Showing results by author "Jack Murray" in All Categories

With the help of old associates Chief Inspector Jellicoe, the newly promoted Detective Inspector Wellbeloved, and Rufus Watts, Kit and Mary soon find themselves in the middle of a race against time before the murderer strikes again in a case where revenge is the motive and everyone is putting on an act. After the Indiana Jones-like adventure in The Tangier Tajine, Kit and Mary Aston return to a more traditional murder mystery set in the world of post-war variety theatre just before the arrival of moving pictures and radio sounded the death knell to this wonderful realm of entertainment.

When Kit and Mary Aston visit the Newmarket stables of an old friend who is training a potential Derby winner, they stumble into a new case. The death of Teddy Harrison seems to be an open and shut case of suicide. Yet, the manner of his death raises suspicions as the two men who found him were rumored to be paramours to the dead man's wife. Kit meets an old detective sparring partner from his days at school in Cambridge. Together with Mary, they investigate one of the twistiest mysteries you will come across.

Mystery, mortality, and a dash of the macabre… London, 1882: A Christmas draped in shadows, a city gripped by fear, and a mystery that defies the laws of life and death… When Professor Gilbert Fitzroy unveils a revolutionary theory that mocks the inevitability of decay and whispers to eternal life, the Royal Society is left reeling. Clearly, this does not apply to him, for a few hours later he is found dead in his rooms. Lady Agatha, a young woman high in intellect, low in patience, with the help of her husband Eustace 'Useless' and their Lothario basset, Talleyrand, investigate. As the...

Bubble, bubble, toil, and murder... When a woman is found dead near her village in Norfolk, the verdict is suicide. Not everyone agrees. Detective James Simpson is ordered to investigate and he brings Agatha Aston, a young woman high of intellect and low in patience, Betty Stevens and a lovelorn hound called Talleyrand, with him. They stumble across a tale of murder that stretches back two centuries. Part occult story, part murder mystery - this creepy tale is steeped in witchcraft and strange rural festivals where everything is not as it seems. The second Agatha Aston murder mystery is ...

Christmas at a snowed in country house. You know what happens next… Not necessarily. Agatha Aston is invited to spend the weekend before Christmas with some old friends. Accompanied by her Machiavellian Basset hound, Talleyrand, Agatha encounters murder, ghosts and romance at a country house where nothing is as it seems. While Agatha has her hands full solving a murder, Talleyrand has his own problems in the shape of Bismarck, the hosts’ unfriendly German Shepherd. Expect fireworks. Containing a short ghost story within a story, The Christmas Murder Mystery is a twisty box of delights, ...

Black-eyed Nick played a trick and poor old Fred lost his head. It’s 1876 and a dead body is found near the mansion of Lady Agatha Aston in Grosvenor Square, London. The newly formed Detective Branch at Scotland Yard is baffled by the series of grisly murders that seem to come straight from the pages of a "penny dreadful". Who is the demon stalking the streets of London? Lady Agatha takes matters in hand, ably supported by golf fanatic friend, Betty Stevens, former school hockey captain, "Sausage" Gossage and Talleyrand, her unlucky-in-love Basset hound.

All chess games end in a murder... It's 1920, the murders of a trade unionist, a knight and a bishop shock Britain. The finger of blame seems to point to Russia. As the body count rises, Kit Aston plays a deadly game of chess with a Russian grandmaster where checkmate is a matter of life or death. The latest Kit Aston whodunnit is a gripping historical crime thriller, full of twists and hilarious one liners which fuses classic murder mystery with a spy novel. The Kit Aston mysteries mix real life historical characters and events with crime thrillers full of red herrings. No books are the ...

Christmas can be murder - four festive mysteries to enjoy this Christmas Step into a world where crackling hearths hide chilling secrets and Christmas cheer is no guarantee of peace on earth. This exclusive holiday box set brings together four captivating murder mysteries featuring the brilliant Aston family. The Affair of the Christmas Card Killer Snow, romance, murder - it's the most wonderful time of the year... Christmas 1919, Lord Arthur Cavendish has received a card saying, 'Happy Christmas, I've killed you'. When Lord Cavendish is found dead, Kit Aston, a WWI hero, Secret ...

Hallowe'en is coming... A series of mysterious murders dating back decades presents Kit Aston with his greatest challenge yet in this macabre tale. The latest victim is found by a medium, the mysterious Eva Kerr. Kit Aston discovers this murder is the tip of the iceberg. Is it a killer like Jack the Ripper or something much worse? And why have the murders been covered up over the years? With the help of Scotland Yard, London’s Gangland and Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle, Kit Aston is in a race against time to bring a sinister cult to justice. What reviewers are saying about Jack Murray’s Kit ...

Morris dancing, maypoles and…murder As the picturesque village of Upper Outwell buzzes with anticipation for its May Day festivities—complete with Morris dancers, flower garlands, and enough Victoria sponge cakes to require emergency reinforcement of the trestle tables—a shadow falls over the celebrations. A man is discovered dead in the vicarage library, his identity as enigmatic as the circumstances of his murder. Who was he? Why was he killed? Kit and Mary Aston, a sharp-witted husband-and-wife duo with an uncanny talent for uncovering trouble, investigate. Alongside them is ...

A locked room murder mystery set in Tangier! Kit and Mary Aston fly off to Tangier when they hear that Aunt Agatha is on the run from the Moroccan police accompanied by her friends – Betty, Sausage and a Doberman called Mimi. Accused of a murder witnessed by dozens of people, only Kit can prove Agatha innocent. Matters take a turn for the worse when the investigating policeman, an old enemy of Agatha, is found murdered in his hotel room which has been locked from the inside with no possible way of entering except through the front door. The latest Kit Aston mystery takes place in a ...

Christmas at a fairytale German castle turns into a nightmare for Agatha and Eustace… Agatha and Eustace along with their Basset hound, Talleyrand, agree to spend Christmas with their friend Ernst Marlow at the castle of his friend in the middle of Germany’s Teutoburg Forest. They expect a holiday filled with snow-covered landscapes, roaring fires, and festive cheer. But as they arrive at the ancient fortress, they are met with a chilling atmosphere that feels more like a scene from a Grimm’s fairytale than a cozy winter retreat. The castle, steeped in legends of dark forests and ...

The most original crime novel in years - British ‘Golden Age’ sleuth meets American hard-boiled crime! It’s the summer of 1920: Kit Aston travels to San Francisco for his cousin’s marriage to the mysterious Dain Collins. When a private investigator tailing Dain Collins is killed, Kit Aston, his fiancée Mary and Aunt Agatha team up with Pinkerton detective, Dashiell Hammett, in a case involving murder, kidnap and the theft of a certain legendary bird from Malta. The latest Kit Aston mystery is a delightful reimagining of some of Dashiell Hammett’s greatest novels: the Maltese ...

When the past comes calling....run To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven... It's 1959, Detective Nick Jellicoe is posted from the London Met to a quiet seaside town following the loss of his wife. Within a week of his arrival, Colonel Masterson, a local magistrate, is murdered, and his grandson is kidnapped. Rather than demand a ransom, the kidnapper begins to send cryptic messages that suggest his real motive is something else: revenge. Meanwhile a war is brewing between the two main criminal gangs in the town. Jellicoe's trip to the seaside is ...

The best blend of history and mystery in crime fiction... The Kit Aston Mysteries are fast-paced crime stories which fuse real life historical events and characters with 'Golden-Age' crime. The Frisco Falcon British ‘Golden Age’ sleuth meets American hard-boiled crime! It’s the summer of 1920: Kit Aston travels to San Francisco for his cousin’s marriage to the mysterious Dain Collins. When a private investigator tailing Dain Collins is killed, Kit Aston, his fiancée Mary and Aunt Agatha team up with Pinkerton detective, Dashiell Hammett, in a case involving murder, kidnap and the ...

Transform Your Life and Leadership Applying the five transformative principles of the Human Operating System is so much more effective than hacking through the forest of leadership trade books, workshops, and management techniques. Many of these tools can be helpful, but they often function more like apps or accessories rather than a deeper operating system that can offer meaning, direction, and coherence to everything you might do as a leader. Jack Nicholson and Rob Murray have been developing the Human Operating System over many years of work with executive leaders, teams, and ...

The only man who didn't rise for the standing ovation lay dead with a knife in his chest... Reporter Bobbie Flynn finds herself thrust into the heart of danger after the attempted murder of theatre impresario Smiley Stanton. On the opening night of a much-anticipated play, Smiley Stanton is mysteriously stabbed while sitting in the second row of the audience, sending shockwaves through the theatre community and beyond. And that beyond includes the Mob, who own a major share in the theatre run by Smiley and who use it as a location for a high rolling craps game. When Smiley is killed while ...

A dead body is found in an Egyptian sarcophagus. No surprise there, then. Or is it? The only problem is, the corpse is not two thousand years old and it’s not wearing bandages; it does have an Egyptian sword sticking out of its body, though. When Bobbie Flynn, a young journalist with a nose for crime, goes to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art one Sunday accompanied by her father, Inspector Flynn and a precocious eleven year old child called Violet, she doesn’t expect to become embroiled in a murder case, an art theft and a kidnapping... …her own kidnapping. The Bobbie Flynn ...