Sara Woods

Two policemen were on trial because of a crime two other men swore they did not commit. Except for the attractive daughter and astrologist mother of one of the policemen, no one wanted to talk about it. What was not being said in the small English town was more than mysterious; it was frightening. Antony Maitland sensed it when he took on the case. Something was going on, something wrong - and those who knew what it was were either lying, not talking, or dead.

Antony Maitland #4 Someone had murdered kindly old Dr. Martin. Scotland Yard promptly arrested Martin’s freeloading cousin Gerry, who had bumbled into an argument with his rich relative at about the fatal hour. But Antony Maitland knew Gerry didn’t do it. The good doctor had been a secret service agent… and Antony knew who really had a motive to kill him. The catch was that a visit with a man from Whitehall plunged Antony back in Her Majesty’s Service and sworn to secrecy. His only chance to save Gerry was to catch the real killer. And that desperate hunt would bring him face-to-face with a nightmare from his own past… and a wartime betrayal that had once made Antony a prisoner and now could make him a corpse. - Publisher’s description

Antony Maitland #29 Barrister-detective Antony Maitland investigates an intriguing case involving a young doctor and an attractive young woman who are accused of murdering the woman's husband

Anthony Maitland #27 Six years ago, barrister-detective Anthony Maitland found himself in a dangerous encounter with the leader of a diamond smuggling organization that operated out of Northdean. Now he is called back to Northdean on another case involving diamonds: this time, a police inspector named Brady has been charged with wrongful arrest in a smuggling case for which all the evidence has somehow vanished from police headquarters.

In Woods's 47th novel about the London barrister Antony Maitland, he and his wife Jenny are on holiday in a Yorkshire village. The residents are outraged by the strangulation deaths of three young women, cases in which Antony reluctantly involves himself at the request of the Maitlands' hostess, Emma Anstey. Her nephew Stephen is the solicitor for a friend, Peter Dutton, officially the prime suspect. Fiercely on the side of a local lad, however, the villagers threaten to lynch a newcomer, reclusive Mr. Wainwright, and Antony has to act quickly to save the scapegoat's life. [ ]

Antony Maitland #14 Antony Maitland has two problems to deal with: a friend has asked him to help an actor who is afraid he may be accused of arson, and a juror on Maitland's case has revealed that an attempt has been made to bribe him. When the actor's fears are realized, and the juror also commits suicide, Maitland can't help getting involved. Before the end, Maitland himself is suspected not only of being behind the attempted bribery, but is arrested for murder as well. And his Uncle Nicholas is away in New York, and will not be pleased to come back and find his nephew in the hands of the police.

Antony Maitland #25 'It's a case of murder,' said Horton. Antony Maitland sighed. ‘Your client, I suppose, being the murderer,' he said. 'Well, I think so. It's a woman… Ellen Gray.' Ellen Gray is on trial for murder. She is defended by Antony Maitland, Q.C., and the jury's verdict surprises both Ellen and Antony. This murder has been committed in 1965. But it is evident to Antony that its motivation derives from a bizarre double-murder in 1946, when a woman and her lover had been shot dead by a jealous husband returning from the war; at least, that was the historical record. Antony began to doubt the whole history. He began to think it odd that two murderers should have been found among the same small group, even if the crimes were nearly twenty years apart. So it is on this small group, the tight-knit clique who were friends in the forties, that his attention increasingly falls. Then Antony Maitland moves from the role of barrister to that of detective, as he has done before. Supported by his wife, Jenny, aided by his friend Roger Farrell (and as always derided by his formidable uncle, Sir Nicholas Harding, Q.C.), he seeks solutions to the murders quite different from past convictions and police thinking. And at last, in a surprising and convincing dénouement, he finds an answer.

Antony Maitland returns reluctantly to Chedcombe, where rumours are circulating about deaths in an old age home. Initially, it seems to be just gossip, but then a fourth death results in an autopsy and an arrest, bringing Maitland back to clear the doctor of a murder charge.

In an unusual departure, Sara Woods takes her latest suspense novel back in time to 1947, when Antony Maitland, recently discharged from the service, is reading law at the farm of a friend in Yorkshire. But the anticipated pastoral quietude is blemished by four seemingly disparate occurrances--the growth of gossip concerning the revival of local witchcraft, rumors of a treasure of gold plate hidden and then lost during the seventeenth-century Civil War, suspicions of lucrative black market activity in the vicinity, and the death of a woman from arsenic poisoning on a nearby farm. Weaving these incidents together against the rustic background of the Yorkshire countryside in what certainly must be Antony Maitland's first big case, Miss Woods tells a fascinating and entertaining story that will surely please her many fans.

>Sir Nicholas Harding, Q.C.. said: "The Fraudulent Mediums Act of 1951-" >"Yes, I know all about that," said Antony Maitland, Q.C. "But nobody prosecutes mediums any more. Or do they?" >"In this case they certainly do." >Sir Nicholas was briefed to defend a 'trance medium' accused by a widower of having caused his wife to commit suicide, by means of a fraudulent message from their son. who had 'passed over into the other world'. It was a private action in civil law. >For once Antony is called on by his distinguished uncle for help. He meets the 'medium' and a feeling grows in him that she is telling the truth as she knew it. >Antony is soon in the throes of a private investigation of his own. News of his activities reaches his old enemy Superintendent Briggs. Briggs has always objected to Maitland's methods and believes that, in this instance, he sees an opportunity of putting a stop to them for good. In the course of discovering some odd discrepancies surrounding the suicide Maitland puts his whole career in jeopardy through the detective's hostility.

Antony Maitland #6 The defendant said his name was Michael Godson and that he was a photographer. The prosecution declared that his real name was Guy Harland and charged him with high treason. Whoever he was, it was the difficult task of a brilliant lawyer named Antony Maitland to prove him innocent. Maitland’s daring investigation takes him through a sinister maze of shadowy witnesses, ugly clues and bitter memories—all pointing to his client’s guilt. The he reaches a deadly crossroad… - from GoodReads

Antony Maitland #19

The beautiful redheaded model, Barbara Wentworth, is on trial for murder. All the evidence points to her, but her lawyer Antony Maitland is convinced otherwise. He's certain no one concerned with the case is telling the truth, including his client, but would she sacrifice herself for the sake of a cold-blooded killer?