HQ
Books published by HQ
The House of Whispers
Grace is back in Abi’s life, dripping toxins into an already fragile status quo.
Reviewed on 25 September 2021 by Kati Barr-Taylor
Right To Kill
DS Joe Romano is back in Leeds after an unsuccessful sojurn in France for Interpol. Now working in Missing Persons, and feeling dulled by life, he is given a case that will test his humanity as well as his detective powers – and his heart.
Reviewed on 21 August 2021 by Kerry Hood
The Alibi Girl
Joanne - doctor, author, or single mother scraping a living - can now add woman with a target on her head to her many personae. It is probably the only believable one.
Reviewed on 25 June 2021 by Kati Barr-Taylor
The Marlow Murder Club
A shocking event leads to a trail of murder that only Judith, as a veteran setter of cryptic crossword puzzles, can help to solve.
Reviewed on 25 June 2021 by Viv Beeby
The Wives
Thursday’s husband has two other wives that he sees on different days of the week, an arrangement that she accepts at first but then begins to doubt. Seth is charming to her and never violent, but then she starts to believe that something might be seriously wrong and that he might be violent with the others.
Reviewed on 24 April 2021 by Ewa Sherman
A Stranger on the Beach
Caroline already regrets her revenge one-night stand, because Aidan can’t or won’t accept the idea of one night.
Reviewed on 13 March 2021 by Kati Barr-Taylor
The Stranger Game
Rebecca’s boyfriend is missing. But she is unsure if he is licking his wounds, or if has he become another victim of an increasingly dangerous game sweeping Los Angeles and beyond.
Reviewed on 19 September 2020 by Kati Barr-Taylor
Cut to the Bone
Unlikely social media personality Violet Armstrong, famed for barbecuing in a bikini to extol the virtues of eating meat, has disappeared, and feelings are running high amongst a group of animal activists. DI Meg Dalton has the unenviable job of investigating the local abattoir where the missing woman worked.
Reviewed on 31 July 2020 by Linda Wilson
The Family
Oak Leaf Farm may not provide the sanctuary Laura hoped for. It may be the place she cannot escape.
Reviewed on 23 May 2020 by Kati Barr-Taylor
Take It Back
Former barrister Zara Khaleel is branded a traitor to her religion when she starts working with a white teenage girl who accuses four seemingly well brought up Muslim boys of rape.
Reviewed on 26 October 2019 by Linda Wilson
She Was the Quiet One
Twins Bel and Rose are starting in the same dorm at their new boarding school. They are very different from each other and make different choices in both subjects and friends. Dorm heads, Heath Donovan and wife are also new, brought in to turn this difficult dorm around.
Reviewed on 12 October 2019 by Sylvia Maughan
Out of the Ashes
When a fire turns out to be arson, DI Maya Rahman heads the investigation into two deaths, and strongly suspects there might be more to come.
Reviewed on 27 July 2019 by Linda Wilson
A Quarter Past Dead
Some residents of Temple Regis might look upon the new Buntorama holiday camp as a disaster for the seaside town. But not as much as a disaster as a dead woman being found murdered in one of the chalets. It falls to Judy Dimont to work out the twisty plot of dynasties and murder.
Reviewed on 27 July 2019 by Anthea Hawdon
Once a Pilgrim
Former SAS hard man John Carr is now working in private security, his army days behind him, or so he thinks, but some wars never entirely end, as events early in Carr’s military career come back to haunt him and his former comrades.
Reviewed on 13 July 2019 by Linda Wilson
Dead Man's Daughter
When DI Meg Dalton finds a child in a bloodstained nightdress in woods and the child’s father dead in the house with a cut throat, she doesn’t want to believe the young girl is guilty of murder, but all the evidence seems to point to her.
Reviewed on 11 May 2019 by Linda Wilson
Fog Island
Sofia accepts an offer of employment at a mysterious New Age movement. She’s excited about creating a library at its headquarters on an isolated island but gradually becomes aware how impossible is to leave the cult.
Reviewed on 27 April 2019 by Ewa Sherman
In Bloom
No one has ever stopped Rhiannon killing the lowlifes before. But a little voice inside her says things are about to change.
Reviewed on 27 April 2019 by Kati Barr-Taylor
The Angry Sea
Former SAS sergeant John Carr is caught up in a terror attack whilst on holiday in Spain and ends up getting his wish – to track down and take out the men responsible for the atrocity.
Reviewed on 13 April 2019 by Linda Wilson
The Murder Pit
Down-at-heel detective Arrowood and his assistant Barnett are hired to find out why a new bride will not see her parents, but what seems a straightforward case develops into something more sinister.
Reviewed on 13 April 2019 by John Cleal
Home Grown Hero
Javid Qasim helped to foil a terrorist attack but neither MI5, who compelled his assistance, nor the terrorists, are prepared to leave him alone.
Reviewed on 12 January 2019 by Chris Roberts
White Bodies
Callie’s sister needs saving from her toxic husband. And there is only one way …
Reviewed on 12 May 2018 by Kati Barr-Taylor
The Blind
Sam James was warned about how dangerous and unhinged her latest patient is. But to Sam, Richard seems perfectly sane.
Reviewed on 12 May 2018 by Kati Barr-Taylor
Turn a Blind Eye
DI Maya Rahman investigates the murder of the head teacher at her old school amidst cultural tensions in London’s East End.
Reviewed on 14 April 2018 by Linda Wilson
Resort to Murder
Miss Judy Dimont, chief reporter of the Riviera Express newspaper, has a new puzzle to solve and a cub reporter to initiate into the ways of journalism. Lucky then that a juicy story – a mystery death on the beach at Temple Regis – has appeared.
Reviewed on 14 April 2018 by Anthea Hawdon
The Devil's Dice
A man is found dead near a cave system with a sinister reputation. DI Meg Dalton investigates.
Reviewed on 31 March 2018 by Linda Wilson
Head Case
Girls are disappearing, and PCSO Tom Mondrian thinks he’s spotted a pattern that the investigating officers have missed, but no one listens to a lowly PCSO, especially not one with a bullet in his head.
Reviewed on 03 March 2018 by Linda Wilson
East of Hounslow
Javid Qasim is 20-something, lives with his mum and deals a little cannabis. He wears his Muslim faith lightly, until events compel him to become more committed.
Reviewed on 06 January 2018 by Chris Roberts
Woman of State
It is 1991 and the Troubles are still ongoing in Northern Ireland. Maire Anne McCartney, an 18-year-old girl, is asked by her IRA boyfriend to help with the honey trap of a British Special Branch man. She agrees to do so when he promises that there will be no violence – a promise that is not kept.
Reviewed on 14 October 2017 by Arnold Taylor
Give Me The Child
An unexpected night-time visitor and a bag of lies is about to destroy Cat Lupo’s family.
Reviewed on 14 October 2017 by Kati Barr-Taylor
The Riviera Express
The death of one person in a small Devonshire seaside town could be misfortune. Two the same day convinces reporter Judy Dimont that something is going on.
Reviewed on 30 September 2017 by Anthea Hawdon
The Breakdown
Cass Anderson didn’t want to get out of her car that night in the storm. Now the woman she saw is dead.
Reviewed on 16 September 2017 by Kati Barr-Taylor
Sweetpea
Rhiannon is an editorial assistant on a provincial newspaper, and despises her invisibility – except when her lofty morals drive her to kill.
Reviewed on 24 June 2017 by Kati Barr-Taylor
Arrowood
A missing-person case for down-at-heel private eye William Arrowood and his friend Norman Barnett spirals into an investigation of sexual exploitation, perversion, murder and terrorism.
Reviewed on 27 May 2017 by John Cleal
Sometimes I Lie
She can hear every word. She knows she is in danger. There is nothing she can do.
Reviewed on 29 April 2017 by Kati Barr-Taylor
