Behind that curtain

Sample

Georges Simenon

Madame Maigret telephones to alert her husband that a frightened young man has called at their home and will wait there to see Maigret at his midday meal. When Maigret returns home, he is annoyed to discover that his mysterious guest has left, and more disturbed that one of his prized revolvers has gone with him. Monsieur Maigret is dismayed - but hardly surprised - when a corpse turns up in a railway trunk, shot by his own gun. His search for the elusive and unidentified visitor sends Maigret across the channel to London to investigate one murder... and prevent another.

Sample

Janet Neel

"The death of shady businessman William Price during what seems to be a bizarre sexual experiment in auto-asphyxia begins the unravelling of a web of deceit, fraud, drug abuse, and domestic violence. Detective John McLeish is distracted by having to work with an old flame whilst his usually supremely confident wife Francesca, currently volunteering at a refuge for women escaping violent partners, finds herself attracted to a new flame. The biggest threat posed by the investigation just might be collateral damage to McLeish's marriage."-- cover page [4].

Sample

Francesca Kay

Set in London in the early eighties, award-winning novelist Francesca Kay's third novel tells the story of a spy who falls for the wrong woman. What happens to a man who has his ear pressed to the lives of others but not much life of his own? When Stephen Donaldson joins the Institute, he anticipates excitement, romance and new status. Instead he gets the tape-recorded conversations of ancient communists and ineffectual revolutionaries, until the day he is assigned a new case: the ultra-secret PHOENIX. Is PHOENIX really working for a foreign power? Stephen hardly cares; it is the voice of the target's wife that mesmerizes him. -- Publisher.

Sample

Andrew Martin

From the author of The Necropolis Railway and The Blackpool Highflyer comes another ingenious thriller featuring Jim Stringer. It is winter 1906 and Jim has been promoted from sleuth to official railway detective for York station. His first day on the job, the mysterious Lost Luggage Porter, "a human directory to everything in York," tips him off to a group of railway thieves. Jim is instructed by his Inspector to infiltrate their gang and is drawn along into their plot to carry out a robbery and make their getaway across the Channel. Soon Jim finds himself swept off to Paris with the thieves, his plight made even worse when threats are made against his wife. Can Jim get to get to her before the villains do?