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Deep was back in town after a twenty-five-year exile – to inherit an empire and avenge a death. He and Bennett had made the inheritance pact when they were kids; they had known that even New York was too small for them to share and so they had tossed a coin to determine who would stay and who would build his organisation in another town. Deep had lost and gone.

But now Bennett has been murdered in his own home and Deep is ready to prove he’s strong enough to take over. Deep wants Bennett’s killer, the others want Bennett’s job. And all too many of them – including the beautiful Irish – want Deep dead . . .

Everyone thought Mike Hammer was dead, shot in a drugs war battle on the docks of New York. But now he’s back from a stay in Florida, and in deeper trouble than ever before. He has the slaying of Marcus Dooley, an old army buddy, to pay back with interest – and two generations of a powerful Mafia family to beat at their own bloody games. Plus, just before he died Dooley revealed to Hammer that there’s a missing cache of $89 billion to find – before the bad guys get their hands on it, and their sights on Hammer.

And to really complicate matters, the Feds have dealt themselves into the action, eager to beat everybody to the loot.

With two rock-hard fists, a well-oiled .45, his beautiful secretary, Velda, and a miracle, Hammer might just make it out of this one alive …

After eight hard years in San Quentin prison, Runyan is out and ready to lead a quiet life – an honest life. But certain people have been planning for the day of his release – people who desperately want the two million dollars in diamonds Runyan was carrying just before he went to jail … Like the insurance investigator who arranged his parole. A beautiful woman who wants him alive. The unknown killer who definitely wants him dead.

Runyan goes to recover the diamonds from where he has stashed them, so he can buy his way out … but the diamonds are gone. Now he must pull another robbery – something he swore never to repeat – and use the proceeds to stay alive.

‘A star in our galaxy of crime writers’ FINANCIAL TIMES

Superb crime fiction from the CWA Diamond Dagger Award Winner

‘Yorke practised deception artfully and with style’ GUARDIAN

‘Mistress of the skilfully spun suspense novel’ SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Nesta Falconer, an attractive widow, lives with her fifteen-year-old daughter Philippa, managing brother-in-law Charles Falconer’s household after the breakdown of his marriage. Nesta’s comfortable position is threatened when her sister Claire, returning from America, comes to stay at her cottage.

Charles realises that Nesta is a menace to Philippa’s happiness, and that she has been responsible for much distress. His mother, a formidable old lady, plays a part in revealing Nesta not only to her family but to herself as a negative person who contributes little to the happiness of others.

It should have been her sanctuary – until things got murderous…

‘Few authors are better than Margaret Yorke in generating a real sense of fear’ SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

‘The mistress of unease’ DAILY TELEGRAPH

Ruth Castle – alone, proud, defiant – is determined to rescue some personal happiness from the wreckage of her life. In Haverbury village, she makes friends with Marjorie and Robert Bretherton, and is soon involved in the affairs of other relatives who come to stay for Christmas.

Family conflicts emerge, and one night, turning to Ruth for support in a sudden crisis, Marjorie realises that things are not as straightforward as she thought – and that her very life is threatened …

A perfect collection of short stories for Dell Shannon fans and mystery lovers everywhere, featuring eight cases of her popular Lieutenant Luis Mendoza, alongside six intriguing non-series tales.

Mysteries include the case of an exasperated husband who may have murdered his nagging wife – but would he have killed his beloved pet as well? A young girl dies in an ‘accident’ when a parked truck slips its brakes and slams into the house where she’s staying. And a nursing home resident suspects that old age is not the only thing eliminating his neighbours.

‘My favourite American crime-writer’ New York Herald Tribune

‘A touch of Margaret Millar . . . worth watching’ Sunday Telegraph

Sculptress Katharine Craig doesn’t often get to Lake Tahoe, where she stays with her cousin, Jon Craig. This time, though, Katharine arrives just in time to be swept into a whirl of parties, mystery… and murder.

A series of art thefts has the townsfolk doing plenty of speculating and Cousin Jon is right at the centre of the mystery. But when a local art collector is found gruesomely impaled on the piece of sculpture he recently had shown to Katharine, idle speculation turns to serious investigation. It seems Katharine was the last person to see the victim alive, and Kevin Bryce of the Tahoe Police has a more than passing interest in getting to know her better…

They told Lisa she was the daughter of an American aristocrat and an Italian princess both of whom died shortly after Lisa’s birth. They told Lisa she was heiress to a vast Boston fortune, and that her American family cherished her and wanted her to stay with them.

At first Lisa tried to believe it all. Then she tried to separate the truth from the lies. Finally, she would know one thing for sure. Somebody or something was out to destroy her …

Sid Shanley couldn’t stay in one place very long. He had to keep on the run, changing towns, changing jobs, changing women. He worked out the perfect setup – no attachments, no trails, no explanations. But now a girl has caught up with him. Her name was Paula – and a million dollars lay behind her strange invitation …

In life, Jane Ann never had much use for a halo, but in her violent death she finally earned one. When they found a suspect, everyone relaxed except Hugh MacReedy.

Maybe he should have stayed out of it, but MacReedy owed a big debt to the patsy they were sending to the electric chair in a week. And he would have stayed out of it, if he’d known what his chances were of coming out alive …

The most glamorous hotel in Europe is not immune to murder…
Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club

When Julian Marks, a well-known diamond merchant, is found murdered at the Hotel Fantastique in Monte Carlo, the motive is presumed to be theft. Marks always carried with him an enormous diamond on a steel chain.

Guests have noticed a shady character in button boots staying at the hotel. But when the diamond is found in an unexpected place, French sleuth M Dupuy has to rethink his investigation. Could the mystery man now lead him to the culprit?

Blackmail was a dirty business and Donald Lam liked to stay clear of it. But for his partner, Bertha Cool, no business was too dirty to handle at the right price. And the price for this job was certainly right.

What was wrong, though, was a payoff for pictures that weren’t worth a dime, a free dinner that cost the blackmailer his life, and more than a couple of double-crosses that framed Donald Lam quite neatly for a charge of murder …

It was just a routine case. All Bertha Cool had to do was help a fellow in a jam – a $20,000 jam.

But it didn’t stay a routine case for long. All of a sudden Bertha’s client had a fistful of anonymous letters, a missing wife, and a body in his basement. Bertha Cool had her hands full. The only problem was, her hands were tied – and the murderer’s were very, very busy.

Helena Sebright is given a three-month job in the newly independent African state of Uyowa. She is to escort a seven-year-old girl to stay with her grandparents there, and to bring her back to her parents, in England, at the end.

It seems a lucky break. But Helena is not to know she will become involved in a dangerous criminal enterprise. Against the background of a disintegrating state and imminent bloody revolution, Helena finds herself caught up in a series of mysteries, catastrophes – and gruesome deaths . . .

Whenever Felix, Virginia Freer’s estranged husband, reappears in her life, murder does too. Even when temporarily incapacitated by an accident, Felix brings mystery with him.

This time it concerns Holly, orphaned daughter of a famous actress, who had come from Rome to stay with Virginia’s friends, the Brightwells. Holly has disappeared, believed kidnapped, and distraught Ann Brightwell is prepared to sell her valuables to meet the ransom demand. But Felix senses something odd about the kidnapping and is convinced the ransom shouldn’t be paid . . .

When Holly Dunthorne returns home to the village of Roydon Saint Agnes she finds that a friend, Marcus Meriden, has been accused of beating up an old man. There are witnesses who say they saw it happen, and the only one who might possibly clear him stays stubbornly silent.

But when murder happens and a newcomer to the village seems to attract everyone’s attention, Holly finds everything has changed, not least her old friends, the Meridens, among whom she feels herself a stranger – and afraid.

When Chief Constable Sir Clinton Driffield goes to stay with his friend Wendover, mysterious goings-on in the boathouse he owns soon attract the duo’s attention. Lights go on and off, strangers come in and out, and a game warden is found murdered nearby.

And as they work to solve the crime, a second body is dredged up from the lake …

‘Mr J. J. Connington is a name revered by all specialists on detective fiction’ Spectator

The ad in the Daily Telegraph read: ‘Wanted: a man of resource and courage to act as companion’.

Ex-con Macbeth Bain must stay on the right side of the law, and this job seems like the perfect opportunity for him to prove that he can. A woman needs protection from a jealous husband – the only thing is, this husband has been dead for seven months. His phone calls, however, continue unabated, or so the widow maintains. Crazy? Bain doesn’t think so. But it’s not until his third day on the job that the real trouble starts. And when the noose begins to tighten, Bain knows he must break out soon or it will be too late.

While John and Kirstie Raven are in Paris they come across an old college friend of Kirstie’s, Kirk Cameron. Learning he is coming to London in an attempt to raise some funds, Kirstie insists he stay with them on their houseboat in Chelsea.

What Cameron doesn’t tell his hosts is that he has agreed to help a casual acquaintance in a little ‘industrial espionage’: and what Cameron hasn’t been told is that he is to be involved in robbing a safety deposit box . . .

Poke Tohola, a Seminole Indian, is on to a smart racket. His formula is that fear is the key that unlocks the wallets and handbags of the rich. But Chuck, a cop-killer at 18, and Meg, beddable but dumb, don’t work to formula. The three of them turn Paradise City into Panic City. Then Detective Tom Lepski lumbers in …

‘An old master on top form’ Sunday Telegraph

Like most bank managers, Dave Calvin had acquired an irresistible charm that he could switch on whenever he felt the necessity. Underneath it he was cold, calculating, brutal – a perfect murderer.

For years he had waited – watching an endless stream of money pass through his hands – knowing that a risk was only worth taking if the reward was justified. And a $300,000 payroll was justification enough – even for murder …

When Dave Fenner is hired to solve the Blandish kidnapping, he knows the odds on finding the girl are against him – the cops are still looking for her three months after the ransom was paid. And the kidnappers, Riley and his gang, have disappeared into thin air.

But what none of them knows is that Riley himself has been wiped out by a rival gang – and the heiress is now in the hands of Ma Grisson and her son Slim, a vicious killer who can’t stay away from women, especially his beautiful new captive. By the time Fenner begins to close in on them, some terrible things have happened to Miss Blandish …

Eleri ap Vaughan, Keith Vine’s best dealer, has turned to other drugs wholesalers for her supplies. Now she has to die. For the threat of invasion by rival syndicates cannot be ignored, particularly as an elegantly dressed spy from London, nicknamed Lovely Mover, is in the area. Eleri’s death must serve as a warning to others to stay loyal.

It’s at times like these that Vine’s new partner, Detective Chief Inspector Colin Harpur, will prove invaluable – for example, in sweeping the murder scene for incriminating evidence. Harpur, however, is playing a dangerous game, and he now finds himself in the precarious position of covering up a murder and investigating it.

‘There is nothing else quite like this series…all delivered in a ferociously poetic voice that is uniquely Bill James’ The Times

Miranda Brand was uneasy even before the train left to take her to stay with her army cousin in divided Berlin. Then a story of a missing fortune in war-looted diamonds, told to pass the time on the journey, brings back nightmares of her past. And causes murder.

This is dazzling entertainment from a master of suspense.