Notting Hill Mysteries Series

The Loop

by Anabel Donald

Published 21 June 1996

The fourth in Anabel Donald's witty and fast-paced series takes Alex Tanner, TV researcher and occasional PI, backwards and forwards across the Atlantic in search of a missing young man.

Alex Tanner jumps at the chance of a short assignment in Cicago. The only problem is that Barty, TV producer and occasional boyfriend, wants to come too.In the Windy City matters become even more complicated when a beautiful young model begs Alex to find her missing lover. Her boyfriend, she says, had been having a personal crisis and, by way of explanation, had kept saying over and over again that the answer lay `in the loop'...

The trail leads Alex from Chicago back to England, where the problems - both professional and romantic - really begin...

'A powerful sense of place ... in this fast absorbing read.' Val McDermid

'An intriguing mixture of wry humour, low-life sleaze and cult religion, interspersed with the saga of the heroine's hopeless love life. Perfect for the beach.' Cosmopolitan

Destroy Unopened

by Anabel Donald

Published 13 August 1999

Widowed Hilary Lucas asks Alex Tanner to find out who sent love letters to her husband. When Alex realizes that the mystery lover's son lives on the site of 10, Rillington Place and is obsessed with the murderer Christie, she makes the connection with the missing Samantha Eyre ...

An Uncommon Murder

by Anabel Donald

Published 21 August 1992

An Uncommon Murder is the first detective novel in Anabel Donald's acclaimed Notting Hill series.

'I'm twenty-eight. I'm a freelance TV researcher. And last November I investigated my first murder . . .'

Alex Tanner is always on the lookout for work - mortgages on flats in Notting Hill don't come cheap after all and she only has herself to rely on. So when TV producer Barty O'Neill mentions a particularly juicy assignment for his latest documentary she jumps at the chance.

Barty sends Alex to investigate the shooting of Lord Sherman, who was a member of London’s high society in the 50s, and whose case remains unresolved.

Alex hopes that a governess of the family, Miss Sarah Potter, will help untangle the truth, or will she lead Alex down another hidden path of the family’s privileged history?

In at the Deep End

by Anabel Donald

Published 24 September 1993

Alex is hired by a solicitor to find out, for his unidentified client, the state of mind of a 15-year-old student before his accidental drowning at an English prep school. Because she must investigate undercover, Alex persuades a TV producer to say that she is researching a documentary about private boys' schools, agreeing to let the producer's latest girlfriend/protegee tag along. As they delve into the student's life and look for the evil a former priest says is permeating the paramilitary school, Alex, who grew up in a series of foster homes, and rich, pampered Claudia, overcome initial antipathy to form an effective team – a unique variation on the good cop/bad cop arrangement.

At the same time, Alex's love life is challenged by the return of her friend Barty's former wife. Down-to-earth, slyly funny and driven, Alex is a complex, intelligent heroine operating in a fast, absorbing narrative.

The Glass Ceiling

by Anabel Donald

Published 25 November 1994

Alex Tanner, TV researcher and private investigator, is more than a little curious when she receives a parcel from someone calling herself 'Mrs X'. Inside the package are GBP200, a list of four famous feminists and a grisly surprise. All this plus the impassioned plea:

'I MUST SMASH THE GLASS CEILING. STOP ME IF YOU CAN . . . PLEASE STOP ME.'

But what sends the biggest chill down Alex's spine is the cross against one of the names on the list. For this woman is now dead . . .