Jill McGown

Detective Chief Inspectors Lloyd and Hill spearhead a high-profile investigation into the murder of Wilma Fenton, a woman killed the same night she won a huge pot at bingo, as they confront a series of apparently motiveless killings.

She refuses to give in to him ... Lucy Steadman refuses to be intimidated by brooding Italian Lorenzo Zanelli. He may hold the fate of her family's business in his iron fist, but she will not submit to his more personal demands. As a talented artist, Lucy can see the truth in beauty; Lorenzo may be devastatingly handsome, but he has a soul blackened by his desire for revenge. And to give in to such a man, even for a single kiss, would be to lose her head - and her heart - for ever.

With a plot that defies the most inspired second-guessing and with menace ticking quietly away on every page, Jill McGown's Death in the Family firmly establishes her as a master of mystery and psychological suspense. This gritty, sophisticated novel is the twelfth in the author's internationally acclaimed series starring Chief Detective Inspector Lloyd and his colleague and lover, Chief Detective Inspector Judy Hill.Dean Fletcher had spent virtually all his twenty-four years doing things practically guaranteed to land him in trouble. But not until he fell for a blonde nymphet named Kayleigh Scott did he manage to totally 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 Lloyd pulling out what's left of his hair. One is an infant kidnapping (the child was born within hours of Lloyd's and Judy's own baby, Charlotte); the other is the murder of Kayleigh's mother, Lesley, on the very eve of the family's sudden move to Australia.Fortunately, Lloyd thinks he hears the ring of truth in Dean's protestations of innocence. He is extremely curious about Lesley's new lover, Ian, who has jumped headfirst into another relationship, and her old lover, Phil, whose world she had destroyed. And for all her air of placid innocence, Kayleigh herself isn't above suspicion.With Judy out on maternity leave, Lloyd is obliged to pick his way alone through the minefield of birth, death, murder, and domestic evil. Death in the Family is a novel of uncanny power and chilling credibility.

What if you left your one true love to marry another?What if, years later, you realized you'd made a terrible mistake?In this emotionally-charged novel of dreams lost and desires found, a pair of reunited lovers must choose between the family obligations that keep them apart and the passion that binds them together.

"McGown's style is uniquely hers, engrossing, poignant, with effectual characterization."--Mystery NewsWhen the body of fifteen-year-old Natalie Ouspensky is found strangled near a public park in Stansfield, England, Detective Inspector Judy Hill and Detective Chief Inspector Lloyd have their work cut out for them. For Natalie wasn't quite the innocent her mother believes, and her classmates at Oakland School guard Natalie's secrets--and their own--like life itself. Then a shred of evidence points Hill and Lloyd in the right--and decidedly deadly--direction. . . . "[A ] compelling story . . . The characters are devious, cunning, charming--and truly, truly wicked. This small English town, overrun with malice, is well served by its finely delineated constabulary, with Lloyd and Hill at the top of their form."--Publishers WeeklyFrom the Paperback edition.

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. . . .From the Paperback edition.