1967. In a quiet village in the wild lands of the Scottish borders, disgraced academic Cordelia Hemlock is trying to put her life back together. Grieving the loss of her son, she seeks out the company of the dead, taking comfort amid the ancient headstones and crypts of the local churchyard. When lightning strikes a tumbledown tomb, she glimpses a corpse that doesn't belong among the crumbling bones. But when the storm passes and the body vanishes, the authorities refuse to believe the claims of a hysterical 'outsider'. Teaming up with a reluctant witness, local woman Felicity Goose, Cordelia's enquiries all lead back to a former POW camp that was set up in the village during the Second World War. But not all Gilsland's residents welcome the two young women's interference. There are those who believe the village's secrets should remain buried ... whatever the cost.

When you're dreaming, it's dangerous to wake up . . . An addictive psychological thriller from David Mark, currently writing "at the top of his game" (Publishers Weekly) Liz Zahavi is desperate. Desperate for her controlling partner, Jay, to stay with her, to actually love her. Desperate to be well again, after a recent diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder. Desperate to be understood. Private therapy seems like the answer to her prayers, but Liz doesn't even make it to her first appointment. Lost in a maze of country roads, she crashes her car, only to be rescued by a brooding local farmer . . . who just keeps on rescuing her. Attractive and intense, Jude is a dream, and Liz doesn't want to wake up. But four years ago, Jude's perfect, pretty wife died alone in the woods near their house. And as Jude's past boils into the present, threatening to destroy their new happiness, Liz begins to wonder what exactly her new man is capable of . . . and how...

A gripping short story in the DS McAvoy series by David Mark, bestselling author of the Richard & Judy pick DARK WINTER. A Bad Death takes place between books 4 and 5 in the DS McAvoy series,Taking Pity and Dead Pretty. Will Blaylock died while on day release from prison. It was a bad death. But accidents will happen. Detective Sergeant McAvoy isn't convinced, though. And he owes a debt to Will's cellmate Owen Swainson: a debt formed in blood and fear when they came together to catch a killer. But their search for a murderer will rip open old wounds, and force old enemies out of hiding...

Adam Nunn's search for his true identity has horrifying consequences in this compelling psychological thriller. A badly mutilated body has been discovered in a remote woodland pond on the Essex borders – a location known to be the haunt of the ruthless crime gang that ruled London in the 70s. When one of the victim's hands is found nearby, forensic tests reveal a number scrawled on the palm. It is quickly identified as the National Insurance number of struggling family man Adam Nunn. As Adam is arrested in connection with the murder, it emerges that the dead man was a private investigator he had hired to find out the identity of his birth parents. Just what did Larry Paris discover that got him killed? As Adam seeks the truth surrounding his origins and promises justice for the mother he never knew, he is drawn into a lurid criminal world of violence and violation, reprisal and merciless death. Torn between the man he wants to be and the man he...

Killer secrets. Killer crimes - the unmissable new DS McAvoy thriller from the Sunday Times best-selling, Kindle chart-topping author"McAvoy is a true original" Mick HerronDS Aector McAvoy is on a well-deserved family holiday when the news reaches him that he's been attacked and left for dead on one of Hull's most well-to-do streets.It comes as something of a shock. But not as much as the discovery of who's really been attacked - and his growing realization it's no coincidence he's far from home, in an isolated, rural campsite, on today of all days.McAvoy's superior officer - and best friend - DS Trish Pharaoh has been keeping secrets. Secrets that are catching up with her.Secrets that could kill them all . . .David Mark brings Hull to dark, brutal life in this gripping novel in the critically acclaimed DS McAvoy series - a perfect pick for fans of Denise Mina, Val McDermid and Peter Robinson.

'Mark is a wonderfully descriptive writer' Peter James Cumbria, 1967. Grieving the loss of her son, Cordelia Hemlock is in the village graveyard when lightning strikes a tomb, giving her a glimpse of a fresh corpse that doesn't belong among the crumbling bones. But when the body vanishes, the authorities refuse to believe her, a relative newcomer to rural and ancient Upper Denton. Cordelia persuades Felicity, her new friend from the village and the only other person to have seen the corpse, to join her unofficial investigation. But the other villagers don't take kindly to their interference. There are those who believe the village's secrets should remain buried . . . whatever the cost.

Read the prequel to the Sunday Times bestseller Dark Winter, where DS Aector McAvoy's journey began... A city united in grief.A journalist ready to kill to keep his secrets.A copper capable of darker deeds than murderers.An unworldly detective fighting to save an innocent man. Welcome to Hull Newly appointed DS McAvoy is an outsider to his new force and must confront his darkest fears, while hunting a killer that nobody else believes in. In a landscape at once tender and brutal, McAvoy must tread the path between the darkness and the light, before facing an enemy who will brand him for life. Praise for David Mark: 'Dark, compelling crime writing of the highest order' DAILY MAIL 'Breathtaking' PETER MAY 'Truly exhilarating and inventive. Mark is a wonderfully descriptive writer' PETER JAMES 'Brilliantly written – a cracking story' RICHARD MADELEY, Richard and Judy Book...

How much would you pay to survive? Mum-of-three Ronni Ashcroft had just pieced her life back together after her husband left. On a remote spur of the Scottish Highlands, she kept her successful guest house going and even met a new man, Bishop. But it turned out that Bishop had secrets. He had shady connections and shadier plans to use the coastal town as a European gateway for drugs, guns – and something far worse. Now he's disappeared, and Ronnie wants answers. Is he in trouble or simply ignoring her? Was she just his play-thing from the start? And, most importantly, is he dragging them both into something that neither of them will survive? Praise for David Mark: 'Dark, compelling crime writing of the highest order' DAILY MAIL 'Breathtaking' PETER MAY 'Truly exhilarating and inventive. Mark is a wonderfully descriptive writer' PETER JAMES

One girl's missing. One girl's dead. A stunning new novel from one of Britain's most original crime writers, Dead Pretty finds Detective Sergeant McAvoy and his boss Trish Pharaoh grappling with vigilante killers, unsolved murders, and several twists to keep them—and readers—guessing along the way. Nine months have passed since the disappearance of Hannah Kelly, and Detective Sergeant Aector McAvoy is failing to convince himself that she is just a missing girl and not a murder victim. As he visits the spot where she was last seen, turning the case over in his head, McAvoy receives a phone call: another girl has been found dead. As McAvoy looks for connections between the two cases, his boss Trish Pharaoh is preoccupied with troubles of her own. Reuben Hollow—a man convicted of murder with the help of perjured testimony from the Humberside Police—has just been released from prison after a high-profile wrongful conviction suit,...

If you go, you're in for a dark surprise. Thirty years ago, three girls followed a stranger into the woods. Only two returned. The surviving pair have never been able to remember what happened or what the fate of the third girl was. Local rumours talk of hippies and drugs and mystic rituals, but no one has learned the truth. This story is just what Rowan Blake needs. He's in debt, his journalistic career is in tatters – as well as his damaged body – and he's retreated to the Lake District to write. Yet even Rowan isn't prepared for the evil he is about to unearth, for the secrets that have been buried in that wood for far too long... Praise for David Mark: 'Dark, compelling crime writing of the highest order' DAILY MAIL 'Breathtaking' PETER MAY 'Truly exhilarating and inventive. Mark is a wonderfully descriptive writer' PETER JAMES 'Brilliantly written – a cracking story' RICHARD MADELEY,...

The past comes back to haunt MI6 secret agent Cordelia Hemlock in this spy thriller from Sunday Times bestselling author David Mark - "Top-level espionage fiction" (Booklist Starred Review)Cordelia Hemlock is teetering on the verge of joining MI6 when she meets the enigmatic Walt, a high-ranking member of the Secret Intelligence Service, who tells her: They won't want you to do well. They won't ever trust you. They don't trust me and I'm one of them. She takes this as a challenge rather than a warning. She wants to protect the nation. Serve Queen and country. Who would turn down such a glorious opportunity?Fourteen years later, Cordelia is desk-bound after finishing an undercover operation and going quietly mad with boredom. So when the call comes through on the top-secret Pandora line - so-called after the locked-box the telephone is kept in - she answers it.It's Walt. No longer officially MI6,...

DS Aector McAvoy investigates his darkest, most brutal case yetThe call comes in before DS Aector McAvoy has had time for breakfast. The news is bad: A body. Found in the woods out at Brantingham. The reality is even worse.The young man's mutilated corpse lies tangled in the roots of a newly fallen tree, two silver Roman coins nailed through his sightless eyes. Who would torture their victim in such a brutal manner - and why?DS McAvoy makes the victim a promise: I will find answers. You will know justice. But justice always comes at a cost, and this time it may be McAvoy's own family who pay the price.David Mark brings Hull to dark, brutal life in this gripping novel in the critically acclaimed DS McAvoy series - a perfect pick for fans of Denise Mina, Val McDermid and Peter Robinson.