Gordon Griffin

When his estranged daughter Katherine appears on his doorstep, ex-Detective Frank Elder knows that something is wrong. Katherine has long been troubled, and Elder has always felt powerless to help her. But now she has begun to self-destruct. The breakdown of her affair with a controversial artist has sent her into a tailspin that culminates in murder. And as Elder struggles to protect his daughter and prove her innocence, the terrors of the past threaten...

Serpent's Point in South Devon is the focus of local legends. The large house on the headland is shrouded in an ancient tale of evil, and when a woman is found strangled on the coastal path nearby, DI Wesley Peterson is called in to investigate. The woman had been house-sitting at Serpent's Point and Wesley is surprised to discover that she was conducting an investigation of her own into unsolved missing persons cases. Could these enquires have led...

1815. Peter and Paul Skillen are identical twins, fearless thief-takers who rival the Bow Street Runners. When they catch a notorious burglar, they claim a handsome reward and infuriate the Bow Street runners who believe they have a monopoly on policing in the capital. The Home Secretary, Viscount Sidmouth faces a crisis. During a massacre of American prisoners of war at Dartmoor, two escape and come to London in search of retribution. The Home Office...

When archaeologist Neil Watson unearths a long-buried mechanical figure in a Dartmoor field, he is determined to discover the truth behind the bizarre find. Soon, however, the sleepy village becomes the focus of press attention for another reason when two people with no apparent connection to each other are found shot dead in nearby Manor Field, seemingly victims of an execution-style double murder. DI Wesley Peterson is called in to investigate,...

December, 1917. Ada Hobbes has cleaned for Dr Tindall for many years, and on this frosty morning she arrives at 9am to begin the day there, while he is at work. Since she knows that the place is empty, she lets herself in and goes to the kitchen to collect the various things that she needs. But it turns out the house is not empty after all. The blood-covered George Tindall is sprawled across the floor. As soon as Harvey Marmion and Joe Keedy arrive...

1817. Upon receiving a letter from an old family friend, Clemency Van Emden returns from Holland to find her father dead. She refuses to believe the middle-aged man died of natural causes, and the suspicious circumstances of his life during the past few months compel her to ask Peter and Paul Skillen for help. When his body is revealed missing from the casket, the twins embark on a chase of funerary agents, barmaids and body snatchers, trying to solve...

Vienna, 1904. The body of a man is discovered in an abandoned piano factory on the outskirts of the city. Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt calls on his good friend Doctor Max Lieberman to assist in an investigation that draws them both into the unconventional world of fringe political activism. An appalling act of terror has been planned and Rheinhardt must hope that Liebermann, with his profound knowledge of psychology and science, will be able...

Pentonville Prison. Wally Hibbert is serving a long sentence for arson. But after befriending and tricking one of the officers, Hibbert makes an audacious escape. Inspector Marmion, the detective who arrested Hibbert, is warned to watch his back, but it seems that Hibbert has another target in his murderous sights. However, the investigation is mired by confusion, the identities of killer and victim become increasingly ambiguous. An inmate at an internment...

Taking a short cut home beneath the ruined abbey in the centre of the city, a teenage girl reports stumbling across a body. She also claims to have seen a mysterious nun-like figure watching her from the shadows. But during the subsequent search, no body is found. The girl's inebriated state and her troubled history make the police sceptical of her story, and only Detective Inspector Joe Plantagenet is inclined to believe her. Then a woman is reported...

1860. Following a string of successful performances, the Moscardi Circus is travelling by train to Newcastle for their next show. Amongst the usual railway hubbub the animals have been loaded, the clowns, now incognito, are aboard and Mauro Moscardi himself is comfortable in a first-class compartment with a cigar. Yet a collision on the track with a couple of sleepers causes pandemonium: passengers are thrown about, animals escape and the future of...