Showing results by author "S Butler" in All Categories

DC Sophie Jones was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Viciously bludgeoned one night in a dark alley, she is left fighting for her life in hospital, leaving no clues as to why she was there or what might have motivated the attack. For Detective Karen Hart, fiercely protective of her young protégée, this is already deeply personal: an attack on Sophie is an attack on the whole team. When a car workshop near the crime scene is linked to local mobster Quentin Chapman, the man Hart has spent years trying to bring down, it’s hard not to jump to the most obvious conclusion.

Detective Jack Mackinnon has his work cut out trying to track down missing student, Anya Blonski. As Mackinnon follows the trail of obsession and murder to the shady owners of the Star Academy, who thrive on society's obsession with reality TV shows, he realises the fame they offer comes at a price. When a second girl goes missing, Mackinnon is forced to consider a serial killer may be stalking the city.

When two young girls disappear from their primary school, the village of Heighington is put on high alert—and not for the first time. Called in to investigate, Detective Karen Hart is sure that parallels with a previous disappearance are anything but coincidental. DS Hart is still reeling from a case she tried and failed to solve eighteen months ago, when a young woman vanished without a trace. She’s no nearer to the truth of what happened to Amy Fisher, but with two children missing now, too, the stakes have never been higher.

A man is found bludgeoned to death in woodland by the village of Canwick, and the close-knit community is sent into shock. Detective Karen Hart, still haunted by the tragic loss of her husband and daughter nearby, is brought in to investigate the horrific murder. It soon becomes clear that dark secrets lie behind Canwick’s unspoiled appearance. When Hart begins to suspect that a modern-day slavery ring has been hiding in plain sight among the villagers, she faces a race to find proof before the culprits slip from her grasp.

When decomposed human remains are discovered in a suitcase behind a locked door in the home of an elderly man, Detective Karen Hart thinks the facts speak for themselves. That is, until she finds the warning: It’s time to pay for your crime. The body belongs to a former teacher, Oliver Fox, who vanished from the village thirty years earlier. Hart’s instincts tell her there is something untoward about this rural Lincolnshire community—especially when she uncovers evidence suggesting that, although Fox was a victim, he certainly wasn’t innocent.

On a hot August day, Abbie’s best friend is murdered, and her goddaughter, Sienna, disappears. Abbie is desperate to find and protect Sienna, but unanswered questions haunt her every move.

When Detective Karen Hart hears a scream echoing out of beautiful Lincoln Cathedral one snowy evening, she is the first officer on the scene. In the chapel a man lies murdered, a bloody cross carved into his forehead. A note to the police from the murderer, signed by "The Cleanser", confirms their worst fears: this sadistic slaying is the first of many. When early leads become dead ends, Karen starts to wonder if there’s a link to a rumoured conspiracy within police ranks - particularly when an abrasive new officer is assigned to the case.

A late summer heatwave seems to have triggered an unusually high number of suicides. As the dead bodies pile up, DS Jack Mackinnon and the rest of MIT realise things aren’t as straightforward as they seem, and when similar letters are found at the scene of each "suicide", Mackinnon is convinced they are dealing with a serial killer. A killer who is determined to deliver his own deadly justice.

Two years ago, Beth turned her back on her three-year-old niece for just a few seconds. She disappeared without a trace. One day, Beth receives a photograph from an anonymous number; she is sure it's a photograph of her niece. She is determined to find her and bring her home. But someone isn't pleased when Beth returns, and they will do what it takes to get rid of her for good.

Detective Karen Hart is finally getting her life back on track—enjoying her new relationship and dealing with the grief in her past. Then someone from her counselling group asks for help locating a missing friend, Phoebe Woodrow, who went out partying and never came home. Karen wonders if Phoebe’s disappearance might be related to a recent spate of women having their drinks spiked. As she digs deeper, she finds out that Phoebe’s work in medical research involved a shifty alliance with Quentin Chapman, a menacing local gangster—but it was also about to make her a fortune.

Detective Jack Mackinnon’s career is in serious trouble. Still in the Detective Chief Inspector’s bad books and excluded from the Major Investigation team, Mackinnon is assigned the case nobody wants. As Mackinnon investigates, he discovers a horrifying link to a crime committed a decade ago. Not forgotten. And never forgiven...

A man is found poisoned by the deadly toxin aconite. A note found at the scene leads Detective Sergeant Jack Mackinnon to a University of Oxford laboratory, where staff and students are desperate to hide their association with the victim. As Mackinnon gets closer to the truth, he finds his own family could be at risk.

When a woman is abducted from a quiet suburban street and bundled into the back of a white van, the only witness to the crime is a child with a reputation for telling tall tales. The police doubt the girl’s story, except for Detective Karen Hart, who is determined to follow her instincts—perhaps because the shy little girl reminds her of the daughter she’s still grieving. When a playing card is found at the scene, Karen finds her first clue. And when a second card is found at the home of a missing woman, Tamara, Karen finds her victim.

When two teenage girls vanish without a trace from an educational retreat at Chidlow House in Lincolnshire, the students and teachers are put on high alert. Called in to investigate, Detective Karen Hart questions everyone who came into contact with the two girls, Cressida and Natasha, in the days leading up to their disappearance. Stories of Chidlow House being haunted abound, but Hart - still coming to terms with the suspicious circumstances surrounding the tragic loss of her own family - knows that while the house might be otherworldly, the crime is grimly real.

A family outing to Tattershall Castle comes to a chilling end when eleven-year-old Tommy Burton disappears without a trace in broad daylight. All that remains in his place is a small blue teddy bear. DS Karen Hart and her team are called in to investigate the unusual circumstances—but for DI Morgan the crime scene is eerily familiar.

When a murder victim is found with an unusual wooden disc beneath their tongue, speculation is rife. Though clues suggest ritual murder and supernatural goings-on, DS Jack Mackinnon knows the perpetrator is very real. He believes the solution to the case lies in the victims’ personal lives, but while investigating, the team hit obstacles at every turn.

In the dead of night, four teenagers taking a shortcut through an archaeological dig site find a woman’s lifeless body in a muddy trench, her hands and neck locked in a medieval device known as a Shrew’s Fiddle. It doesn’t take long to see that these are no ancient remains: the woman was killed just hours earlier.

When a dead body is discovered in a house near the university, Detective Chief Inspector Jack Hogan and his team are left baffled by the viciousness of the assault. And with very little to go on, the questions quickly mount up. But, when another victim turns up with the same distinguishing mark etched on their skin—one that links the victims to an anarchist group—it becomes clear that a depraved and calculating serial killer is at large. With the murderer always one step ahead, time is of the essence and DCI Hogan must act fast before another life is taken.

When Kev's girlfriend is killed in a hit-and-run, he thinks he's suffered the worst. Haunted by his past, Kev attempts to put his life back together, throwing himself into his new relationship with Stella and his job as a literary agent. Then a book lands on his desk that changes everything. And he quickly realises his nightmare has only just begun.

London in the early nineties is a hotbed of political activism and intrigue, and times are changing fast - too fast for DCI Rick Bailey, who is starting to think he cannot keep up. But then a young woman goes missing in the run-up to Christmas, and he's convinced Alice's disappearance is related to an unsolved murder that has haunted him for the last three years. He stumbles upon a suspect connected to all the clues, among them a care worker facing betrayal, a cemetery worker hearing music that does not play, an activist running from himself and a blind man who sees more than anyone else.