A CAPTIVATING HISTORICAL MURDER MYSTERY SET IN VICTORIAN ENGLAND This is a revised and updated edition of THE MALVERN MURDERS. Before Jack the Ripper terrorized London, Police Inspector Samuel Ravenscroft patrolled the grimy streets of Whitechapel - but he's no Inspector Abberline. Malvern, 1887. Clever and hard-working, Ravenscroft nonetheless has the worst record in the force. He lets a murderer escape during a chase and is banished to the spa town of Malvern for a water treatment to cure his asthma. MURDER FOLLOWS THE INSPECTOR Ravenscroft accepts a dinner invitation from a new acquaintance, Jabez Pitzer. Before the dinner gong can sound, the maid finds Pitzer slumped over his desk - dead. Ravenscroft sees two glasses on a small side table. One has a powdery residue at the bottom and the faint smell of bitter almonds. A BODY IN THE LIBRARY Ravenscroft immediately recognizes the signs - Pitzer has been poisoned. But the local authorities are reluctant to believe there is a murderer in Malvern. He may be recovering his strength, but Ravenscroft has all his wits intact. He finds himself pulled into the investigation. Hungry to prove himself, Ravenscroft is determined to solve the case. But the bodies mount up. Someone is killing local luminaries. WHO WILL BE NEXT? A mysterious woman in black was witnessed speaking to each of the victims. Who is she and why does death seem to follow her? And does a local cartel of businessmen have anything to do with it? RAVENSCROFT IS OUT OF THE SMOKE BUT MALVERN HAS ITS OWN DEADLY FIRES THE MALVERN MURDERS is packed with delicious dialogue, sly humour and Victorian atmosphere. Perfect for fans of M.R.C. Kasasian, E.S. Thomson, Oscar De Muriel and Karen Charlton. MEET THE DETECTIVE Inspector Samuel Ravenscroft, unmarried and over forty, is a detective in the Whitechapel branch of the Metropolitan Police. Painfully asthmatic, he is often overlooked by his superiors in favour of his pushier colleagues. But Ravenscroft is keen to prove himself and strives to overcome his physical limitations. His tools are forthright questioning, close examination of the evidence and personal intuition. He often finds that the solution to many crimes is buried deep in the past. With his trusty Bradshaw, Ravenscroft and his colleague Constable Tom Crabb, travel around the Three Counties, overlooked by the Malvern Hills, bringing criminals to justice. KERRY TOMBS was born near Birmingham, but grew up in various locations in north Worcestershire. After a career teaching in both England and Australia, he moved to Malvern in 1982, where he became a local genealogist, lecturer and bookseller. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT KERRY TOMBS "I found this story very absorbing and hard to put down." Berys "Kerry Tombs knows how to keep your interest until the very end." Delin "Another great book in the series. The author kept you guessing the entire time." Jerry INSPECTOR RAVENSCROFT DETECTIVE MYSTERIES SERIES Book 1: The Malvern Murders Book 2: The Worcester Whisperers Book 3: The Ledbury Lamplighters Book 4: The Tewkesbury Tomb* Book 5: The Droitwich Deceivers* Book 6: The Pershore Poisoners* Book 7: The Upton Undertakers* Book 8: The Herefordshire Hangman* Book 9: The Bromsgrove Bookseller* * Coming soon

"A few weeks before the outbreak of the infamous 'Ripper' murders in 1888 Inspector Samuel Ravenscroft of the Whitechapel Constabulary is sent to the peaceful county town of Worcester to investigate the unexpected disappearance of the cathedral librarian and the priceless medieval manuscript known as the Whisperie. Aided by his former colleague, Constable Tom Crabb, Ravenscroft soon encounters a dark world of murder, lies and deceit within the walls of the ancient cathedral, and gradually uncovers an unsolved mystery dating back nearly forty years." "Meanwhile in London, events are nearing a dramatic climax as the mysterious woman in black attempts to gain her revenge in the darkened alleyways of Whitechapel." "It is not long before the two contrasting worlds of Worcester and Whitechapel become intertwined in unsettling and frightening ways."--BOOK JACKET.

The definitive work on Jack the Ripper and the various theories from the time of the murders to the present day

This is a guide to the main developments in the history of British and Irish literature, charting some of the main features of literary language development and highlighting key language topics.

Georgette Heyer, bestselling Queen of Regency Romance, invites readers to an extraordinary Gothic tale of love, mystery, and intrigue. A surprising invitation Kate Malvern is rescued from penury by her aunt Minerva, who brings her to stay at Staplewood. But the household is strange and strained—Kate's uncle lives in his own private wing, and her handsome, moody cousin Torquil lives in another. A dark family secret As bizarre events unfold and Kate begins to question the reasons for her aunt's unexpected generosity, she has no one to confide in but her cousin Philip. Sympathetic though he may appear, will he tell her what she most needs to know... before it's too late? Praise for Cousin Kate: "Miss Heyer serves up a very different sort of tale in the same period setting, nothing less than a full-fledged Gothic. And a very expert job she does of it, too, complete with a remote and forbidding country house, screams in the night, dark hints of something best left unmentioned... nicely leavened with wit, romance, and wonderful period slang."—Publishers Weekly

In the early morning of New Year's Eve 1921, 12-year-old Alma Tirtschke's naked body was found in Gun Alley, a dead-end Melbourne lane. She had been raped and strangled. In an atmosphere of public frenzy, the police were pushed to find a culprit and charged saloonkeeper Colin Ross with her murder. Rapidly convicted, and with his appeals to higher courts rejected, Ross was hanged - protesting his innocence to the end. Researching the case in 1995, author Kevin Morgan stumbled upon an envelope containing critical evidence: hair samples. During the trial the prosecution claimed hairs found on Ross's blanket matched a sample of Alma's hair. This was the first time such forensic evidence brought a conviction in Australia. Re-examination by modern-day experts has proven the hairs do not match ... Gun Alley is the riveting story of how botched policework, trial by media and lynch-law hysteria spawned a staggering conspiracy to convict and hang an innocent man, and reveals for the first time the vital clues-missed in the original investigation-that point, more than 90 years on, to the true killer. Now updated, this edition documents the extraordinary events leading to the historic pardon and charts the aftermath for the Ross and Tirtschke families as a hanged man's body is recovered from an unmarked prison grave ... ‘Gun Alley is a masterwork of forensic detection.' - Ian Jones ‘This is a winner ... a book written from the heart ...' - Kerry Greenwood

The year is 1665. Black Death ravages London. A killer stalks the streets in a plague doctor's hood and mask... When a girl is gruesomely murdered, thief taker Charlie Tuesday reluctantly agrees to take on the case. But the horrific remains tell him this is no isolated death. The killer's mad appetites are part of a master plan that could destroy London - and reveal the dark secrets of Charlie's own past. Now the thief taker must find this murderous mastermind before the plague obliterates the evidence street by street. This terrifying pursuit will take Charlie deep into the black underbelly of old London, where alchemy, witchcraft and blood-spells collide. In a city drowned in darkness, death could be the most powerful magic of all.

By the New York Times bestselling author of The Bone Clocks and Cloud Atlas | Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize Selected by Time as One of the Ten Best Books of the Year | A New York Times Notable Book | Named One of the Best Books of the Year by The Washington Post Book World, The Christian Science Monitor, Rocky Mountain News, and Kirkus Reviews | A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist | Winner of the ALA Alex Award | Finalist for the Costa Novel Award From award-winning writer David Mitchell comes a sinewy, meditative novel of boyhood on the cusp of adulthood and the old on the cusp of the new. Black Swan Green tracks a single year in what is, for thirteen-year-old Jason Taylor, the sleepiest village in muddiest Worcestershire in a dying Cold War England, 1982. But the thirteen chapters, each a short story in its own right, create an exquisitely observed world that is anything but sleepy. A world of Kissingeresque realpolitik enacted in boys’ games on a frozen lake; of “nightcreeping” through the summer backyards of strangers; of the tabloid-fueled thrills of the Falklands War and its human toll; of the cruel, luscious Dawn Madden and her power-hungry boyfriend, Ross Wilcox; of a certain Madame Eva van Outryve de Crommelynck, an elderly bohemian emigré who is both more and less than she appears; of Jason’s search to replace his dead grandfather’s irreplaceable smashed watch before the crime is discovered; of first cigarettes, first kisses, first Duran Duran LPs, and first deaths; of Margaret Thatcher’s recession; of Gypsies camping in the woods and the hysteria they inspire; and, even closer to home, of a slow-motion divorce in four seasons. Pointed, funny, profound, left-field, elegiac, and painted with the stuff of life, Black Swan Green is David Mitchell’s subtlest and most effective achievement to date. Praise for Black Swan Green “[David Mitchell has created] one of the most endearing, smart, and funny young narrators ever to rise up from the pages of a novel. . . . The always fresh and brilliant writing will carry readers back to their own childhoods. . . . This enchanting novel makes us remember exactly what it was like.”—The Boston Globe “[David Mitchell is a] prodigiously daring and imaginative young writer. . . . As in the works of Thomas Pynchon and Herman Melville, one feels the roof of the narrative lifted off and oneself in thrall.”—Time