Murder at the Bridge (Detective Inspector Skelgill Investigates Book 20), page 33
Murder at the Meet
‘A KILLER IN OUR MIDST?’ cried a newspaper headline to commemorate the disappearance of Mary Wilson. It is two decades since Britain’s first mass DNA sweep failed to incriminate a single local male. Mary was listed merely as a missing person.
Now archaeologists have unearthed human remains in Cummacatta Wood. The forensics match – age, sex, fragments of clothing... and dental records. But the murder hunt has only just begun when an outsider, a convicted serial offender confesses to the crime.
DI Skelgill is unconvinced. Into the fabric of this tightly knit community are woven ancient alliances, intrigues, and enmities. Where his predecessors failed, he is compelled to unravel the prophetic headline – for he believes the killer is still at large.
Murder on the Moor
Virile; handsome; ruthless. When gamekeeper Lawrence Melling takes over at traditional Lakeland sporting estate Shuteham Hall he soon ruffles the feathers of not only elderly Lord Edward Bullingdon and his younger model wife Miranda, but also their adult offspring and fellow estate workers.
Meanwhile local conservationists perceive an existential threat to rare hen harriers nesting on nearby Over Moor. And when Miranda’s jewellery worth a six-figure sum goes missing, and a trusted employee inexplicably disappears, DI Skelgill and his team lift the lid on a plot that simmers with envy, greed, lust and revenge.
Just as a simple solution beckons, in a further diabolical twist it seems the prey turn the tables on the predator. But is it an audacious murder or an innocent accident? Is this the work of a lone actor or a conspiracy? To fathom the mystery Skelgill finds himself in the firing line, whichever way he turns.
Murder Unseen
Nobody saw her. Nobody can find her.When 37-year-old Lisa Jackson sets out for work one Friday morning she is in high spirits. Things are going well with her new boyfriend. But when she does not reach her desk, or answer her mobile phone, her colleagues and family raise the alarm.Suspicion immediately falls on co-worker Ray Piper. A married man, he and Lisa have recently ended an affair. But steely-eyed Piper denies any knowledge of Lisa’s disappearance.Yet as the police begin to piece together her last movements – and match them to those of her ex-lover – a narrative emerges that leads to only one possible conclusion.With Skelgill and DS Leyton otherwise engaged, it falls to DS Emma Jones to head the investigation – a chance for the bright young detective to shine. But soon she finds herself engaged in a deadly battle of wits with a cold and calculating adversary.Will she hold her nerve? Will she succeed alone? And what will happen if she does not find Lisa – for no body undermines her case.As the trial date nears, hopes begin to fade – Lisa is gone without trace. And a scheming killer may walk free.
Murder in our Midst
A Ouija board spells out ‘MURDER’ and next morning wealthy widow Daisy Mills is found drowned at a Lakeland beauty spot. Was this a warning from beyond the grave, or an agent provocateur among the house party?
Could the earlier death of successful businessman Simon Mills really be the accident it seemed? And was it by coincidence that the same clique of old school friends had met before each tragedy?
Pitched into this forest of uncertainty, Skelgill and his team glean perplexing clues – an anonymous phone call, a hidden tracking device, a secret assignation – but hard evidence is thin on the ground and alibis watertight.
For want of a clear view, the detectives follow the money trail – and a tenuous case begins to take shape. But Skelgill is uneasy. Is the group closing ranks, or are long-held enmities subtly being played out around them?
Try as they might, the questions persist. Were there two murders? Just one murder? Or no murder at all? It falls to DS Leyton to bemoan the impasse: “Guvnor – it’s a right old kiss and cuddle.”
Murder Unsolved
A BLIND EYE TURNED, AN INJUSTICE DONE. High in lonely Swinesdale, notorious burglars Jake and Boris Baddun perish in a burnt-out stolen Mercedes. Known associate Dale Spooner leaves his biological signature and the predatory DI Alec Smart moves in for the kill. Spooner is convicted, and now languishes in jail.
A rumour reaches Skelgill: Spooner is innocent and can prove it – a cast-iron alibi, a video on a hidden mobile phone. But Spooner will not talk. At stake is the safety of his girlfriend Jade Nelson and their young child.
While Spooner remains the fall guy, the real killer walks free – and organised crime pulls the strings. Realising the jeopardy, unable officially to re-open the case, Skelgill and his team walk a tightrope. Their challenge: to penetrate a mystifying wall of silence, and ‘unsolve’ a murder – while nobody notices.
Murder in the Fells
EVIL LIES UNDETECTED When shepherd Jud Hope finds an American passport in a fox’s earth, a connection is made to an unidentified fatality – an elderly female walker who fell to her death in a treacherous rocky gill near Ambleside.
Meanwhile, a spate of ‘nighthawker’ incidents sees ancient monuments desecrated under cover of darkness. The spotlight falls upon Derek Shaw, a museum curator exploring Cumbria’s Roman heritage.
Onto this stage emerges a second senior American hiker, Dorothy Baum. The intrepid Dorothy is here to meet her online sweetheart, Professor Felix Stowe-Upland, an expert in classical archaeology.
But when Felix fails to materialise, Dorothy falls in with an eccentric walking companion, ‘Kooky Cathy’, as she comes to call her. Derek Shaw seems to be shadowing the pair. Felix remains elusive, stringing Dorothy along with promises of his arrival.
Skelgill and his team realise Dorothy is in jeopardy. But they are two steps behind and the clock is ticking. She is somewhere in the fells, but where? The chain of Roman forts that she follows stretches from Ravenglass on the southwest coast, to Penrith in the far northeast.
And Dorothy seems to be covering her tracks.
Bruce Beckham, Murder at the Bridge (Detective Inspector Skelgill Investigates Book 20)
