David Thorpe

On a fine autumn weekend Lord Aveling hosts a hunting party at his country house, Bragley Court. Among the guests are an actress, a journalist, an artist and a mystery novelist. The unlucky thirteenth is John Foss, injured at the local train station and brought to the house to recuperate - but John is nursing a secret of his own.

Soon events take a sinister turn when a painting is mutilated, a dog stabbed, and a man strangled. Death strikes more than one of the house guests, and the police are called. Detective Inspector Kendall's skills are tested to the utmost as he tries to uncover the hidden past of everyone at Bragley Court.

A family is gunned down in the snow but one of the children survives. Three years on, that child takes revenge and the Snow Killer is born. But then, nothing - no further crimes are committed, and the case goes cold.

Fifty years later, has the urge to kill been reawakened? As murder follows murder, the detective team tasked with solving the crimes struggle with the lack of leads. It's a race against time and the weather - each time it snows another person dies.

As an exhausted and grizzled DI Barton and his team scrabble to put the pieces of the puzzle together, the killer is hiding in plain sight. Meanwhile, the murders continue…

A murder made to look like suicide. Another that appears an accident

DI Barton investigates the tragedies that have shattered a family's lives, but without obvious leads the case goes nowhere. Then, when the remains of a body are found, everything points to one suspect

Barton and his team move quickly, and once the killer is behind bars, they can all breathe a sigh of relief. But death still lurks in the shadows, and no one's soul is safe. Not even those of the detectives

How do you stop a killer that believes life is a rehearsal for eternity, and their future is worth more than your own…?

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...

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.

AD 42, Germany. Tough, brutal and unforgiving. That's how new recruit Cato is finding life in the Roman Second Legion. He may have contacts in high places, but he could really use a friend amongst his fellow soldiers right now.

Cato has been promoted above his comrades at the order of the Emperor and is deeply resented by the other men. But he quickly earns the respect of his Centurion, Macro, a battle-hardened veteran as rough and ready as Cato is quick-witted and well-educated. They are poles apart, but soon realise they have a lot to learn from one another.

On a campaign to Britannia - a land of utter barbarity - an enduring friendship begins. But as they undertake a special mission to thwart a conspiracy against the Emperor they rapidly find themselves in a desperate fight to survive.

Britannia, AD 43. Bleak, rainy and full of vicious savages, Britannia is a land that Cato, solider of the Second Legion, wishes Rome didn't want to conquer.

And as right-hand man to Centurion Macro, Cato sees the very worst of his native Britons, battling alongside his commander in bloodier combat than he could ever have imagined.

But the Britons are fighting back with Roman weapons - which means someone in their own ranks is supplying arms to the enemy. Cato and Macro are about to discover even deadlier adversaries than the British barbarians.

Britannia, AD 44. Cato, a thoughtful junior officer in the Roman army, and his commanding centurion, Macro, are simply pawns in Rome's lust to conquer Britain. During the freezing winter, the two men and their legion fight the native savages in hand-to-hand battles that haunt Cato for days after.

But in a place full of enemies, the most vicious are the Druids of the Dark Moon; brutal, merciless men who have captured the wife and children of General Plautius himself.

So Macro and Cato are given a mission: to travel deep into enemy territory and recover the hostages. If they fail, the fate of the Roman army may just hang in the balance.

A man is blown up in a high-security prison. A major drugs baron comes under attack. A massacre takes place in a dark suburb. Detective Paul Hjelm and his team have been disbanded and discredited, the six detectives scattered throughout Sweden. But now something dangerous is approaching, and only Hjelm and his team can stop it.

A Greek gangster arrives in Stockholm, only to be murdered in a macabre fashion at Skansen zoo, his body consumed by animals. The Intercrime Unit - a team dedicated to solving international violent crime – start an investigation that will take them across Europe as they desperately search for answers, and the identity of the killer.

Sicily, 1943 - to fight the Nazi rearguard, old foes like the Mafia must become new friends for Jack Tanner and his crew. Tanner and his trusted sidekick, Sykes, find themselves embroiled in a fight that has become deeply personal, where they have to use all their resolve, skill and experience if they are to have any chance of survival.

Matthew Bartholomew, physician to Michaelhouse college in medieval Cambridge, is as worried as anyone about the pestilence that is ravaging Europe and seems to be approaching England. But he is distracted by the sudden and inexplicable death of the Master of Michaelhouse - a death the University authorities do not want investigated. But Matt is determined to get to the truth, leading him into a tangle of lies and intrigue that cause him to question the innocence of his closest friends - and even his family - just as the Black Death finally arrives...  Book 1 of series.

In 1350, as the people of Cambridge struggle to overcome the Black Death, the body of a friar is found hidden in the University. As more strange deaths occur Matthew Bartholomew is called away from his teaching to investigate.  Book 2 of series.

The fourth chronicle of Matthew Bartholomew continues the adventures of the 14th-century Cambridge physician when he is called to attend to two deaths from some poisoned wine. The opening of a new and very well-endowed college has created petty infighting amongst the academics as new appointments are made. The winter and spring have been appallingly wet, there is a fever outbreak amongst the poorer townspeople and the country is not yet fully recovered from the aftermath of the plague. The increasing reputation and wealth of the Cambridge colleges are causing dangerous tensions between the town, church and university, and then the poisoned wine kills the first victim - a student. The second victim is Dittone, the deputy master of the new college, but there seems no connection between him and the student. Matthew must establish the facts before relations between town and gown spiral out of control.  Book 4 of series.

The winter of 1353 has been appallingly wet, there is a fever outbreak amongst the poorer townspeople and the country is not yet fully recovered from the aftermath of the plague. The increasing reputation and wealth of the Cambridge colleges are causing dangerous tensions between the town, Church and University. Matthew Bartholomew is called to look into the deaths of three members of the University of who died from drinking poisoned wine, and soon he stumbles upon criminal activities that implicate his relatives, friends and colleagues - so he must solve the case before matters in the town get out of hand...  Book 5 of series.

Michaelhouse is in uproar: Kenyngham the saintly but ageing Master has announced his retirement and with unseemly haste Runham arranges his own election as his successor. Within days he has dismissed several members of staff, including the redoubtable laundress Agatha, and is making life so unpleasant for the scholars that even Matthew Bartholomew believes his future as physician and teacher at the college is untenable. But Matthew has many patients to divert his attention and Brother Michael, Proctor of the fledgling university, has some suspicious deaths to investigate. Then Runham himself is murdered and, although mourned by none, Matthew and Michael know they have to solve the mystery before any more damage is done to their beloved Michaelhouse.

Believers in the theory of nominalism have set some Cambridge colleges at the throats of those who believe them to be heretics, and Michael, the senior proctor, has his work cut out to keep the peace. When a nominalist is murdered during a riot, Michael is certain he will easily find the killer amongst the Dominicans, but before he can get any sense out of them his junior proctor, Walcote, is found hanged, and he discovers that his trusted ally had arranged secret meetings at the St Ragelund Convent between men who would not normally be seen together - and the nuns of St Ragelund are renowned for behaviour entirely inappropriate to their calling. Meanwhile Matthew Bartholomew learns that Michael, his lifelong friend, is in all probability the thief who relieved one of the antinominalist colleges of some of their most precious papers. If that charge were proved, it would put paid to Michael's long-term plans to become master of Michaelhouse - but would he kill to protect himself? Unable to believe his colleague would be capable of such acts, Bartholomew knows the only way he can quiet his own conscience is to solve the murders himself.  Book 7 of series.

Matthew Bartholomew travels to Ely with Brother Michael. Michael has been summoned to the city by his bishop, but it isn't until they arrive that they discover the reason – the bishop has been accused of murder. Almost immediately Michael discovers that there appears to have been a series of unexplained deaths in the area. At the same time Bartholomew comes across an underground movement of rebellion against the church and the tithes they demand from the laity, and the two men also learn that there has been a spate of burglaries which are being blamed on a band of travellers. Then a fellow of the priory is murdered almost under their noses. Can this death be connected to the others?  Book 8 of series.

There is something very amiss in the finances of Michaelhouse. Despite a new influx of well-heeled students, there is an acute lack of funds. It is only when the Brother in charge of the account books dies unexpectedly that some sort of explanation is revealed: he has been paying for goods the college has never received.

Although shocked by this fraud, Matthew is more concerned with the disappearance from his herbarium of a quantity of pennyroyal, a preparation known to cause a woman to miscarry, and a pregnant visitor to his sister's household has died from an overdose of pennyroyal. When Matthew learns that it was her husband who had received Michaelhouse's money for undelivered goods he exposes a very treacherous vein of deceit.  Book 15 of series.

When fire destroys their London theatre, Lord Westfield's players must seek out humbler venues in the countryside. But company manager Nicholas Bracewell is distracted by a shocking tragedy: a mysterious messenger from his native Devon is murdered by poison. Though the messenger is silenced, Nicholas understands what he must do: return to his birthplace and reconcile some unfinished business of the past.

The rest of Westfield's Men, penniless and dejected, ride forth with him on a nightmare tour that will perhaps become their valedictory, dogged as they are by plague, poverty, rogues, and thieves. And among the sinister shadows that glide silently with them toward Devon is one who means Nicholas never to arrive...

When Nicholas Bracewell finds himself in the parlour of his lost love, Anne Hendrik, he is not expecting her entreaties to embroil him in the murder of a beloved choir master. Between tales of cruelty, forgotten maps of London and a butcher determined to rescue his son, it is yet another mystery for the book holder to untangle. But will his quest endanger Lord Westfield's Men? As the troupe's latest play threatens to break them apart beneath the playwright's own belligerent ribaldry, the shadow of the hangman stalks ever closer. And with every step his laughter rings with the power to turn even the hallowed stage into a gallows.

After a calamitous performance and the death of one of their own, Lord Westfield's Men are more than despondent. So when the mysterious Simon Chaloner follows Nicholas Bracewell home with an offer of a new play, anonymously penned, his offer seems too good to refuse. It is a story of a simple death used to conceal a greater treachery, perhaps even treason. But they could never have known how dangerous one play could be. Or how telling the tale of a murdered mathematician might put them all in jeopardy. It is up to Nick to once more save the acting troupe from disaster, to reveal the traitor that threatens both Queen and country, and to prove who really killed The Roaring Boy.

Westfield's Men are flying high after a celebrated performance of The Insatiate Duke at the Queen's Head. However, victory is bittersweet as the company is soon faced with dissolution and the loss of their theatre; were it not for one of the company's rising stars. After acquiring a new benefactor, the company plan to build their own theatre. However, before they have the chance to find out who this guardian angel is, one of the group is found brutally murdered. Cue Nicholas Bracewell to uncover not one, but two hidden identities, of both the murderer and the anonymous benefactor, before the company gets disbanded.

Winter, Witchcraft and Devilish Deceit. Faced with the austerities of a bitterly cold English winter, the theatre is deserted and Westfield's Men find themselves out of work. Fortuitously, the company is invited to perform at a country home in Essex; welcome news to the disgruntled players. The company decide it's the perfect opportunity to trial their new play, The Witch of Colchester. However, when the group's leading actor begins to fall mysteriously ill, the company fear witchcraft might be involved. Then on the performance night, an audience member inexplicably collapses and dies, paving the way for Nicholas Bracewell to uncover the cause of the strange events taking place in Silvermere.

Theatre troupe Westfield's Men take on a new actor, Francis Quilter, after reaching new heights of success. But with the new member, brings new trouble. Quilter's father, Gerard, is on trial for the murder of an enemy, but he denies the charge and Nicholas Bracewell sets about proving his innocence. However, Bracewell's loyalty to Francis drives a wedge between the players. Who will clear the Quilter family name? On their quest for the truth, they stumble across an unlikely ally, who may just hold the answers they're looking for.

Tom Bryce picks up a CD which has been left behind on a train seat, but when he attempts to track down the owner, he finds himself the only witness to a savage killing. Reporting the crime to the police has disastrous consequences for Bryce, and when DS Roy Grace becomes involved, he finds himself up against a malign group of very well organised criminals... Book 2 of series.

In Victorian London, race-walking, or "wobbles", are all the rage. So on a Monday morning in November 1879 the crowds gather for Islington's bizarre six-day endurance walking race. By Tuesday, one of the contestants is dead. Tetanus from a blister is assumed, but then there is a second death, and this time it's definitely murder. A bemused Sergeant Cribb from Scotland Yard is called in, along with Constable Thackeray, and they soon discover that something foul is at play.

When the castle walls of Max and Finlay’s den start crumbling away, little do the boys know that everything is about to change. Trapped inside the wall is the ancient god Hercules and he needs the boys’ help!

Everyone knows about the Cambridge Spies from the 1950s, but no spy ring was ever unearthed at Oxford. Because one never existed? Or because it was never found...?

2022: Former spy Simon Sharman is eking out a living in the private sector. When a commission to delve into the financial dealings of a mysterious Russian oligarch comes across his desk, he jumps at the chance. But as Simon investigates, worrying patterns begin to emerge. His subject made regular trips to Oxford, but for no apparent reason. There are payments from offshore accounts that suddenly just...stop. Has he found what none of his former colleagues believed possible, a Russian spy ring now nestled at the heart of the British Establishment? Or is he just another paranoid ex-spook left out in the cold, obsessed with redemption?

Book 1 in the Oxford Spy Ring series.

Loret is fresh off the boat, and just in time.

As Cohort-Invigilator of Correct Appreciation, Outreach department, she’s here as aide to the Palleseen Resident, Sage-Invigilator Angilly. And Sage-Invigilator Angilly – Gil to her friends – needs a second in the spectacularly illegal, culturally offensive and diplomatically inadvisable duel she must fight at midnight.

Outreach, that part of the Pal machine that has to work within the imperfection of the rest of the world, has a lot of room for the illegal, the unconventional, the unorthodox. But just how much unorthodoxy can Gil and Loret get away with?

As a succession crisis looms, as a long-forgotten feat of necromantic engineering nears fruition, as pirate kings, lizard armies and demons gather, as old gods wane and new gods wax, sooner or later Gil and Loret will have to settle their ledger.

Book 3 in the Tyrant Philosophers series.

Outreach is that part of the Pal machine responsible for diplomacy - converting enemies into friends, achieving through words what an army of five thousand could not, urging the oppressed to overthrow the bloody-handed priests, evil necromancers and greedy despots that subjugate them.

Angilly, twelve-years-old, a child of Pal soldiers stationed in occupied Jarokir, does not know it yet, but a sequence of accidents and questionable life choices will lead her to Outreach. As she travels from Jarrokir to Bracinta, Cazarkand, Lemas, The Holy Regalate of Stouk and finally, Usmai, she'll learn that the price of her nation's success is paid in compromise and lost chances, and that the falling rain will always be bitter.

A novella in the Tyrant Philosophers series.

Summer, 1643. For Thomas Hill, a man of letters quietly running a bookshop in the rural town of Romsey, knowledge of the war is limited to the rumours that reach the local inn.

When a stranger knocks on his door one night and informs him that the king's cryptographer has died, everything changes. Aware of Thomas's background as a mathematician and his expertise in codes and ciphers, the king has summoned him to his court in Oxford.

On arrival, Thomas soon discovers that nothing at court is straightforward. There is evidence of a traitor in their midst. Brutal murder follows brutal murder. And when a vital message encrypted with a notoriously unbreakable code is intercepted, he must decipher it to reveal the king's betrayer and prevent the violent death that failure will surely bring.

Book 1 in the Thomas Hill series.

Spring, 1648. When Thomas Hill publishes a political pamphlet he has little idea of the trouble that will follow. He is quickly arrested, forced on a boat to Barbados and condemned to life as a slave.

In England war has erupted again. When news of the king's execution reaches the island, political stability is threatened and a fleet commanded by Sir George Ayscue arrives to take control of the island for Cromwell.

When a coded message from Ayscue to a sympathiser on the island is intercepted, Thomas is asked to decipher it. A disastrous battle seems inevitable.

But nothing turns out as planned. And as the death toll mounts, the escape Thomas has been relying on seems ever more unlikely…

Book 2 in the Thomas Hill series.

Spring 1661: After years of civil war followed by Oliver Cromwell's joyless rule as Lord Protector, England awaits the coronation of King Charles II. The mood in London is one of relief and hope for a better future.

But when two respectable gentlemen are found in a foul lane with their throats cut, it becomes apparent that England's enemies are using the newly re-established post office for their own ends. There are traitors at work and plans to overthrow the king. Another war is possible.

Thomas Hill, in London visiting friends, is approached by the king's security advisor and asked to take charge of deciphering coded letters intercepted by the post office. As the body count rises and the killer starts preying on women, the action draws closer to Thomas - and his loved ones. He finds himself dragged into the hunt for the traitors and the murderer, but will he find them before it's too late?

Book 3 in the Thomas Hill series.

A man is burnt alive in a suburban garden shed. DI Zigic and DS Ferreira are called in from the Peterborough Hate Crimes Unit to investigate the murder. Their victim is quickly identified as a migrant worker and when another migrant worker is attacked, tensions rapidly begin to rise as Zigic and Ferreira search for their killer.

Book 1 in the Zigic and Ferreira series.

A car ploughs into a bus stop early one morning and when DS Ferreira and DI Zigic are called in from the Peterborough Hate Crimes Unit to handle the hit-and-run, there seems to be an obvious suspect. But the case isn't that simple and with tensions erupting in the town, the media are soon hounding them for answers.

Book 2 in the Zigic and Ferreira series.