This is a tale of money, gambling & sporting obsession; of rogues & rascals, outrageous criminality, aristocratic complacency, & a gripping investigation to expose the most audacious sporting plot of the age. In the early 1840s, Britain was the gambling capital of Europe & the Epsom Derby was attracting countless spectators & many millions of pounds in wagers. It was a time of frenzied speculation, high stakes & low morals. But as the unprincipled Regency era gave way to the high-mindedness of the Victorian period, reformers decided it was time to challenge the murky world of illegal gambling & in 1844, launched the far-reaching Parliamentary Enquiry. When the Derby of the same year ended in chaos, with the two favourite horses doped, the Turfs most dedicated follower & greatest tyrant Lord George Bentinck, took it upon himself to uncover the truth of what happened that day, which led to one of the most sensational court cases of the 19th century. A compelling detective story peopled with low-life aristocrats & high-minded reformers, GENTLEMEN & BLACKGUARDS paints a rich picture of early Victorian society, bringing to light an overlooked turning point in British history. ...

At St Oswald's, a long-established boys' grammar school in the north of Engl&, a new year has just begun. For the staff & boys of the school, a wind of unwelcome change is blowing. Suits, paperwork & Information Technology rule the world; & Roy Straitley, the eccentric veteran Latin master, is finally, reluctantly contemplating retirement. ...

The rich & largely unseen archive of Country Life dates back to 1897. In Gentlemans Pursuits, the doors are thrown open & a host of fascinating details emerge. Country Life contributed hugely to the cult of country sports in late Victorian/ Edwardian Engl&, & there is an enormous wealth of material from the time, of which a choice selection is presented here. Within this volume are found tips on pipe-smoking for discerning males, advice on gun dogs, rules about how to lay on the best shooting lunches (usually involving long trips to Fortnum & Masons), detailed musings on tweed coats & caps, intense discussions on the correct ammo with which to take on a rogue elephant, & all you ever want to know about fishing tackle. ...

If you were to guess how a womanising, middle-aged brewer was murdered, you might say he was shot by a jealous husband or drowned in his own beer
- not savaged by a horse. The strange death of Charles Berney, savaged & trampled to death by a horse on a windswept stretch of moorl&, came as he had apparently settled down with an attractive young wife & was concentrating on developing his business. He may have argued with his wife at her birthday party the night before his death, but when he set off for a business meeting in London the following morning, no one expected him to end up murdered on the moor. How did he get there? The answer comes only after Gently has unravelled one of the most bizarre cases of his entire career
...

Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing, if you can call having too many suspects a good thing. Gently most wade through a torrent of suspects when a body is found floating face down in the river. To George Gently, there is a overwhelming list of people with a reason to hate boat builder & charter fleet owner Harry French. Those with grievances all had a motive but they also had a opportunity to kill him too. What Gently has to work out is which of them had the nerve to smash the victim's skull & dump him in the river. ...

A vintage Bugatti sports car looks graceful & refined from almost any angle
- but not with a corpse behind the steering wheel.
...

Speed makes the bikers feel alive, but murder is the quickest way to die. A five-mile stretch of arrow-straight road outside Latchford acts like a magnet to bikers using the road as a drag strip. When one of the bikers using the road as a drag stip. When one of the bikers is killed in an apparent accident, most people regard it as an inevitable consequence of the kids using drugs & racing bikes for kicks. But the evidence points to the young man ...

The heat is on when a beautiful young woman is found on the beach at the height of summer. Every man in Hiverton knows Rachel Campion. She is the most gorgeous girl to have turned up in the fishing village in living memory. When she is discovered lying dead on the beach, Gently joins the throngs of summer visitors on their annual pilgrimage to the seaside in the midst of a summer heatwave
- & as the temperature soars, the mystery deepens. The long-buried skeleton of a woman is unearthed close to where Rachel's body was found & Gently suddenly has the riddle of two mysterious deaths to solve. Frustratingly, many of the locals, including the secretive brotherhood of fisherman, seem reluctant to talk. Why was Rachel murdered? How is the old skeleton connected with the new crime? Who is the Hiverton Beach Killer?
...

This was no suicide, however it looked
- too many people wanted Adrian Stoll dead. From an embarrassment of suspects, Gently
...