Murder Room
47 total works
In Bloomsbury Magistrate's Court, stipendiary magistrate Donald Ferney reigned supreme. Ferney sought to acquire the public image of the 'kindly magistrate' and his remarks, even his judgements, were sometimes aimed at the local reporters present in court.
But among those who knew him better, Mr Ferney was not loved. He had, indeed, made many enemies in all departments of his life, in particular among the permanent staff who served at his court ...
'Among Mr Underwood's best' P. D. James
John Farndon, a teacher at a public school, is bored with his French wife Monique and infatuated with the assistant matron Belinda.
He plans to kill Monique, but from the moment John is about to pull the trigger the action jumps to a trial. But the trial is not John's - and Monique is still alive. John has been shot in the back of the head ...
'Neatly written, convincing' Financial Times
Laurence Deegan, QC, had just won his latest case. At fifty, already a distinguished and famous barrister, he seemed set to become a judge at an early age. A few hours later Deegan ran the bath installed in his Chambers, got into it and slit the veins in both wrists.
Why had he done it? His son, a Special Branch police officer, takes it upon himself to find out ...
'Underwood couldn't write a bad book if he tried' Oxford Mail
Detective Sergeant Nick Atwell has been suspended, accused of soliciting a bribe from a murder suspect. His wife, and former cop, Clare sets out to prove his innocence, which involves delving in the family affairs of politician and TV personality Sir Guy Frensham.
Frensham's seventeen-year-old son is guilty of bludgeoning widow Florence Isaacs. Nick had been the investigating officer in the case, and Clare will need more than a little help to unlock the mystery of the real criminal ...
'An utterly professional blend of plot and characters' Kirkus
Bernie Mostyn, vice racketeer, is being retried. At his first trial a jury had failed to agree - but this time around two jurors are threatened and a third is killed.
The most obvious suspects are Mostyn's strong-arm men, still at large. But the police are not convinced ...
'Mr Underwood at his attractive, unpretentious best' Sunday Times
A woman is murdered in a London suburb and the police investigation into her death is meticulously undertaken. Trying to solve the riddle is Detective Chief Inspector Chudd, newly appointed and still trying to find his feet in.
When the truth finally emerges, the gallery of suspects includes the lady next door, a clock-winder, the ex-lodger, a Canadian heiress and two 'bovver boys'. This is as much a story about detection and detectives as it is about the brutal crime itself.
'As always, splendid' Oxford Mail
Chris Laker is what you might call a layabout. He has drifted from job to job and when he's been out of work his loyal girlfriend Janey has supported him. Now Chris is in real trouble. He is on trial for the murder of a rich businessman - and the evidence is piled up against him. His Smith and Wesson has been used to kill Gheorge Dimitiu, and his fingerprint is on the gun. Chris swears he is innocent - but will the jury at the Old Bailey believe him?
'Solidly authentic' The Times
Joseph Berg was due to meet his 'contact' at a pub in London one rainy Friday evening. Unfortunately for Berg and the contact, someone got to the spy first and cut his throat - and Berg both witnessed the murder and became the chief suspect.
In his desperation Berg approaches Richard Monk, a young solicitor with a taste for investigation, and Alan Scarby, a barrister who has his work cut out to defend Berg both at the Old Bailey and in Israel.
Richard Monk was on holiday in Japan. He didn't expect to get involved in the theft of £50,000, blackmail and murder ...
But that was what happened when the good-looking young man came up to him on a Japanese mountainside and said: 'I'm in deep trouble, Mr Monk. Will you help me?'
Every autumn an old reprobate, tramp and scrounger, mysteriously known as Shem, drifts into the village of Long Gaisford. Kenny, a young boy, likes Shem. It's not his fault that the well-meant tip he gives Shem should lead to disaster.
The local Detective-Superintendent of Police is within weeks of retirement; to him the demise of Shem revealed clearly as 'foul play', is very bad news, especially as Kenny will not talk - and, as the story develops Shem's death unlocks deeper implications.
It is extremely bad luck for Sarah Atkins that she is very slightly over the limit when she knocks down and kills a man in a patch of fog. It is even worse luck that the man is Jonathan Cool, a well-known pop star.
There are three witnesses: Cool's girlfriend, Sarah's husband and Sarah, whose fate will turn on their testimony. But as the evidence unfolds, it begins to appear that this may not have been a run-of-the-mill accident, and it is down to her solicitor, Rosa Epton, to unravel the truth.
The crime is murder - cold blooded, pre-meditated and motivated by sheer greed.
Colin Wise, a television repair man, is a well-mannered youngster. Among the homes he visits is that of Geoffrey Goodwin, whom he befriends.
And while Goodwin is preparing for an extended business trip to Australia, Colin Wise is also making plans: plans to ensure Goodwin will not be seen again, and will never be missed ...
'Roger waited but nothing further came. Dayne's expression, however, told its story. A story of fear and cunning ...'
Tony Dayne's predicament presents a problem. The English police had promised him escape and immunity for feeding them all he knew about his partners in an international counterfeiting ring.
But an accident and an over-zealous policeman gets Tony pulled during the raid. The best the police can do for him is appoint a young lawyer, Roger Elwin, who does some detecting that takes him as far afield as Vienna and the violent end of yet another conspirator.
In the fourth Rosa Epton mystery, Underwood's protagonist, whom Mystery Magazine declared 'one of mystery fiction's most talented attorneys', is called upon to defend the scapegrace younger brother of an acquaintance.
Then the acquaintance himself is murdered, his skull crushed with a statuette of the Indian goddess Lakshmi, and Rosa must divide her time between manipulating a magistrate smitten with her charms and divining the culprit's identity.
On New Year's Eve, solicitor Rosa Epton spends a pleasant evening talking to a man who seems to be finding the date he has brought with him less than satisfactory company. The next morning she receives a call from the police. Toby Nash has been charged with raping the woman with whom he attended the party, and has asked for Rosa.
Unfortunately for Nash and Rosa, the detective inspector in charge of the case is determined to get a conviction by any means.
No one knew what finally prompted a shy young schoolboy to walk out of Warren Hall School never to return. The discovery of some of Stephen Willett's bloodstained clothing in an overgrown ditch throws suspicion on Wally Price, a local odd-job man, and his suicide is seen as an admission of guilt.
Over fifty years later another tragedy strikes Warren Hall when the body of a stranger is discovered in the school grounds. The local postmaster is charged with murder and solicitor Rosa Epton is summoned from London to advise him on his defence.
Then a second murder at the school - and the discovery of some damning evidence against her client - makes Rosa determined to investigate leads that the police have overlooked. So she embarks on the most challenging assignment of her career: one that involves long-held secrets and dangerous confrontations. For a killer stands between Rosa and the truth.
A chance sighting in a café in Amsterdam gives solicitor Rosa Epton an unwelcome shock. At a nearby table sits an ex-client who should be behind bars, having recently been sentenced to five years in prison. So what is Eddie Ruding doing in Amsterdam a few weeks later?
On her return to England, Rosa makes a few discreet enquiries, only to draw a blank. But just as she has decided to try to put the matter out of her mind, a newspaper report shocks her into action. Eddie Ruding has been found dead, his crumpled body lying at the foot of the walls of Wandsworth Prison.
Barrister Martin Ainsworth is sent to West Berlin by British Intelligence to make contact with his former lover, a suspected Communist agent, and it's up to him to find out the truth and to spot her contacts.
As he travels through a divided Berlin, his dual role becomes emotionally tortuous, his lack of training an unforeseen hazard, and he turns more reckless than his peers had ever bargained for ...
'A more or less conventional spy story is suddenly turned inside out by a most ingenious twist' Guardian