That most “literary” of narcotics – the enigmatic opium poppy and its various derivatives – and as these stories reveal, those who partake of the sacred flower are forever changed, but the price of paradise is often steep: overdose, hepatitis C, degradation and self-destruction….
When three dead bodies are discovered in quick succession, DI Ian Peterson becomes too embroiled in a complex murder investigation to worry about his forthcoming promotion or the state of his marriage.The first victim is a middle-class housewife, stabbed to death in a park. Her husband is in the clear until the prostitute who provided…
2064 – Securely fenced off from the rest of the world, life in Euroasia, except for a handful of suicide bombings and border disputes, is constantly improving. On the other side of the fence, countries are being exploited and wracked by regression, dictatorship, and religious fanaticism. People live in poverty and misery….
Boston PI Spenser returns – heading west to the rich man’s haven of Potshot, Arizona, a former mining town reborn as a paradise for Los Angeles millionaires looking for a place to escape the pressures of their high-flying lifestyles. Potshot overcame its rough reputation as a rendezvous for old-time mountain men who lived off the land,…
Fred, Nickel and Annette share a dream, to escape to Canada, away from the crushing boredom of provincial Germany. Canada – where you can live free, rent a house on the lake, go fishing, become a famous photographer. But such dreams cost money and money comes from… banks. But the great bank robbery goes horribly wrong……
Valerie de Chavannes, a financier’s daughter, summons private investigator Kemal Kayankaya to her villa in Frankfurt’s diplomatic quarter and commissions him to find her missing sixteen-year-old daughter, Marieke. She is alleged to be with an older man who is posing as an artist. To Kayankaya, it seems like a simple case: an upper class…
It all began with a favour. Kayankaya and Slibulsky were only trying to protect their friend Romario from his protectors, men who were demanding hard cash for the service. It ended with two bodies on the floor of Romario’s restaurant, their faces covered in ghostly white make up. Kayankaya is determined to track down their identity,…
Four members of a radical ecological group are accused of the murder of the director of a chemical plant near Frankfurt. While admitting to material damage of the plant they deny any involvement with the murder. According to witnesses, five people participated in the sabotage but where is the fifth man? The defendant’s lawyer hires…
When a Turkish labourer is stabbed to death in Frankfurt’s red light district, the local police see no need to work overtime. But when the labourer’s wife comes to him for help, detective Kemal Kayankaya, a Turkish immigrant himself, smells a rat. The dead man wasn’t the kind of guy who spent time with prostitutes. What gives? …
She is caught up in a tangle of deception he left behind, facing violent assault, brutal murderers and deeply embedded corporate corruption….
It starts when Nick Sharman’s eye is caught by a woman in a fashionable West End store. She is young beautiful and classy. And she is shoplifting….
When Marlene Cowley hires Spenser to see if her husband, Trent, is cheating on her, he encounters more than he bargained for. Not only does he find a two-timing husband, but a second investigator as well, hired by the husband to look after his wife. As a result of their joint efforts, Spenser soon finds himself investigating both…
In 1974, a revolutionary group calling itself The Dread Scott Brigade held up the Old Shawmut Bank in Boston’s Audubon Circle. Money was stolen. And a woman named Emily Gordon, a visitor in town cashing traveler’s checks, was shot and killed. No one saw who shot her. Despite security-camera photos and a letter from the group claiming…
When a successful businessman is the victim of a vicious murder, all evidence points to his wife and her young lover. But then the victim’s business partner suffers a similarly brutal fate and when yet another body is discovered, seemingly unrelated, the police are baffled. The only clue is DNA that leads them to two women: one dead,…
Philosophies of Crime Fiction provides a considered analysis of the philosophical ideas to be found in crime literature – both hidden and explicit. Josef Hoffmann ranges expertly across influences and inspirations in crime writing with a stellar cast including Conan Doyle, G K Chesterton, Dashiell Hammett, Albert Camus, Borges, Agatha…
When the bodies of two black girls are discovered in North London, the pressure is on to find a killer before the case divides the local community. But motive seems to go far beyond race in DI Geraldine Steel’s first investigation in the nation’s capital….