Maria Buscombe was a housewife living in Sechelt, British Colombia, until seven years ago when she suddenly abandoned her family. Now it seems she has returned—just in time to be murdered. What made her leave? What made her return? And who was sending her money and photographs of her daughter all that time? These are the questions nagging at Sergeant Karl Alberg as he searches for Maria’s killer. Meanwhile, Alberg’s longtime companion Cassandra Mitchell is doing some nagging of her own. Alberg had promised, after all, to hang up his policeman’s hat.

Three people have been found murdered, by someone known as "the avenging Angel," a killer who has assumed the responsibility of ridding the village of those who sin, those who betray. This latest case also brings with it some life-changing surprises for Alberg and his romantic interest and soon-to-be wife, town librarian Cassandra Mitchell. But theirs are only two of the lives that will be irreparably changed by the murderous activities of an angel straight from hell.

Vancouver's “Sunshine Coast” is famous for its beautiful vistas, but closer inspection reveals a strong dose of dysfunction among its quaint villages. Eliot Gardener is maddeningly sullen as only an angry fourteen-year-old can be. He's also, apparently, a double-murderer, having whacked both of his parents with a machete. At least it’s an open and shut case for Canadian Mountie Karl Alberg. Or is it? Eliot may be guilty, but what drove him to commit such a grisly crime? As Alberg tries to get the troubled boy to talk, he finds himself dealing with dysfunction in his own life.

From the dramatic Highlands to bustling cities, the unique landscapes and locales of Scotland have enthralled and shaped generations of mystery writers. This new collection presents 17 classic stories, spanning a period from the 1880s to the 1970s, by a host of Scottish authors alongside writers from south of the border inspired by the history and majesty of the storied country.

At the Man with a Load of Mischief, they found the dead body stuck in a keg of beer. At the Jack and Hammer, another body was stuck out on the beam of the pub’s sign, replacing the mechanical man who kept the time. Two pubs. Two murders. One Scotland Yard inspector called in to help. Detective Chief Inspector Richard Jury arrives in Long Piddleton and finds everyone in the postcard village looking outside of town for the killer - except for one Melrose Plant....

Anthony Award-winning author William Kent Krueger crafts this riveting tale about a small Minnesota town’s ex-sheriff who is having trouble retiring his badge. Cork O’Connor loses his job after being blamed for a tragedy on the local Anishinaabe Indian reservation. But he must set aside his personal demons when a young boy goes missing on the same day a judge commits suicide—and no one but O’Connor suspects foul play.

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surêté du Québec and his team of investigators are called in to the scene of a suspicious death in a rural village south of Montreal. Jane Neal, a local fixture in the tiny hamlet of Three Pines, just north of the U.S. border, has been found dead in the woods. The locals are certain it’s a tragic hunting accident and nothing more, but Gamache smells something foul in these remote woods, and is soon certain that Jane Neal died at the hands of someone much more sinister than a careless bowhunter.

Koenig has been on the run for six years. Now suddenly his face is on every television screen in the country and his cover is blown. A woman has gone missing, and her father will do anything to find her. He wants Koenig to discover what happened, no matter the cost.

While hot on the heels of serial coupon-racketeer Gordon Ginner, Chief Inspector MacDonald of Scotland Yard receives word of an intriguing incident up in Lancashire – the summer cottage of local farmer Giles Hoggett has been broken into, with an assortment of seemingly random items missing which include a complete reel of salmon line, a large sack, and two iron dogs from his fireplace. What first appears as a simple break-in quickly spirals into a mystery of contested land grabs for fishing between farmers, made all the more enticing to MacDonald when a body is then found in the river.

The village of Badger's Drift is the essence of tranquillity. But when resident and well-loved spinster Miss Simpson takes a stroll in the nearby woods, she stumbles across something she was never meant to see, and there's only one way to keep her quiet. Miss Simpson's death is not suspicious, say the villagers. But Miss Lucy Bellringer refuses to rest: her friend has been murdered. She is sure of it.

Carmen Sanchez is a tough Homeland Security agent who plays by the rules. But when her sister is attacked, revealing a connection to a series of murders across Southern California, she realizes a conventional investigation will not be enough to stop the ruthless perpetrator. With nowhere else to turn, Sanchez enlists the aid of Professor Jake Heron, a brilliant and quirky private security expert who, unlike Sanchez, believes rules are merely suggestions. The two have a troubled past, but he owes her a favor and she’s cashing in.

Lady Emily Hardcastle is an eccentric widow with a secret past. Florence Armstrong, her maid and confidante, is an expert in martial arts. The year is 1908 and they've just moved from London to the country, hoping for a quiet life. But it is not long before Lady Hardcastle is forced out of her self-imposed retirement. There's a dead body in the woods, and the police are on the wrong scent. Lady Hardcastle makes some enquiries of her own, and it seems she knows a surprising amount about crime investigation...

DS Whitney Walker wants a promotion, but it’s hard when she’s trying to balance motherhood with a career. When a newborn baby is kidnapped from the local hospital, she draws on her skills as a mother to help. Despite being ordered not to, and when the leads are going nowhere, Walker enlists the help of a local journalist who’s convinced it’s the work of an international baby smuggling ring. Walker’s plan backfires and she fears they’re running out of time.

Was the biggest case of his career the worst mistake he ever made? Ten years ago, DCI Jack Logan stopped the serial child-killer dubbed "Mister Whisper", earning himself a commendation, a drinking problem, and a broken marriage in the process...When another child disappears a hundred miles north in the Highlands, Jack is sent to lead the investigation and bring the boy home. But as similarities between the two cases grow, could it be that Jack caught the wrong man all those years ago?

Thomas Austin was once a prominent NYPD detective, known for locking up a psychopathic serial killer dubbed "The Holiday Baby Butcher". Now retired in a small beach town in the Pacific Northwest, Austin runs a little café, trying to overcome the loss of his wife, a DA who was gunned down only one year ago.

When Sasha receives a call from her old university friend Gabby inviting her to spend Christmas at Gabby’s remote Scottish lake house, Sasha knows she shouldn’t go. Twelve years ago, on Christmas Eve, when Sasha and her five closest friends were celebrating the festive season, something truly horrific happened that would change the course of their friendship forever. Something that meant Sasha hasn’t spoken to any of them since that night.

Two little girls stand with their heads bowed in my living room. I’m told they’re my granddaughters. Daisy is nine, and Alice seven. Daisy is the spitting image of her mother. This is the first time I’ve met them since my daughter and I fell out after she married that waste of space, Vince. They’ve come to live with me because their mother — my daughter — was murdered. In her own home while they slept close by. I think Vince killed her. But the police can’t prove it. I’ve always known he was no good. He treated my daughter like dirt. I said he’d cheat on her — but she wouldn’t listen.

Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of best-selling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish. Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity's notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn't expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read.

After the killing of a prominent mob lawyer, NYPD homicide detectives Jacob Jackson and Caitlin Grimes start receive chilling, written “rules” for how to commit the perfect murder. "Rule number one for the perfect murder: Evidence is your enemy. Leave none behind." Jackson (Reid Scott) and Grimes (Cobie Smulders) race to find the killer, setting them on a collision course with the city’s crime underbelly, and a perpetrator who seems happy to toy with them. “Rule number two. No crimes of passion. The perfect murder is always business, never pleasure.”

Jenny sits in the same seat on the same train every week, seeing familiar faces come and go. Until a chance encounter shatters her world. Sixteen years ago, Jenny survived a traumatic ordeal that left her best friend, Susie, missing and presumed dead. The world has its theories about what happened to Susie Patterson, and one of those theories points the finger at Jenny. Now she lives a quiet life, volunteering at a crisis helpline while trying to deal with her own anxiety and the true crime fans obsessed with finding her missing friend.

It’s been two years since Anna Cartwright’s life fell apart. During her first school trip as a young teacher, a student went missing and was never found. Not only was her career ruined, she was also accused of having an affair with fellow teacher and prime suspect Graham. Facing questions from journalists, police and family, Anna said she didn’t know what happened. She was lying. Now, Anna has returned to Australia. Her only hope is Land’s End Area School, an isolated concrete wasteland perched on the cliffs.

Kidnappers grabbed Jenna in broad daylight, right in front of her children and their horrified classmates. Her family was issued an insane ransom demand: $25 million in cash and jewels, payable by the end of the school day, otherwise they’ll never see her again. As Jenna’s mother scrambles to gather the money, detectives Mo Butler and George Ortega follow the trail of the kidnappers, which will lead them through a sordid landscape of jealous lovers, broken dreamers, and twisted schemers. But every second counts, and there’s one thing Jenna Wade doesn’t have: very much time.

My fiancé brought me tea and scrambled eggs in bed that morning, and we snuggled together, talking about buying our rings, and about our perfect wedding next year. Then we headed into town. He held my hand and gazed at the ring I liked best, a smile spreading slowly over his face. Then a glass of bubbly to celebrate. I felt flushed, excited and ready for the rest of my life with the man I loved. We race to get on the train home. It screams to a halt and I run towards its open doors. Made it. I think he’s right behind me — but when I turn around, he’s gone.

Jazz Bashara is a criminal. Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you've got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent. Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down.

England, 1914. The world is at war. Captain Hastings, injured and shaken, is invited to Styles Court to recover. It’s a grand old country house - the family home of his old friend - and a perfect haven. Or so it seems. But in the blistering summer heat, trouble is afoot. Simmering tensions are tearing the family apart, and it all comes to a head in the most horrifying way.

Fresh off the first murder case to hit the small town of Briar Reef in more than fifty years, Detective Celia Sparks finds herself knee-deep in another mysterious murder. Everyone in town knew Melissa Sherry was stepping out on her husband, including the man himself. After losing his high-paying job and having to take a job at the meat packing plant just to put food on the table, Gil was already a man beaten; now, everyone he knew was laughing at him behind his back. So, when his wife was found staked out on the main road leading into town in the dead of night with an unflattering word ...

Vancouver's “Sunshine Coast” is famous for its beautiful vistas, but closer inspection reveals a strong dose of dysfunction among its quaint villages. Eliot Gardener is maddeningly sullen as only an angry fourteen-year-old can be. He's also, apparently, a double-murderer, having whacked both of his parents with a machete. At least it’s an open and shut case for Canadian Mountie Karl Alberg. Or is it? Eliot may be guilty, but what drove him to commit such a grisly crime? As Alberg tries to get the troubled boy to talk, he finds himself dealing with dysfunction in his own life.

Three people have been found murdered, by someone known as "the avenging Angel," a killer who has assumed the responsibility of ridding the village of those who sin, those who betray. This latest case also brings with it some life-changing surprises for Alberg and his romantic interest and soon-to-be wife, town librarian Cassandra Mitchell. But theirs are only two of the lives that will be irreparably changed by the murderous activities of an angel straight from hell.

Maria Buscombe was a housewife living in Sechelt, British Colombia, until seven years ago when she suddenly abandoned her family. Now it seems she has returned—just in time to be murdered. What made her leave? What made her return? And who was sending her money and photographs of her daughter all that time? These are the questions nagging at Sergeant Karl Alberg as he searches for Maria’s killer. Meanwhile, Alberg’s longtime companion Cassandra Mitchell is doing some nagging of her own. Alberg had promised, after all, to hang up his policeman’s hat.

When a killer tornado rips through a Dallas flea market, a kind stranger helps Jenna Cooper protect her baby boy. But in the aftermath, Jenna can't find her son or the woman who'd been holding him. Upon discovering the tragedy, reporter and single mom Kate Page, battling for her career and trying to hold her life together, vows to determine what happened to tiny Caleb Cooper.

Newly widowed and stuck in a middle-aged funk, Poppy has been running on cookies, infomercials, and one-sided chats with her cat for months. There's no way on earth she's attending her 25-year class reunion - especially after receiving a very bizarre letter from Barbie, the popular cheerleader who taunted her all through high school. At least, not until Poppy's best friend practically drags her to the event.... Using the dreaded homecoming as an excuse to visit her eccentric Aunt Ginny, Poppy vows to leave Cape May with pride and Spanx intact. Too bad Barbie is still the queen of mean.

West Midlands copper Jackie Hartwell has one of the toughest jobs in CID: comforting and supporting grieving relatives in the aftermath of a serious crime. But there's much more to what she does than providing tea and sympathy. Part social worker, part savvy investigator, she needs to be able to win the trust of families, while simultaneously keeping a watchful eye on their behaviour and reactions. Because often, the suspect she's searching for isn't far from home....

After eight years of marriage, surgeon Mike Bowman and his police officer wife have snuck time into their busy schedules to celebrate their anniversary. But work is never far from Mike's mind, which is why he finds himself in the morgue in the middle of night instead of in his wife's arms . . .

Ten celebrities have arrived to take part in the most gruelling - and lucrative - reality survival show ever devised: two weeks completely alone on a remote Scottish island, in the depths of winter. With a production team that seems incapable of keeping them safe, a gathering storm and the unrelenting gaze of hidden cameras, the contestants are stretched to the limit as they try and outshine their fellow competitors and hide their darkest secrets. But when a contestant winds up dead, it soon becomes clear that the players are not just fighting for the prize, but for their lives.

Noel never should have been released from prison. My job helping ex-prisoners turn over a new leaf usually warms my heart, but as soon as I lock eyes with Noel the skin along the nape of my neck prickles. He wasn’t locked up for a petty crime; it was manslaughter. And now he’s dating my sister. Brooke says she’s never met a man who makes her feel so cherished and protected. That a single brush of his hand makes her heart flutter. A knight in shining armor who will finally lay to rest the twisted secrets in her past.

The quiet calm of Ash Wednesday morning. Carnival is over. Everyone on the small island of St. Colibri is sleeping peacefully. Everyone except Sora Tanaka, a young pan player lying under the cannonball tree. Sora, a professional musician, had been visiting St. Colibri to take part in the island’s famous steel pan competition. But Sora isn’t asleep; she’s dead: brutally murdered, and still in her costume. And as the women of this island know all too well, Sora is far from the first woman to be killed, and she probably won’t be the last, either.

I never imagined I'd be living in Jemima Eden's world. As her new assistant, I'm suddenly part of a life I've only ever dreamed of. After years of barely scraping by, juggling temp jobs and failed auditions, it feels like my chance to finally be someone. But the closer I get to Jemima, the more I realise that her glossy life is just another performance. Behind the dazzling smile and happy marriage to her thoughtful husband George, there's a darkness I never expected.

Boots Marez is a Latina single mother raising a headstrong and sly eighteen-year-old boy she adopted six years ago. She also runs a school that helps the undocumented people in her politically divided town in Northern California. When her son Jaral is jailed for the murder of one of her former students, her world is turned upside down. Struggling to protect her son, Boots has to spotlight a community used to living in the shadows, putting her hard work over the years in doubt. Meanwhile, a vicious parents’ board wants to trash her ideals and oust her from the school she helped build.

Widowed genealogist Ellie McLellan has spent years healing her ravished heart by carefully constructing a new and quiet life away from the hungry glare of the paparazzi. She now fills her days with genealogical research for various clients, safe in the small town of Percyville, Quebec. Until her bid to save a child's life is caught on camera and ambitious tabloid reporter Diane Cooper recognizes her. Turns out Ellie is not safe at all. With Diane sniffing around for dirt and her "big break" story, Ellie learns a dark family secret with the power to destroy the only family she has left.

When Polly signs up to an art retreat in the Lake District, it's an escape from the stress of recent months, when a stalker preyed on her and her friend. It's also an opportunity to find out more about her family history: Polly believes her biological mother once lived here, at Lakeside House. But things quickly turn sinister. The previous owners supposedly took their own lives here, years before – and the glamorous new owners are now receiving disturbing threats. Someone is sabotaging Polly's artwork. The five other guests on the retreat all seem to be hiding something.