A New York Times Notable Book: CWA Gold Dagger winner Peter Dickinson revisits his alternate British monarchy, ensnaring the imagined royal family in a dark conspiracy of kidnapping, politics, scandal, and murder Britain s beloved Princess Louise is a grown woman now, married to commoner Piers Chandler and enchanted by their infant son, Davy. While visiting a certain Mrs. Walsh a mysterious old woman claiming to be a royal relation, a Romanov who escaped the terror of the Russian Revolution Louise and little Davy are nearly taken captive by would-be kidnappers. Through pluck and quick...

A London woman taking her grandson to the park finds her lonely life disrupted by murder in this award-winning author's "gripping thriller" (Reginald Hill).

Poppy Tasker never imagined this would be her life at age fifty: divorced, living alone, and stuck caring for a tiny grandson while his mother is busy seeking public office. Sad and resentful, Poppy feels completely detached from the nannies she's now forced to associate with when she brings little Toby to the park to play. But her discomfort is replaced by a creeping dread when she notices a stranger watching her and...

An aging aristocrat on her deathbed and her longtime devoted lover explore the dark events of their shared past in hopes of uncovering a tragic, elusive truth in this masterfully evocative British mystery from CWA Gold Dagger winner Peter Dickinson Lady Lucy Vereker Seddon is dying of a terminal illness when something she hears on the radio reminds her of her younger, darker days and inspires her to question her dearest friend and former lover, Paul Ackerley, about his role in a series of past family tragedies. There was the strange death of Lucy s brother-in-law, the brute Gerry Grantworth,...

The twisted circumstances surrounding an unspeakable crime, an old man s fortune, and a production of Shakespeare s "The Tempest" come to light four decades on in this masterful tale of greed, deception, and murder by CWA Gold Dagger winner Peter Dickinson Behind his practiced facade of cheerful sophistication, the renowned actor Adrian Waring is a haunted man. The ghost that torments him is from an earlier era, when a world war raged and Adrian was still Andrew, the guest and possible heir of his rich uncle, Arnold Wragge. Wragge had returned from the diamond mines of South Africa with a...

In this evocative tale of suspense from CWA Gold Dagger winner Peter Dickinson, a British diplomat s wife in Nigeria inadvertently precipitates a senseless tragedy, and six decades later, her son becomes caught up in a maelstrom of violent political corruption Filmmaker Nigel Jackland has come to northern Nigeria to work on a new project: a documentary based on the personal diary entries of his mother. Sixty years have passed since Betty Jackland first accompanied her husband, Ted, to this colonial African backwater, resolving to be a perfect helpmate and wife to Britain s district officer in...