DescriptionUsing the first-hand expertise she has gained through writing the best-selling Dr Kay Scarpetta novels, Patricia Cornwell has used the demanding methods of modern forensic investigation to re-examine the contemporaneous evidence in the Jack the Ripper murders. These include state-of-the-art DNA testing on various materials, computer enhancement of watermarks, and expert examinations of hand-writing, paper, inks, and other relics. She has also used her knowledge of profiling on the possible suspects, as well as consulting experts in the field. On presenting her conclusions to a very senior Metropolitan Police Officer, she learned that had the investigators of the time been presented with the facts she has unearthed her suspect would definitely have been arrested and would probably have faced trial. He was the artist Walter Sickert.
DescriptionA girl's body lies, posed, on the pale sand of a Hamburg beach, a message concealed in her hand. "I have been underground, and now it is time for me to return home..." Jan Fabel, of the Hamburg murder squad, struggles to interpret the twisted imagery of a dark and brutal mind. Four days later, a man and a woman are found deep in woodland, their throats slashed deep and wide, the names "Hansel" and "Gretel", in the same, tiny, obsessively neat writing, rolled tight and pressed into their hands. It becomes clear that each new crime is a grisly reference to folk stories collected almost two hundred years ago by the Brothers Grimm. The hunt is on for a serial killer who is exploring the darkest, most fundamental fears hidden in ancient fairy tales. A predator who kills and then disappears into the shadows. A monster we all learned to fear in childhood.
DescriptionYoung detective Anna Travis has been assigned to her first murder case, and it couldn't be a more horrific set of killings. They began eight years earlier; now the body count is up to six. After another body is found, Anna stumbles on a vital piece of evidence which links one man to the killings. However, he's a household name, a much-loved actor, and an arrest would create a media frenzy. And, if he was found to be the wrong man, his career would be finished, as well as Anna's.
DescriptionVenetia Aldridge QC is a distinguished criminal lawyer. When she secures the acquittal of a young man, Garry Ashe, from the charge of murdering his aunt, a series of bizarre events is set in motion, starting with her own murder. Adam Dalgliesh, the poet Scotland Yard commander, uncovers the reason for Venetia's death, and its connection with the subsequent murder of her office cleaner. The secrets, locked in the past, which gave rise to these violent events have all come to light when, in a startling climax in the East Anglia marshlands, Garry Ashe is cornered by the police and shot dead. Includes interview with P.D. James.
