Edward Marston

1860. Tras el éxito en Carlisle, el Fabuloso Circo Moscardi se dirige a su próximo destino en ferrocarril. A bordo viaja la comitiva al completo. De repente, se oye un chirrido estrepitoso y el tren descarrila.Muy cerca del lugar del accidente, en un bosque proximo, aparece el cadaver de una mujer. Este hallazgo sirve de motivo para que el inspector Colbeck acuda al lugar para investigar si estos dos hechos podrian estar relacionados y si, en realidad, no se trata de un simple accidente, sino de un intento de sabotaje

Comienza el año 1916 y no parece que la guerra vaya a terminar pronto. En un Londres del que salen miles de jóvenes al frente y al que llegan miríadas de refugiados, cuatro camaradas están decididos a plantar cara a la recien aprobada ley de reclutamiento forzoso. Tras participar en un mitin que congrega a objetores e insumisos asediados por una turba de agitadores, aparece muerto el que a todas luces es el lider del grupo de amigos. El caso es asignado al inspector Harvey Marmion y a su escudero Joe Keedy, que inician una investigacion plagada de giros e intrigas. ¿Cual sera el movil del brutal asesinato? En principio todo apunta al rechazo del pacifismo; sin embargo, intuyen que tras este crimen puede haber otros motivos ocultos.

1860. Cae la fría y oscura noche en la campiña de Dorset. Ha llegado el momento. Rebecca Tullidge va a escapar de su desgraciado matrimonio y a reunirse con John Bedloe, el policía ferroviario con quien mantiene un apasionado idilio. Pero el encuentro no va como habia planeado. Su amante yace muerto en las vias del tren. Robert Colbeck, de Scotland Yard, no piensa dejar pasar la oportunidad de resolver este caso. No sera sencillo. Al investigar el turbio pasado de la victima, los sospechosos se multiplican.

When fire destroys their London theatre, Lord Westfields players must seek out humbler venues in the countryside. But company manager Nicholas Bracewell is distracted by a shocking tragedy: a mysterious messenger from his native Devon is murdered by poison. Though the messenger is silenced, Nicholas understands what he must do: return to his birthplace and reconcile some unfinished business of the past.The rest of Westfields Men, penniless and dejected, ride forth with him on a nightmare tour that will perhaps become their valedictory, dogged as they are by plague, poverty, rogues, and thieves. And among the sinister shadows that glide silently with them toward Devon is one who means Nicholas never to arrive . . .

Theatre troupe Westfields Men take on a new actor, Francis Quilter, after reaching new heights of success. But with the new member, brings new trouble. Quilters father, Gerard, is on trial for the murder of an enemy, but he denies the charge and Nicholas Bracewell sets about proving his innocence. However, Bracewells loyalty to Francis drives a wedge between the players. Who will clear the Quilter family name? On their quest for the truth, they stumble across an unlikely ally, who may just hold the answers theyre looking for.

Three powerful Norman lords and a dispossessed Saxon thegn watch their steeds race close to the forest of Woodstock, each lusting for a win. But the first horse past the post has an empty saddle and his rider is lying in a copse with a knife in his back. Ralph Delchard and Gervase Bret, Domesday commissioners on behalf of the King, are guests of the Sheriff of Oxford while they settle a land dispute. But soon their attentions are focused on a stretch of grass outside Woodstock where a murderers secrets are to be found.The solution will not be easy; from the powerful lords with their dynastic ties, to the downtrodden Saxons, living beneath the heavy Norman yoke, Oxfordshire is teeming with malice, hatred and struggles for power. More than one man has reason to wise the rider of the black stallion unseated from his horse. But who would go so far as murder?

It is 1709, and Europe is in the midst of the coldest winter for a century. France is suffering profoundly: with her people starving and her army rattled by mutiny and desertions, King Louis XIV is at The Hague, searching for peace with the English on almost any terms. To assist these negotiations, the Duke of Marlborough sends Captain Daniel Rawson on a dangerous mission to Paris to seek out a package of vital information that could secure an advantageous peace deal for England.Yet when the peace talks collapse, Daniel is again embroiled in a dangerous adventure behind enemy lines And as the French army regains its strength and a bloody encounter looms at Malplaquet, Daniel faces his most murdering battle yet.

Pentonville Prison. Wally Hubbard is serving a long sentence for arson. But after befriending and tricking one of the officers, Hubbard makes an audacious escape. Inspector Marmion, the detective who arrested Hubbard, is warned to watch his back, but it seems that Hubbard has another target in his murderous sights.However, the investigation is mired in confusion, the identities of killer and victim become increasingly ambiguous. An inmate at an internment camp who might be a spy sending intelligence to the Germans complicates matters further, and the multiplying manhunts, as well as Marmions concern for his injured and withdrawn son Paul, leave the detective desperate and perhaps with too many threads to untangle.

January 1916. Britain is on the brink of enforcing conscription. Eligible young men who have not yet signed up to fight are despised as conchies and shirkers, subjected to hatred and verbal abuse. Cyril Ablatt, leader of Shoreditchs group of conscientious objectors, makes a rousing speech at a meeting of the No-Conscription Fellowship, refusing to be an instrument of slaughter in a khaki uniform.When Cyril is brutally bludgeoned to death, Scotland Yard detectives Inspector Marmion and Sergeant Keedy are assigned to the case. As the pair build up a portrait of Cyril, they unearth an intriguing private life behind the mans saintly facade. It soon becomes clear there are plenty of suspicious characters with motives for the killing.Meanwhile, public sympathy is lukewarm. Some people even claim that a conchie deserves to die if he wont fight for King and Country. And in the wake of the murder, three close friends of Ablatt fear that they may also be under threat. Marmion andKeedy will have to work fast to find the killer before any more deaths occur . . .

When seventeen-year-old Bertha is found in a holly patch, dead from a snakebite, her premature death shocks and stresses the entire town of Canterbury. Her father succumbs to a suicidal rage, and the news devastates the leper colony at Harbledown, where Bertha had charitably spent much of her time. On the day that Berthas body is discovered, Norman soldier Ralph Delchard and lawyer Gervase Bret arrive in Canterbury to settle a land dispute between the archbishop and the head of the abbey. Newly married Ralph hopes to tour the famous cathedral and surrounding countryside with his bride, Golde, a beautiful Saxon. But their honeymoon is cut short, and Delchards investigation into the property claim is upended when astonishing clues demonstrate that Bertha was in fact murdered. Ultimately, Ralph Delchard and Gervase Bret must look for a force more vicious than a mere snake.

Ralph Delchard, a soldier who fought at the Battle of Hastings, and Gervase Bret, a talented lawyer, have been commissioned by William the Conqueror to look into irregularities brought to light during the compilation of the Domesday Book, the great survey of England. Their investigations take them throughout the kingdom, but the pair often find themselves embroiled in more sinister mysteries in the towns they visit. The Kings work is a dangerous business.The small village of Maldon is controlled by the wealthy and rapacious Fitzcorbucion family. When the eldest son, Guy, is found murdered, his father demands justice and will stop at nothing to get it. Ralph Delchard and Gervase Bret arrive into a charged atmosphere and are entangled in a case far more dangerous than their original task.

Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester, is enraged when his hawk is killed by an arrow in the Forest of Delamere. When two poachers are caught, he orders their execution yet neither of them fired the arrow. As Ralph Delchard and Gervase Bret come to Cheshire to settle a series of disputes between Church and State, they are guests of the Earl. But when they explore the castle and discover that the Prince of Gwynedd is being held there as a hostage, a number of questions arise. Who is trying to rescue him? Why is Idwal, the over-zealous Welsh priest, lurking in the city? And whose arrow is responsible for a gruesome human death in the forest?

Araminta Jewell is one of the beauties of her day. Even her marriage to the staid and ugly Sir Martin Culthorpe has not discouraged her hordes of admirers. It is during her first sitting for a portrait painted by the fashionable French artist Jean-Paul Villemot that the architect Christopher Redmayne meets the lovely Lady Culthorpe, although he has heard much about her through his brother Henry, one of her most ardent pursuers. Before the portrait can be finished and revealed, however, Sir Martin is murdered. Joining forces with his good friend, the puritan constable Jonathan Bale, Christopher embarks on a quest to discover the killers real identity. In his latest Restoration mystery, Edward Marston, the master of historical detail, reveals the dark and often debauched depths of seventeenth-century London society.

A maritime mystery from Edward Marston, author of the bestselling Railway Detective series.New York, 1908. While waiting to embark on the Caronia, the Cunard Lines famous ocean liner, private detectives George Dillman and Genevieve Masefield are startled to witness the boarding of a man and woman in shackles. They discover that these prisoners are being brought back to England by Scotland Yard to face trial for murder. Over the course of the crossing, while managing purse-snatchers, burglars and drug traffickers, Dillman and Masefield come to believe that the captured couple may not be the vicious criminals some might think. But pursuing the hunch that they are innocent becomes harder when a killer strikes on board. Dillman and Masefield will need all their wits to navigate the waters ahead. Previously published under the name Conrad Allen, the Ocean Liner series sets sail for a new generation of readers.

SOLDIER OF FORTUNE CAPTAIN DANIEL RAWSON FACES HIS TOUGHEST BATTLE YETDespite winning a resounding victory at the battle of Oudenarde, the Duke of Marlborough finds his position as captain-general threatened by political enemies back in England, and his campaign to strike deeper into French Flanders is stalled at the siege of Lille, the pearl of fortresses. To help facilitate the new Allied strategy, Captain Daniel Rawson is given the treacherous task of entering Lille undercover to steal vital plans. Meanwhile, in England, Daniels beloved Amalia is herself under siege - a dangerous admirer is determined to have her, even if he has to have Daniel murdered first.As the weather worsens and Lilles famed defences appear to be holding, Daniel has to fight against one of his own allies, dwindling supplies, weakening morale, French patrols and a hired assassin. He must battle bravely on or risk losing everything . . .

A vicious rivalry threatens to cause chaos for Lord Westfields Men when the onstage duels between Owen Elias and Sebastian Carrick become ever more realistic. However, it is an axe that splits open Sebastians head one night in a Clerkenwell alley.Company book holder Nicholas Bracewell, accustomed to damage control, begins to investigate the victims death and learns that in life, he was prone to make enemies from his weakness for women and his unwillingness to settle his debts. A web of deception has in fact been spun that stretches from lowly to high ranking courtesans, all the way to the Virgin Queen.

The fiery star of the company of players called Lord Westfields Men, Laurence Firethorn, is hot for a lady, wife of the Lord Mayor elect. A tryst at Londons Nine Giants Inn is arranged. Meanwhile, the lugubrious landlord of the actors home base is laid even lower by a plot to take over ownership of the inn. A young apprentice actor is subjected to a horrible assault and a waterman pulls a mangled corpse from the Thames.The drama comes to a climax at the annual Lord Mayors show as his barge moves grandly down the river....

Winter approaches and Westfields Men are out of work. When their widowed patron decides to marry again, he chooses a Danish bride with vague associations to the royal family. Since the wedding will take place in Elsinore, the troupe is invited to perform as guests of King Christian IV. One of the plays they select is The Princess of Denmark - and it will prove a disastrous choice. Westfields Men soon find themselves embroiled in political intrigue and religious dissension. Their patron, who has only seen a miniature of his future bride, is less enthusiastic when he actually meets the lady, but he can hardly withdraw. Murder and mayhem dogs the company until they realize that they have a traitor in their ranks. It is left to Nicholas Bracewell to solve a murder, unmask the villain, and rescue Lord Westfield from his unsuitable princess of Denmark.

London, Autumn 1916. When he slips out of a house in the early hours of the morning, Simon Wilder is too preoccupied to realise that he is being stalked. As he walks along the street, lights begin to dim as a warning that theres another Zeppelin attack. Guns begin to pound away as British aeroplanes attack the Zeppelin. Suddenly, it bursts into flame and lights up the whole sky. The crowds cheer as the great fireball drops slowly down and crashes in a field but the one person unable to watch is Simon Wilder. While he is staring up at the sky, he is stabbed to death and left in an alleyway. It will prove to be a very puzzling case for Inspector Marmion and Sergeant Keedy...

London, February 1918. A burglary in Limehouse in the small hours of the morning has escalated into a sinister siege between a band of thieves and the authorities, and a police constable lies dead. Detective Inspector Harvey Marmion and Detective Sergeant Joe Keedy hasten to the scene where attempts at talking the men into surrendering have been met with stony silence. When the door is eventually battered down, Keedy bravely leads the way in. Then a gunshot is heard: Keedy has been hit.While his partner is rushed to hospital, Marmion is on the trail of the burglars. Keedy, however, remains in the sights of the murderous thieves and the clock is ticking as Marmion delves into the secrets that lie behind this fatal incident...