Lloyd and Hill Mysteries

5 primary works

A Shred of Evidence

by Jill McGown

Published 24 March 1995

"She had been in school uniform the first and last time Judy had seen her alive, and she had wondered what it would be like to be her mother. Now, she thanked God she wasn't."

Detective Inspector Judy Hill had seen the girl that evening, talking and laughing with friends on the bus home. Now she lay dead in the glaring arc-light of a scene-of-crime investigation; beaten, strangled, and possibly raped.

Oakland School is Stansfield come sunder a no less glaring spotlight as Judy and Detective Chief Inspector Lloyd begin their investigation into the murder of Natalia Ouspensky, aged fifteen, on a piece of open parkland in the centre of town.

It is an enquiry which will uncover the secrets of staff and pupil alike, not least Natalia herself; and enquiry which will produce suspects and motives but to no witnesses; an enquiry which will deeply affect the lives of the innocent, but might well fail to convict the guilty.

An enquiry, it seems, which is not going to yield a single shred of evidence . . .

Verdict Unsafe

by Jill McGown

Published 21 February 1997

Detective Inspector Judy Hill anxiously watched the trial of serial rapist Colin Arthur Drummond from the public gallery--never forgetting his chilling threat that she would be his next victim. The prosecution should have an open-and-shut case.

But sixteen months later Drummond is back on the streets, threatening Judy once more. And as Judy sets out to prove Drummond's guilt for the second time, Detective Chief Inspector Lloyd is called to a horrifying scene. It appears Colin Drummond has struck again. . . .

Scene of Crime

by Jill McGown

Published 23 February 2001

The new novel from the master of multi-layered, intricately plotted suspense novels that mercilessly tease the reader to the very last page.It's three days before Christmas, and the Malworth Amateur Dramatic Society's rehearsal of Cinderella, scripted by local GP Carl Bignall, is struggling. As the flu bug hits, even Detective Chief Inspector Lloyd and the pregnant Judy Hill are co-opted to take roles. But as the rehearsal is getting under way, the police are entering Carl's house - and discovering the body of his wife Estelle. Why was Carl so late for rehearsals? Why is his neighbour so reluctant to tell the truth about what he witnessed? And why is Dr Denis Leeward, Carl's partner, sitting in his car, slightly bruised and in a state of guilty panic . . . ? All Lloyd knows for sure, as he takes charge of the investigation, is that one of them is a murderer . . .

Death in the Family

by Jill McGown

Published 1 January 2003

When Dean Fletcher fell for a blonde nymphet named Kayleigh Scott, he managed to ruin his life. Kayleigh had told him she was eighteen. In truth, she was not quite thirteen—and poor Dean was soon off to prison, a convicted sex offender, still smitten with his adolescent lover.

Now he’s finally free again, only to be ensnared by two crimes that have Chief Detective Inspector Lloyd pulling out what’s left of his hair. One is an infant kidnapping; the other is the murder of Kayleigh’s mother on the very eve of the family’s sudden move to Australia. Lloyd thinks he hears the ring of truth in Dean’s declarations of innocence. But with his partner Judy out on maternity leave, he’ll have to pick his way alone through this minefield of birth, death, murder, and domestic evil.

Unlucky for Some

by Jill McGown

Published 4 June 2004

February 13th: what seemed like Wilma Fenton's lucky night, when she scooped her biggest-ever win at bingo, turned out to be the night she died at the hands of someone lurking in the dimly lit alleyway leading to her flat.

An eyewitness to the incident gives Detective Chief Inspectors Lloyd and Hill some hope. But the witness is Tony Baker, an ambitious TV journalist and TV personality, who, almost twenty years ago, single-handedly tracked down a serial killer. Did Baker see more than he claims? Does he want to beat the police to the punch again?

This complication triggers a deadly chain of events when the man the media will come to call the Anonymous Assassin publicly challenges Baker to catch him before he strikes again. In the full glare of the national media, Lloyd and Hill must spearhead a force-wide hunt for a relentless killer . . .