AustLit

'There’s a secret, that much is certain, but who knows? The missing actress? The executive producer, his eavesdropping assistant? Or the actor who portrayed her fictional brother on the Soap Opera?

'DCI Isaac Cook of the Murder Investigation Team at Challis Street Police Station in London is searching for the missing woman.

'Why has he been taken away from more important crimes to search for the woman? It’s not the first time she’s gone missing, and why does everyone assume she’s been murdered?' (Publication summary)

'A corpse in the fireplace of an old house. It's been there for thirty years, but who is it?

'It's clearly murder, and what connection does the body have to the previous owners of the house?

'It was bound to be discovered eventually but was that what the murderer wanted?

'The main suspects are all old and dying, or already dead. There's a motive, but what is it?

'Isaac Cook and his team have their work cut out trying to put the pieces together. Those who know are not talking out of an old-fashioned belief in that a family's dirty laundry is not to be aired in public, and certainly not to a policeman - even if that means the murderer is never brought to justice!' (Publication summary)

'Before she left she carved a number in blood on his chest. But why the number 2, if this was her first murder?

'A woman stalks London. She kills at will. Her targets are men who have wronged her, or have they? What is behind her hatred and why is she keeping count?

'DCI Cook and his team know who she is, at least after she has killed the first four, but the woman disappears in plain sight. The pressure's on to stop her, but she's always one step ahead.

'And this time, DCS Goddard can't protect his protégé, Isaac Cook, from the wrath of the new commissioner at the Met.' (Publication summary)

'A dismembered corpse floats in a canal in London. Isaac Cook is baffled as to why it’s there. Is it gang-related, or is it something more?

'Whatever the reason, it’s clearly a warning, and Isaac and his team are sure it’s not the last body that they’ll have to deal with.' (Publication summary)

'He was thought to be dead, until he returns to exact revenge against those who had blighted his life. His only concern is to protect his wife and daughter. He will stop at nothing to achieve his aim.

''Big Greg, I never expected to see you around here at this time of night.'

''I've told you enough times.'

''I've no idea what you're talking about,' Robertson replied. He looked up at the man, only to see a metal pole coming down at him. Robertson fell down, cracking his head against a concrete kerb.

'The two vagrants, no more than twenty feet away, did not stir and did not even look in the direction of the noise. If they had, they would have seen a dead body, another man walking away.' (Publication summary)

'One murderer, two bodies, two locations, and the murders have been committed within an hour of the other. There's a connection, but what is it?

'They're separated by a couple of miles, and neither woman has anything in common with the other.

'Isaac Cook and his team at Challis Street Police Station are baffled as to why. One of the women is young and wealthy, the daughter of a famous man; the other is poor and hardworking and unknown.' (Publication summary)

'A Downmarket Hotel. A Moral Campaigner. A woman who had killed her husband. Both Dead. Both Compromised.

'On the bed, the naked bodies of a man and a woman. ‘Bullet in the head’s not the way to go,’ Larry Hill, Isaac Cook’s detective inspector, said.

'‘Do you recognise him?’ Detective Chief Inspector Isaac Cook said.

'‘James Holden, from what I can see.’

'‘Rent by the hour?’

'‘Not according to her handbag. There’s a business card. She worked for the man.’

'‘You know this will be all over the media within the hour,’ Isaac said.

'‘James Holden, a proponent of the sanctity of the marital bed, man and wife. It’s bound to be.’' (Publication summary)

'A murdered recluse. A property empire. A disinherited family. All the ingredients for murder.

'No one gave much credence to the man when he was alive. In fact, most people never knew who he was, although those who had lived in the area for many years recognised the tired-looking and shabbily-dressed man as he shuffled along, regular as clockwork on Thursday's at seven in the evening to the local off-licence.

'It was always the same: a bottle of whisky, premium brand, and a packet of cigarettes. He paid his money over the counter, took hold of his plastic bag containing his purchases, and then walked back down the road with the same rhythmic shuffle. He said not one word to anyone on the street or in the shop.

'Apart from the three-storey mansion where he lived, one ...' (Publication summary)

'An early-morning jogger is murdered in Hyde Park. It's the centre of London, but no one saw him enter the park, no one saw him die.

'He carries no identification, only a water-logged phone. As the pieces unravel, it's clear that the dead man had a history of deception.

'Is the murderer one of those that loved him? Or was it someone with a vengeance?

'It's proving difficult for DCI Isaac Cook and his team at Challis Street Homicide to find the guilty person - not that they'll cease to search for the truth, not even after one suspect confesses.' (Publication summary)

'Always the same questions for Detective Chief Inspector Isaac Cook - Why was Marcus Matthews in that room? And why did he share a bottle of wine with his killer?

'It wasn't as if the man had amounted to much in life, apart from the fact that he was the son-in-law of a notorious gangster, the father of the man's grandchildren.

'Yet, one thing that Hamish McIntyre, feared in London for his violence, rated above anything else, it was his family, especially Samantha, his daughter; although he had never cared for Marcus, her husband.

'And then Marcus disappears, only to be found six years later by a couple of young boys who decide that exploring an abandoned house was preferable to school.' (Publication summary)

'Two young lovers out for a night of romance. A short cut through a cemetery. They witness a murder, but there has been no struggle, only a knife to the heart.

'It has all the hallmarks of an assassination, but who is the woman?

'And why was she alongside a grave at night? And did she know the person who killed her?

'And then, there are other deaths, seemingly unconnected, but tied to the family of one of the young lovers.

'It's a case for Chief Detective Inspector Cook and his team, and they're baffled on this one.' (Publication summary)

'No one challenged Joe Foster in life, not if they valued theirs. And then, the gangster is slain, his criminal empire up for grabs.

'A power vacuum; the Foster family is fighting for control, the other gangs in the area aiming to poach the trade in illegal drugs, to carve up the empire that the father had created.

'It has all the makings of a war on the streets, something nobody wants, not even the other gangs.

'Terry Foster, the eldest son of Joe, the man who should take control, doesn't have the temperament of his father, nor the wisdom. His solution is slash and burn, and it's not going to work, and people are going to get hurt, some of them are going to die.' (Publication summary)

'Angus Simmons had it made. A successful television program that he hosted, a beautiful girlfriend, and admired by many for his mountaineering exploits.

'And then he fell while climbing a skyscraper in London. Initially, it was thought he had lost his grip, but that wasn't the man: a meticulous planner, his risks measured, and it wasn't a difficult climb, not for him.

'It was only afterwards on examination that they found that he had been shot.

'It then became a murder, and that was when Detective Chief Inspector Isaac Cook and his Homicide team at Challis Street Police Station became interested.' (Publication summary)

'The Reverend Charles Hepworth, good Samaritan, friend of the downtrodden, almost a saint to those who know him.

'Up until the day he walks into the police station, straight up to Detective Chief Inspector Isaac Cook's desk in Homicide. 'I killed the man, ' he says, as he places a blood-soaked knife on the desk.

'The dead man, Andreas Maybury, was not a man to mourn, but why would a self-professed pacifist commit such a heinous crime. The reasons aren't clear, and then Hepworth's killed in a prison cell, and everyone's ducking for cover.' (Publication summary)

'DCI Isaac Cook, now a Senior Member of London's Counter Terrorism Command at Scotland Yard, faces his Greatest Challenge.

'The Islamic State is waging war in England, and they are winning. Not only does Isaac Cook have to contend with finding the perpetrators, but he is being forced to commit to actions contrary to his mandate as a police officer.

'And then, there is Anne Argento, the Prime Minister's Deputy. The man has proven himself to be a pacifist and is not up to the task. She needs to take his job if the country is to fight back against the Islamists.

'Vane and Martin have provided the solution. Will DCI Cook and Anne Argento be willing to follow through? Are they able to act for the good of England, knowing that a criminal and murderous activity is about to ...' (Publication summary)