Gerald Verner

Folklorist and illustrator Keira Sullivan pursues the mysterious Irish legend of an ancient Celtic stone angel and soon becomes the target of a killer that even search-and-rescue expert Simon Cahill cannot stop.

Criminologist Felix Heron and his wife Thelma are called on to investigate the death of Sir Percival Trench on the hunting field. The inquest decided that it was an accident, but Sir Percival's fiance thinks otherwise, especially after his fortune goes missing.

Sent to trial for the murder, by poison, of her husband John, Margaret Hallam is convicted and sentenced to death. Her appeal is dismissed and the Home Secretary refuses a reprieve. Simon Gale, an old friend of Margaret, returns from painting in Italy and learns about her case. Whilst refusing to believe she's guilty, the only way he can save her is to discover the real murderer's identity. But there are no concrete clues and time is against him ...

"Somewhere in England is a steel box - its contents more valuable than diamonds - that Superintendent Robert Budd must find. Budd's investigation takes him to Higher Wicklow, where a tramp had sheltered in its reputedly haunted mill. Some days later, his body was discovered, his throat cut. Although the coroner's verdict was suicide, the villagers believe there's a more sinister explanation. Can the Superintendent discover the truth? Budd's heavy caseload also includes murder, ghostly goings on, a vanishing and blackmail."--Page 4 of cover.

The canvas, seemingly daubs of red and green paint, showed, on closer inspection, a woman, her crimson lips twisted in a devilish leer ... The man who had purchased the painting was found in his lodgings - stabbed to death - his painting stolen. While investigating the case, Superintendent Budd stumbles onto another murder in progress in a derelict house, and hears the dying man utter just two words: 'Red ... light ... ' Nearby, lies a picture ... of the Leering Lady.

The murder of a mysterious recluse in Barnet supplies Mr. Budd with one of the most difficult cases of his career. What is the connection between Jonathan Haines, the murdered man, and the typist who is found murdered later that same day? Mr. Budd, with the assistance of crime reporter Bob Hopkins and the melancholy Sergeant Leek, succeeds in piecing together all the fragments of the puzzle - but not until the stout superintendent has suffered the most terrifying experience of his life ...

Bound for Liverpool to board his Japanese ship, OKI MARU, a Korean seaman is murdered and his identity assumed by his killer. Then, after the ship sails, it disappears - presumed lost in a storm ... The owner of a remote country house in Wales is pressured into selling it - then brutally murdered. Meanwhile, when secret documents relating to a draft treaty with Japan go missing from the Foreign Office, agent Dene of the Secret Service has orders to recover them ...

An habitual criminal attempts to snatch Penelope Hayes' handbag, yet is apprehended and charged. Two months later, she's abducted and chloroformed - and again rescued by the police. This time her assailant escapes with her handbag. It seems that the wave of daring criminal gang robberies across London is somehow connected to Penelope's handbag - despite her denials that it contained anything of value. Then she disappears again - and the police have a murder investigation on their hands...

"The ghosts of a man and woman haunt the new housing development at Forsby near Boston, sapping the vitality of a young wife, Julia Grier. They are identified as the former owners of the land who have been tricked out of their property by fraud. It requires a cruel revelation and the fortitude of Julia to finally lay the two spirits to rest."- - Description by Peter Haining, in "A Century of Ghost Novels 1900 - 2000" (Appendix to his book, The Mammoth Book of Modern Ghost Stories)

A man calling himself the Jockey begins a campaign against those who he believes have besmirched the good name of horse racing, escaping conviction through lack of evidence. In a message to the press, he vows that those who have amassed crooked fortunes will have the money taken from them, whilst those who have caused loss of life will find their own lives forfeit ... When the murders begin, Superintendent Budd of Scotland Yard is charged to find and stop the mysterious avenger. But is the Jockey the actual murderer?

Superintendent Budd's latest murder investigation begins with the murder of a solicitor, found strangled with red tape. Soon, two more local solicitors are murdered in similar fashion. Eventually Budd learns that two years earlier, a man shot himself when about to lose the bungalow he built, under a compulsory purchase order of the council. Two of the solicitors had acted in the sale of the land, and the third had acted for the council. Is someone seeking vengeance for the man who committed suicide - himself a victim of red tape?

Worryingly for Scotland Yard, four officers disappear whilst on duty. One vanishes chasing a forger. Then two officers disappear searching for a wanted jewel thief in Hythe. Finally, a fourth officer vanishes in Hythe, after being sent to the nearby village of Stonehurst. Criminologist Trevor Lowe investigates a lead: someone has telephoned to arrange a meeting at the crossroads between the two villages. Lowe keeps the rendezvous but finds the man has been silenced - shot dead in a ditch ...

"'I'M DONE FOR ... FIND X.1 ... DENE ... YOU MUST ... TOOTH-PASTE ... ' England is at war with Germany and Dene of the Secret Service tries to decipher his fatally wounded colleague's garbled message - potentially vital information for England's survival. Who is X.1? What does the word TOOTH-PASTE signify? Dene must find out and stop X.1, or the Third Reich will strike a crippling blow to England and change the course of the war. And he has just eight days in which to do it ..."--Page 4 of cover.

John Arbinger receives an anonymous note - offering 'protection' from criminal gangs in exchange for 5,000 - with the impression of a tiny silver horseshoe in the bottom right-hand corner. Ignoring the author's warning about going to the police, Arbinger seeks the help of Superintendent Budd of Scotland Yard. But Budd is too late to save Arbinger from the deadly consequences of his actions, and soon the activities of the Silver Horseshoe threaten the public at large - as well as the lives of Budd and his stalwart companions ...

Millionaire Felix Dexon left his London hotel one morning and never returned. Then his American lawyers began to receive hand-written instructions from him to regularly transfer large sums of money abroad, with the cheques made out to himself. The letters and cheques were confirmed as genuine by handwriting experts. But when his suspicious niece asks a London newspaper to try and find her uncle, their chief crime reporter uncovers a vast web of intrigue by a criminal mastermind responsible for a series of horrific murders.

On the trail of a jewel robber, Superintendent John Brent from Scotland Yard lies in wait, with the police, outside a riverside country house - the thief's next anticipated target. But, avoiding arrest, the armed robber fatally shoots Brent and escapes onto his boat. When the launch is found, a single thumbprint is the only clue to the owner's identity. Brent's policeman son, vows to find the man responsible - the man he will come to know as 'Queer Face'.

Investigating the murder of a shabby man who had asked directions to the home of Lord Lancroft before being found brutally stabbed, Superintendent Budd has only one clue. Inside the man's jacket is a piece of paper, on which is written the Lord's name and address, and the words 'The House of the Goat' ... And when an ancient mummy is stolen in the search for a mysterious ring, nothing is as it seems ... Two stories of mystery and cunning from the pen of Gerald Verner.