Ever wondered what really happens behind the scenes in the police? What bizarre 999 calls are made to the emergency services? Why can wearing two pairs of socks make you a suspect? What is the link between police and vampires? Which Royal arrest never made news headlines? What covert sign do officers make when they no longer wish to talk to you? After successful careers in both the military and business, John Donoghue realised that the higher you...

A new Simon Serrailler short story from Susan Hill, throwing Simon into a case like no other: an effigy is hanging in the woods, and soldiers are on the run from demons in their past. Simon Serrailler is awoken into a hazy dawn by the sharp ringing of his phone. Called out to the scene, he?s told that there?s a body strung up in tranquil Harnham Woods. But on closer inspection it?s an effigy - a carefully made dummy, stirring in the breeze. Simon...

When ex-detective Amos Decker returned home 18 months ago to find the bodies of his wife and only daughter, he didn't think he could carry on living. Overwhelmed with grief, he saw his life spiral out of control, losing his job, his house and his self-respect. But when his former partner in the police visits to tell him that someone has confessed to the murders, he knows he owes it to his wife and child to seek justice for them. As he comes to terms...

Only three houses away from the policeman?s home, a man has been sitting dead in front of his television set for four months. There are no indications that anything criminal has taken place. Viggo Hansen was a man nobody ever noticed, even though he lived in the midst of a close-knit community. His death doesn?t hit the headlines, but there is something about the case that catches the attention of William Wisting?s journalist daughter, Line, and she...

The City Watch needs men. Instead, it has Corporal Carrot (technically a dwarf), Lance-constable Cuddy (really a dwarf), Lance-corporal Detritus (a troll), Lance-constable Angua (a woman), and Corporal Nobbs (disqualified from the human race)!

Thin Air is the sixth book in Ann Cleeves' Shetland series - now a major BBC One drama starring Douglas Henshall as detective Jimmy Perez, Shetland. A group of old university friends leave the bright lights of London and travel to Unst, Shetland's most northerly island, to celebrate the marriage of one of their friends to a Shetlander. But late on the night of the wedding party, one of them, Eleanor, disappears - apparently into thin air. It's mid-summer,...

As the country bakes under the relentless summer sun, a young doctor is found brutally murdered at his home in a picturesque Cambridgeshire village. Is his death connected to his private life - or his professional one? Dr Joshua Ainsworth worked at an all-female detention centre, one still recovering from a major scandal a few years before. Was he the whistle-blower - or an instigator? As Detective Sergeant Ferreira and Detective Inspector Zigic begin...

Richard Throstle and his wife Georgina are in town with their ghoulish magic lantern show, Phantasmagoria. When Richard is found murdered in his hotel room, police sergeant Slevin takes charge of the investigation. Meanwhile, at the Royal Court Theatre, the Morgan-Drew Players theatre troupe harbour many dark secrets. An ambitious, rambunctious murder mystery, Act of Murder is a tale of magic, pornography and poisonings - with some gruesome murders...