Books published by Allison & Busby

Autumn 1917. Harvey Marmion and Joe Keedy are dispatched from Scotland Yard to investigate the death of young woman at a luxurious hotel. Questions abound: who is she? Who poisoned her? And where is the original occupant of the room? They must solve the mystery as quickly as possible, before the reputation of the hotel is damaged beyond repair.

After moving into a leisure village in Wiltshire, Cassie was looking forward to some peace. But when a girl arrives claiming to be her granddaughter, the door to the past is wrenched painfully open.

Rosalind's husband, Paul, forces her to move from Australia to England, but then he's called away to deal with a crisis in Singapore and she's left to settle into a new country on her own.

Southampton 1920. Phoebe Collins rose to the challenge of running the family fruit and veg stall when her father did not return from the front. However, when Phoebe witnesses something terrible, she will need all her strength to face the trials ahead and the fear that her loved ones may come to harm.

As England teeters on the brink of civil war, Thomas Chayne has an opportunity to prove his worth by rallying a troop of royalists to defend Oxford from the escalating violence. But he soon faces an impossible choice between honouring his family and his loyalty to the crown ...

Christmas is approaching, but with Claire's ex stalking her and Luke's difficulties with his teenage daughter, can it be a merry Christmas after all?

Cornwall 1845. What caused the death of a tattooed stranger found on Morwenstow beach clutching a key? Is he a victim of deliberate wrecking, lured by false lights? Or are tales of savage mermaids true?

When Max Brennan's estranged father and then his own girlfriend go missing in quick succession, he turns to his old friend Detective Jake Porter for help. When their main suspect turns up dead, alongside a list of other targets, Porter and his partner Nick Styles must race to catch the killer before another victim is claimed.

Thea Slocombe is tired of having to entertain Drew's children through the long summer holiday while he works, so keenly accepts a commission to watch over a house in Barnsley. However, her return to house-sitting is far from relaxing as on her first night she finds a fugitive woman hiding among some bushes...

Cass Lynch is shocked to discover that the new third officer for her latest voyage through the Shetland Isles is a man she thought had drowned years ago. She also has an odd feeling about some of the new trainees and as her distrust deepens, people go missing and another is found dead. Cass must out-manoeuvre the killer - or become the next victim.

Despite warnings to the contrary, Juno Browne ventures into the shady world of antiques dealing when she takes on a new client, Old Nick. When Nick is found dead, Juno begins her own investigation, and she must piece the puzzle together before she becomes the next victim.

1861, East Anglia. When universally-admired Swarbrick, the man working to unify East Anglia's tangle of railway networks, is killed by a robber in a first-class carriage, Inspector Colbeck is brought in from London. But is this the act of a bungling burglar, a business rival, a disgruntled son, or a jealous lover?

Thea is ready for a relaxing if rather boring two weeks, with phone calls to new boyfriend Drew Slocombe the highlight of her days. Until, that is, a dead body is discovered in a nearby quarry...

When Thea Osbourne agrees to house sit for Oliver Meadows as a favor to her mother, she expects a few days peace and quiet. But as usual, Thea quickly finds herself at the center of a dark mystery when she discovers a dead body in the gardens of the house.

Ethelred and Elsie embark on a hunt to find two invaluable golden statues, supposedly hidden among the religious houses of Sussex.

1894. When a man is found dead in a gentlemen's convenience cubicle at the British Museum, the stall locked from the inside, Daniel Wilson is called in to solve the mystery, bringing archaeologist Abigail Fenton with him. The pair face a race against time to salvage the reputation of the museum and catch a murderer desperate for revenge.

1895. A senior executive at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford is found with a bullet hole between his eyes. Whilst officially ruled as suicide, private inquiry agent Daniel Wilson, who investigated the case of Jack the Ripper, is a natural choice to discreetly explore the situation, ably assisted by his partner, Abigail Fenton.

Simmy Brown has a lot on her mind: not just keeping her florist business afloat, the challenge of developing a long-term relationship with Christopher, but also the approach of Mother's Day, a busy and painful day for her. But in taking an order for a retirement party in Staveley, she is pulled into her most challenging investigation.

1862. Growing up in the small seaside town of Cowes on the Isle of Wight, free-spirited Eveline Stanhope feels trapped by the weight of expectation from her well-to-do family. She becomes closely involved with the railway and forms a growing attachment to engineer Thomas Armitage.

The isolated and somewhat unsettling village of Snowshill has Thea on edge as soon as she arrives, and Hyacinth House - her new, rather cluttered house-sitting assignment - does nothing to dispel such feelings. Soon enough, her intuition in this case proves to be right, and once again Thea becomes entangled in another mystery.

Thea Osborne is perhaps over-optimistic about the summertime and her latest assignment house-sitting for reptile breeder Harriet Young. The region's charms prove deceptive, as Thea soon finds that Harriet's beloved geckoes are not the only cold-blooded creatures at large in Cranham.

1817. Following news of her father's death, Clemency van Emden returns to England, where Peter and Paul Skillen agree to help unravel the mystery of his last days. When the body of Clemency's father is discovered to be missing from its casket, the twins embark on a chase of graverobbers, funerary agents and Good Samaritans to unearth the truth.