Rachel McLean

DCI Lesley Clarke's two teams are in flux. The Major Crime Investigations Team has a new DI, and the Cold Cases team has a member back from parental leave. And Lesley herself is itching to get stuck into a case, instead of sitting behind a desk. When a body is found at the luxury beach huts on Mudeford Spit, the Cold Cases team know it's one of theirs, as the remains have been buried for over thirty years. But then evidence is found connecting a member of the Kelvin organised crime family, as well as Lesley's lawyer wife Elsa. Are Elsa’s ties to her former clients about to be revived? And will the new DI, with her experience of financial forensics, be able to solve the murder of local taxi driver Mark Ashforth and identify just which criminal gang are responsible? Most importantly, will Lesley find an opportunity to get her hands (and those walking boots) dirty?

DCI Lesley Clarke's two teams are in flux. The Major Crime Investigations Team has a new DI, and the Cold Cases team has a member back from parental leave. And Lesley herself is itching to get stuck into a case, instead of sitting behind a desk. When a body is found at the luxury beach huts on Mudeford Spit, the Cold Cases team know it's one of theirs, as the remains have been buried for over thirty years. But then evidence is found connecting a member of the Kelvin organised crime family, as well as Lesley's lawyer wife Elsa. Are Elsa’s ties to her former clients about to be revived? And will the new DI, with her experience of financial forensics, be able to solve the murder of local taxi driver Mark Ashforth and identify just which criminal gang are responsible? Most importantly, will Lesley find an opportunity to get her hands (and those walking boots) dirty?

Annie Abbott is a busy woman. As well as attempting to create her grandchildren's best ever Christmas and helping her police detective daughter Tina juggle work, kids and Christmas preparations, she's been roped in to run a pottery shop after a shopkeeper friend was injured in a robbery. But this is Annie Abbott, which means a mystery isn't far away. Why did the thief steal the ugliest trinket in the shop? Why does the same trinket, a kitsch pottery reindeer, keep turning up in unexpected places? And is it all related to the state of the drains running along the back of the shop, at Lyme Regis's Old Mill? Christmas doesn't stop Annie and the swimming club gang from interfering in another case in this gripping festive mystery set on the Jurassic Coast.

It's summer and Lyme Regis is rammed with tourists. DC Tina Abbott is hoping her kids can have some fun on the beach with their granny Annie, who in turn is enjoying time with her swimming club. But then Annie and her friends’ morning swim is disturbed when they spot the body of local artist Clifford Muldoon, floating near the Cobb. Tina has things under control. But Annie, emboldened by her involvement in Lyme Regis’s last murder case, wants to get involved. And could the swimmers have information that might help solve the crime?

DC Tina Abbott from Dorset Police’s Major Crime Investigations Team is on maternity leave, and spending some time with her mum Annie in Lyme Regis. But then after a morning swim, two members of Annie’s swimming club discover a dead body in another member's car. A body that later vanishes into thin air. When the body later turns up in another location, Tina gets involved, despite her bosses telling her she’s not supposed to be working. But Tina only knows one side of the story. Will the swimming club members come forward and tell the police what they know? Is one of their members involved in the murder? And can they prevent Kevin, the angry seagull, from attacking the beachfront caravan where the club’s youngest member lives?

When a body is found in a field outside Lyme Regis, local police officers Dougie Anderson and Wendy Sharman are stumped. Who is the victim, and is his death related to a local gang war? Dorset’s Major Crime Investigations team is quickly brought in. But what the police don’t know is that Rosamund Winters, swimming club member and friend of Dougie’s mother-in-law Annie Abbott, has vital information… even if she doesn’t realise it. Why is a picture in one of six identical cottages Rosamund is hired to clean very slightly different from the others? Who is the mysterious woman who let herself in and cleaned before Rosamund got there? And what’s that awful smell in cottage number one? Will Rosaumnd come forward with what she knows, and help the police solve the crime? Or will her friend Annie’s interference prevent justice from being done?

Accepting a job in Madrid seems like the perfect antidote to the trauma of the last few months. Finished with the case, she takes the opportunity to kick back in her Madrid hotel room. A bottle of Rioja and a long hot bath are just the ticket. But the man she just helped put behind bars has other ideas... When Petra gets a knock at her hotel room door that most definitely is not room service, she must use all her wiles as a forensic psychologist. Can she keep her attacker talking to save herself? And will her new colleague, Interpol agent Susannah Roscoe, get to her in time to avoid tragedy?

An old enemy and a new colleague bring twin problems for DCI Lesley Clarke. Lesley and her team think that their battles with Dorset's organised crime gangs are over. The Kelvins are all dead or in prison and Trevor Hamm's Birmingham gang have given up their attempts to expand into the county. But then a man's body is found near Chesil Beach, his fingertips and teeth removed. And his DNA isn't on the system. Why did his killer want to hide his identity? Was he killed by an organised crime gang and, if so, which one? And then there's the return of DC Johnny Chiles, who left for London in disgrace years earlier, and whose father, a retired sergeant, appears to have a connection to the murder.

With a long-term target finally in custody and the appearance of a key witness, DI Zoe Finch might have expected everything else to fall into place. But when the body of a man she knows is found inside the Port of Workington, the investigation takes her team in some unexpected directions, and working with unlikely allies. Why was he killed? Is there a connection with the missing mother of a local businessman? Can Zoe’s team even keep the case in the face of a bitter territorial spat? And as West Cumbria CID race to gather evidence before their prime suspect disappears, has her greatest enemy finally slipped up?

DCI Lesley Clarke is back! The dust has settled after the arrest of DCI Mackie's killer and Lesley has been told to make a few changes. She's got two DIs to manage, including one she's clashed with in the past, and is overseeing the return of a colleague who left Dorset under a cloud. Just as she's starting to get to grips with it all, a body is found in Poole Harbour. Is it Jackie Kendal, who went missing a year ago, or Rowena Sharp, who mysteriously vanished after leaving her baby alone in a Sandbanks hotel in 1973? Establishing the body's identity, and therefore whose case this will be, will require Lesley's investigatory skills and, more challenging, all of her tact and diplomacy.

When a group of walkers and wild swimmers finds one of their number drowned in a remote Cumbria beauty spot, it looks like little more than an unfortunate accident. But appearances can be deceptive, and DI Zoe Finch and her team are soon sifting through the seemingly innocent lives of the dead man’s family and fellow walkers, and bringing a host of buried secrets to light. Is there a connection with a notorious local hardman? Are gambling debts involved? Or is someone not who they’re pretending to be? As the days lengthen and summer finally looms, Zoe and her team will have their work cut out finding the truth and unmasking a killer.

DI Zoe Finch has been in Cumbria long enough to know who’s pulling the strings in organised crime, and who’s helping them from within the police. But just as she’s closing in on the evidence to prove it, she finds herself scrambling in the fallout from the murder of a key witness, and struggling to keep the case out of the hands of the very man she suspects of orchestrating it. Can the women rescued from a human trafficking ring help Zoe wrest back control of the investigation? And does a seemingly unrelated murder on the other side of the Lake District hold the key to bringing her enemies to justice? With the team thrust into unfamiliar roles and the whole station under investigation, the stakes have never been higher. Can Zoe and her team hold it together under mounting pressure?

Read more about Diana, Zaf and Gus! In these bonus stories, you can get more of the Chartwell and Crouch team's exploits and sleuthing, as an exclusive addition to the main books. Stories include: Mystery at the National Gallery – in which Zaf and Diana solve an art crime and become friends; The Eccleston Square Mystery – a mystery right outside Diana's London flat; Gus the Theatre Cat – Gus is missing in the theatre, can Newton the bus driver find him? And Larry the Downing Street Cat Goes Missing – it's election day, should Larry follow that handsome tabby and his lady friend?

DCI Lesley Clarke has promised her new wife that their Scottish honeymoon won’t be spoiled by murder investigations. But when she’s out for a walk on the first day and finds a body, she can’t help but be dragged into a case. The investigation is taken on by DI Jade Tanner and Dr Petra McBride of the Complex Crimes Unit, along with Lesley’s old colleague DS Mo Uddin. Can the team discover who killed the woman floating in the loch? And will Lesley’s marriage be jeopardised by her obsession with the job before it’s even begun?

DI Zoe Finch has a big decision to make. Will she stay in Birmingham, clinging to the wreckage of her beloved team as it breaks up and leaves her behind? Or will she follow her partner Carl to Cumbria, a new job and a new life? Carl’s already decided. He’s heading up north, revelling in the lakes and fells and excited about his new job chasing down dodgy coppers. And Zoe’s future colleague DS Aaron Keyes is perplexed. A man has been found dead at Egremont Castle – a man who left a voicemail for him just before he died. Can Aaron track down the killer? Will Carl be able to work out exactly why members of Cumbria police are acting strangely? And will Zoe decide to make the move up north?

Christmas is approaching, but things are rarely quiet for the team at Cumbria CID. DC Nina Kapoor needs a night off, so she persuades DC Tom Willis to skip a romantic evening in with his girlfriend and join her at a local pub for a night of festive karaoke and drinking. The crowd of intoxicated octogenarians sing surprisingly well, but the man lying face-down in the gents isn’t just drunk. He’s dead. DI Zoe Finch is soon on the scene, and as she watches her DCs kick off the investigation, she decides to take a back seat and let them run things for a while. But even among the mistletoe and karaoke, murder is murder, and the pressure’s on. Will Nina and Tom be able to solve the murder in time for Christmas?