Genres: Crime

1952. In a very upmarket London brothel, two people - a patron and a prostitute - are found dead. The establishment is frequented by some of the most influential figures in the country - MPs, senior civil servants, military officers, businessmen, members of the peerage, etc. Some thirty years earlier, an attempt to close the place down had ended in ignominious failure. Whether this is a double murder or a murder and suicide is unclear. But whichever it might be, the deaths have occurred in a place with very sensitive connections (and a history which has become a legend in the Metropolitan Police). The head of the local police division immediately calls in Scotland Yard, and Detective Chief Superintendent Bryce is appointed to investigate. The first problem to be sorted out concerns the victims. Which one was the intended target? Various people have some sort of motive for killing one...

Genres: Crime
Formats: E-Book, Audio, Paperback
Age Groups: 18+

In 1950, Philip Bryce is suddenly given two pieces of unexpected but welcome news - one domestic, the other work-related. He is also given a new case to tackle. It’s a change from the murder cases he spends a lot of time on, but it’s tricky. This is one involving ‘demands with menaces’ – the offence commonly known as blackmail. And the first three victims are very high-ranking people. Bryce investigates, with the newly-promoted Inspector Haig alongside him. But who is the blackmailer? From where does he or she acquire the information? And just how innocent are the ‘victims’?

Genres: Crime
Formats: E-Book, Audio, Paperback
Age Groups: 18+

1938. A man alights from a train at London’s Liverpool Street station, and takes a taxi to Scotland Yard. On arrival there, the cabbie finds that his fare is dead, and it is soon realised that the man has been shot. The victim worked for the intelligence services. This killing is clearly associated with a much larger investigation into other matters, including treason. Chief Inspector Adair and Inspector Davison are seconded to Special Branch to deal with the murder. The two detectives help to uncover a web of intrigue involving thugs, murderers – and traitors in high places.

Genres: Crime
Formats: E-Book, Audio, Paperback

In April 1937, the body of a vagrant is found in the middle of a little-used country lane in Somerset. He was evidently run over by a motor vehicle. Who is the man? Who killed him? The autopsy suggests that all is not what it first seemed, and Detective Inspector Leo Paget is assigned to investigate. He finds that the matter is linked to a major fraud in Suffolk, and also to a case of false imprisonment in Bristol. In the second mystery, a boy is found battered to death in the bicycle shed of his prestigious boarding school. Who is responsible? And why was the boy killed? DI Paget investigates a very unpleasant murder

Genres: Crime
Formats: E-Book, Audio, Paperback
Age Groups: 18+

A number of anonymous letters, all typed, are sent to various residents in a Sussex village. Each contains allegations of misbehaviour. Some are described by the writer as "sins against the laws of God", and others as "sins against the laws of the land". Each of the letters is sent separately to three different people - but none go directly to the persons named. Some of the accusations are serious, and the police begin to investigate. Then, a villager is found battered to death...

Genres: Crime
Formats: E-Book, Audio, Paperback

A waitress at one of the great London 'Corner Houses' dies while at work. It is quickly realised that she has been poisoned. Her death is initially thought to be suicide, but doubts soon arise. It is then found that on the previous day another 'nippy' was poisoned at a different restaurant owned by the same company. This girl is still alive - just - and it was initially believed that she had appendicitis. Even when the hospital reported that she had been poisoned, the message was misinterpreted and the restaurant management assumed that the problem was one of food poisoning. Eventually, it is realised that the poison involved - aconitine - is the same in both cases, and so there is almost certainly a link. The two incidents occur in different Metropolitan Police divisions, and the heads of these units jointly decide to ask Scotland Yard for help. Newly-promoted...

Genres: Crime
Formats: E-Book, Audio, Paperback
Age Groups: 18+

1939, two days after the declaration of war, tens of thousands of children are being evacuated from areas in London, Liverpool, and other British cities, where heavy enemy bombing is expected. Daisy Beck gets on a bus with the other children from her school, to be taken to Cannon Street railway station. There she will board a train to take her to relative safety in a Kent village. She is seen off by her parents. The eighty other children from the East End school arrive at Borough Green, and walk in a crocodile to the local school, where they are to be allocated new homes. The little girl never arrives at the station. Detective Chief Inspector Adair is given the job of finding out what happened. In the second story, a man is spending the night in his London Club. He is killed in his bedroom - struck on the...

Genres: Crime
Formats: E-Book, Audio, Paperback

Two fourteen-year-old girls go missing from an exclusive boarding school. Did they abscond, or have they been kidnapped? The girls’ parents - and indeed the parents of many other pupils – have considerable influence in very high places. Pressure is quickly brought to bear to get Scotland Yard involved. Concern for the girls’ safety is paramount. Detective Chief Inspector Adair and three of his officers are assigned to help the local police. Initially there is little to go on, but Adair soon determines that the children didn’t leave voluntarily. The first step – to ascertain how the girls were abducted – takes time. To find out who was responsible takes longer.

Genres: Crime
Formats: E-Book, Audio, Paperback

After a shooting in a seedy London public house in 1945, the female killer was never found – never even identified – by the local police. Six years later, Scotland Yard is asked to investigate another murder. No other senior officer being available, Philip Bryce takes on the case himself. It soon becomes likely that this murder was probably committed by the woman who shot the man in the pub years before. Bryce, assisted by DS Lomax and a new officer, DC Firth, look into both matters. Their hunt requires them to involve police in other cities in both England and Scotland. Not everything goes as smoothly as Bryce would wish.

Genres: Crime
Formats: E-Book, Audio, Paperback

The Master of a Cambridge college is killed – in an unusual way. Because of the man's links to the Secret Intelligence Service, a very senior officer with security clearance is required to lead the investigation. Chief Superintendent Bryce, an old Cambridge man himself, is the obvious choice. The time of the murder, and the design of the old college buildings, make it almost impossible for the killer to be an outsider. But that still leaves some two hundred and fifty students and staff. Bryce's logical mind leads him to concentrate on the college's eleven remaining fellows and four graduate students. But few had the opportunity, and nobody has an obvious motive. As in most closed academic institutions, bickering (sometimes over some quite trivial matter) was almost the norm in the College Council, the governing body of the college made up of the Master and Fellows. But however strongly the...

Genres: Crime
Formats: E-Book, Audio, Paperback

A burglar is found shot dead in the home of Viscount Tallis, a wealthy industrialist. The man was equipped with a stethoscope, and appears to have been attempting to open a safe in the study. Tallis himself is in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, on his way to America on Government business. Although various members of his family are present in the house, together with guests, nobody has access to the safe – nobody even knows what it might contain. It isn't even clear if the safebreaker succeeded in opening it. Detective Inspector Tommy Rees is given the case. Rees is approaching retirement, and has never had to investigate a murder in his rural county before. Initially he has little choice about taking advice from two or three people who are themselves on the suspect list. Eventually, he must rely on the goodwill – and deep pockets – of...

Genres: Crime
Formats: E-Book, Audio, Paperback, Large print
Age Groups: 18+

There are at least two reasons why Robin Whitaker wants to eliminate his wife, Dulcie. He is not allowed to drink any alcohol, nor to gamble. Dulcie controls his life to an extent that he finds intolerable. But she is also wealthy, so merely leaving her is not an acceptable option. In most circumstances Dr Whitaker thinks and acts like the very intelligent and highly-educated man he is. However, he has somehow convinced himself that the action of killing his wife is justified. He is also certain that his innate brainpower will give him a significant edge over any police detectives, and allow him to outwit them with ease. What are his thoughts? How does he make his decisions? What does he do? Will he get away with murder?

Genres: Crime
Formats: E-Book, Audio, Paperback

It is 1949. Sir Francis Sherwood - WW1 hero, landowner, magistrate - is shot dead while standing at an open bedroom window in his country house. A rifle is found in the grounds. The county police seek help from Scotland Yard. Detective Chief Inspector Bryce and Detective Sergeant Haig are assigned to the case. The first difficulty for the Yard men is that nobody with even a mild dislike of Sherwood can be found. But before that problem can be resolved, others arise...... Philip Bryce is an unusual policeman. A Cambridge-educated barrister, he joined the Metropolitan Police in 1937 under Lord Trenchard's accelerated promotion scheme. After distinguished army service in WW2, by 1949 he has become Scotland Yard's youngest DCI. A very private individual, he remains a bachelor, his fiancee having been killed during the war. Bryce is something of a polymath, and has a number of outside interests -...