1670 Books
Simmy Brown has a lot on her mind. Not just keeping her florist business afloat, her father's failing health, the challenge of developing a long-term relationship with Christopher, but also the approach of Mother's Day, a busy and painful day for her. But in taking an order for a retirement party in Staveley, she is pulled into her most challenging investigation. When a daughter starts accusing her own mother of murder, Simmy, Ben and Bonnie find themselves taking different sides of the investigation. With her relationships under strain, Simmy is tried on all fronts. However, she has to learn to leave her own concerns behind to discover just who the killer is.
December 1931. The year is about to turn and one man is holding London to ransom.
It is May 1940 and people in the English coastal town of Ramsgate wonder what Britain's declaration of war with Germany will lead to. Then members of the British Expeditionary Force in France start dribbling back to Ramsgate harbour like defeated men. Gradually the truth emerges. Unless the 300,000 troops trapped on the French coast can be evacuated, Britain's war effort will be all but over.Amongst the private citizens volunteering to supplement the British navy's effort is the 21-year old Chrissie Sellick. Together with her father she crosses the Channel in their 30-foot motor yacht Blithe Spirit. They ferry troops from the beaches onto big ships lying offshore, then enter the maelstrom of Dunkirk harbour itself, exposed to the full force of German fire-power.Their story is intertwined with the exploits of two ordinary soldiers - a dispatch rider and a Territorial - who link up by chance to make the hazardous journey across France to Dunkirk, collecting a stray dog along the way.Chrissie Sellick is a female presence on the almost exclusively male scene of Dunkirk. In four days of relentless endeavour she faces both triumphs and tragedies, and realises that her sheltered life in Ramsgate will never be the same again.
Originally published: London: Constable, 1997.
Eight years ago David Beck was knocked unconscious and left for dead, and his wife Elizabeth was kidnapped and murdered. Dr Beck re-lived the horror of what happened that day every day of his life. Then one afternoon, he receives an anonymous email telling him to log on to a certain website. The screen opens on to a web cam - and it is Elizabeth's image he sees. As Beck tries to find out if Elizabeth is truly alive, and what really happened the night she disappeared, the FBI are trying to pin Elizabeth's murder on him. And everyone he turns to seems to end up dead...
Early on a cold Somerset morning, ten year old Alesha Daniels is reported missing by her father, a violent alcoholic. Her mother, a known drug addict, is found unconscious, but it's her mother's boyfriend the police are keen to trace. As the hunt for Alesha gathers pace, a second local girl is taken, plunging another family into the depths of despair. Cutting short his holiday, DI Nick Dixon races home to join the Major Investigation Team, but no sooner has he identified a network of local suspects than they begin to show up dead. At odds with his superiors, Dixon is convinced the child abductions are anything but random, but nobody is prepared for the investigation to lead quite so close to home. Can Dixon and his team crack the case before all the suspects are silenced? And will he find the missing girls before it's too late?
Thea Slocombe, née Osborne, is trying to settle into normal, domestic life with Drew and his two children in Broad Campden. But in the course of an attempt to make friends locally, she finds the body of a close neighbour and suddenly feels much less settled and secure. No longer a house-sitter, she has no choice but to stay in the village and deal with whatever happens next. And doing this risks damage to her marriage.