The Isle of Wight Killings

Island life suits Susan, and she can’t imagine ever moving from her beloved Isle of Wight. So it gives her real pleasure to see her young lodger Colette settle in to life by the sea, especially knowing that she has such a troubled past.

The Isle of Wight has always felt like a safe place to live for keen dog-walker and reluctant sleuth Susan. But after being involved in the investigation of a troubling crime near her old home, Susan decides to move to the peaceful village of Bishopstone. Susan loves the sense of community and immediately throws herself into village life, volunteering at the local primary school and joining the choir of St Jude’s. So, when there is an altercation at the meeting of the choir committee, followed by a shocking accident, Susan is dismayed to realise her powers of deduction may be needed again.

Susan didn’t plan on being an amateur sleuth and, after two successful investigations, she’s looking forward to a quiet Christmas. So, when local businesswoman Meera is in desperate need of help, Susan agrees rather reluctantly. The task should be easy enough. The infamous press mogul Duncan Fern is coming back to the Isle of Wight, the scene of his family’s childhood holidays, to celebrate Christmas with his grown-up children and their partners, his new glamorous wife Kirsten who is forever dripping with diamonds, and the spikey editor of his paper the Morning Flame, Antoine.

Susan has always taken comfort in the peaceful rhythm of life on the Isle of Wight. But when her daughter Zoe invites her to a Halloween ghost walk at a remote castle, Susan has a sense of foreboding she can’t quite shake. It’s meant to be a bit of fun for the group of old school friends, the thrill of an overnight stay behind the castle’s ancient gates. But when one of them is found dead, the weekend away takes a sinister turn. With the castle locked down and the group trapped inside, it soon becomes clear the killer would have been amongst them.

Susan never imagined herself an amateur sleuth, and she certainly never goes looking for trouble, preferring days spent walking her loyal dogs Libs and Rocco, and maybe even a dip in the sea to cool off after this interminable heatwave. When she hears of a break-in at the vet's where her new neighbour works, Susan's curiosity is piqued. And then, a few days later, the lead vet, Peter, mysteriously disappears. They assume it's business related until his body is washed up on the beach close to his clifftop home.

Retired librarian Jessica much prefers the quiet comfort of her books to real-life drama. But when she travels to the picturesque village of Worth Stone on the Purbeck coast to visit her son Jack and his warm-hearted wife Beth, her peaceful holiday is quickly upended. What is meant to be a gentle Mother's Day walk along the stunning cliffs takes a sinister turn when a member of their tight-knit group is found dead in a remote, thirteenth-century chapel.