The Crime Readers' Association

Alis Hawkins – The Skeleton Army

1st April 2024

Why should the devil have all the best tunes? The Salvation Army has come prancing and singing from the slums of London to the poorest quarters of Oxford, but along with its red hot gospel preaching a...

joy ellis the colour of mysteryJoy Ellis – The Colour of Mystery

29th February 2024

Three nice people. Three terrible crimes. What made them do these awful things? It’s the night shift worker who finds them. Huddled in a hospital store cupboard is elderly Edith Higgins. Knifed to dea...

Katherine Black — A Most Malicious Messenger

1st February 2024

Menacing texts lead to murder in an English village, in this unmissable, witty mystery by the Dagger Award–nominated author of A Most Unusual Demise. May Morrigan is in her bookshop one morning when s...

Faith Martin – Murder by Candlelight

2nd January 2024

One suspicious death. Two amateur sleuths. And an utterly impossible crime. The Cotswolds, 1924. At the Old Forge in the quiet village of Maybury-in-the-Marsh a cry of anguish rings out: lady of the h...

EC Bateman — Murder Most Antique

1st December 2023

  Who knew a harmless town fair could be so polarising – or so deadly? When auctioneer Felicia Grant’s best friend, Stamford Mayor Cassandra Lane, talked her into helping with the town’s annual G...

Nicola Upson – Shot With Crimson

31st October 2023

September, 1939, and the worries of war follow Josephine Tey to Hollywood, where a different sort of battle is raging on the set of Hitchcock’s Rebecca. Then a shocking act of violence reawakens...

Edward Marston – The Danger of Defeat

1st October 2023

February, 1918. In the small hours of a cold morning, a burglary in Limehouse has escalated into a sinister siege between a band of thieves and the authorities, and a police constable lies dead. Detec...

Jim Eldridge – Murder at the Tower of London

1st September 2023

London 1899. The dead body of a Yeoman Warder  is discovered at the Tower of London inside a suit of armour belonging to Henry VIII. He had been run through with a sword. The Prince of Wales, fearing...

Helena Dixon – Murder at the Village Fair

31st July 2023

Kitty Underhay is riding a carousel… with death. Summer 1935. Enjoying a belated honeymoon visiting her new husband Matt’s family in the rolling Yorkshire hills, Kitty strolls through a village fair....

“The Red Death” by Abraham Kawa

4th July 2023

‘THE RED DEATH’ BY ABRAHAM KAWA 1970. After a disturbing murder case left DI Chris Bates’ mental health shattered, he spends time recovering in an asylum before being released to a halfway house. When...

This Wild, Wild Country

2nd June 2023

1933. Cornelia Stover is headstrong and business-minded – not the kind of woman the men of Boldville, New Mexico, expect her to be. Then she stumbles upon a secret hidden out in the hills . . ....

‘The Dog Sitter Detective’ by Antony Johnston

28th April 2023

Meet Gwinny, an unlikely bloodhound, and her four-legged friends determined to dig up the truth! Penniless Gwinny Tuffel is delighted to attend her good friend Tina’s upmarket wedding. But when the bi...

‘The Birthday Girl’ by Sarah Ward

31st March 2023

Welcome to Eldey, an island with deadly secrets. Guests include – Mona: a carefree artist, staying at the Cloister to work on her illustrations. Beth: the harried mother of a toddler, on the remote We...

‘Four Hidden Treasures’ By H L Marsay

6th March 2023

Welcome to Hartwell, an English village full of cobbled streets, ancient curses, and buried secrets. Reeling from the last few years of uncertainty, the villagers of Hartwell are adjusting to their ne...

‘Web of Lies’ by Paul Gitsham

1st February 2023

When mother-of-two Louisa doesn’t return home from work one night, her husband raises the alarm. Investigating the workshop where she ran her mail-order business reveals signs she was taken by force –...

‘My Sister’s Secret’ by Diane Saxon

4th January 2023

Four sisters, four secrets. Who has the deadliest of them all? Something happened to me when I was nine. My childhood memories before that fateful day are gone. Extinguished. The aftermath has become...

‘The Accident’ by Julia Stone

2nd December 2022

An unidentified young woman dies falling from a bridge onto Janice Thomason’s car. The police rule it as misadventure; not an act of suicide or murder, just an accident. But who was this woman? And wh...

A Christmas Murder of Crows by DM Austin

31st October 2022

December 1923. In the picturesque Westmorland village of Crowthwaite, the barmaid at The Black Feather entertains a traveller with a local story of pagan sacrifice – the Murder of Crows. Unbekno...

‘The Patrios Network’ by Antony Johnston

1st October 2022

ONLINE HATE BECOMES REAL. When a renegade British officer steals plans for a high-tech weapon that could plunge whole cities into darkness, elite MI6 hacker Brigitte Sharp is sent to get them back. Bu...

An Honourable Thief

1st September 2022

Introducing Jonas Flynt. Gambler. Thief. Killer. Man of honour. 1715. Jonas Flynt, ex-soldier and reluctant member of the Company of Rogues, a shady intelligence group run by ruthless spymaster Nathan...

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