Search results for ""author lesley thomson""

A woman lies dead in a bombed-out house. A tragic casualty of the Blitz? Or something more sinister? Sixty years later, the detective's daughter unearths the truth... From the number 1 bestselling author of The Detective's Daughter. LONDON, 1940 Several neighbours heard the scream of the woman in the bombed-out house. One told the detective she thought the lady had seen a mouse. Another said it wasn't his business what went on behind closed doors. None of them imagined that a trusting young woman was being strangled by her lover. TEWKESBURY, 2020 Beneath the vast stone arches of Tewkesbury Abbey, a man lies bleeding, close to death. He is the creator of a true-crime podcast which now will never air. He was investigating the murder of a 1940s police pathologist – had he come closer to the truth than he realised? Stella Darnell has moved to Tewkesbury to escape from death, not to court it. But when this man dies in her arms, Stella, impelled to root out evil when she finds it, becomes determined to hunt down his killer and to bring the secrets he was searching for into the light... Praise for The Detective's Daughter series: 'Lesley Thomson gets better and better' Ian Rankin 'Cunningly plotted' Mick Herron 'One of the most original characters in British crime fiction... Thomson's plots are original and she draws her characters with genuine affection' Sunday Times 'In the best traditions of the classic whodunnit, this is Midsomer Murders for grown-ups' Jake Kerridge, Sunday Express 'Gloriously well-written... Thomson creates a rich and sinister world that is utterly unique' William Shaw

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Seven cryptic photographs. A decades-old case. Can one woman find a killer? Before his death, Terry Darnell was a famous detective. His daughter Stella, a cleaner, has inherited his methodical mind. She has also inherited a strange case file: seven photographs of empty streets. Why did her father keep them for so many years? One photo dates from 1966, to a day when a young girl witnessed something that would haunt her forever. As Stella scrubs away at the truth, the events of that day begin to haunt her too... THE DETECTIVE'S DAUGHTER SERIES: The Detective's Daughter. Ghost Girl. The Detective's Secret. The House With No Rooms. The Dog Walker.

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From the number one bestseller of The Detective's Daughter. For forty years, someone has got away with murder... Forty years ago, seventeen-year-old Cassie Baker took a shortcut home from a small Cotswolds village, and was never seen again. Twenty years later, Cotswolds police found Cassie's remains while searching for another missing teenager, Bryony Motson. Bryony's body was never found. Now Stella Darnell, cleaner and private detective, has decided to find out what happened to Bryony. She knows her investigation will be dangerous. Because, for too long, someone has got away with murder. Someone who will do anything to keep it that way... PRAISE FOR LESLEY THOMSON: 'In the best traditions of the classic whodunnit, this is Midsomer Murders for grown-ups' Jake Kerridge, SUNDAY EXPRESS. 'Lesley Thomson is a class above' IAN RANKIN. 'Stella Darnell is one of the most original characters in British crime fiction' Joan Smith, SUNDAY TIMES. 'A wonderfully eerie setting, unique characters and a chilling plot' ELLY GRIFFITHS. 'Clever, credible and memorable' LITERARY REVIEW. 'Gloriously well-written... Thomson creates a rich and sinister world that is utterly unique' WILLIAM SHAW.

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'A class above' IAN RANKIN. Forty years ago, in the dark of the playground, two children's lives were changed for ever. The case of six-year-old Sarah Ferris, killed in an empty playground, haunted Hammersmith police for decades. Not just because the victim would never see her seventh birthday. But because solving the case meant arresting another child on suspicion of Sarah's murder. Now, forty years later, cleaner-turned-detective Stella Darnell has unearthed new information about Sarah and her killer. As Stella pieces together the truth about what happened all those years ago, she is drawn into a story of jealousy, betrayal and the end of innocence. A story that has not yet reached its end... 'One of the most original characters in British crime fiction' SUNDAY TIMES. 'Thomson creates a rich and sinister world that is utterly unique... Gloriously well-written' WILLIAM SHAW.

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''Always a treat reading Lesley Thomson.'' Ian Rankin''Lesley Thomson at her considerable best'' Elly GriffithsEighty years of secrets. A body that reveals them all.1941. Rupert and Adelaide Stride are raising their two daughters, Clare and Rosa, in the midst of war. When Rupert is called to fight, he dies on the beaches of Dunkirk, leaving his family to fend for themselves.2023. Decades later, Clare and Rosa have retreated to the annex, trapped in the place where they were raised: Yew Tree House.When the rooms are put up for rent, Jack Harmon sees the perfect spot for a family holiday with his twins and detective Stella Darnell. But then the children discover a skeleton with a hole in its skull hidden in the brambles of a decommissioned WWII pill box.This home has always been a complicated one, but Stella and Jack will need to confront a history of revenge, desperation, and wartime tragedy to unco

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'Lesley Thomson gets better and better' Ian Rankin When Freddy Power was eighteen, her father threw her out. Her sin had been to fall in love with a woman. Freddy waited for two decades to be invited back into the family. The summons never came. But now, in the wake of her parents' death, Freddy feels the call of home like a siren's song. The trawlers emerging out of the mist. Fishermen unloading their catch down at the harbour. Her best friend, Mags, exploring the cliffs at sunset. But when she arrives at Newhaven, after twenty-two years of silence, her brothers and her friends act like strangers. Then Mags goes missing, and old secrets – and old passions – are reignited. Freddy is determined to lead the hunt for Mags – even if it means confronting her past, and facing the truth about her family... Reviews for Death of a Mermaid: 'Catholic guilt, monstrous hypocrisy and all kinds of fishy business are explored in an atmosphere of creeping dread' The Times 'A truly brilliant book, full of atmosphere and a creeping sense of menace. Lesley Thomson lures you in with meticulously drawn characters and a matchless sense of place, and then you are caught in the jaws of a remorseless thriller' Elly Griffiths 'A strong sense of place, wonderfully woven with a cast of memorable characters' Mari Hannah 'Death of a Mermaid is a tense, beautifully written novel, with characters so well-crafted you expect them to walk off the page' Rachael Blok 'A powerful tale of dark secrets that fester in a small seaside town' William Shaw

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A woman lies dead on the ground. A girl watches from the shadows. What did she really see? The summer of 1976 was the hottest in living memory. A lost little girl, dizzied by the head, stumbled upon a deserted museum. She thought she saw a woman lying dead on the ground. But when she opened her eyes, the woman had gone. Forty years later, cleaner and detective Stella Darnell is investigating a suspected murder in the Botanical Gardens at Kew. Working methodically, stain by stain, she is drawn into an obsessive world, and towards a killer who has never been caught...

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A haunted house, a broken family and a body that has never been found... January, 1987: Helen Honeysett, a young newlywed, sets off for an evening run from her Thames-side cottage. She never comes home. January, 2016: Twenty-nine years later, Helen's body has never been found. Her husband asks private detective Stella Darnell to find out what happened all those years ago. But how can you hunt a killer whose trail has long gone cold?

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Cleaner-turned-detective Stella Darnell connects a murder in Tewkesbury Abbey to a decades-old mystery in wartime London.

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As winter closes its grip on snow-bound London, a cleaner determines to solve the case that her detective father never could. A Kindle number one bestseller. It was the murder that shocked the nation. Kate Rokesmith, a young mother, walked to the banks of the Thames with her three-year-old son. She never came home. For three decades, the case file has lain, unsolved, in the corner of an attic. Until the detective's daughter, Stella Darnell, starts to clear out her father's house after his death... Reviews for The Detective's Daughter: 'A haunting novel about loss and reconciliation, driven by a simple but clever plot' Sunday Times 'This book has a clever mystery plot – but its excellence is in the characters, all credible and memorable, and in its setting in a real West London street, exactly described' Literary Review 'A thoughtful, well-observed story... It reminded me of Kate Atkinson' Scott Pack 'A cerebral thriller... Evokes chills from more than just the frigid winter nights' Forward Reviews Magazine 'Lesley Thomson gets better and better' Ian Rankin

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A SUNDAY TIMES BEST CRIME BOOK OF 2022 In a grand old mansion in the middle of the Sussex countryside, seven people have seen more than they should... The new chilling thriller from Lesley Thomson. In a small community James Ritchie was looking forward to spending the day with his son, though he was a little late picking him up from his ex-wife, Anna. In the middle of nowhere Later that afternoon, they are found dead, the victims of a double stabbing. Anna will never see her family again. You need to keep your secrets close... As DI Toni Kemp unravels the case, she is brought to a grand country mansion, long ago converted into flats. In this quiet, peaceful place, seven long-term residents have seen more than they should. But this is a tight-knit group – and they are good at keeping secrets... PRAISE FOR THE COMPANION: 'Like the best of Barbara Vine and Agatha Christie crossed with the unique Lesley Thomson brilliance.' Elly Griffiths 'This modern take on the country-house mystery shocks from the off.' The Times 'Colourful characters and devious plotting.' Ian Rankin 'Electrifying, gritty.' Woman's Own

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