An invitation to spend a week or two with childhood friends over New Year seemed an excellent idea to help Helena’s recovery after her cancer treatment.

Helena had grown up with the Hickmans, had spent many happy holidays with them, and the fact that they lived in a castle surrounded by forest on the edge of a lake made it an even more perfect spot to recuperate.

But when a man is found burned to death in a car on the edge of the castle estate the apparently irrelevant though horrible incident creates unexpected disturbances in the lives of all those living in the castle.

Helena and her partner John Eisenmenger, caught in the middle of it all, cannot understand why. Nor can Detective Constable Sally Felty, navigating her first few months on the job, or her attractive yet elusive superior, Inspector Sauerwine.

But the unpleasantness grows and worse is to come, for there are secrets in the castle — secrets that are of profound importance not only to the Hickmans, but also to the police service’s treatment of a previous case, and to Helena and her past…

A World Full of Weeping is a grippingly complex thriller than keeps the reader in suspense right to the very end.

Praise for A World Full of Weeping:

‘Readers who don’t get enough strong forensic medicine from the likes of Patricia Cornwell or Kathy Reichs … will welcome this first book in a new series from a British pathologist … McCarthy lays on the grisly detail with a practising doctor’s detached eye.’ -Publishers Weekly

‘Richly gothic … uses the classic whodunit format of a closed circle of suspects to good effect. There’s a giddy feeling to the story when we lurch from moments of black farce to savage coincidence … a potent mix.’ – Tangled Web

‘Pathologist McCarthy creates a dark, densely imagined world in the demanding tradition of P. D. James … he peoples it with characters who truly inspire pity and terror, and provides the most unsparing post-mortem ever.’ Kirkus Reviews

‘A whodunit in the classical mould mixes the story of a man coping with the scars of his past and the wounds of the present … McCarthy handles his material with real brio.’ – Crime Time

Keith McCarthy was born in Croydon, Surrey. Educated at Dulwich College and then at St George’s Hospital Medical School, he began practising pathology in 1985 and has done so ever since. Keith is a Consultant Histopathologist in Gloucestershire where he lives with his wife and three daughters.

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One is his beautiful and no-nonsense fiancée, Sheila McKenna, who arrives unexpectedly at Heathrow.

To Chris’s delight, she announces that she has arranged a year’s sabbatical in England.

The other is the less shapely, but equally beguiling Granny Cassidy who persuades Chris to take on the appeal of Alan Walton; her son-in-law convicted in the infamous Belstone Lane Case.

As a man who has served twelve years for crimes he claims he didn’t commit, Walton has nothing left to lose and is dead set on an appeal. To Chris the case initially seems hopeless, but sensing that something doesn’t quite add up and with scores of his own to settle, he reluctantly accepts the job.

He and Sheila begin the daunting task of unearthing files that had been closed for eighteen years and searching for parties who frequently don’t want to be found.

But troublesome enmities are awakened and witnesses are silenced — sometimes by murder.

Repeated threats put the duo in danger until violent threats come to fruition and it becomes crystal clear that trouble awaits them if the case is probed any further.

Chris is no stranger to hassle from criminals and dubious policemen, but having narrowly escaped death only last year, images of masked judges and police flash through his mind at night and he wonders whether this time will be different.

Someone, somewhere, will stop at nothing to ensure the case remains permanently closed.

But who are these figures sent to stop Chris in the dark and why are they so concerned?

A complicated trail of lies and forgeries have to be unravelled before Chris and Sheila can even begin to understand the extent to which the law has been perverted to pursue a private revenge…

‘Robbery for Malice’ is a gripping legal thriller, perfect for fans of John Grisham.

Praise for Barrie Roberts:

‘This book has a lot of spirit and is very enjoyable and well-informed read. It’s refereshingly different to what’s on offer elsewhere and I’m looking forward to future entries in what could well be a successful series.’ Mat Coward, Morning Star.

Barrie Roberts has been a criminal lawyer for almost thirty years, working for two firms in the West Midlands including work on the appeals of the Birmingham Six. He is the author of four Sherlock Holmes books and one previous Chris Tyroll mystery, ‘The Victory Snapshot’.

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All her life, she has been overlooked by difficult patients, disinterested colleagues and even her own family.

So when she discovers a way to commit the perfect crime, Jane seizes the opportunity and begins deliberating who of her many patients is most deserving of her murderous attention.

And when elderly James Walsh tries one to many times to proposition her, Jane seizes her chance.

Although Walsh’s mother seems unconvinced by Jane’s explanation of his death, no one else, least of all Jane’s fellow doctors, seems the least bit surprised.

As the days past, she can’t help thinking that she may indeed have escaped suspicion.

Driven by this knowledge and with a new-found taste for murder, she soon turns her mind to her next victim.

However, when a formal complaint is made against her by bad-tempered Clara Blatter, it seems that she may have picked the wrong woman.

Soon, Jane finds herself under investigation and when she carries out her second murder, the net begins to close in tighter.

When her normally unassuming boss starts to become suspicious, Jane resorts to drastic measures to avoid detection, as her perfect crime quickly turns into a nightmare that could cost her everything.

The Certificate is a heart racing medical thriller that will leave you begging for more.

Praise for Priscilla Masters

‘A natural story-teller’ – Robert Foster, bestselling author of The Lunar Code

‘It is always a joy to discover a crime writer with a sure touch and the capacity to shock’ – Peter Lovesey

‘More than a match for Rendell and Christie’ – Hampstead and Highgate Express

Priscilla Masters lives in Shropshire with her husband, a GP in the Potteries. Night Visit was the first of her medical mystery novels, followed by A Fatal Cut and Coming Home. She is also the author of the Joanna Piercy police series.

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