Amateur detective Dr Peter Grant finds a chain of circumstances linking two suicides, the accidental death of a dog and a series of art robberies.

The arrival of a fugitive from police justice brings dangers, sorrow, and pain for the inhabitants of Bramsbourne, particularly for the Trents and the local vicar, a disabled war veteran.

The woman next-door to George Fortescue is raped and murdered, and he is the main suspect. He finds himself being accused of one of the most appalling crimes imaginable, while the real killer serenely selects his third victim, and then his fourth.

When Alan Parker is suddenly made redundant, he can't bring himself to tell his wife. With time on his hands while secretly looking for a job, he meets a waif-like little girl, Tessa, and her lonely, widowed mother. Alan discovers he can confide in Louise, and feels protective towards her and her daughter. But then Tessa disappears....

A chance encounter with a stranger seems to offer Nina an escape from her problems. Struggling to recover from her husband's infidelity, she gratefully agrees to house-sit for new friend Priscilla. At the house, she begins to receive nuisance phone-calls - has she attracted an unwelcome suitor?

After a day paddling about on the waters of the old gravel pit, two boys pull into the side to eat and spot the pale white hand of a dead man. Terry Brett, a personable con-man who has "befriended" Alice Armitage - an elderly and lonely widow - finds himself accused of a murder he did not commit.

After serving ten years for murder, Stephen Dawes is released to start a new life but cannot let the past bury itself. He alone knows he didn't kill his wife. Reconstructing her last hours - the time she must have spent plotting a suicide to look like murder - he realizes nothing was as it seemed.

Mick Harvey liked to frighten people and after a spell in prison for stealing, he is determined not to end up inside again. It was just by chance that Laura and Marion encountered Mick on the road and reported him for dangerous driving. Now, Mick has only one thought on his mind - revenge.

On the evening that Lydia Cunningham drives to the train station to meet her daughter Thelma, the pretty little coastal town of Milton St Gabriel is sleeping quietly. But Thelma's arrival will shatter the peace forever. She brings with her Edward, a young pick-up with a penchant for arson.

Carrie was still young when she first broke the law; Gordon has only transgressed once, but his crime was far more serious. When they marry, she doesn't suspect a thing, but when she begins an affair - a bit of harmless fun - something else she doesn't know about her husband comes to light.

Denis is living on the edge of society, scraping by on his earnings as an odd-jobber. A chance encounter with an inmate of the local open prison enables Denis to prove himself as the accessory to a cunningly contrived crime. Ending in murder, it has Denis running for his life.

This crime novel examines the effect that a young woman's disappearance has on her family and friends and unravels the real story behind the events of that fateful evening.

William Adams is a killer who has never been convicted. He's served time for rape and assault but has not been sentenced for murder. When he takes on a new identity, his dream world becomes a nightmare when, in a rural guesthouse, he meets someone from his past.

Mrs. Newton is the widow in an impeccably kept house in the sunny village of Middle Bardolph. Yet a trifle more scrutiny will reveal a darker side to this picture-postcard existence - one filled with acts of greed and obsession.

DANGEROUS TO KNOW

A saga of loyalty and betrayal, which follows the story of a powerful American family and its tragic disintegration after the mysterious death of Sebastian Locke, the enigmatic head of the family and one of the worlds greatest philanthropists.

When Hannah is raped during the course of a burglary, no one could have predicted her model family would disintegrate. Then the rapist is released from prison after a ridiculously short sentence and Hannah's father plans a shocking revenge - one that will lead him down the back alleys of his own psyche and strip away all his controls.

Tom, an invalid World War II veteran, lives with the help of his housekeeper Ivy in The Willows. No one knows his son is in prison for murder. Richard Gardner lives down the road with his second wife, Verity, and her two sons. No one knows she is seriously disturbed. Young Mark Conway is learning some nasty lessons while in the care of his baby-sitter Ivy, old Tom's housekeeper. No one knows Ivy's teenage stepson, Steve, has some very dangerous tendencies. No one except Marigold Darwin. Marigold Darwin, a retired civil servant, has returned to Haverscot, the village where, as a child, she lived in Richard Gardner's house. As she house hunts, she meets Mark and one of Richard Gardner's hostile stepsons ... and is drawn into the lives of the boys and their families, gradually becoming aware of the conflicts, fears, and serious intents among them. Marigold makes some plans of her own. She realizes that tensions are building to the breaking point, some of the children are violent, and lives may be at risk - even Marigold's own.

This collection of crime stories includes a tale celebrating the return of Patrick Grant. The stories feature for example, the pain of an unhappy marriage, a grudge borne since childhood, and a sin committed years ago.

Philip Winter had been accused of rape, but the jury had seen through the vindictive facade of his accuser and found him innocent. However, neither his family nor his employers accept the verdict, and unable to face their rejection, Philip becomes part of the ever-moving, homeless society.

The quiet market town of Mickleburgh knows very little serious crime, and local solicitor Oliver Foxton's days are occupied with wills, and the occasional drunk and disorderly. So when four local schoolboys go on a rampage in Deerton and commit a shocking act of violence, the quiet calm of these idyllic country towns is shattered. Attempting to come to terms with what has happened, Oliver immerses himself in the renovation of an old doll house belonging to his friend Prudence Wilmot, a local author, and finds that the doll inhabitants increasingly become a symbol of his own troubled marriage and the tensions the tragedy has sparked within it. And all the time another hidden menace lurks in the background as a released murderer living nearby is enthralled with the crime - and, practicing as a counselor, stands poised to offer help.

When her Goddaughter is arrested during an environmentalist protest, Isabel Vernon is startled to discover that the fair-haired child of her memory has become an overweight skinhead activist and that Isabel herself is now regarded as Emily Frost's next of kin. Emily, released on bail to the Vernons at their home in the London suburb of Fordswick, meets a middle-aged drifter who encourages her to take a babysitting job at the home of a local family. Emily forms an instant attachment to Rowena, the four-year-old girl in her charge and, missing her campaigning friends, is eager to make a success of her new position. Emily's unconventional presence in the Vernons' house proves troubling, and is deepening the profound tensions within Isabel's marriage. Meanwhile, the arrival of someone else in Fordswick threatens the safety of Emily and Rowena, as well as the security of many of the town's long-buried secrets.

Louise Widdows married to provide support and supplication in exchange for a secure home, but her facade of acceptance disguises a miserable existence. Abandoning the matrimonial home, she blossoms into independence, but the discovery of a body means her new life suddenly doesn't seem so secure.

Jerry and Peter have been successfully conning vulnerable householders until Jerry decides to go straight and gets a job in a chip shop. There he meets Imogen, pregnant and temporarily living with her step-grandmother. His agreement to tackle her garden leads inexorably to a murder accusation.