His name was Will Fowler, an actor in the esteemed theatrical company called Lord Westfield's Men, a vibrant young man flushed from the success of a recent performance at the Queen's Head theatre. So exuberant was he that he persuaded the resourceful...
HE HAD THE POWER TO ASSUME A PLEASING SHAPE, BUT WOULD HE TAKE TO THE STAGE...? The audience was merry indeed when a third devilish imp bounded onstage to join the two that had been written into the script. But backstage all was uproar. The third ...
For Lord Westfield's Men, every high road leads to death.When the deathly horrors of the Black Plague decimate the audiences in London's theatres, the acclaimed troupe of players called Lord Westfield's Men take to the high road to seek out fresh aud...
The fiery star of the company of players called Lord Westfield's Men, Laurence Firethorn, is hot for a lady, wife of the Lord Mayor elect. A tryst at London's Nine Giants Inn is arranged. Meanwhile, the lugubrious landlord of the actors' home base is...
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...
BUTCHERY OUTSIDE A LONDON BROTHEL HAS WESTFIELD'S MEN IN DISARRAY. The axe murder of gentleman player Sebastian Carrick is only the first of many bitter blows to strike the celebrated acting troupe. Feuds blossom among players. A rival company lau...
DOMESDAY IS COMING. In 1086 England's mighty king, William the Conqueror, sends out surveyors and census takers to record the resources of his land and its people. Some welcome these inquisitive royal agents and their "day of judgment. " Others ha...
DOMESDAY IS COMING In 1086, England's mighty king, William the Conqueror, sends out surveyors and census takers to record the resources of his land and its people. Some welcome these inquisitive royal agents and their "day of judgment." Others hat...
One play, two murders and a grievous miscarriage of justiceAfter 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 ...
DOMESDAY IS COMING In 1086, England's mighty king, William the Conqueror, sends out surveyors and census takers to record the resources of his land and its people. Some welcome these inquisitive royal agents and their "day of judgment." Others hat...
When seventeen-year-old Bertha is found in a holly patch, dead from a snakebite, her premature death shocks and stresses the entire town of Canterbury. Her father succumbs to a suicidal rage, and the news devastates the leper colony at Harbledown, wh...
A laughing hangman turns the stage into the gallows...When Nicholas Bracewell finds himself once again in the parlour of his lost love, Anne Hendrik, he was not expecting her entreaties to embroil him in the murder of a beloved choir master. Between ...
William the Conqueror sends Gervase Bret and Ralph Delchard into the lands of Yorkshire to investigate a rogue named Olaf Evil Child, but on the way, they hear rumors of two lions owned by a rich merchant that have been killing people....
Esteemed mystery writer Anne Perry, author of twenty-five novels and two acclaimed detective series, heads up a delectable cast of contemporary writers, the very best from both sides of the Atlantic. In the tradition of Britain's honored crime writer...
Murder turns the journey of a lifetime into a deadly nightmareThe plague has struck London once again but so has opportunity for theatre company Lord Westfield's Men. Invited to perform at the wedding celebrations of Sophia Magdalena, the fair maid o...
A GOOD MYSTERY IS TIMELESS Crime Through Time was the remarkable first collection. Now, bestselling mystery authors Miriam Grace Monfredo and Sharan Newman present Crime Through Time II -- featuring even more never-before-published historical myster...
The seventh volume of the popular Domesday books, set in the time of England's William the Conqueror, follows Ralph Delchard and Gervase Bret to Oxford, where they become involved in the investigation surrounding a rider's murder during a horse race....
Henry Beaumont keeps a renowned pack of foxhounds, quick, brave and ruthless at the kill. One December hunt, the dogs uncover more than a fox in the woodlands - brushing aside dead leaves, Beaumont finds the crushed body of Martin Reynard, a former m...
In the tenth installment of this dramatic Elizabethan series, 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 ...
A PERILOUS INVESTIGATION IN THE HEART OF LONDON RAVAGED BY THE GREAT FIRESeptember 1666. Meeting in the ashes of a devastated London, Christopher Redmayne, an architect with Cavalierinstincts, and Jonathan Bale, a Puritan constable, are hardly kindre...
Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester, is enraged when his hawk is killed by an arrow in the Forest of Delamere. When two poachers are caught, he orders their execution yet neither of them fired the arrow. As Ralph Delchard and Gervase Bret come to Cheshire to...
London 1667. Acclaimed beauty and singer Harriet Gow is the star performer at the famous Theatre Royal on Drury Lane, as well as the favourite mistress of King Charles II. After seeing her perform, Christopher Redmayne is likewise captivated so he is...
Nicolas Picard is riding home from Exeter when he's attacked by a snarling wildcat. Yet, when the body is found, there are lacerations on his neck put there by a human hand. He is involved in a land dispute and his wife claims to be the benefactor on...
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;...
When Sir Julius Cheever's son, a notorious rake, goes missing, and a blackmailer begins terrorising London's most dissolute fops, it seems plausible that the two events are connected. Divided by politics but united in a desire to see justice done, Ch...
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 Ni...
Christmas, 1669. In the grip of the coldest winter for years, the River Thames is frozen from bank to bank and London celebrates with a traditional frost fair held on its broad back. Revellers come from far and wide to enjoy the spectacle: an ox is r...
The ordered calm of Gloucester Abbey is shattered by the disappearance of one of the resident monks. Two novices, Elaf and Kenelm, show little concern for the missing Brother Nicholas. Rebelling against monastic discipline, they indulge in secret mid...
When unexpected disaster strikes Lord Westfield's Men during a packed performance, Nicholas Bracewell, the theater company's stage manager and all around performer of miracles, must save the day once again. A melee caused by disguised men is brought ...
Fourteen masters of the mystery and suspense genre--including Jan Burke, Carolyn Hart, Simon Brett, and Edward Marston--each contribute an individual chapter to a round robin mystery about a weekend house party in a small English village that is turn...
London 1851. With the opening of the Great Exhibition at hand, interest is mounting in the engineering triumphs of the railways, but not everyone feels like celebrating. In an audacious attack, the London to Birmingham mail train is robbed and der...
Nicholas Bracewell, the book holder and stage manager for the popular London theater troupe Westfield's Men, has a few problems on his hands. Edmund Hoode, the troupe's talented playwright, has fallen ill and is unable to complete his next opus. But ...
A PERPLEXING NEW CASE FOR THE RAILWAY DETECTIVE On the shocking discovery of a passenger's body on the Great Western Railway excursion train, Detective Inspector Robert Colbeck and his assistant, Sergeant Victor Leeming, are dispatched to the scen...
The theaters of Elizabethan England can be a very dangerous environment. With dozens of troupes competing for the attentions of a fickle theater-going public, rival companies regularly resort to nefarious activities to thwart a competitor's success, ...
TWO THOUSAND YEARS OF MURDER!!!! Iddo the Samaritan finds a severed head in a barrel of fish. A stammerer tries to save the life of the Emperor Charlemagne. William the Conqueror stares death in the face. Gerald of Wales solves a crime with the help ...
London, 1670. Commissioned to design and build a new house for Francis Polegate, a merchant, Christopher Redmayne is pleased when the project is completed without a hitch. To celebrate the success of the venture, Polegate throws a party and invites C...
Winter approaches and Westfields Men are out of work. When their widowed patron decides to marry again, he chooses a Danish bride with vague associations to the royal family. Since the wedding will take place in Copenhagen, the troupe is invited to p...
As a train speeds over the Sankey Viaduct, the dead body of a man is hurled into the canal below. Inspector Robert Colbeck and Sergeant Victor Leeming take charge of their most complex and difficult case yet. Hampered by the fact that the corpse has ...
Araminta Jewell is one of the beauties of her day. Even her marriage to the staid and ugly Sir Martin Culthorpe has not discouraged her hordes of admirers. It is during her first sitting for a portrait painted by the fashionable French artist Jean...
Derby Day at Epsom Downs. A multitude of people crowd to watch the races: dukes and dustmen, bishops and beggars, privileged ladies and prostitutes--the gamut of Victorian society and a hotbed for crime and crooks of all kinds. With the nation a-...
IT IS 1704 AND EUROPE IS AT WAR 'Take this sword as you own and wear it with more honour than the man from whom you took it' With Lord Churchill's words ringing in his ears, the courageous young Captain Daniel Rawson embarks on a dangerous mission to...
October 1854. As an autumnal evening draws to a close, crowds of passengers rush onto the soon to depart London to Brighton Express. A man watches from shadows nearby, grimly satisfied when the train pulls out of the station. Chaos, fatalities an...
France 1705. Captain Daniel Rawson is always ready for an adventure, so when Duke of Marlborough proposes a dangerous undercover mission to discover what happened to one of their spies, a Dutch tapestry-maker, Rawson happily accepts. He journey's to ...
1854. As the Cardiff-bound train puffs out of Paddington Station, young Hugh Kellow wraps a protective arm around his large valise. He has been entrusted with a priceless silver coffee pot, designed in the shape of a locomotive, by his elderly silver...
CAPTAIN DANIEL RAWSON'S MOST DANGEROUS ESCAPADE YETFlanders, 1707. Returning to camp from a dangerous solo mission behind enemy lines, Captain Daniel Rawson finds himself stranded, with French soldiers in fierce pursuit. A kindly farmer helps Daniel ...
Tragedy strikes close to the Detective Department when an old army friend of Superintendent Tallis walks to meet a speeding train head on.The suicide, prompted by the disappearance of the man's wife, has shocked the local community and leaves plenty ...
In the wake of victory at Oudenarde, career soldier Captain Daniel Rawson must take a leading role in the Allies' new strategy - to invade further into French territories and lay siege to Lille, the 'pearl of its fortresses'.He fights alongside the D...
1857. On the LNWR train to London, a criminal is being escorted to his appointment with the hangman. But the wily Jeremy Oxley, conman, thief and murderer, has one last ace up his sleeve - a beautiful and ruthless accomplice willing to do anything to...
May 1915. As zeppelin bombs fall on London and with the sinking of the Lusitania, anti-German hysteria reaches fever pitch and attacks on German immigrants surge. Not even the West End of London is immune. Jacob Stein's bespoke tailoring business com...
1709. Europe is in the grip of the coldest winter for a century. Ports freeze. Cattle die. People starve. Mutiny and desertions rattle the French army leaving Louis X1V to search for peace on almost any terms. Captain Daniel Rawson acts as an inte...
1857. Only when the bonfire finally dies down, are the charred remains of his body are found. Who would possibly want to murder a man so universally liked? It's the question Detective Inspector Robert Colbeck and Sergeant Victor Lemming ask when ...
January 1916. Britain is on the brink of enforcing conscription. Eligible young men who have not yet signed up to fight are despised as 'conchies' and 'shirkers', subjected to hatred and verbal abuse. Cyril Ablatt, leader of Shoreditch's group of con...
Spring, 1858. The route of the Caledonian Railway through the southern uplands of the Scottish countryside is disrupted by a fatal crash. Inspector Robert Colbeck and Sergeant Victor Leeming are called from the crime of London to investigate, and mus...
1916. As thousands of Brits are fighting on the Front Line, a new breed of women emerges to hold the Home Front together. Fiercely independent and fiery-spirited, the munitionettes, or 'canaries', are easily recognisable with their chemically-stained...
An eagerly awaited collection of brand new, specially commissioned short stories from the master of historical crime fiction Edward Marston, featuring his quick-witted Railway Detective, Inspector Robert Colbeck.In this thrilling selection of stories...
In this first instalment of the Bow Street Rivals series a riot breaks out in Dartmoor prison, enabling some American inmates to escape. The twin detectives Peter and Paul Skillen catch wind of a projected assassination but the target is unknown. Tro...
Young Imogen Burnhope and her maid Rhoda board a non-stop train to Oxford to visit her Aunt Cassandra, who waits on the platform at Oxford station where the train terminates, to greet them. Only they never arrive. All the passengers alight but the tw...
1859. St Mary's Church, Spondon. A little girl playing hide-and-seek jumps into a freshly-dug grave to find a dead man already occupying it. It is the body of Cedric Norton, a senior director of the Midland Railway. Inspector Colbeck and Sergeant...
In June 1916, a young woman named Charlotte Reid is found murdered in a cinema. Harvery Marmion and Joe Keedy are assigned the task of finding the killer who so elusively fled in the dark. Before long, two more victims, of striking similarity but dif...
London, Autumn 1916. When he slips out of a house in the early hours of the morning, Simon Wilder is too preoccupied to realise that he is being stalked. As he walks along the street, lights begin to dim as a warning that there's another Zeppelin att...
A scurrilous newspaper has built up a large following by publishing details of political and sexual scandals. It is remarkably well-informed and has therefore created a whole host of enemies. When the editor is killed and the printing press smashed t...
1860, Wimborne, Dorset. Rebecca Tullidge, miserably married to her callous husband, is having an affair with a railway officer, who she finds dead on the railway tracks. Determined to win votes for the upcoming election of mayor, Mr Feltham calls for...
Pentonville Prison. Wally Hubbard is serving a long sentence for arson. But after befriending and tricking one of the officers, Hubbard makes an audacious escape. Inspector Marmion, the detective who arrested Hubbard, is warned to watch his back, but...
1817. Dawn breaks on a summer's day in Chalk Farm, London, and the scene is set for a duel between a lady's two ardent admirers. Paul Skillen has been teaching Mark Bowerman how to shoot properly and, although he is not sanguine of his chances, stand...
Following a string of successful performances, the Moscardi Circus is travelling by train to Newcastle for their next show. Yet a collision on the track with a couple of sleepers causes pandemonium: passengers are thrown about, animals escape into th...
December 1860. Headed for the morning shift at the Swindon Locomotive works is an army of men pouring out of terraced houses built by the GWR, a miniature town and planned community that aims to provide for its employees from cradle to grave. Unfortu...
June, 1917. While German Gotha bombers raid London from above, a man's body is fished from the Thames below. The man had been garrotted and his tongue cut out before he was left to his watery grave, and as the killer has taken care to remove identify...
1817. Clemency van Emden receives an anonymous terse message informing her that her estranged father is dead and buried. Confounded by this news and desperate to visit her father's final resting place, she returns from Holland determined to seek answ...
1861, East Anglia. Alone in a first-class carriage, the Swarbricks are robbed at gunpoint, but when the universally-admired Swarbrick fights back, the train robber takes more than money and jewellery, killing the man working to unify East Anglia's ta...
1917. The Lotus Hotel offers sanctuary for its exclusively female clientele, attracting the cream of London's society. But a dead body found in one of its rooms is hardly good for business, and when it is discovered that the woman was neither a guest...
Halloween 1861. A special train with two carriages steams across the Lake District at night on its way to a place notorious for its record of supernatural incidents. Most of those on board have been fortified by alcohol so the mood is boisterous. Lig...
London, 1817. An impatient crowd is gathered outside the stage door of the Covent Garden Theatre, desperate for a glimpse of actress Hannah Granville after her latest performance as Lady Macbeth, amongst them the Prince Regent himself. But before she...
'A master storyteller' Daily MailA goods train speeds through the Sapperton Tunnel, but disaster strikes before it can reach the other side as it collides with an unusual blockage on the tracks: seven sheep penned in place. Specially requested to inv...
When Robert Pomeroy, a young undergraduate at Corpus Christi College, finds a letter slipped under his door in the early hours of a rainy day, he flies into a panic. Hastily readying himself and dashing off a few lines for the porter to summon his fr...
It is the juiciest piece of gossip the citizens of Norwich have heard for a long time. The ruthless Richard de Fontenel is himself the victim of robbery. In addition to two priceless golden elephants that he was using to lure the beautiful Adelaide i...
'Edward Marston is a master of his craft.'Daily MailDecember 1917. Ada Hobbes arrives on a frosty morning to clean the house owned by Dr Tindall, a surgeon at the Edmonton Military Hospital. She is shocked to find the blood-covered body of her employ...
A maritime mystery from Edward Marston, author of the bestselling Railway Detective series.New York, 1908. While waiting to embark on the Caronia, the Cunard Line's famous ocean liner, private detectives George Dillman and Genevieve Masefield are sta...
A maritime mystery from Edward Marston, author of the bestselling Railway Detective series.September 1907. George Dillman sets sail from Liverpool to New York on the Lusitania's maiden voyage. Posing as a passenger, Dillman is in fact an undercover d...
A maritime mystery from Edward Marston, author of the bestselling Railway Detective series.November 1907. George Dillman and Genevieve Masefield sail from Liverpool on the maiden voyage of the Mauretania. While posing as a passenger George is in fact...
A maritime mystery from Edward Marston, author of the bestselling Railway Detective series.New York, 1908. Private detectives George Dillman and Genevieve Masefield plan to take a break from work upon the Cunard Line's fleet with the offer of employm...
A maritime mystery from Edward Marston, author of the bestselling Railway Detective series.Egypt, 1908. George Dillman and Genevieve Masefield, used to the grand opulence of the Cunard cruise line, are at first disappointed with the Marmora, a small,...
A maritime mystery from Edward Marston, author of the bestselling Railway Detective series.Bombay, 1909. Genevieve Masefield and George Dillman make a living as detectives aboard the early twentieth century's most extravagant ocean liners. From the m...
A maritime mystery from Edward Marston, author of the bestselling Railway Detective series.New York, 1910. George Dillman and Genevieve Masefield have crossed the Atlantic Ocean numerous times in their capacity as ship's detectives. On those crossing...
A maritime mystery from Edward Marston, author of the bestselling Railway Detective series.Southampton, 1910. When the Oceanic sets sail its ultimate destination is New York. But it must make one very important stop first: at Cherbourg, to pick up in...
'A rattling good tale' - DAILY MAILDecember 1864. As a cold winter wind scours the Worcestershire countryside, an excursion train comes through a tunnel in the Malvern Hills to be confronted by a blockage on the line ahead. Although a disastrous dera...
York, 1865. A passenger train stands ready to depart amid the bustle at the station. The flurry of passengers and porters, the swooping pigeons and barking dogs are thrown into a state of turmoil when an explosion rips through the brake van of the tr...
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor p...
Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and...
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor p...
First published as Saint's Rest under Keith Miles.Chicago, 1931. While the Great Depression has tightened its grip on the world, there are still some who have the means to make their dreams a reality. One of these men is Hobart St John, who wants a m...
First published as Murder in Perspective under Keith Miles.Chasing his dream of a glittering architectural career, Merlin Richards has left the Welsh valleys for the Arizona desert, propelled by a handwritten note from the legendary Frank Lloyd Wrigh...
London, February 1918. A burglary in Limehouse in the small hours of the morning has escalated into a sinister siege between a band of thieves and the authorities, and a police constable lies dead. Detective Inspector Harvey Marmion and Detective Ser...
Get the latest mystery in the bestselling Railway Detective series ...1866. On a train bound for Portsmouth, an elegant woman shares a compartment with the lecherous Giles Blanchard. It is a lucky encounter for her, as she steps off the train after p...
London, March 1918. British newspapers carry the dire news that the German Spring Offensive has begun, with thousands of British lives lost. Against this sombre backdrop, further mayhem strikes in the capital when a fire provides the diversion needed...
Shrewsbury, 1866. At the Station Hotel, staff struggle in vain to rouse Mr Julian Lockyer who requested an early wake-up call to catch a train. When they force open the door, they are horrified to discover a bloodied corpse in the bed, a knife still ...