Fourth story in a collection of interlinked bite-sized tales of crime and retribution laced with dark humour, set around the festive season – the perfect length for a short commute. Includes first chapters of Shatter the Bones and Birthdays for the Dead.
"Curl up by the fire (and lock all the doors) for this Christmas cracker of a book." —C.S. Green, author of Sleep Tight Twelve clues. Twelve keys. Twelve days of Christmas. But how many will die before Twelfth Night? Agatha Christie meets Clue in this delightful, tense manor house murder mystery. The annual Christmas Game is afoot at Endgame House, the Armitages' grand family home. This year's prize is to die for—deeds to the house itself—but Lily Armitage has no intention of returning. She hasn't been back to Endgame since her mother died, twenty-one years ago, and she has no intention of claiming the house that haunts her dreams. Until, that is, she receives a letter from her aunt promising that the game's riddles will give her the keys not only to Endgame, but to its darkest secrets, including the identity of her mother's murderer. Now, Lily must compete with her estranged cousins for the twelve days of Christmas. The snow is thick, the phone lines are down, and no one is getting in or out. Lily will have to keep her wits about her, because not everyone is playing fair, and there's no telling how many will die before the winner is declared. Including additional scavenger hunts for the reader, this clever murder mystery is the perfect gift for fans of classic mysteries, festive Christmas books, and armchair detective work.
Police Sergeant William South has a good reason to shy away from murder investigations: he is a murderer himself. A methodical, diligent, and exceptionally bright detective, South is an avid birdwatcher and trusted figure in his small town on the rugged Kentish coast. He also lives with the deeply buried secret that, as a child in Northern Ireland, he may have killed a man. When a fellow birdwatcher is found murdered in his remote home, South's world flips. The culprit seems to be a drifter from South's childhood; the victim was the only person connecting South to his early crime; and a troubled, vivacious new female sergeant has been relocated from London and assigned to work with South. As our hero investigates, he must work ever-harder to keep his own connections to the victim, and his past, a secret. The Birdwatcher is British crime fiction at its finest; a stirring portrait of flawed, vulnerable investigators; a meticulously constructed mystery; and a primal story of fear, loyalty and vengeance. **Longlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year
“McMahon unfurls a whirlwind of suspense...Combining murder mystery and coming-of-age tale with supernatural elements, this taut novel is above all a reflection on the haunting power of memory.” –Entertainment Weekly A woman’s past and present collide in terrifying ways in this explosive debut by New York Times bestselling author Jennifer McMahon. Forty-one-year-old school nurse Kate Cypher has returned home to rural Vermont to care for her mother, who's afflicted with Alzheimer's. On the night she arrives, a young girl is murdered—a horrific crime that eerily mirrors another from Kate's childhood. Three decades earlier, her dirt-poor friend Del—shunned and derided by classmates as "Potato Girl"—was brutally slain. Del's killer was never found, while the victim has since achieved immortality in local legends and ghost stories. Now, as this new murder investigation draws Kate irresistibly in, her past and present collide in terrifying, unexpected ways. Because nothing is quite what it seems . . . and the grim specters of her youth are far from forgotten. More than just a murder mystery, Jennifer McMahon's extraordinary debut novel, Promise Not to Tell, is a story of friendship and family, devotion and betrayal—tautly written, deeply insightful, beautifully evocative, and utterly unforgettable.
DON'T MISS THE ORIGINAL SERIES—NOW AVAILABLE ON PBS! A disturbing and addictive novel of domestic suspense from an internationally bestselling author, where secrets kept hidden from spouses cause shocking surprises that hit home... There's nothing unusual about a new family moving in at 91 Trinity Avenue. Except it's her house. And she didn't sell it. Fiona Lawson is sure there's been a mistake when she comes home to find strangers moving into her house. She and her estranged husband, Bram, have a modern coparenting arrangement: bird's nest custody, where each parent spends a few nights a week with their two sons at the prized family home to maintain stability for their children. But the system built to protect their family ends up putting them in terrible jeopardy. In a domino effect of crimes and misdemeanors, the nest comes tumbling down. Now Bram has disappeared, and so have Fiona's children. As events spiral well beyond her control, Fiona will discover just how many lies her husband was weaving and how little they truly know each other. Bram's not the only one with things to hide, though, and some secrets are best kept to oneself, safe as houses. One of The Washington Post's 10 Best Thrillers and Mysteries of the Year One of Publishers Weekly's Best Books of the Year One of Real Simple's Best Books of the Year
A serial killer stalks the streets of London in this “top-notch debut thriller”—the first Jack Caffery novel from the acclaimed author of Gone (Kirkus Reviews). In his first case as lead investigator with London’s murder squad, Det. Inspector Jack Caffery is called on to investigate the murder of a young woman whose body has been discovered near the Millennium Dome in Greenwich, southeast London. Mutilated beyond recognition, the victim is soon joined by four others discovered in the same area—all female and all ritualistically murdered. And when the postmortem examination reveals a gruesome signature connecting the victims, Caffery realizes exactly what he’s dealing with—a dangerous serial killer. A finalist for the Edgar Award, Birdman explores the darkest reaches of the human mind and introduces a fascinating detective to the world of British crime fiction. “Treading the grisly path blazed by Thomas Harris in 1981 with Red Dragon, promising newcomer Hayder crafts a blood-curdlingly creepy debut thriller.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review “A deftly plotted assault on the nerves . . . Birdman preys on the reader’s expectations expertly, and Hayder handles her story’s complicated time scheme with enviable assurance. Graphic, disturbing, splendidly readable.” —Kirkus Reviews
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