A Lambert and Hook Mystery

9 primary works

Too Much of Water

by J. M. Gregson

Published 29 July 2005

In the midst of a heatwave in Gloucestershire, unseen hands slide the body of a young woman quietly into the waters of one of England's great rivers under cover of darkness. It is some days before the corpse is discovered, and the police have first to identify the victim as Clare Mills and then try to build up a picture of her puzzling lifestyle. Lambert and Hook come up against the strangest mother of a murder victim they have ever encountered, whilst the girl's stepfather refuses for a long time to offer them full cooperation. Then, just when it seems that a solution is at hand, more violence intervenes.

Close Call

by J. M. Gregson

Published 3 July 2006

It wasn't the sort of place where anything should happen. Gurney Close was just a small, newly-build cul-de-sac, three nice houses and a bungalow overlooking the river Wye. None of the people who move in - three married couples and a divorcee - expect anything much to take place, beyond, perhaps, some neighbourhood friendliness. With this in mind, they organize a party to celebrate moving in. All goes well, a good time is had by everyone. Until one of them is found dead the next morning. Lambert and Hook are faced with a baffling crime. For their harmless, normal-seeming victim turns out to have a darker past than they could have suspected - and enemies everywhere, very close to home...

Die Happy

by J. M. Gregson

Published 29 July 2011

When the committee members of the Oldford Literary Festival all receive anonymous letters telling them to resign or die, it marks the start of an unusual case for Chief Superintendent Lambert and DS Hook. All of the members identify one man as being capable of such a thing: Peter Preston, a self-important snob who is in disagreement with the head of the festival over what he sees as the dumbing down of the events programme. But could such a disagreement lead to murder? It's not long before Lambert and Hook have their answer...

More Than Meets the Eye

by J. M. Gregson

Published 1 November 2012

A shocking murder in a garden paradise marks the start of a difficult new case for Lambert and Hook.

Dennis Cooper is one of the few full-time resident National Trust curators in England and lives with his wife in the grounds of the spectacular Westbourne Gardens, which receives thousands of visitors each year.

On the face of things, Dennis lives a perfect life and has a dream job, but this idyllic setting is riven with dark secrets, and it isn't long before foul play draws Lambert and Hook into this troubled Eden.

Cry of the Children

by J. M. Gregson

Published 3 September 2013

Seven-year-old Lucy Gibson can barely contain her excitement when she learns that the funfair has come to town and Matt, her mother's new boyfriend, has agreed to take her.

Despite her slight uneasiness in Matt's company and her upset over her parent's split, she readily goes off with him one evening, as excited as only a young innocent child can be.

The next morning, Chief Superintendent Lambert briefs DS Bert Hook and DS Ruth David on the disappearance of a young seven-year-old local girl from a funfair the previous evening. On questioning her distraught mother, it appears that Lucy has vanished into thin air and so begins an intense investigation, racing against time, to discover who took the young girl - and to prevent more children from going missing before it's too late . . .

Rest Assured: A Modern Police Procedural Set in the Heart of the English Countryside

by J. M. Gregson

Published 1 January 2014

Rest Assured

by J. M. Gregson

Published 4 March 2014

A seemingly idyllic English holiday park turns into the scene of a grisly murder and a perplexing case for Lambert & Hook. Twin Lakes is a tranquil place. It is a complex of holiday homes in a particularly beautiful part of England. 'Rest Assured', says the sign at its entrance. And the people fortunate to occupy the luxury homes on the site are indeed able to relax in a beautiful setting. Then a series of mysterious threatening notes are delivered to one of the lakeside homes. DS Bert Hook conducts an informal investigation and the notes cease to appear. All is peaceful once more as spring moves into summer and the site is seen at its best. But suddenly a brutal death shatters the peace of this quiet place. As Lambert and Hook and the murder team investigate the crime, it emerges that the victim was by no means as innocent as most people thought him. And it seems that many of the residents lead far from ordinary lives and have secrets they will do anything to keep concealed...

Skeleton Plot

by J. M. Gregson

Published 29 May 2015

Skeletons have a habit of revealing themselves eventually . . .

When a human skeleton is discovered on the boundary of a 20-year-old property development, it seems there are a large number of people who may know the identity of the corpse and how it got there. But twenty years is a long time and those individuals were very different people back then. Skeletons are being revealed in all senses and there are many prominent local figures who are beginning to feel uncomfortable and afraid. It's up to Detective Chief Superintendent Lambert and Detective Sergeant Hook to dig around in the past and unearth the truth of how and why the body ended up buried in the ground all those years ago.

Final Act

by J. M. Gregson

Published 31 May 2016

Lambert & Hook discover that interrogating professional actors is an impossible business in the latest intriguing mystery

Sam Jackson is not a man who suffers fools - or anyone else - gladly. A successful British television producer who fancies himself as a Hollywood mogul, he makes enemies easily, and delights in the fact.

It is no great surprise that such a man should meet a violent death. Detective Chief Superintendent Lambert and Detective Sergeant Hook deduce that the person who killed him is almost certainly to be found among the company of actors who are shooting a series of detective mysteries in rural Herefordshire. But these are people who make a living by acting out other people's fictions, people more at home with make-believe than real life - and the two detectives find interrogating them a difficult business. How can Lambert and Hook fight their way to the truth when faced with a cast of practised deceivers?