Ann Cleeves

In the aftermath of a young archaeologist's discovery of human remains that may be modern, Jimmy Perez is called in to investigate a case that is further complicated by the subsequent murder of an elderly woman.

Raven Black begins on New Year's Eve with a lonely outcast named Magnus Tait, who stays home waiting for visitors who never come. But the next morning the body of a murdered teenage girl is discovered nearby, and suspicion falls on Magnus. Inspector Jimmy Perez enters an investigative maze that leads deeper into the past of the Shetland Islands than anyone wants to go.

For Lizzie Bartholomew, a holiday in Morocco will change her life forever. But not in the way she had hoped . . . Lizzie had planned her trip to Marrakech as the perfect escape from her life—and her nightmares—in Northumberland. Abandoned as a baby, and having spent her childhood moving between foster homes, Lizzie certainly has much to escape from. Morocco is the perfect paradise she had imagined, especially when she finds herself on a bus sitting next to an intriguing man who is also travelling to fulfill his dreams. After a brief affair with the fellow traveller, Lizzie returns to England. In the days that follow, she receives a letter that states that her mysterious lover has died and left a large sum of money for her in his will. But there are conditions attached to this unexpected legacy, conditions that will alter the course of Lizzie's life forever . . .

‘Martin Edwards demonstrates that he has a ventriloquist’s gift for other people’s voices….Murder Squad is a genuine attempt to demonstrate the diversity and quality of what is being produced by authors who are shelved under crime…This book is a celebration. So sit yourself down with a glass or a steaming mug of what you fancy, and indulge yourself. Or else.’ From the Foreword by Val McDermid Ann Cleeves’ The Plater was short-listed for a CWA Dagger

The youth theater cast are in their places but Gus Lynch’s female lead, Gabriella, is missing—that is, until she’s found in the boot of his car . . . Detective Inspector Stephen Ramsay and Sergeant Gordon Hunter are assigned to head the murder enquiry, meanwhile violence is escalating on the Starling Farm Estate as police battle to contain the latest outbreak of joyriding. Is Gabriella’s death connected to the events at Starling Farm? When another body is found, Ramsey must find the link between the investigations that could have provoked someone to kill . . . and kill again.

"Ann Cleeves is back with the sixth book in her Shetland series featuring Inspector Jimmy Perez, whom readers will remember from Raven Black, White Nights, Red Bones, Blue Lightning, and Dead Water. A group of old university friends leave the bright lights of London and travel to Shetland to celebrate the marriage of one of their friends. But, one of them, Eleanor, disappears--apparently into thin air. It's mid-summer, a time of light nights and unexpected mists. And then Eleanor's body is discovered lying in a small loch close to the cliff edge. Detectives Jimmy Perez and Willow Reeves are dispatched to investigate. Before she went missing, Eleanor claimed to have seen the ghost of a local child who drowned in the 1920s. Her interest in the ghost had seemed unhealthy--obsessive, even--to her friends: an indication of a troubled mind. But Jimmy and Willow are convinced that there is more to Eleanor's death than they first thought. Is there a secret that lies behind the myth? One so shocking that someone would kill--many years later--to protect? Ann Cleeves' striking new novel is a quintessential whodunit with surprises at every turn"--

The leader of an environmental survey struggles to manage the schemes of her rival team members before a friend's suspicious suicide introduces her to unconventional Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope.

Detective Peter Porteous is called to Cranwell Lake where the body of a teenager has been discovered. After trawling through the missing persons files, he comes to the conclusion that the corpse is Michael Grey, an enigmatic and secretive young man who was reported missing by his foster parents in 1972. The news report that a body has been found leaves prison officer Hannah Morton in shock. Michael had been her boyfriend, and she had been with him the night he disappeared. And now the discovery is bringing back dreaded and long buried memories from her past . . .

No one in Heppleburn has a bad word to say about Alice Parry . . . but here she is, murdered in her own backyard on a bitter St. David’s Eve. When detective Stephen Ramsay starts asking questions in the village, a more ambiguous picture begins to emerge. Yes, old Mrs. Parry was loved by everyone, but sometimes her kindness had caused trouble. Yes, her two nephews were devoted to her, but they didn’t really want her interfering in their rather complicated personal lives. Even among her neighbors, Alice Parry’s helpfulness had sometimes misfired. And after her death, tension tight as a clenched fist grips the uneasy village. Meanwhile, the suspects keep rolling in, and Heppleburn’s friendly neighborhood killer continues his nasty piece of work . . .

Marilyn Howe and her mother Kathleen are an inseparable duo, until one night Kathleen doesn’t come home . . . Fifteen-year-old Marilyn turns up alone and frightened on Inspector Ramsay’s doorstep so he takes the young girl home to the isolated coastal community known as the Headland. And in the Howes’ dark and cluttered kitchen they find Kathleen safe and apparently well, though acting strange. Six months later, Ramsay has more or less forgotten the incident, busy as he is on the trail of a local child abductor. Until he receives news that Mrs. Howe has disappeared once more. And for the second time he is drawn into the strange relationships of the families living on the lonely Headland . . . when a woman’s body washes up on the beach.

This is the eighth and final mystery featuring George and Molly Palmer-Jones. Among the birders from around the world gathered for the dazzling spring avian migration on the Texas coast are three old friends from England--Rob, Mick, and Oliver--celebrating the twentieth anniversary of their first unforgettable trip to High Island. But the party's over when Mick--the introvert who surprisingly got the girl they all wanted years ago--is murdered. The police tag Rob for the crime, but shrewd birder-investigator George Palmer-Jones focuses his attention on some odd ducks among the English contingent. Meanwhile, back home in England, George's wife, Molly, digs up the dirt on a save-the-earth society. And on High Island, a killer finds that one murder is not enough. . .

Before Shetland and Vera, Ann Cleeves wrote the Inspector Ramsay series featuring a talented, brilliant detective—now available for the first time in the US. For Dorothea Cassidy, Thursdays were special. Every week she would look forward to the one day she could call her own, a welcome respite from the routine duties of being a vicar’s wife. But one Thursday in June would be her last—the day Dorothea Cassidy was strangled. As the small town of Otterbridge prepares for its summer carnival, Inspector Stephen Ramsay begins a painstaking reconstruction of Dorothea's last hours. He soon discovers that she had taken on a number of deserving cases—a sick and lonely old woman, a disturbed adolescent, a compulsive gambler, a single mother with a violent boyfriend and a child in care—and even her close family have their secrets to hide. All these people are haunted, in one way or another, by Dorothea's goodness. But which of them could have possibly wanted her dead? It is not until a second body is discovered that Ramsay starts to understand how Dorothea lived—and why she died. With the carnival festivities in full swing and dusk falling in Otterbridge, Ramsay's murder investigation reaches its chilling climax . . .

The lawyer lifeguard: Are you the lawyer who got blown up with his girlfriend? Defense lawyer Brian Lord survived the car bomb that killed his fiancee. Out of work and out of his mind, he takes on a lifeguard job at the beach. But there's one wave he'll never see coming. The shut-in: Abi Brenner is the new medical examiner in the Napa Valley, a dream job in a dream location. But her fairy tale will take a terrifying turn when she uncovers a series of murders --with one sinister thing in common. The doctor's plot: A woman who has solar urticaria, an uncommon allergy to the sun, watches the outside world through a flying drone as she is confined to her studio apartment. But when her high-tech toy records a vicious murder, she's determined to track down the killer--a killer who knows she's being watched.

Who hung the headmaster in the playground on the night of the school Halloween Party? Almost everyone in Heppleburn either hated or feared the viper-tongued Harold Medburn. Inspector Ramsay is convinced it was the headmaster’s enigmatic wife but Jack Robson, school governor and caretaker, is determined to prove her innocence. With the help of his restless daughter Patty, Jack digs into the secrets of Heppleburn, and uncovers a cesspit of lies, adultery, blackmail and madness . . .

Young Tom French is found dead, lying in a marsh on the Norfolk coast, with his head bashed in and his binoculars still around his neck. One of the best birders in England, Tom put the village of Rushy on the birdwatching map. Everyone liked him. Or did they? George Palmer-Jones, an elderly birdwatcher, decides to look into the crime. He finds mixed feelings aplenty, but remains baffled by a deed that could have been motivated by thwarted love, pure envy, or something else altogether. But as he and his fellow birders pursue rumors of rare sightings, George -- with help from his lovely wife, Molly -- gradually discovers the true markings of a killer. Now all he has to do is prove it . . . before the killer strikes again.