A Dectective Inspector Carol Ashton Mystery Series

On a hot summer day at Bellwhether High School in Sydney, Australia, teacher Bill Pagett lies murdered, the hole in his head accomplished with neat efficiency by a Black & Decker drill. Detective Inspector Carol Ashton investigates, bringing with her a formidable reputation for competence. She soon uncovers tangled relationships and motives for murder among the six teaching staff, along with a maze of malicious anonymous letters and threatening phone calls. And then there is yet another corpse. Carol’s investigation is further complicated by the flashfire attraction between herself and prime suspect Sybil Quade. Carol fights her desire, knowing its potential to compromise her investigation. Nor does Sybil welcome an ” unnatural” obsession with the alluring woman who is inexorably gathering the evidence to convict her of multiple murder. First in the Carol Ashton Series. Originally published by Naiad Press 1988.

Convinced that the recent death of young Australian opera star Collis Raeburn was not a suicide, as widely believed, Detective Inspector Carol Ashton opens up an investigation, an act that makes her unpopular with the victim’s next-of-kin.

After a tumultuous investigation that ended with a surprising and welcome new relationship, Detective Inspector Carol Ashton seems settled. Though she is in the closet to protect her career, life with Sybil is good—until the call that pulls Carol back to the woman who left her three years ago by returning to her husband. But now Christine’s husband is dead and she’s desperate for Carol’s help. Though not assigned to the case, Carol agrees. Quickly drawn into Christine’s world of high spending and low values, she finds herself at a personal and professional crossroads—and any choice may be her last. Originally published in 1989 by The Naiad Press.

Detective Inspector Carol Ashton returns in the most formidable, baffling and important homicide case of her career... Four women are dead, each strangled with an orange cord, their bodies ritually arranged. Carol and Detective Sergeant Mark Bourke know that this killer, like all serial killers, will be exceedingly difficult to track down. The Australian press has sensationalized the murders, especially the fact that one of the victims was a lesbian. Madeline Shipley, star of The Shipley Report, claims that she has been contacted by the “Orange Strangler.” Adding to the pressures on Carol is her relationship with Sybil Quade, who has grown increasingly restive with its secrecy. And Carol is learning uncomfortable truths about herself from the successful, confident Madeline Shipley. Carol accumulates evidence, putting together clues in her relentless search for the Orange Strangler. And all the while, the killer is drawing closer to her than she dreams... Third in the Carol Ashton Series. Originally published by Naiad Press 1990.

Detective Inspector Carol Ashton is back physically recovered from a gunshot wound, but emotionally shaken. She’s feeling the pressure of being out as a lesbian and constantly putting her life on the line. Can she do it again? Sixth in the Carol Ashton Series. Originally published by Naiad Press 1994.

A family business turns deadly... Bryce Darcy, partner is a highly successful family business, has been brutally murdered. Charlotte Darcy, sister to the victim, has confessed. Open and shut case, Detective Inspector Carol Ashton is informed. Not so, argues Carol’s aunt, friend to the Darcy family. She contends that Charlotte is mentally incompetent. Carol reopens the investigation. Bus she is in personal crisis, close to burnout. Sick of the patriarchal framework of police work, sick of hiding her real lesbian self for the sake of her career. Carol’s lover is not much help—Sybil has found her own direction in a dynamic women’s group. And the loyal Detective Sergeant Mark Bourke is distracted by his interest in the career of a promising female constable new to homicide. Amid her own predicament, Carol finds herself embroiled in a family at war. She discovers that the dead man was a member of a support group for married gay men. And that the Darcy family, blessed with fame and fortune, seethes with secrets: ambiguous parentage, a disgraceful family swindle, fraud, infidelity, attempted drug poisoning. And among the warring Darcys is a pitiless murderer.

TV star Madeline Shipley is being stalked, but is she really the prey of a psychotic fan? Investigating the suicide of businessman Hayden Delray’s wife, Carol receives threats that could be meant to lever her off the case. As she becomes more involved, the danger widens to include her family.

Detective Inspector Carol Ashton is unaware that her investigation of execution-style murders and the bombing of a small-town police station has put her life in grave danger. The case leads her to the fringes of a mysterious underground group whose members are waging an undeclared war against anyone who does not share their extremist views.

Reproductive specialist Dr. Brin Halstead has made quite a name for himself. To admirers the charismatic doctor is a visionary, his Halstead Clinic at the cutting edge of genetic research, but a breaking scandal has begun to paint a very different picture of a dangerous fanatic playing with his patients’ lives—and the laws of nature.When Halstead’s body is discovered, brutally bludgconed and burnt beyond recognition, Detective Inspector Carol Ashton must follow the bloody trail down a slippery slope of greed, corruption, and murder.

To Whom It May Concern: You are a chosen one. Your name has been selected to receive these instructions. Follow them exactly and you will have great good fortune. Fail, and this letter will bring you death. You have forty-eight hours. Do not break the chain... While investigating the murder of a fellow police officer, Australian Detective Carol Ashton believes she has discovered a bizarre link between this case and several other unsolved homicides — each victim received a chain letter promising death if the instructions are not followed. When her hunch leads nowhere, Carol figures it was just a coincidence. Then, someone very close to her receives a letter...

When a law enforcement officer dies under highly suspicious circumstances, it sounds like a perfect case for Australian Detective Inspector Carol Ashton...Too bad she’s the suspect. Attending a rigorous F.B.I. training course in the United States, Aussie top cop Carol Ashton feels a little out of her element—but is she out of her league as well? After a bitter argument with an instructor, Carol is shocked to find herself accused of murder. Framed, friendless and far from home, Carol soon discovers that her only ally is a female F.B.I. agent with a not-so-hidden agenda. But will there be time to find the real killer as the evidence against Carol mounts and the clock ticks down on her career, her freedom...and her life?

While tracking down a ruthless hired killer, Australian top cop Carol Ashton is tempted by the seductive charms of a mysterious stranger...a woman whose shadowy secrets could be leading Carol to the dark side of desire.

When a murderer tees off at the world’s most prestigious women’s golf tournament, Australian top cop Carol Ashton becomes an unwilling player in a much deadlier game. Loaded with brains, style, and megabucks, Australian fashion magnate Gussie Whitlew is used to getting everything she wants. And what she wants is the finest food, the fastest cars, and the most fabulous women. This time her bait is Whitlew Challenge, an exclusive golf tournament carefully designed to lure the world’s top female athletes to her private clubhouse. With a lot more at stake than the $1.5 million purse, tension soon flares among players, fans, and just about everyone else. Before long, so much is going on off the course that even abrasive sports reporter Mandi Fiedler has a hard time keeping her eye on the ball...until the fairway becomes a killing field and someone sets out to even the score.

Australian top cop Carol Ashton must outsmart a fiendishly clever killer. A careless jogger plummets from a great height. A man is the victim of a fatal hit-and-run. A woman topples over a cliff while sightseeing. Tragic accidents occur everyday. When Detective Inspector Carol Ashton is called in to investigate Captain John Trelawney’s fatal fall from Sydney’s scenic North Head, she discovers that his brutal demise may fit into a disturbing state-wide pattern of apparently accidental deaths. Carol’s suspicions are heightened when a closer look at these accidents reveals that they effectively eliminate a problem person and provide a substantial insurance payout. But before Carol can catch the killer she must prove that these seemingly unrelated deaths are, in fact, murder and very much related...

For most people, to know Milton Ryce is to loathe him. Now in his mid-forties, the practical joker has never outgrown the adolescent behavior that amused him so much as a teenager. Embarrassing others has been his favorite past time, and he delights in coming up with elaborate schemes for setting up his “friends” as fall guys. Extremely generous with his money, Milton has bought influence in high places and a circle of well-connected friends and business acquaintances. When he plunges to his death while sky diving, no one seems particularly surprised to find that he was murdered. Detective Inspector Carol Ashton finds a long list of possible murderers—a list that includes family members who are positively jostling for position to be at the top of the list. Then an elaborate practical joke is played out at Milton’s funeral by his son, Ted, and more evidence begins piling up against him. Carol must act quickly to find out if Ted is indeed his father’s killer—or if he is simply being set up as yet another ‘fall guy’...

Two celebrated writers combine to offer the electrifying conclusion to a legendary mystery series... Detective Inspector Carol Ashton’s promotion to Chief Inspector has immediately ensnared her in two assignments that hold no warning they will forever change her life. She’s inherited the pressurized case of the high-profile death of media star and wealthy philanthropist Greta Denby, who had been undergoing a controversial experimental treatment for her cancer. Carol is now also taking on the case of the investigating officer Inspector Ian Rooke, who has himself just died under baffling circumstances—a demise made more mysterious by the inexplicable shoddiness of his investigation into Greta’s death. In this final chapter, Carol must confront an increasingly dire future and the most formidable challenge of all—her fundamental belief in her career, and in herself. Seventeenth in the Carol Ashton Series.

Is Carol playing into a killer’s plan? A series of random deaths suddenly fall into a pattern when reclusive, eccentric billionaire Thurmond Rule dies, leaving an immense estate, but no valid will. With no close relatives—Rule’ s son and only heir vanished mysteriously years before—the search begins to find more distant kin who may have a claim to the Rule billions. And there would be several more applicants vying for the money, but for the disturbing fact that many of them have recently died or been killed. Detective Inspector Carol Ashton speculates that one among the remaining would-be heirs could be responsible for thinning the field so drastically but is baffled that a killer would draw such oblivious attention to themselves. As the authorities contemplate protecting anyone with a blood link to Thurmond Rule, Carol fears she may be unwittingly shielding a killer and playing into a deadly plan... With another in the phenomenally successful Detective Carol Ashton Mystery series, Claire McNab again proves why she is the most popular writer of lesbian mysteries with this suspenseful story of cat and mouse.