A Percy Peach Mystery

7 primary works

The Witch's Sabbath

by J. M. Gregson

Published 27 January 2006

In an area famous for the Lancashire Witches four centuries earlier, it seems that witchcraft still flourishes. When a body is discovered in a derelict farmhouse, it is partly mummified, a pathetic ruin. Although an identity is quickly established, that is only the first of many problems. No one reported this young woman's disappearance when she went missing four months earlier. Most of those who were closest to her, from her former employer to her newly-acquired boyfriend, had reasons to keep quiet. Her flatmate, a woman of her own age, seems to have been very sure that Annie Clark was never going to return. And it appears she was a member of a modern coven, containing both male and female members...Chief Inspector Percy Peach, Detective Sergeant Lucy Blake and the team, hindered as usual by the direction of Chief Superintendent Thomas Bulstrode Tucker, have one of their most puzzling and compelling mysteries to solve.

Remains to be Seen

by J. M. Gregson

Published 4 December 2006

Police sergeant Jack Clark is existing in a world a million miles from his normal life, working undercover with some of the most dangerous villains and pushers in the area and living in a derelict squat. At the end of each day he feels lucky just to be alive. Now his case is nearly over; a police raid is planned to wreck the drug barons' plans. The raid at the large countryside manor is successful, but several hours after numerous arrests are made, the fire brigade are called to attend a fire at the same house. A body is found and all the signs indicate it will be simple case. Then Chief Inspector Percy Peach, Detective Sergeant Lucy Blake and their team are called in to investigate; and an unusual, and unexpected, case of murder unfolds...

Brothers' Tears

by J. M. Gregson

Published 1 January 2013

Ex Ireland rugby player and now successful businessman Jim O'Connor is shot dead, point blank range, in the car park of a restaurant where he is hosting a family celebration. DCI Percy Peach is brought back from holiday to head up an investigation that has got nowhere. It seems Jim O'Connor had some rather unpleasant business contacts, many with the motive to get rid of him. However, when law-abiding Dominic O'Connor is also killed, within days of his brother, Brunton CID can only assume there must be some link between the two murders, so should they really be looking closer to home for the culprit. . . ?

A Necessary End

by J. M. Gregson

Published 1 February 2015

The new DCI Peach mystery ...Alfred Norbury is a learned man. He is never afraid to display his erudition, but he is generous in his encouragement of younger people. The people who assemble around him to form a reading club are also learned. Some of them are simply well-read, whilst others have formal qualifications which rival those of Norbury. But learning is no protection against violence. Murder arrives suddenly, brutally and unexpectedly. The investigation led by Detective Chief Inspector Percy Peach and Detective Sergeant Northcott reveals several people with good reason to hate the victim. They range from the young man who was his latest protege to the two women forty years older whose lives were radically damaged by him a decade earlier. Peach tackles the case, and the people involved in it, with his normal ebullience. The solution when he arrives at it is both unexpected and moving.

A Necessary End: A Percy Peach Police Procedural

by J. M. Gregson

Published 31 October 2014

The new DCI Peach mystery ...Alfred Norbury is a learned man. He is never afraid to display his erudition, but he is generous in his encouragement of younger people. The people who assemble around him to form a reading club are also learned. Some of them are simply well-read, whilst others have formal qualifications which rival those of Norbury. But learning is no protection against violence. Murder arrives suddenly, brutally and unexpectedly. The investigation led by Detective Chief Inspector Percy Peach and Detective Sergeant Northcott reveals several people with good reason to hate the victim. They range from the young man who was his latest protege to the two women forty years older whose lives were radically damaged by him a decade earlier. Peach tackles the case, and the people involved in it, with his normal ebullience. The solution when he arrives at it is both unexpected and moving.

B

by J. M. Gregson

Published 6 September 2016

DCI Peach and DS Northcott investigate a murder at an exclusive tennis club Detective Sergeant Clyde Northcott - DCI Peach's tall, black, powerful protege - has no interest in joining the snooty Birch Lane Tennis Club. So it is unfortunate for him when committee member Olive Crawshaw decides he would be the perfect talisman for the club's new, and controversial, policy to recruit members from a wider ethnic and social background. Clyde soon finds himself thrust into an exclusive community where his rusty tennis skills are the least of his concerns: for 'exclusive' does not mean moral, and while some of the club's members sail very near the law, one or two of them go far beyond it. So when a distinguished club member is murdered, a problem arises: how can he and Peach unveil the killer, when almost everyone seemed to want the victim dead?

Backhand Smash

by J. M. Gregson

Published 30 November 2015

Detective Sergeant Clyde Northcott - DCI Peach's tall, black, powerful protégé - has no interest in joining the snooty Birch Lane Tennis Club. So it is unfortunate for him when committee member Olive Crawshaw decides he would be the perfect talisman for the club's new, and controversial, policy to recruit members from a wider ethnic and social background.

Clyde soon finds himself thrust into an exclusive community where his rusty tennis skills are the least of his concerns: for 'exclusive' does not mean moral, and while some of the club's members sail very near the law, one or two of them go far beyond it. So when a distinguished club member is murdered, a problem arises: how can he and Peach unveil the killer, when almost everyone seemed to want the victim dead?