Joe Sandilands Mysteries

6 total works

The Blood Royal

by Barbara Cleverly

Published 1 January 2011

On his return from India, Commander Joe Sandilands, now adept at the arts of dynamic diplomacy, finds himself up to his neck in a tricky political situation. A war-weary London is reeling from IRA atrocities and Joe is further plagued by the machinations of a spy-ring being run under his nose by a Russian emigree princess. When a war hero is gunned down and the life of an even more popular Englishman threatened, Joe knows he only has days to root out the woman who is behind the killings: Irish? Russian? Or somebody quite other?

With the aid of the proposed victim who offers himself as bait, and the services of a woman police constable, Joe discovers that the murderer's motive is not political but much more devious and deranged. And when the mask comes off, the killer's identity shocks even the battle-hardened commander.

Praise for Barbara Cleverly:

'Clevery's (novel) evokes and in some way surpasses the work of Agatha Christie' Publishers Weekly

'The atmosphere of the dying days of the Raj is colourfully captured' Sunday Telegraph

'A great blood and guts blockbuster' Guardian

'Spectacular and dashing. Spellbinding' New York Times Book Review

'Stellar... as always' New York Times Book Review

'Atmospheric... intricately plotted' Kirkus Review

A Spider in the Cup

by Barbara Cleverly

Published 1 January 2013

London, 1933: An amateur dowsing team searching the Thames for precious metals unearths the body of a young woman with a priceless coin in her mouth. The case falls on Scotland Yard Assistant Commissioner Joe Sandilands, but he has another, very high-profile assignment. London is hosting a massive economic conference to address the global Depression, and political tensions run high as world leaders stand either with or against a rapidly militarizing Germany. Sandilands is to protect visiting American senator Cornelius Kingstone throughout the conference. But a when a series of bizarre coincidences links the riverbank body to the senator, Joe realizes that Kingstone is caught up in a dangerous game that might cost not just one but thousands of lives.

The Bee's Kiss

by Barbara Cleverly

Published 15 September 2005

Yet, there is a darkness behind all that postwar gaiety. A woman has been discovered bludgeoned to death in her suite at the Ritz. A broken window and missing emerald necklace suggest that it is a burglary gone wrong. But the corpse is that of a much-respected member of the British establishment, Dame Beatrice Joliffe, one of the founders of the Wrens, and so Scotland Yard send Joe to conduct a swift enquiry. Her companion, an ex-chorus girl, falls from Waterloo Bridge at twilight. Two of the Dame's clique of eager young Wrens commit suicide. All these deaths make Joe suspect that Beatrice has been killed by someone close to her but suddenly he finds that the case is closed and he is asked by his superiors to surrender his files. Against the background of the looming General Strike, and pressure from unseen governmental presences he struggles on, picking his way through the political panic and rebelling against authority, through to a shattering solution to the killings.

The Last Kashmiri Rose

by Barbara Cleverly

Published 30 August 2001

India 1922. In Panikhat, 50 miles from Calcutta, the wives of officers in the Bengal Greys have been dying violently, one every year and each in March. All the deaths are bizarre and appear to be accidental. The only link between them is the bunch of small red roses that appear on the women's graves on the anniversary of their deaths. In order to help solve these mysterious deaths, the Governor of Bengal calls on the reluctant help of Joe Sandilands, Scotland Yard detective and war hero who happens to be on secondment to the Bengal police. Joe learns that the deaths are connected and that the series has not yet run its course. But who will be the recipient of the next Kashmiri rose? Is Joe hunting an Indian or European killer? And what is the reason behind the slaying of the officers' wives? With only days to go before the end of March can Joe uncover the murderer whose compulsions seem to be rooted deeply within the dark soul of India itself?

Tug of War

by Barbara Cleverly

Published 14 September 2006

Joe Sandilands has been despatched to France to stay as the guest of a glamorous French war-widow on her Champagne estate. The widow is determined that Joe should support her claim that a mysterious shell-shocked soldier, suffering from amnesia and a loss of speech is her husband. The problem is that four other claimants have identified him differently, and his doctor suspects he is an English soldier. Joe decides to investigate the four claimants and picks his way through a tangle of lies, deceit, and manipulation, discovering that each of the four has an undeclared motive for claiming the unknown soldier. He uncovers a cleverly concealed murder committed during the war years and during this pursuit he finds out who the soldier really is. The discovery presents him with an even greater dilemma, he must not only to solve a killing in the past, but avert a tragedy in the future.

Strange Images of Death

by Barbara Cleverly

Published 1 January 2010

It is summertime in Provence, 1926, but for Scotland Yard detective Joe Sandilands it's not all 'Dance and Provencal song and sunburnt mirth'. Joe is on leave, driving his way south to the Riviera while dropping off his niece at an ancient chateau in the Luberon hills. Her father is spending the season here, one of a group of talented artists who are the guests of a generous but enigmatic host. A troubling crime has been committed days earlier at the chateau, leaving a clear message that more violence is to come. To allay panic, Joe agrees to stay on and root out the guilty person. But, despite Joe's vigilance, a child goes missing and an artist's beautiful young model is murdered in circumstances eerily recreating a six hundred year old crime of passion. Helped and hindered by a rising star of the French Police Judiciaire, Joe must delve into a horror story from the castle's past before he can tear the mask from the diseased soul responsible for these contemporary crimes.