Commemorating 75 years since the Empress of Crime's first book the third volume in a set of omnibus editions presenting the complete run of 32 Inspector Alleyn mysteries. DEATH IN A WHITE TIE The season has begun. Debutantes & chaperones are planning their gala dinners
- & the blackmailer is planning strategies to stalk his next victim. But Chief Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn knows that something is up & has already planted his friend Lord Gospell at the dinner. But someone else has got there first...OVERTURE TO DEATH It was planned as an act of charity: a new piano for the parish hall & an amusing evening's entertainment to finance the gift. But all is doomed when Miss Campanula sits down to play. A chord is struck a shot rings out & Miss Campanula is dead. it seems to be a case of sinister infatuation for Roderick Alleyn...DEATH AT THE BAR A midsummer evening
- darts night at The Plume of Feathers a traditional Devonshire public house. A distinguished painter a celebrated actor a woman graduate a plump lady from County Clare & a local farmer all play their parts in a fatal experiment which calls for the investigative expertise of Inspector Alleyn...

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In the spring of 1940 the mutilated body of a homosexual is discovered in a street near the Bordeaux railway station. It looks like a straight-forward sex crime but when Superintendent Lannes is warned off the investigation his suspicion that there is a political motive for the murder seems justified. In defiance of authority he continues working on the case. & then another body is found... Meanwhile the Superintendent has other troubles. His eldest son Dominique is at the Front his wife Marguerite is depressed & when the Battle of France breaks out Bordeaux is filled with refugees fleeing the war. Suddenly civilian crime seems of little importance compared to the chaos that ensues. As Bordeaux becomes an occupied city Lannes chief suspect is untouchable protected by a relative in the Vichy government. Lannes himself is threatened with blackmail on account of his Jewish friends & Dominique is taken prisoner. Common sense should make Lannes abandon the investigation but honour & a natural obstinacy lead him to pursue it. However as events turn increasingly bleak Lannes begins to doubt it can ever be solved... ...

One of the wildest & most beautiful regions in Italy known for its rugged coastline & mountains Calabria is also home to the deadly Ndrangheta. An organised Mafia crime operation more feared in Italy than the Cosa Nostra or the Camorra it is shrouded in mystery. Chief Superintendent Michele Ferrara of Italys elite Anti-Mafia Investigation Department is tasked with investigating the deaths of several Calabria citizens
- some in New York some in the small isolated villages that dot the Calabrian countryside. To get to the bottom of the case Ferrara has to infiltrate the village of San Piero d Aspromonte deep in the Calabrian mountains. & there he must put his life on the line to learn more about a family at the centre of an ancient bloody feud...
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When the death up at the big house is announced to the village of Compton Dando few are surprised. Given that its the home of an unlikely bunch of New Age oddballs perhaps it was a only a matter of time before one of them came to a bad end. The verdict: an accident. But only weeks later another death is reported & this time theres no doubt about it
- its murder. To Chief Inspector Barnaby hurriedly summoned to the scene it is immediately apparent that the case is far from straightforward the suspects being among the most bizarre he has ever encountered...
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When the body of a theology student is found on a desolate stretch of East Anglian coast his wealthy father demands that Scotland Yard should re-examine the verdict of accidental death. Commander Adam Dalgliesh agrees to pay a visit to the young man's theological college St Anselm's a place he knew as a boy expecting no more than a nostalgic return to old haunts & a straightforward examination of the evidence. Instead he finds himself embroiled in intrigue conflict & dangerous secrets as the college is torn apart by a sacrilegious & horrifying murder... Beautifully-written...consummately plotted". (" Observer"). "" Death in Holy Orders" is pure pleasure". (" Spectator"). " Michael Jayston does an excellent job of breathing life into Adam Dalgliesh". " Daily Express". This is a suspenseful story of murder in a clerical college from bestselling author P.D. James read by Michael Jayston." ...

Florence 1965. A man is found murdered a pair of scissors stuck through his throat. Only one thing is known about him
- he was
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It is Holy Week in Seville & the heat is rising. A murderer is on the loose & visiting academic Maria Gutierrez can see something in his ways that the police are missing. But her insight does nothing to help her popularity in the force
- & draws her to the attention of the killer. The Angel Brothers two controversial modern artists are found dead in a killing that emulates a famous painting & an old lady remembers the atrocities of the Civil War. Maria was supposed to be an observer to the police investigation. But her own past in the city soon puts her one step ahead of the cops.. .and in the killers sights. First published as Semana Santa in 1996 by Harper Collins.
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Five years after Charles II's triumphant return to London there is growing mistrust of his extravagant court & of corruption among his officials
- & when a cart laden with gunpowder explodes outside the General Letter Office it is immediately clear that such an act is more than an expression of outrage at the inefficiency of the postal service. As intelligencer to the Lord Chamberlain Thomas Chaloner cannot understand why a man of known incompetence is put in charge of investigating the attack while he is diverted to make enquiries about the poisoning of birds in the King's aviary in St James's Park. He becomes even more suspicious of his employer's motives when he discovers that the witnesses he needs to interview have close links to the business conducted in the General Letter Office activities more firmly centred on intercepting people's mail than delivering it. Then human rather than avian victims are poisoned & Chaloner knows he has to ignore his master's instructions & use his own considerable wits to defeat an enemy whose deadly tentacles reach into the very heart of the government: an enemy who has the power & expertise to destroy anyone who stands in the way.. .
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Now a major TV series: Quirke starring Gabriel Byrne. When newspaper magnate Richard Jewell is found dead at his country estate clutching a shotgun in his lifeless hands few see his demise as cause for sorrow. But before long Doctor Quirke & Inspector Hackett realise that rather than the suspected suicide ' Diamond Dick' has in fact been murdered. Suspicion soon falls on one of Jewell's biggest rivals. But as Quirke & his assistant Sinclair get to know Jewell's beautiful enigmatic wife Francoise d' Aubigny & his fragile sister Dannie as well as those who work for the family it gradually becomes clear that all is not as it seems.. . Against the backdrop of 1950's Dublin Benjamin Black conjures another atmospheric beguiling mystery. ...

A fascinating look at the history & grandeur of bullfighting Death in the Afternoon is also a deeper contemplation on the nature of cowardice & bravery sport & tragedy & is enlivened throughout by Hemingways pungent commentary on life & literature. Seen through his eyes bullfighting becomes an art a richly choreographed ballet with performers who range from awkward amateurs to masters of great grace & cunning. ...