DI Joanna Piercy is irritated at what she perceives to be an attempt to wrap her up in cotton wool during her pregnancy when she is asked to take on the case of Zachary Foster, a missing 96-year-old man suffering from dementia. Zachary has vanished from his residential care home on the edge of Leek during the night with his beloved old teddy bear. He can't have gone far, surely, but how did a frail, elderly man manage to abscond from a secure house at night? As Joanna investigates, it soon...

Forensic psychiatrist Dr Claire Roget finds it impossible to refuse when she receives a desperate phone call from an old acquaintance, obstetrician Charles Tissot. One of his patients, Heather Krimble, alleges that Tissot seduced her at a party and that he is the father of her unborn child. His career on the line, Charles begs Claire to expose Heather's fragile mental state and discredit her wild claims. With a history of making similar false allegations, her two previous babies having suf...

When she receives a wedding invitation from one of her former patients, forensic psychiatrist Dr Claire Roget is more than a little alarmed. Highly intelligent and manipulative, Jerome Barclay suffers from a severe personality disorder. Although she has never been able to prove it, Claire believes him to be highly dangerous, responsible for at least three suspicious deaths – and she fears for the safety of his new bride. What's more, Jerome seems to know rather too much about Claire's pers...

When a woman arrives in A&E clutching a child in a pink blanket, Martha Gunn is not quite ready to make the discovery that the evening has in store for her. The baby has been mummified. A post-mortem reveals the child to be a new born boy, deceased for over five years. As always coroner Martha Gunn reserves judgement until she is able to question the mysterious woman who brought in the body...

Nurse Florence Shaw is worried about her patient and friend, elderly widow Nora Selleck. When she encounters Nora in the market town of Stone seeming confused, Florence decides to pay her a visit in more familiar surroundings. But at Nora's house she meets Ben Evans, a mysterious young stranger who has befriended Nora. Who is Ben, and why is he encouraging Nora to miss her surgery appointments? Florence doesn't trust Ben. She's sure he doesn't have Nora's best interests at heart and is a t...

Gina Marconi was a beautiful young barrister with everything to live for – a loving fiancé, a young son and a successful career. So why did she leave her home in the middle of the night and drive her car into a stone wall? Soon afterwards, Patrick Elson, a clever twelve-year-old schoolboy, jumps off a bridge on to the A5. The victims are unrelated, but neither suicide makes sense. Then there's a third unexplained death: DI Alex Randall's wife, Erica. With Alex on gardening leave pending an...

For recently engaged DI Joanna Piercy, a murder is the last thing she wants to deal with. Especially one with as dark a back story as that relating to calculating landowner and farmer Jakob Grimshaw; a man who managed to make enemies of all his neighbours and what little family he still had. One thing is certain; Joanna has a tough job ahead of her...

Callum Hughes has been labelled a killer and a psycho - by the press, by his classmates and by the family of the boy he stabbed. Roger Gough has been labelled a victim. He is described by everyone as a sporty, funny and popular boy who was brutally murdered by Callum. But things are rarely so black and white. When Callum is found dead in his cell just two days after his arrest, it is accepted that he simply could not cope. But was such a timid and intelligent boy really capable of murder? ...

In separate locations in Staffordshire, three separate tableaux are being played out. DI Joanna Piercy is writing to her lover to try and explain recent events; her sidekick Mike Korpanski is filling in insurance forms after his wife has had a prang in the car; and an unknown person is penning love letters to a local doctor.It seems that no one could lead a more mundane life than Beatrice Pennington. Unexciting; mid-forties; married; a part-time librarian; grown-up kids; her life a...

When Gulliver Thornton and his sister, Charlotte, climb the Great Wall of China into the gardens of Biddulph Grange; they enter an enchanted world ruled by the evil ape Thoth. Follow their adventures through an ancient tomb of Egypt, a Scottish Glen and a mystical Willow Pattern Garden. Will they and their friends find a way to free the gardens from the tyranny of Lord Thoth and his terrifying army?

The new compelling DI Joanna Piercy mystery. On a snowy December morning, a young woman, Kayleigh Harrison, is found outside Patches nightclub in Leek. Half dead from the cold, she says she has been raped. As Detective Inspector Joanna Piercy, fresh from a disciplinary action, investigates, she learns that Kayleigh Harrison has made unsubstantiated allegations before… Is there a real case to investigate or not? Kayleigh holds the key, but how much of her story can be trusted?

It's been six years since 14-year-old Marvel Trustrom went missing – six long years for Marvel's seriously ill father, Tom Trustom, who's desperate to know what happened to his daughter. DS Zed Willard has always believed that Jonah Kobi, a serial killer serving life for the murders of four other girls in the area, is responsible for Marvel's disappearance. Can Dr Claire Roget persuade Kobi to reveal the truth and finally confess to Marvel's murder? Claire is soon drawn into a battle of wi...