Constable Hazel Best attracts a sinister new admirer in this absorbing police procedural. When does a secret admirer become a stalker? When chocolates on the doorstep give way to the sound of an intruder on the stairs? When the victim's friends are waylaid in the dark and beaten bloody? When she receives photographs memorializing these events? Or when people start dying? For Constable Hazel Best, the pivot point is the attack on her friend Gabriel Ash. That's when she focuses all her ingenuity on finding the man responsible. Her police colleagues would be more help if they weren't already occupied with two murders – but assistance does arrive from an unexpected source. In the end, though, Hazel must deal with the stalker alone. And more than her own life will depend on the outcome ...

A brutal attack on a family friend leads to something darker and deeper for DC Hazel Best and Gabriel Ash. No one ever said: "See Norbold and die." So why would a man from DC Hazel Best's past cross England in order to get himself beaten senseless in this uninspiring Midlands town? Everyone assumes he was looking for Hazel. She can't think why he would; and when David Sperrin wakes up, he can't think why he would either. Amnesia – or something to hide? Flashbacks as Sperrin's battered brain recovers only make the case more troubling. His sharpest memory is of a girl dying in his arms. But who, and how? And why is there no body, no witnesses, no missing persons report? Struggling to make sense of the situation, Hazel turns to her close friend Gabriel Ash for help. But Ash has problems of his own: one of his own ghosts has returned to haunt him. And the stakes are so high there's no one, not even Hazel, he can confide in . . .

In this fast-paced thriller, Deadly Virtues, acclaimed writer Jo Bannister proves once again why she is considered "one of the genre's best" (Booklist)The town of Norbold, England is famous for its low crime rate, thanks to the zero-tolerance policy of Chief Superintendent John Fountain. And Norbold’s newest police recruit, Hazel Best, is happy to help keep it that way. But numbers never tell the whole story, do they? Jerome Cardy knew he was going to die. He also knew that it would be made to appear like an accident. He might not be able to prevent it, but Jerome was determined to make sure that someone knew what was going to happen—even if that someone was a man with a concussion lying with his dog  in a jail cell next to him. After Jerome is found beaten to death by a fellow inmate in another cell, Ash is unable to forget Jerome’s last awkward words to him: “I had a dog once. Othello. That was its name. Othello.” Certain there is a hidden message in these words, Ash is determined to discover the truth. But it won't be easy—no one believes his account of that night. And Hazel Best must decide whether pursuing the truth is worth her career. From BooklistEvery village has its eccentrics. In Norbold, England, it’s Gabriel Ash, known locally as “Rambles with Dog.” Usually speaking only to his therapist and his dog, Patience, Ash is, at best, an unreliable witness to a beating in a police holding cell. Law student Jerome Cardy’s last words—“I had a dog once. Othello”—were spoken to Ash. The party line is that Cardy was in the wrong place at the wrong time, beaten to death by a violent cellmate. It’s only new police recruit Hazel Best who believes Ash when he says that Cardy told him he was going to die in that police station. Against the advice of the revered chief superintendent, John Fountain, Best investigates and finds ties to Nobold’s last-standing Mob boss and Fountain’s nemesis, Mickey Argyle. Ash is a broken man whose body keeps shuffling along even though his heart and soul were crushed years ago. His heartbreaking backstory is cleverly teased out over the course of the novel. Bannister departs from her Brodie Farrell mysteries (Liars All, 2010) in this captivating stand-alone thriller. --Karen Keefe Review“Stubborn morality and acid-tinged whimsy drive this superior stand-alone from British author Bannister….Bannister’s plotting is neat and her characterization smooth, with just enough irony to keep people from seeming ostentatiously noble.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)“Bannister’s engrossing tale is both thrilling and poignant, not easy to do in one work [and is] not to be missed.” —*RT Book Reviews "The versatile Bannister has crafted yet another stunning, paranoia-doused psychological suspense novel guaranteed to keep readers glued to their seats." —Library Journal* (starred review)

The town of Castlemere is under siege. Someone is making very dangerous-and convincing-threats to destroy the city if it doesn't come up with a ransom of one million pounds. Now time is Castlemere's enemy-it seems the town's bells are tolling not for the passage of time but of people. With the casualty rate rising, the pressure is on Detective Superintendent Frank Shapiro to catch the blackmailing killer. But the mastermind slips through his fingers just as these precious hours slip through Castlemere's. Along with her professional troubles, Detective Inspector Liz Graham finds she has problems of her own. Panic in the town is at the boiling point when someone suggests her gentle art teacher husband is to blame, and her world begins to crumble. To make matters worse, her sergeant, Cal Donovan, disappears from his autumnal cruise into the watery wastes of the Castlemere Levels. Cal's deserted boat has been located near the tine village of East Beekham, a flyspeck on...

A case of mistaken identity spells trouble for Gabriel Ash and Hazel Best in this intriguing mystery. A kidnap attempt outside the school gates in broad daylight convinces Gabriel Ash that his renegade wife is trying to steal their sons from him. Only the intervention of his friend Constable Hazel Best kept them safe. It's a simple if alarming explanation, but is it the truth? Hazel uncovers disturbing information about another crime, the repercussions of which are still threatening innocent lives seventeen years later. Once again Hazel finds herself at loggerheads with her superiors. Did they really conspire to protect a murderer? And this time she isn't getting the support she needs from Ash. She'd thought they were kindred spirits: now she's not sure what his motives are. One thing is certain: with her life in imminent danger, Hazel's going to need friends like never before ...

No one seems to care too much about a sixteen-year-old prostitute known as Charisma--until she is found floating by the docks with her throat slashed. Inspector Liz Graham, new to Castlemere and interrupted from unpacking to lead the investigation, faces a distressing investigation into Charisma's hard life and hideous death.Only yards from the place where Charisma's body is discovered, workmen have been raising a tent to house traveling evangelist Michael Davey's week-long revival meeting. Questioning the crew uncovers nothing, until Sergeant Cal Donovan spots a face from his childhood, a known IRA heavy who is officially dead....Before he has time to decipher this unlikely clue, another girl turns up dead.Liz tackles the dynamic reverend himself, who has become an overnight sensation in Castlemere. Against her better judgement, she is fascinated by him. But he couldn't possibly have had anything to do with the deaths of these young girls, could he? Could he?

“Bannister is one of the undersung treasures of the mystery genre.” ---Chicago Tribune Although she has been trying to put her work, running a one-woman detective agency, on hold while she cares for her new baby, Jonathan, Brodie soon learns that taking time off is not as easy as it sounds. Not only does Jonathan have a rare disease that may leave him blind, his father, Detective Superintendent Jack Deacon, is going after the nastiest crook in town, Joe Loomis, who quickly retaliates by threatening Brodie and little Jonathan. When Loomis bleeds to death while trying to utter a name that begins with the letter “D,” Brodie isn’t quite sure it is just a coincidence and worries Deacon may have become entangled in yet another crime. But Loomis had plenty of enemies and Deacon isn't the only one who had reason to do him harm. When Dev Stretton, another suspect, turns out to be linked to Brodie’s best friend, Daniel Hood, she has no choice but to take up the search for the killer. As events spiral out of control and entanglements weave together in complex patterns, Brodie must learn to keep her friends close, and her enemies closer still.

Four years ago, Gabriel Ash was working with the British government investigating hijackings in Somalia. But when his wife and sons disappeared, presumably taken—and probably killed—by pirates, his life fell apart. He has sudden reason to hope when a senior policeman suggests that his sons might still be alive—until that policeman is murdered. Still, there seems to be some link to a local operation, and Ash, no longer a government agent, is determined to find it.Meanwhile, his friend Hazel Best has been having a tough time of her own. A police constable whose last case ended with her shooting someone dead, she is just beginning to regain her balance. Hazel and Ash are both beginning to take more of an interest in the outside world, when a neighboring archaeologist decides to dig up a curious mound of earth near the ice house on his land. It might be a burial mound, he thinks. It is, but not the ancient one he expects; it holds the bones of a little boy...

Jo Bannister's startling and sinister tale of international intrigue, suspense, and terror. In a colourful mosaic that stretches from the quiet country lanes of England to the brutal torture chambers of South Africa, Bannister explores the darker sides of world politics and the human psyche. Joel Grant is an expatriot white South African who once fought side by side with his black countrymen. Two years ago he paid the price for his convictions—tortured at the hands of Joachim De Witte, head of South African Intelligence. Now, Grant has been kidnapped from his refuge in the English countryside by an agent of the South African government. It seems De Witte lies in a hospital bed close to death, and by a bizarre twist of fate his survival depends on Grant's return to Pretoria. Liz Fallon, the beautiful woman who nursed Joel back to health, is determined to save him once again. In Pretoria, she sets out to trace the web of blood and violence that...

You can waste a lot of time looking. . . . Or you can pay me to find it for you. Brodie Farrell is a busy woman, what with running her one-woman firm Looking for Something? and raising her daughter. So on her night off, all she wants is to spend a relaxing evening teaching her friend Daniel Hood to drive. But the evening takes a disturbing turn when Daniel hits a young woman who seems to appear out of nowhere. The girl, Alison Barker, is mostly uninjured, but before she runs off she accuses Daniel of trying to kill her.The other man in Brodie's life, Detective Superintendent Jack Deacon, isn't much help; he's too busy investigating a dangerous new drug called Scram. But when Alison Barker turns up at the hospital, not as a result of the car accident but because of the lethal amount of Scram in her system, Jack is forced to get involved. Alison claims that the death of her father, a local purebred horse dealer, was murder---and that unless someone...

When a young woman is found dead at the bottom of a boat in the Castlemere Canal, completely naked, and full of crack cocaine, the inhabitants of the dockside town are shocked. How could such a thing happen in Castlemere? The town's trio of police, detectives Frank Shapiro, Liz Graham and Cal Donovan, are concerned with answering a more basic set of questions: Who is this woman? How did she get on that boat? Why? The detectives quickly determine that she was thrown off the roof of a local hotel -- where an international business convention was being held, complicating the list of suspects. Suddenly, the deaths of a sheep from a local farm and of a homeless man throw the case off course -- someone in Castlemere is using live objects for target practice. Shapiro finds out firsthand that there is a professional killer on the loose, leaving Graham and Donovan to try and piece this puzzling case together alone. When a panicky phone call from a friend of the dead woman offers to shed light on these bizarre events Liz sends Donovan to fetch her. It should take only a few hours, but even that may be too long... From Publishers WeeklyBannister deftly examines the dedication and determination of three types of hirelings--a prostitute, an assassin and a British police officer--in this eighth, expertly crafted entry in her Castlemere, England, series (Broken Lines, Forecasts, Feb. 22, etc.) . When a prostitute falls from the roof of a hotel, the police aren't sure whether it's accident, suicide or murder. But when they see her brutally beaten body and learn of the incredible amount of heroin in her system, they realize they have a savage murderer on the loose. Since an international business conference was taking place in the hotel at the probable time of the woman's death, Detective Superintendent Shapiro hones in on the conference's organizer, Philip Kendall, for information. The DS fears that the killer will hire an assassin to stop those who know his identity, and, indeed, someone shoots at Kendall. Then Shapiro is seriously wounded protecting the man from a second shot. Since Kendall protests that he knows nothing about the woman's murder and can't understand why anyone would want to kill him, the investigation seems to be at a standstill--until the dead woman's friend, who has been in hiding, phones to say she was with the victim while she was being beaten. Quirky Detective Sergeant Donovan is sent to pick up prostitute Maddie Cotterick so that she can identify her friend's killer. But they, too, are followed by the persistent assassin. Will Donovan be able to deliver Cotterick into the hands of his superiors, or will the assassin prove to be an inescapable instrument of destruction? Bannister pours on the tension as the ill-equipped Castlemere police force battle for justice in what seems to be a no-win situation. (Dec.) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalCastlemere (England) detectives Shapiro, Graham, and Donovan face a tough case: a murdered prostitute with ties to a local international business convention. A character-based police procedural from an expert. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.