Introducing turn-of-the-century archaeologist-sleuth Margaret Murray in the first of a brilliant new historical mystery series. October, 1900. University College, London. When the spreadeagled body of one of her students is discovered in her rented room shortly after attending one of her lectures, Dr Margaret Murray is disinclined to accept the official verdict of suicide and determines to find out how and why the girl really died. As an archaeologist, Dr Murray is used to examining ancient remains, but she's never before had to investigate the circumstances surrounding a newly-dead corpse. However, of one thing Margaret is certain: if you want to know how and why a person died, you need to understand how they lived. And it soon becomes clear that the dead girl had been keeping a number of secrets. As Margaret uncovers evidence that Helen Richardson had knowledge of a truly extraordinary archaeological find, the body of a second young woman is discovered on a...

Book one in the Inspector Lestrade series.'In the circus, nothing is what it seems ...'Walk up! Walk up! This way for the greatest show on earth! It is 1879. Disraeli is at Number Ten. The Zulu are being perfectly beastly to Lord Chelmsford. And Captain Boycott is having his old trouble again.What has this to do with the young Detective-Sergeant Sholto Lestrade? Absolutely nothing. Or has it? He has his work cut out investi-gating mysterious goings-on at 'Lord' George Sanger's Circus. First, the best juggler in Europe is shot in full view of a thousand people. Then Huge Hughie, the dwarf, dies an agonizing death under the Ether Trick. Finally, the Great Bolus dies by swallowing the wrong sword. And all of this after two bodies have been found with multiple slashes ...And what is the link with Mr Howard Vincent, founder of the CID? And has the Prince Imperial really been caught by the Impis? A trail of murder is laid among the llama droppings as...

Book thirteen in the Inspector Lestrade sereies. 'I cannot sing the old songsI sang long years ago,For heart and voice would fail meAnd foolish tears would flow.'Claribel Recovering from a broken leg after his ignominious fall from the Titanic, Superintendent Lestrade goes to convalesce at the home of his betrothed, Fanny Berkley and her father Tom, the Chief Commissioner of Surrey. It should have been a relatively peaceful time, apart from Lestrade's lack of dexterity in steering his Bath chair, but an attempt on the life of his father-in-law (that kills the butler instead) makes him realise that a policeman is never really off duty. What is even more puzzling is the arrival of a letter which simply reads 'Four for the Gospel Makers' – and it isn't the first Lestrade's been sent. So begins one of Sholto Lestrade's most mystifying cases; a case that encompasses not only...

September, 1592. "Kit, I know we have never been friends, but you are the only man in London to whom I can write. Someone is trying to kill me". Christopher Marlowe had never liked Robert Greene when he was alive. But when the former Cambridge scholar is found dead in a cheap London boarding house, shortly after sending Kit a desperate letter, Marlowe feels duty bound to find out who killed him – and why. What secrets did Robert Greene take with him to the grave? And why is the Queen's spymaster, Sir Robert Cecil, taking such a keen interest in the case? As plague stalks the streets of London and the stage manager of the Rose Theatre disappears without trace just days before the opening of Marlowe's new play, the playwright-sleuth finds himself in the midst of a baffling murder investigation – where nothing is as it first appears.

Poet-sleuth Geoffrey Chaucer is caught up in the chaos of the Peasants' Revolt as he attempts to track down a brutal killer.June, 1381. Embarking on his annual pilgrimage to Canterbury, Geoffrey Chaucer and his fellow travellers are forced to turn back when confronted with a horde of armed and angry peasants, intent on marching to London. Returning to the city to warn the authorities of the approaching danger, the pilgrims hole up at the Tabard Inn and prepare for the coming invasion.That same night, a woman's body is fished out of the River Thames, her throat cut. When he discovers that the victim was the wife of one of his fellow pilgrims, Chaucer determines to investigate. Could the woman's henpecked husband be responsible for her death? A jealous business rival? Or was she murdered by one of the pilgrims? Does a cold-hearted killer lurk within the Tabard? As the army of rebellious peasants approaches, Chaucer finds himself in a race against...

Turn-of-the-century archaeologist-sleuth Margaret Murray returns for the second in her captivating historical mystery series.'Famous Sensitive Found Dead. Police Baffled.'May, 1905. When one medium turns up dead, the police assume it is a robbery gone wrong, but when another is found obviously murdered, it's clear there's a killer on the loose!Dr Margaret Murray, accomplished archaeologist and occasional sleuth, calls upon her police connections to investigate; who wants to see the mediums of London dead? Known for her sharp mind and quick wit, Margaret decides to infiltrate one of the spiritualist circles to narrow down the list of suspects. Her tactics seem to be working as she accidentally puts herself in the sights of the murderer. Unperturbed, Margaret sets an elaborate trap to uncover the culprit - but can she untangle the trail of clues before she too, passes beyond the veil?

Astonishingly, The Hagley Wood Murder is the first book solely on the subject (other than a selection of privately printed/self published offerings) ever written on this murder, which too place eighty years ago. In April 1943, four teenaged boys discovered a corpse stuffed into the bole of a wych elm in a wood in the industrial Midlands. The body was merely bones and had been in the tree for up to two years. The pathologist determined that she was female, probably in her thirties, had given birth and was just under five feet tall. The cause of death was probably suffocation. Six months after the discovery, mysterious messages began to appear on walls in the area, variants of 'Who Put Bella Down the Wych Elm – Hagley Wood'. And the name Bella has stuck ever since. Local newspapers, then the national press, took up the story and ran with it, but not until 1968 was there a book on the case – Donald McCormick's Murder by Witchcraft – and that, like others that followed, tied Bella in... Astonishingly, The Hagley Wood Murder is the first book solely on the subject (other than a selection of privately printed/self published offerings) ever written on this murder, which too place eighty years ago. In April 1943, four teenaged boys discovered a corpse stuffed into the bole of a wych elm in a wood in the industrial Midlands. The body was merely bones and had been in the tree for up to two years. The pathologist determined that she was female, probably in her thirties, had given birth and was just under five feet tall. The cause of death was probably suffocation. Six months after the discovery, mysterious messages began to appear on walls in the area, variants of ‘Who Put Bella Down the Wych Elm – Hagley Wood’. And the name Bella has stuck ever since. Local newspapers, then the national press, took up the story and ran with it, but not until 1968 was there a book on the case – Donald McCormick’s Murder by Witchcraft – and that, like others that followed, tied Bella in with another supposedly occult murder, that of Charles Walton on Meon Hill in 1945. Any unsolved murder brings out the oddballs – the police files, only recently released, are full of them – and the nonsense still continues. The online versions are woeful – inaccuracy piled on supposition, laced with fiction. It did not help that a professional occultist, Dr Margaret Murray, expressed her belief, as early as 1953, that witchcraft was involved in Bella’s murder. And ill-informed nonsense has been cobbled together to ‘prove’ that Dr Murray was right. McCormick’s own involvement was in espionage and his book, slavishly copied by later privately printed efforts, have followed this tack too. It was wartime, so the anonymous woman in the wych elm had to be a spy, parachuted in by the Abwehr, the Nazi secret service. The Hagley Wood Murder is the first book to unravel the fiction of McCormick and others. It names Bella and her probable murderer. And if the conclusion is less over-the-top than the fabrications referred to above, it is still an intriguing tale of the world’s oldest profession and the world’s oldest crime!

The disappearance of two boys during the summer of 1483 has never been satisfactorily explained. They were Edward, Prince of Wales, nearly thirteen at the time, and his brother, Richard of York, nearly ten. With their father, Edward IV, dying suddenly at forty, both boys had been catapulted into the spotlight of fifteenth-century politics, which was at once bloody and unpredictable.Thanks to the work of the hack ‘historians’ who wrote for Henry VII, the first Tudor, generations grew up believing that the boys were murdered and that the guilty party was their wicked uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester. Richard crowned himself King of England in July 1483, at which time the boys were effectively prisoners in the Tower of London.After that, there was no further sign of them.Over the past 500 years, three men in particular have been accused of the boys’ murders – Richard of Gloucester; Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond; and Henry Stafford, Duke of... "The disappearance of two boys during the summer of 1483 has never been satisfactorily explained. They were Edward, Prince of Wales, nearly thirteen at the time, and his brother, Richard of York, nearly ten. With their father, Edward IV, dying suddenly at forty, both boys had been catapulted into the spotlight of fifteenth-century politics, which was at once bloody and unpredictable. Thanks to the work of the hack ‘historians’ who wrote for Henry VII, the first Tudor, generations grew up believing that the boys were murdered and that the guilty party was their wicked uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester. Richard crowned himself King of England in July 1483, at which time the boys were effectively prisoners in the Tower of London. After that, there was no further sign of them. Over the past 500 years, three men in particular have been accused of the boys’ murders – Richard of Gloucester; Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond; and Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham. The evidence against them would not stand up in a court of law today, but the court of history is much less demanding and most fingers remain pointed squarely at Richard of Gloucester. This book takes a different approach, the first to follow this particular line of enquiry. It is written as a police procedural, weighing up the historical evidence without being shackled to a particular ‘camp’. The supposition has always been made that the boys were murdered for political reasons. But what if that is incorrect? What if they died for other reasons entirely? What if their killer had nothing to gain politically from their deaths at all? And, even more fascinatingly, what if the princes in the Tower were not the only victims?"

Private detectives Grand & Batchelor embark for the Wild West - and headlong into a baffling murder investigation in this gripping Victorian mystery. March, 1875. Although he has never had much time for George Custer, hero of the American Civil War and Commander of the 7th Cavalry, Matthew Grand feels duty bound to respond to a call for help from his West Point contemporary. Arriving at Fort Abraham Lincoln, deep in Dakota territory, private enquiry agents Grand and Batchelor discover the fort to be a powder keg of rumour and suspicion, petty rivalries, resentments - and closely-guarded secrets. When a body is discovered during a routine scouting patrol, some of those secrets rise uncomfortably close to the surface. Are the Lakota Sioux responsible? Or does the killer lie closer to home? Could it have been a case of mistaken identity - and was Custer himself the real target? The General has made many enemies - but does someone have a good enough reason...

World of Britannia forms the historical background to the Britannia trilogy. The arrival of Rome's legions, first under Julius Caesar, then Aulius Plautius in the first century is well documented, but the end of Roman rule in Britain remains forever in shadow, 'illuminated' only by contradiction and legend.The action of the Britannia series spans the period 367-415AD, the beginning of what historians, with some justification, used to call the Dark Ages. It was the twilight of a civilisation that had lasted for nearly five hundred years and Britain would never be the same again.This book documents the little we know, from written records and from archaeology and gives a snapshot of a world that was on the brink of vanishing. World of Britannia is an invaluable accompaniment to the series, providing insights that are not possible in historical fiction. As a standalone history book, it provides a...

Book sixteen in the Inspector Lestrade series. 'And death shall come on soft wings to him that touches the tomb of the Pharaoh ...' The wings that retired Chief Superintendent Lestrade came on were those of a de Havilland Hercules, named Olivia. The archaeologist, Howard Carter, had made the discovery of the century in the Valley of the Kings, but all around him, men were dying: Lord Carnarvon, careless with his razor, fell prey to a mosquito bite; Alain le Clerk left the tomb in a hurry to die alone in the desert; Aaron G. String, the railway magnate, blew his brains out yards from the tomb's entrance. And so it was that Sholto Lestrade flew East to solve a riddle every bit as impenetrable as that of the sphinx. People remarked on the funny old Gizeh, in his bowler and Donegal, battling the elements against sand, revolting Egyptians and the Curse of the Pharaohs ... But could he avoid the Kiss of Horus?

This enlightening biography examines the life and short reign of England's most controversial king and his relationship to the region he loved.Was Richard III the world's most wicked uncle, or is he merely the victim of historical slander? Forever associated with the murder of his nephews, he was the last king to die in battle, in 1485. His life was as spectacular as the discovery of his bones under a Leicester car park five centuries later—an event that revived age-old debates.This detailed look at Richard's life focuses on the area that he loved and made his own. As Lord of the North, he had castles at Middleham and Sheriff Hutton, Penrith, and Sandal. He fought the Scots along the northern border and on their own territory. His son was born at Middleham and was invested as Prince of Wales at York Minster, where Richard planned to set up a college of 100 priests.His white boar device can be found in obscure corners of churches and castles; his laws... About the Author: M.J.Trow is a crime historian who has written several books on Jack the Ripper and the murders of his time. One of them, Quest for a Killer featured as a documentary for the Discovery Channel in 2009. He has conducted his own Ripper walks in Whitechapel and is a regular lecturer at the annual Ripper conferences held each summer.

Private detectives Grand & Batchelor's latest case draws them into the arcane world of high art and high society in this compelling Victorian mystery. London. May, 1878. Private enquiry agents Matthew Grand and James Batchelor have been hired by the artist James Whistler to dig into the past of outspoken critic John Ruskin, with whom he has an ongoing feud. Not particularly optimistic of success, the two detectives are sidetracked from the investigation by the murder of a prostitute in nearby Cremorne Gardens. Her body posed on a park bench, a book on birth control sitting on her lap, Clara Jenkins is not the first young woman to have met a similarly grisly fate - and she won't be the last. Could there be a connection between the Cremorne killer and their art world case? With the investigation heading nowhere fast, Grand comes up with a decidedly unorthodox plan to ensnare the killer. But even the best-laid plans have a nasty habit of going catastrophically...