The Peak District Mysteries Series

Bonfire Night! The 400 year old tradition of burning the straw effigy is beginning. The torch extends...but it's no mock figure at the end of the rope. It's the body of a man... Brenna Taylor, Derbyshire CID, is assigned to the case on a team of detectives under DCI Geoffrey Graham. It is the chance she's been waiting for, and she's anxious to impress him. Most villagers in Upper Kingsleigh, England suspect an outsider as the killer. But when the frost-covered body of a resident is discovered, apprehension shifts. The Brenna becomes the target of a series of unpleasant pranks--the works of a harassing male colleague, or a deadly warning to leave the case? Her hunt is personal now.

Murder ushers in the New Year at a family 12th Night Party. DS Brenna Taylor and DCI Geoffrey Graham are summoned to investigate a drowning in a wintry pond during a family 12th Night party. The case quickly turns personal for the CID team, for one of their own detectives becomes prime suspect. Brenna finds herself caught between the police investigation and her belief in DS Mark Salt's innocence. Yet even her faith is strained when Mark's parody of "The 12 Days of Christmas" hints that he was having an affair with his murdered sister-in-law, Mercedes. It's easy to believe Mark's guilt: he attracts women like Christmas presents entice kids. As the investigation progresses, other 'attractions' in his past are revealed, and Mark's guilt intensifies with each one. Now that Brenna finally views Mark as a human being, will she lose him if he's charged with murder?

December bullies its way into the village in a swirl of snow and biting wind, threatening to cancel the annual St. Nicholas festival.  But winter's slap pales when a body is discovered in the candlelit church.  Someone is notliving up to the seasonal wish of 'peace on earth, good will towards man.' But the village harbors more than Christmas gifts, DS Brenna Taylor discovers as she and her colleagues from the Derbyshire Constabulary begin working the case. There is the feud between two rival authors; a wife's open disdain of her husband and his secret comfort in the arms of another woman; the pent-up emotions of a vicar's wife forced to conform to idealistic conceptions; the tacit threat of a troubled teenager and his delinquent girlfriend. Brenna also discovers emotions she didn't know shehad when DS Mark Salt, her harassing macho cohort, makes overtures of genuine friendship.  Now Brenna must not only examine her love for her boss, DCI Geoffrey Graham, but also consider the likelihood of its ever being returned. As if sorting through the affairs of the heart and the tangle of motive and suspects in the case weren't hard enough, a series of arsons threatens the very village itself.  And Brenna wonders if they are looking for two felons or just one very disturbed individual.

Tolling church bells are as much an aspect of rural England as are grazing sheep, thatched-roof cottages and verdant-hedged lanes.  But someone in this sleepy village evidently takes exception to one slice of Merrie Olde England, for Roger, Lord Swinbrook is found on Valentine's Day in the bell tower of his estate¾frightfully dead and terribly unromantic. As picturesque as the village appears, DS Brenna Taylor and her colleagues from the Derbyshire Constabulary discover all is not picture-perfect in the lives of the residents.  There is the feud between Roger and a retired couple who hate his bell ringing; a neighbor who despises Roger's wealth and rank; the younger brother who yearns to inherit the title and estate.  And what about Roger's former business partner?  He was once married to Roger's wife¾could he want the inconveniently-married Roger out of the way so he can remarry her, now that she's come up in the world?  Or is it someone in her family who wants some of the estate and money to filter their way? When a second murder occurs in the same place and under similar circumstances as the first, Brenna finds her own emotions threatening to erupt: there are her conflicting feelings toward her associate DS Mark Salt, her obsession to discover the identity of the woman her boss, DCI Geoffrey Graham, is dating, and her own mounting fear that Graham considers her merely a co-worker.  But in the chilling close to the case, when Brenna's life is in jeopardy, she realizes the importance of friendship, and how close she came to losing it.

The watchers that night who saw only blackness and the suggestion of trees massed against an ebony sky claimed later that they knew something would happen. Some probably cursed their ill luck that they hadn't chosen the right hour to watch; others probably feigned disappointment but secretly rejoiced that they hadn't seen it.  But one watcher, enveloped in fog and superstition, neither rejoiced nor cursed, viewing the spectacle merely as an eyewitness to the centuries-old custom and accepting the dubious honor that added his name to the meager list of Those Who Had Seen.  A watcher didn't see a ghost every night. The ghost seen this year is tied to the custom of Watching the Church Porch ¾a sighting of a person's spirit foreshadows that person's death within the year. Frightening, but not unusual.  But it is odd, because someone else dies. And in circumstances leaving no doubt the death is murder ¾by a human hand. The CID Team from the Derbyshire Constabulary begins sorting through motives and opportunities.  There is the minister, who is upset that her daughter has abandoned the church to put her faith in psychics ¾could the minister have killed to bring her daughter back to the flock? And the big-shot television producer. Could he want the ghostly sighting proved true so his documentary on the subject draws a larger viewing audience ¾and increases his status and salary? Detective-Sergeant Brenna Taylor has issues of her own ¾professional and personal.  She thought she had her future with her boyfriend sorted out, but when her colleague, Mark Salt, enlists her help to break up with his girlfriend, Brenna wonders if it's just an act to get her sympathy ¾and love. A string of burglaries in the village and a second murder add more pressures for the detectives.  And questions.  Does the village's former police constable volunteer to help the Team because he really wants to be back in the job, or is he there to hinder their investigation?  When Brenna is authorized to conduct a formal interview of a suspect she accepts the assignment eagerly, believing the Team is finally wrapping up the case. But the questioning ends inconclusively, plunging Brenna into despair.  It isn't until another death and a life is threatened that Brenna finally uncovers the ruthless murderer who has devastated so many families.

Things seem comfortably routine one Ash Wednesday evening in the English village of Hollingthorpe.  The regulars have come together to turn the Devil's Stone, the age-old custom of shifting a one-ton boulder in the churchyard.  An odd, back-breaking tradition that defies logic¾except that to dispense with it always brings misfortune on the villagers during that year.  Yet within minutes of shifting the great boulder, misfortune strikes.  One of the participants lies beside the stone, very bloody and very dead. Detective-Sgt Brenna Taylor and the CID Team join their boss, Geoffrey Graham, who's already at the village. In the midst of their murder inquiry, one of the Team is attacked--left for dead, beaten in the same manner as the original murder.  Has she discovered something in the wood pertaining to the killer?  Add a missing boy days later and a convicted felon who has it in for Graham… Things threaten to spin out of the Team's control. This quickly comes true in a midnight, rain-lashed forest, plunging Brenna into very personal emotions.  And through it all, the killer silently slips into and out of their lives, thumbing his nose at her and the entire CID team, ready to strike again.

Year after year, the villagers near Stanton Moor celebrate May Day with bonfires and the laying of rowan branches to seek protection for home and cattle.  But the men who gathered this May evening hadn't come for blessings.  They had come for murder.  The dead body is discovered on a lonely moor, decapitated in the fashion of a Muslim killing of sacrificial sheep or chickens.  Which focuses the suspicion on the Muslim community, since the victim and his family are Pakistanis.  Does someone in the village resent these outsiders?  Or is their small import shop too much competition for another local business? Detective-Sergeant Brenna Taylor and other members of the Derbyshire Constabulary's Murder Team are called in to investigate, and soon a series of decapitated sheep and rabbits appears on the moor.  Is this linked with the man's murder?  As fear over a second murder grips the villagers, the Team soon discovers this dead man may have had connections with an organization that smuggles illegal products into Britain.  That is bad enough, but the smuggling turns from a mere criminal case to something that hits closer to home for Brenna. In the midst of the tangle of smugglers, murder, and village secrets, Brenna fights to keep focused on the case and nab the one person who may be responsible for the trail of villainy that threatens to engulf everyone¾cop and villager alike¾connected with the moorland murders.

One dark March evening Vera Howarth vanishes from her village. Despite search teams, TV appeals and a police investigation, she is never found, and her disappearance transmutes into a local ghost story. That was 23 years ago.  Now Reed Harper, the organizer of the village well dressing custom, goes missing, and the incident is linked by speculation and fear to Vera's. Detective-Sergeant Brenna Taylor, her boss, Detective-Chief Inspector Geoffrey Graham, and other members of their Murder Team from the Derbyshire Constabulary are called in to investigatewhen a handful of bones is discovered in the forest that hugs the village.  During the search, Reed's body is found several feet from the skeletal remains. Vera?  Were the two killed by the same person?  If not, why are the remains lying so close together? Things turn oddly suspicious whenBrenna learns that Christine Stevenson, another villager who was involved with Reed, committed suicide the previous year.  Is there a tie to the long-vanished Vera as well?  Not such a far-fetched question, as it is common knowledge that Reed is a womanizer.  Love 'em and leave 'em should be tattooed on his arm¾a visible keepsake from his affairs. Reed's not the only person who keeps something around reminding him of a former love.  The village constable still has a lock of Vera's hair, never telling his wife of it or his previous engagement to Vera.  Has he kept silent to avoid marriage problems, or because he had something to do with Vera's demise, steering the subsequent investigation in the wrong direction?  As the police team investigates they discover a tangle of jealousy, betrayal and lies, all involving Reed and Vera.  And harking back to the ghost stories of the region.

Each year the residents of Nether Haddon celebrate the village's founding in the time-honored way with games, music, and performances by their sword dancers. But something new is added to the fancy footwork this year: a team member dies ... murdered.  Fear, jealousy and suspicion quickly engulf the group, emotions as tightly interlocked as the five swords used in the dance: a series of turns, jumps and clogging steps intricate as Celtic knots. Was the victim the intended target, or should it have been someone else? In the course of the CID investigation, a mysterious 17th century puzzle is discovered. Does it hold a clue to the murder? Detective Brenna Taylor and her colleagues have more than enough to worry about. But unbeknownst to her, career criminal King Roper has escaped from prison where he was serving time for murder. Now free and eager to settle the score for his capture, Roper tracks down Brenna's whereabouts, ready for revenge...

A young woman dies tragically in a church fire. The death might've been labeled an accident but for the barred door. Identifying the victim isn't easy, though, for two women have simultaneously gone missing from the small English village. And both women have generated a list of people who'd like to see either one dead. As the CID Team investigates, another body is discovered along a path leading to the church, an ancient corpse road that dates back to medieval times. Did the victim have a relationship with the two brothers who own the farmland on which she was found? Or did she have a connection to the fire victim and the village's haystrewing custom? After all, competition for the best-decorated rushcart runs high, with a hefty monetary prize at stake. Could jealousy and rivalry be motive for her death? While the Team struggles with escalating incidents, one dark night Living Evil calls to collect an old debt and threatens the lives of Detective Chief Inspector Graham and Detective Sergeant Brenna Taylor. When the Evil comes for Brenna's husband, it's up to her to rescue him. Can she capture an enemy from their past before all their lives become a deadly statistic in the fire trap, and the Evil escapes to strike again?