Showing results by narrator "Simon Mattacks" in All Categories

When DI Ben Kitto sees a baby thrown into Penzance harbour, he prays it's a trick of the light. But the threat is real. The child survives – barely – and soon a chilling pattern emerges. As the Burning Sky Festival brings dancers, dreamers and stargazers to Cornwall's coast, children begin to vanish. A small mermaid figurine is found beside each scene, echoing the legend of the Mermaid of Zennor, who lured a man to his death beneath the waves.

For Alex Lowry, life is for the living. Even if that comes with a lot of risk. And where some men his age might just buy a sports car, he's become a full-blown adrenaline junkie. Whether it's lawnmower racing, rock climbing, or medieval combat, he'll give it a go - whatever makes him happy! His daughter Hannah thinks he might have lost the plot. Chances are, she's absolutely right.

Former DCI Dan Armstrong has been living and working in Florence for nearly three years—yet somehow, Rome has always eluded him. That is, until glamorous TV celebrity Tamsin Goodfaith turns up with a request he can't refuse: investigate her uncle's suspicious death in the Eternal City. Philip Hastings was a billionaire financier, found dead at his magnificent—if slightly spooky—medieval castle in the Roman hills. Dan and his faithful canine companion, Oscar, soon find themselves surrounded by luxury, secrets and more suspects than sightseeing opportunities.

A body is found in a newly dug grave in a rural Somerset churchyard. The murder matches a series of brutal attacks blamed on a serial killer in Devon, and a DNA profile neatly points to the same suspect. Fresh from another bruising encounter with the Professional Standards Department, Acting Detective Superintendent Nick Dixon knows the scene is wrong and the evidence staged—someone else has engineered this killing to silence the victim.

When a woman's body is found in the grounds of a ruined priory, Detective Imogen Evans realises she is dealing with a serial killer - a killer whose victims appear to die in a state of bliss, eyes open, smiles forever frozen on their faces.

When Catherine wakes up alone one morning, she thinks her husband has gone for a run before work. But Simon never makes it to the office. His running shoes are by the front door. Nothing is missing—except him. Catherine knows Simon must be in trouble. He wouldn’t just leave her. He wouldn’t leave the children. But Simon knows the truth—about why he left and what he’s done. He knows things about his marriage that it would kill Catherine to find out. The memories she holds on to are lies.

London, 1925. With their band the Dizzy Heights, jazz musicians Ivor ‘Skins’ Maloney and Bartholomew ‘Barty’ Dunn are used to improvising as they play the Charleston for flappers and toffs, but things are about to take a surprising turn.

Two years ago, Julia lost her family in a tragic accident. Her husband drowned trying to save their daughter, Lily, in the river near their rural home. But the little girl’s body was never found—and Julia believes Lily is somehow still alive. Alone and broke, Julia opens her house as a writers’ retreat. One of the first guests is Lucas, a horror novelist, who becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to Lily.

DI Nick Dixon is on the hunt for a vicious serial killer, following a trail of fingerprints and DNA across west Somerset. When the body of a young woman is found on the building site of a nuclear power station, work grinds to a halt. The body bears all the hallmarks of yet another random murder at the hands of the escaped killer. Then Dixon finds a motive. Fighting for his place on the Major Investigation Team, he soon uncovers a family’s desperate search for the truth, exposing a web of corruption and death that will shake the billion-pound construction project to its foundations.

Nestled high in the Tuscan hills lies Villa Volpone, home to renowned crime writer Jonah Moore and his creative writing course. It’s also the last place retired DCI Dan Armstrong expected to spend his retirement! Dan’s no writer, but maybe this break will help him to think about the next chapter in his own life story? But only days into the course, Jonah Moore is found stabbed to death with his award-winning silver dagger! And Dan finds himself pulled out of retirement with a killer to catch.

Mia and Finn are busy turning a derelict house into their dream home when Mia unexpectedly falls pregnant. But just when they think the house is ready, Mia discovers a shocking message scored into a skirting board: I WILL SAVE THEM FROM THE ATTIC. Following the clue up into the eaves, the couple make a gruesome discovery: their home was once a real-life murder house, with the evidence still concealed within the four walls.

When millionaire magnate, Rex Hunter is found with his head bashed in on the eighth hole of his prestigious golf and country club in beautiful Chianti, it’s a clear case of murder. Hunter was rich and successful and the envy of many, so retired DCI Dan Armstrong thinks the case will be a hole in one to solve.But as Dan and his trusty sidekick Oscar begin to dig deeper into Hunter’s lifestyle, they discover a man despised by many. A renowned womaniser, ruthless boss and heartless family man, it seems no one is particularly sorry to see Hunter dead.

In the brilliant fourth book from Andy McDermott, Nina Wilde must battle the Covenant of Genesis if she is to find the world's greatest archaeological treasure... Off the coast of Indonesia, archaeologist Nina Wilde makes an explosive find: evidence of a settlement that existed over a hundred...

A retired teacher is found dead in her Somerset home on a cold January night. At first glance, it is a routine unexplained death and a simple referral to the coroner, until a neighbour reports an unscheduled visit from an occupational therapist an hour before the body was discovered. Detective Chief Inspector Nick Dixon is convinced the elderly woman has been strangled—a cause of death confirmed by the pathologist—and a murder investigation is launched.

Calvin finally owns the bakery of his dreams, in an idyllic village in the Lake District. After reluctantly following his wife Vicky’s advice to promote it on social media, he’s thrilled when a viral clip makes him a legend overnight. But then the creepy DMs start flooding in—all from a stranger who claims she’s his biggest fan. Meanwhile, a local recluse is found on a nearby beach, buried to his neck and left to drown, and the community goes into shock.

When vandals destroy beach hut 512 on Brighton’s iconic seafront, they reveal a dead body that has apparently lain undisturbed for two months. But according to the hut’s owner, Sims, its locks rusted shut three months ago and she hasn’t had access to it since. So how could the man have got in, and why is there no evidence of the murderer?

A routine missing person enquiry takes a grisly turn when a young couple drag a box containing human remains out of a Somerset river. The victim was a surveillance expert investigating an exaggerated injury claim—a murder with an obvious motive, until a police officer is implicated and suspended. Still brooding after his recent brush with police Professional Standards, Detective Chief Inspector Nick Dixon is on extended leave, helping his pregnant fiancée, Detective Sergeant Jane Winter, fight for her place on the major investigation team.

It is Acting Detective Superintendent Nick Dixon’s wedding day. Gig rowers find a body floating in Bridgwater Bay and when the victim is identified as a serving police officer, executed at point blank range with a 3D printed gun, the assistant chief constable is soon knocking on Dixon’s door—wedding night or not. It is the third such killing in as many weeks, but the first two victims were drug dealers, with no apparent connection to the dead officer other than the murder weapon itself.

When London’s finest jazz musicians, the Dizzy Heights, are booked to play the glitzy Midsummer Ball at a country house in Oxfordshire, they expect a weekend filled with flappers and toffs having a roaring good time. But the festivities at Bilverton House take a turn for the worse when the group are stranded by a summer storm. And when a member of the Bilverton family turns up dead in a locked room in an apparent suicide, Skins, Dunn and Ellie realize this is going to be a much tougher gig than they thought.

The third thrilling adventure thriller featuring archaeologist Nina Wilde, in which Nina must find Excalibur, King Arthur's beloved sword. Said to make whoever holds it unstoppable in battle, the sword Excalibur has been coveted across the ages, and thought lost for over a thousand years. With a...