POSIE PARKER MYSTERY
Murder and the Scent of Nutmeg
(Book #16)
What if everything you hold dear is blown apart by one fateful meeting?
Valentine’s Day, 1926
When Posie Parker, London’s premier female Detective, accidentally runs into an old family acquaintance, she is persuaded to leave town immediately and return to the place of her childhood roots – the beautiful and bleak Norfolk coast – to investigate a closed-room murder mystery which local police believe has a foregone conclusion.
But have the police got it right? Posie must race against the clock as the Murder Trial is scheduled to begin in just two days’ time.
A women’s right’s activist, the courageous Girvan Briskow, will almost certainly face the gallows if she is convicted of her wealthy father-in-law’s murder. Both the murder victim and the chief suspect are already known to Posie from years before, but that knowledge doesn’t make things easier, and Posie needs to push aside old hostilities in order to get at the truth.
But is the truth too much, and too dark, for her to bear?
And is she just imagining it, or is Posie’s presence resented in Norfolk? Does someone there wish Posie real harm, perhaps even want her dead?
And why has Richard Lovelace, Posie’s husband and the Chief Commissioner of New Scotland Yard, started acting strangely lately? Posie is forced to try and plot some marriage-saving tricks. But will they work? And should she even bother?
Set against the brooding Norfolk shore, MURDER AND THE SCENT OF NUTMEG is an atmospheric and golden-age historical murder mystery.
Murder on the Night Train to Paris
(Book # 15)
What if the City of Light holds nothing but darkness?
January, 1926
Invited aboard the glamourous Night Train to Paris, and tasked with investigating the disappearance of her best friend, Dolly Cardigeon, Posie Parker suddenly finds herself right in the middle of a murder!
Controversial society beauty, Lady Caroline Greenlow, is on her way to Paris Fashion Week. She always has a habit of rubbing people up the wrong way, but things take a dreadful turn when she is poisoned at dinner, and then another murder occurs soon after.
Just who exactly are their fellow passengers? Why is the Night Train so empty? And why did Lady Caroline have to die?
Is everything really as it seems?
As she starts to look for her friend Dolly, in a quest which takes in the seedy artists’ quarter of Montparnasse, the glamorous Champs-Elysees, and the glitter of the clubs of Montmartre, Posie realises that she must pursue justice for Caroline Greenlow too, and find the killer.
And as she searches for answers regarding both women, Posie realises that danger is hot on her own heels, and someone is following her at every corner.
But who? And why? And can she get out of Paris alive?
Murder through the Mirror
(Book #14)
A magic show with death as the star guest…
A snow-bound and freezing London, December 1925
Posie Parker, London’s premier female Private Detective, is only just back in town when she receives an unexpected visitor.
The mysterious magician, Count Olli Onneri, pupil of the legendary American magician Harry Houdini, invites Posie to take part in the opening night of his show at the nearby Holborn Empire. She will be helping him with a ‘magic mirror’ trick, the like of which has never been seen before.
When Posie accepts – in the cynical hope of reviving her flagging public profile – she enters a world which is not just about pretty doves being pulled out of hats, but one in which real danger lurks.
In a case where nothing is quite as it seems, the long shadows of the past must be stripped away in order to get at the truth.
But sometimes, the truth can be devastating.
Murder and the Mermaid
(Book #13)
Sometimes the truth is as slippery and hard to grasp as a mermaid…
Set in the smuggling town of Rye, Sussex in 1925, the novella takes place at The Mermaid Inn, a suitably atmospheric hotel, and involves a plot against the life of Posie’s old friend, Rufus Cardigeon. But Posie being Posie, there are other mysteries and other life-changing secrets which crop up, and the threat of mortal danger is a very real.
Murder in a Chelsea Garden
(Book #12)
The perfect perfume has a heart most deadly…
I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I have loved researching and writing it.In this latest novel, Posie finds herself inside a perfume house (the fictional House of Sinne) where a brand-new perfume is about to be launched, and famous guests abound. And, as usual, murder and trouble are just around the corner. In oodles.
Murder in Tuscany
(Book #11)
Under the Tuscan sun, ice-creams melt and dark secrets unravel…
This is a closed-house (or rather, Guesthouse!) setting, the whole novel located in the beautiful medieval city of San Gimignano, Tuscany, where Posie is invited as a wedding guest, only to find herself in the middle of a dangerous wedding party, at which a murderer strikes again and again.
Murder in the London Lights
(Book #10)
A STAR IS IN TOWN. BUT IS HE ABOUT TO BE MURDERED IN A BLAZE OF LIGHT?
December 18, 1924.
London glitters during a snowstorm, and a mysterious famous guest has been invited to switch on the Christmas lights at Piccadilly. But when he asks Posie Parker for help, she finds herself thrown into a dazzling world of American movie stars, high-octane glamour at the Café de Paris, Death Threats, and very, very complicated private lives. And with the ceremony itself overshadowed by danger, and an unknown killer in their midst, Posie Parker must use all of her wits and resources to ensure things run to plan. But it’s a countdown to murder…
Marriage is Murder?
(Book # 9)
YOU’RE INVITED!
Posie Parker is finally getting married in this stand-alone short mystery story by bestselling author L.B. Hathaway.
The date is Saturday 6th December, 1924. It’s snowing heavily outside, but in the little white Swiss Church in London, packed to the rafters with beautifully-dressed guests, everything is just right. All going to plan.
Or is it?
Where is the normal vicar? Who has changed all the flowers? And where the blazes is Posie’s beloved groom?
Don’t miss this short story. Goes perfectly with a glass of something sparkling!
Murder on the White Cliffs –
(Book #8)
You can hunt. But do you really want to find?
Bonfire Night, November 1924
Posie Parker once failed a client. And now that client is dead.
Elsie Moncreiff, a Housekeeper, has fallen from the White Cliffs of England in a howling storm. But the question is, was it bad luck, or was it murder?
Armed with just her guilty conscience and a less-than-helpful Sergeant Rainbird for company, Posie vows to get to the bottom of things. But what she finds is not at all what she was expecting.
Elsie’s place of work was the glamorous White Shaw on the English Riviera. Her employers were England’s best fashion designers, whose weekly parties are almost as famous as their clothes.
Against the backdrop of Bonfire Night, Posie must piece together what was happening down here. It seems that Elsie was not a normal Housekeeper. She was up to something odd. But what?
As intruders appear, and the body count climbs, Posie realises there’s only one man she can rely on: her fiancé, Chief Commissioner Richard Lovelace of Scotland Yard. Together, can they catch the killer before they strike again?
The Saltwater Murder
(Book #7)
MURDERED WITH A BOX OF TEARS…
London 1924
Posie Parker has been called to her most baffling case yet.
The seventh book in the Posie Parker Mystery series.
Amyas Lyle, London’s top young lawyer, has been found with his head in a box of poisoned saltwater.
It’s the perfect murder. But who hated him enough to do such a thing?
Following a trail of strange notes, all of which speak of the sea, and saltwater, Posie travels from London to the seaside resort of Whitley Bay, looking for answers. But nothing can prepare her for what she finds there.
Can Posie find Amyas Lyle’s cold-blooded killer before further deaths take place? Can she protect those Amyas has left behind?
As Britain celebrates an Olympic summer, will Posie manage to enjoy a holiday romance of her own? And just what is wrong with Inspector Lovelace? Why is he behaving so oddly? Is it anything to do with his new, smart appearance and some very carefully starched shirt collars?
Murder in Venice
(Book #6)
WHO DO YOU TRUST WHEN SIMPLY EVERYONE IS WEARING A MASK?
A Winter Wedding, Venice, 1923
Posie Parker, London’s premier female Private Detective, is getting married…
But on arrival in Venice, Posie finds she is walking into a nightmare: her lodgings on the Grand Canal are consumed by fire, her famous fiancé is preoccupied, and most bizarrely of all, her hostess, the Countess Romagnoli, confesses she has a stalker and fears for her life.
Tasked with protecting the Countess, Posie investigates the other house-guests and finds that there are disguises everywhere.
And when a terrible murder is committed, with the prospect of the killer striking yet again, Posie realizes she must separate out the shadows of the past and the realities of the present in order to uncover the murderer before it is too late. In her most dangerous case yet, Posie works alongside both familiar and new colleagues in order to get at the truth.
But will the truth come at a terrible price?
Murder of a Movie Star
(Book #5)
LIGHTS, CAMERA, MURDER…
London, 1923
As England swelters during the hottest summer on record, Posie Parker, Private Detective, is summoned to Worton Hall Film Studios, where she steps into the heart of a sinister new mystery.
Silvia Hanro, the famously beautiful movie star, has received death threats alongside her morning coffee, and Posie is tasked with protecting her. Aided by her good friends Lady Dolly Cardigeon and Chief Inspector Richard Lovelace, Posie soon realises that behind the cheap canvas sets and the dreamy glamour of Worton Hall Studios a dreadful secret lays buried, and traitors lurk everywhere.
And then, good as their word, the killer strikes…
Can Posie unravel the clues and uncover the murderer before they kill again?
Can she protect herself and her friends in a world where quite literally nothing is as it seems? And can she rescue her own engagement to the gorgeous Alaric Boynton-Dale from the brink of disaster by using a few of the tricks she has learnt on set?
The Vanishing of Dr Winter
(Book #4)
Can the past really come back to haunt you? Ally to go digging up the past?
When Posie clears a space in her diary to visit the University town of Cambridge on a personal mission, she finds more than she bargained for, as the past seems to confront her at every turn.
She finds herself unwittingly taking on a dangerous new case in which she must try and find out what happened to Dr William Winter, a brilliant Cambridge doctor who disappeared five years earlier in the chaos of war. But in doing so, Posie is forced to confront her own painful memories of the Great War.
And just how safe is it really to go digging up the past?
Murder at Maypole Manor
(Book #3)
Lies, Spies, Film Stars and Murder
This is a classic action-packed country house mystery, which sees Posie accompany the maverick Scotland Yard Detective, Inspector Richard Lovelace, to a glittering New Year’s Eve party at an English stately home, packed full of glamorous guests. Posie and the Inspector are working deep undercover on a dangerous mission…but trouble is brewing from many quarters. Oh, and to make matters even simpler, there’s a murderer on the loose…
With a blizzard raging outside, join Posie and the Inspector as they try to find the killer before he attacks again.
The Tomb of the Honey Bee
(Book #2)
Like your mysteries as sweet as honey but with a real sting in the tail?
Summer 1921
Posie Parker thought she was about to enjoy a restful summer. But this is no ordinary summer holiday…
When famous explorer Alaric Boynton-Dale disappears, Posie uncovers many dark secrets: an aristocratic family torn apart by hatred, a bizarre murder at an English country house, and a cryptic clue left behind by Alaric which is sweet as honey, but deadlier than poison.
In an action-packed case where simply everyone has a motive for wanting Alaric dead, Posie’s investigation starts off in the English Cotswolds, takes her through the glamorous South of France, on to the mysterious island of Ortigia in Italy, and then into the Tombs of the Pharaohs in Egypt.
But is she being followed by a cold-blooded killer? And where has Len, her almost-boyfriend, disappeared to?
Murder Offstage
(Book #1)
When Posie Parker’s childhood friend is robbed of a priceless jewel and becomes a suspect in a cold-blooded murder case, budding detective Posie vows she will clear his name. Aided by her seriously gorgeous assistant Len, Posie soon realizes things are not quite as they seem, and the darkly-glamorous world of London’s theatre and glittering nightclubs prove far more dangerous than she ever could have imagined.
Just who exactly is the dangerous Lucky Lucy Gibson? And who is it she has killed in the lobby of the Ritz Hotel? And more importantly, what on earth has happened to Mr Minks, the much-loved office cat?