This first volume of the Inspector George Gently Collection comprises the original two novels that established Gently as one of Scotland Yard's fictional finest.These are the stories on which the hit BBC TV series was based, written with a charm that conveys Alan Hunter's love of the East Anglian setting and demonstrating his expert use of dialogue to keep the plot moving along at a cracking pace.The first of Gently's cases, Gently Does It, has him enduring the holiday from...

When a dilapidated cargo ship sinks, killing the illegal immigrants packed in below decks, the man responsible goes free, but not for long. Two weeks later hi is found dead in bed with a knife in his back.Human trafficker Thomas Blackburn lived and died in the heart of London's West Indian community and, when the attitude of the local murder squad Chief Superintendent is deemed likely to aggravate race relations, George Gently is called in to oversee the case.But as tempers...

Gently wades through a torrent of suspects when a body is found floating face down in the river.Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing - that's if you can call having too many suspects, too many potential murderers, 'a good thing'. What Gently has to work out is which of them had the cold blooded nerve to smash the victim's skull and dump him in the river.

When small-time gambler and petty crook Steinie Taylor turns up dead in a hopper of flour at a country bakery, Gently has to figure out not only how he got there, but also why his prime suspects all appear to have dark secrets to hide.Why had the deceased villain and two of his friends been spending money like it was going out of fashion? Where had they acquired the cash? Why had they strayed from their usual haunts? Why did Taylor's friends both disappear? In the kind of town wher...

A long-dead climber who comes in from the cold brings murder to the mountain air.Mountaineer Reginald Kincaid was believed to have died during an expedition to climb Mount Everest. It comes as a shock to his fellow climbers when he turns up again 22 years later and the mystery is compounded by the death of Arthur Fleece, Kincaid's climbing partner on the Everest attempt. Fleece falls to his death on Mount Snowdon in an apparent accident, but the feud that had developed between Flee...

She was the most alluring murder suspect he'd ever dealt with, but Gently knew Mimi Deslauriers was key to the execution of an underworld crime boss, and he was determined to prove it.The unflappable Inspector George Gently has become a household name through the hit BBC TV series starring Martin Shaw. These are the original books on which the TV series was based, although the George Gently in Alan Hunter's whodunits is somewhat different to his TV counterpart. He is more calculati...

The last thing you need when you're on holiday is to become involved in a murder. For most people, that would easily qualify as the holiday from hell. For George Gently, it is a case of business as usual. The Chief Inspector's quiet Easter break in Norchester is rudely interrupted when a local timber merchant is found dead. His son, with whom he had been seen arguing, immediately becomes the prime suspect, although Gently is far from convinced of his guilt.Norchester City Police gr...

The unflappable Inspector George Gently has become a household name through the hit BBC TV series starring Martin Shaw. These are the original books on which the TV series was based, although the George Gently in Alan Hunter's whodunits is somewhat different to his TV counterpart. He is more calculating, more analytical, and his investigations are even more enthralling.In this title:Gently sets out for the north of Scotland to help clear one of his oldest friends of a murder...

There's blood in the heather and a murderer on the loose when Gently pays a quite visit to the Highlands of Scotland.Had Brenda Merryn not been such a stong-willed woman and had she not been so much in love with George Gently, driving all the way to Scotland for a holiday with Gently's sister and brother-in-law might have been a bit of a challenge. Spying on a heavily armed private army of nationalists, being held at gunpoint on the hillside, being held prisoner in a filthy outhous...

In a lonely thicket of gorse near the Suffolk coast, a man lies dead on a summers afternoon: Frederick Quennell, amateur yachtsman and head of a successful local firm of printers. Later examining the site, Chief Superintendent Gently (newly married to Gabrielle Orbec, and reluctantly in charge of the investigation) wonders who wanted Quennell dead.There is no shortage of suspects, as the Suffolk police point out. Quennell's neglected wife is deeply in love with an artist - a man mo...

This was no suicide, however it looked - too many people wanted Adrian Stoll dead. From an embarrassment of suspects, Gently had a very tangled tale to unravel.The unflappable Inspector George Gently has become a household name through the hit BBC TV series starring Martin Shaw. These are the original books on which the TV series was based, although the George Gently in Alan Hunter's whodunits is somewhat different to his TV counterpart. He is more calculating, more analytical, and...

The burning of a light aircraft in a lonely field in Scotland and the daring kidnap of French industrialist Hugo Barentin are, on the face of it, two unconnected incidents. But there is a tenuous link: the mysterious Gabrielle Orbec has suddenly checked out of her home and disappeared. Chief Superintendent Gently, shortly back from France himself, is called on again as events from the 'Hornfleur Affair' are thrown into a new, and painful, relief.Is Gabrielle still involved? And, if...