Age in King Lear.
The tales have been retold using accessible language and with the help of Tony Ross's engaging black-and-white illustrations, each play is vividly brought to life allowing these culturally enriching stories to be shared with as wide an audience as possible.

Have you read all of The Shakespeare Stories books? Available in this series: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Antony and Cleopatra, Much Ado About Nothing, The Merchant of Venice, Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, Othello, The Taming of the Shrew, Richard III, and King Lear.

It was rumoured that Hollywood stars would kill for the privilege of being photographed by the fashionable portrait photographer Leslie Searle. But what would bring such a gifted figure to the English village of Salcott St Mary? And why, and how, did he disappear? If a crime had been committed, was it murder, fraud, or simply a macabre practical joke? Inspector Alan Grant determines to uncover the truth.

It's the Roaring Twenties. London's bright young things are partying, Soho's nightlife is buzzing and Augusta Peel is hiding in her basement.

She has a reason to hide there: it's home to her Bloomsbury workshop where she repairs old, neglected books. After a busy time during the war, all Augusta wants is peace and quiet - even if it is routinely disturbed by the tube trains beneath her feet.

But events take a turn when Augusta agrees to chaperone 19-year-old Harriet Jones on a date. Failing to get her home on time, she ends up in a riotous nightclub. She can't imagine the evening getting much worse when the police raid it. But then the murder happens.

Who shot Jean Taylor? An old acquaintance at Scotland Yard learns Augusta was near the murder scene and persuades her to help with his investigation. But how can a humble book repairer navigate Soho's world of actresses, gangsters and theatre impresarios to discover the truth?

It is now eight years since Ave Maria Mulligan married Jack Chesney. Whilst she has thrown herself into life with a family, events from the past seem to throw a barrier between her and Jack. Whatever their problems they always have the support of the people of Big Stone Gap.  Book 2 of series

Isolated in a ramshackle parsonage on the Yorkshire moors, the Brontë children created their own fantasy worlds. Charlotte, Emily, Anne and their brother Branwell spent their childhoods absorbed in creating miniature manuscripts that preserved the stories of their imaginative dreamworlds. How did three provincial sisters become household names? And what led to the ultimately tragic fate for this Dark Quartet…?

With the death of her troubled brother followed quickly by those of her two soul-sisters - Emily and Anne - Charlotte Brontë finds a new purpose for her life in her writing. Se is now ready to pursue her writing career and experience London society. Will she ever be able to heal from the deaths of her sisters? Or is she, too, destined to have her life cut short in tragic circumstances…?

Annie is a loving young woman whose happy home is shattered by a tragic car crash. Whisked away by her mysterious great-grandfather she falls into despair until she unearths a mystery!  Book 4 of series.

When a body is discovered in the hold of a cargo ship, Scarpetta and Marino believe it may be a stowaway. But an examination into a strange tattoo on the body leads them to Interpol's headquarters in Lyon. Contains offensive language.  Book 10 of series.

Young sleuth Frances Doughty is trying to discover who distributed dangerously feminist pamphlets to the girls of the Bayswater Academy for the Education of Young Ladies. Armed with only her wits, courage and determination, her enquiries expose lies, murders and a long-concealed scandal, and she makes a powerful new friend.

Georgie faces a long struggle to walk again. With the help of her horse, the struggle isn't quite as hopeless as she imagines.

Liam's family tease him about his passion for pigs.

In Simenon's first novel featuring Maigret, the laconic detective is taken from grimy bars to luxury hotels as he traces the true identity of criminal mastermind, Pietr the Latvian.

In the dead of night a drunk driver smashes his car into a young man. He abandons the body at the side of the road, but the incident will set in motion a chain of events which will change his life forever. Soon Chief Inspector Van Veeteren, now retired from the Maardam police force, will face his greatest trial yet as someone close to him is, inexplicably, murdered.

Jemima Shore is summoned by the wayward Lady Imogen Swain, who entrusts her with diaries of a passionate affair she had in 1964. Burgo Smyth was then a rising young Conservative politician, he is now the Foreign Secretary. This is the first in a sinister series of events which leads to murder.

Nothing exceptional ever happens in Bridgestead... except for the day Joshua Braithwaite goes missing, never to be heard of again. Kate Shackleton has always loved solving puzzles, but as she taps in to the lives of the villagers, she opens cracks that some would kill to keep closed....

In the small town of Mitford, Father Tim and his wife Cynthia ponder their retirement plans and try to raise their young charge, Dooley, while a brash mayoral candidate is calling for development and "progress." And the town's most eligible bachelor leaves Mitford -- and returns with a stunning surprise...

When Michael Malory announces his engagement to Thea Wyatt, his mother, Sheila, couldn't be more delighted. But when a senior solicitor at Thea's firm dies shortly after an altercation with her, Thea is the prime suspect for his murder. However, when Sheila and Michael start the hunt for the real killer it begins to look as though practically anyone had both the will and the opportunity to kill him...

When Mary, Queen of Scots fled to England in 1568 she expected her cousin, Elizabeth 1st, to help her regain Scotland. Instead she was given into the custody of George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury and his new wife, Bess of Hardwick. This is the story of Mary's nineteen-year imprisonment told by Mary, George and Bess.

Poppy has more than her reckless daughter, Chloe, to worry about in 1926 - the year of the General Strike.  Book 3 of series.

A widow at thirty-one, Katherine Parr is obliged to return to court but, suspicious of the ageing Henry, she does so with reluctance. When she finds herself caught up in a passionate affair with the dashing Thomas Seymour, she believes she might finally be able to marry for love. But her presence at court has attracted the attentions of another…

Book 1 in the Tudor Trilogy.

Tilly Trotter has devotedly served Mark Sopwith at Highfield Manor and is his wife in all but name. But when Mark dies Tilly is left pregnant with his illegitimate child. A new love seems to offer an escape and so she follows her heart to America, sure that this will be the beginning of a better life. But new perils await Tilly across the ocean.... Book 2 of series.

When, at sixteen, Janie is caught kissing shiftless Johnny Taylor, her grandmother swiftly marries her off to an old man with sixty acres. Janie endures two stifling marriages before she finally meets the man of her dreams – who offers not diamonds, but a packet of flowering seeds.

Sadie Appleby has never left rural Westmorland. But one night in the winter of 1661, she is woken by her sister, Ella, who has robbed her employer and is on the run. Together the girls flee for London. But the dead man's relatives are in pursuit.

Chantal is exquisite, beguiling and volatile. Torn from the dazzling salons and glittering balls of aristocratic London, Chantal finds herself caught in a gathering maelstrom of wild and dangerous adventure.  Book 3 of series.

From the poorest and humblest of births, Anna Pavlova rose to become one of the most celebrated ballerinas of all time.

Sarah Brown, niece of Velvet, the heroine of National Velvet, comes to England to live with her aunt after she is orphaned in a car accident. She discovers a talent for riding and, with her aunt’s encouragement, sets out to fulfil her ambition to ride for England in the Olympics and win gold.

Max longs for a suit and one day a mysterious parcel arrives. When it is opened, inside is a brand new woolly mustard-yellow suit.

When turtle decides to shed his shell on a hot summer's day, he finds life is not quite as comfortable as he expects.

Born in Poland, Marie moved to France and devoted her life to scientific research. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for discovery of radium in 1903.

Simon's world is shattered by the discovery that he is adopted. He decides to run away to Wales to track down his real mother.

Jessica lives alone in a huge Welsh castle, with only the gardener and housekeeper for company, but there are other mysterious presences in the gardens.

Two tree frogs are playing in the rain forest when huge orange machines appear. These machines threaten the existence of the rain forest. Can the tree frogs stop the devastation?

Disaster threatens the school play. From somewhere in the past a ghost returns to haunt the actors.