Esther J. Mino

A weathered Cornish sailor has come to 221B Baker Street to see Sherlock Holmes. He shares a tale so haunting and otherworldly that it seems to offer only one possible explanation, a supernatural one. William Berryman of the coal ship Mariah went to sea as a boy and is now an old man, but in all his years he has never experienced anything like he did in The Great Storm of ’99 off the Cornish Coast. The storm drove his ship into the deadly “Manacles”, a line of savage rock outcroppings that had already claimed over a thousand souls. He tells Holmes and Watson that only nine of nineteen...

Emily “vacations” at an opulent Swiss resort in the hope of locating nine pounds of hijacked plutonium intended for an atom bomb.

Elizabeth Peters brings back beloved Egyptologist and amateur sleuth Amelia Peabody in an exciting tale set amid the ancient temples and simmering religious tensions of Palestine on the eve of World War I. Once again the Peabody-Emerson clan must use all their skills and wiles to find the truth, prevent a bloody holy war, and save their son from the clutches of a nefarious enemy in this wonderfully engaging tale chock-full of thrills, mystery, and daring from the inimitable Elizabeth Peters.

On a rainy November evening, a young woman hurries through the crowd in London’s historic Russell Square. Out of the darkness, someone jostles her, then brushes past. A moment later, she stumbles, collapsing against a tree. When a young mother finds her body and alerts the police, Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and his sergeant, Doug Cullen, are called to the scene. The victim, Sasha Johnson, is a trainee doctor at a nearby hospital, and she’s been stabbed.

After a lifetime spent in public relations, one-woman dynamo Agatha Raisin struggles to adapt to life in a quiet country village - but she soon finds that there is murder and mayhem aplenty to keep her busy. Among the cases she has to deal with are a poisoned quiche; a vet who has been ‘put to sleep’; a hanged horticulturist; a murdered rambler and a curate who meets his Maker somewhat sooner than expected.

When another resident of the Rosemary House care home is found dead in her chair one Saturday evening in December, no one is very surprised - not until the results of a routine post-mortem reveal something extraordinary. Sergeant DC Smith and his team have to tread carefully as they investigate what took place, and Smith himself has to confront some difficult memories. Others, meanwhile, seem intent on getting him to leave the force altogether.

Elfrida Phipps tries to exorcise the pain of the past and find peace, taking refuge in a rambling Scottish house called Corrydale. Almost like a magnet, Corrydale attracts various waifs and strays, each of them escaping difficult personal pasts. As the holidays approach and the weather turns foul, it seems a perfect recipe for disaster.