Kirjahaku

Tormented by his harrowing wartime experiences and the loss of his family, Inspector John Madden is sent by Scotland Yard to investigate when a small Surrey village is torn apart by five horrific murders and joins forces with a beautiful doctor to capture the killer, a demented veteran of World War I. A first novel. Reprint.

His quiet family life in rural 1932 England shattered by the brutal murder of a young village girl, former inspector John Madden teams up with former Scotland Yard colleagues, the British secret service, and the German police in an investigation that forces them to draw on the burgeoning science of criminal psychology. By the author of River of Darkness. Reprint. 50,000 first printing.

" Rennie Airth's] meticulously detailed procedural mysteries are beautifully written . . . well worth reading, and rereading."--Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review Rennie Airth's The Decent Inn of Death is forthcoming. On a freezing London night in 1944, Rosa Novak is brutally murdered during a blackout. Scotland Yard suspects the young Polish refugee was the victim of a random act of violence and might have dropped the case if former police investigator John Madden hadn't been her employer. Madden feels he owes it to Rosa to find her killer and pushes the investigation, uncovering her connection to a murdered Parisian furrier, a member of the Resistance, and a stolen cache of diamonds. Delivering the atmospheric writing and compelling characters that have already established Rennie Airth as a master of suspense as well as style, this long-awaited third installment in the John Madden series is historical crime writing at its best.

Inspector John Madden--who debuted in the acclaimed River of Darkness--returns in a gripping post-World War II murder mysteryOn a quiet afternoon in 1947, retired bank manager Oswald Gibson is shot in the head while fishing. In Scotland, a respectable family doctor is killed in the same manner--and with the same gun. What is the connection? Scotland Yard's Detective Inspector Billy Styles and local detective Vic Chivers are baffled until a letter from Gibson is discovered that might shed some light on the case--a letter concerning former Scotland Yard detective John Madden. Despite Madden's legendary memory, he has no recollection of meeting Gibson or any idea of what their relationship might have been. Madden is happily retired from police work, but agrees to help his former prot g Styles and the clues they uncover only deepen the mystery. When a third man is killed in a similar fashion, Madden and Styles find themselves in a race against time to find the killer before another man ends up dead.

" Rennie Airth's] meticulously detailed procedural mysteries are beautifully written . . . well worth reading, and rereading."--Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review Rennie Airth's The Decent Inn of Death is forthcoming from Penguin On a hot summer day in 1938, a beautiful actress is murdered on the grand Kent estate of Sir Jack Jessup, close friend of the Prince of Wales. The arrest of an ex-convict and his subsequent confession swiftly bring the case to a close, but in 1949, the reappearance of a jade necklace raises questions about the murder. Was the man convicted and executed the decade before truly guilty? Though happily retired from the police force, John Madden is persuaded to investigate the case afresh. In a story of honor and justice that takes Madden through the idyllic English countryside, post-war streets of London, and into the criminal underworld of the Chinese Triads, The Death of Kings is an atmospheric and captivating police procedural.

An American actress arrives in London to find herself the target of a ruthless assassin in this compelling standalone thriller.Actress Adelaide Banks is swapping her native New York for London to spend Christmas with her widowed Aunt Rose. Rose wrote in her note that she was off to Paris for a few days and would be back in time for Addy's arrival. But when Addy reaches Rose's Knightsbridge address, no one's home, and she has two unexpected callers . . . Where is Rose, and what has she got herself entangled in? Dragged into a deadly game of cat-and-mouse on the snowy streets of London, Addy finds herself navigating a dark underworld of ruthless assassins, rogue agents and international crime. Can she survive long enough to uncover the truth?

An American actress arrives in London to find herself the target of a ruthless assassin in this compelling standalone thriller.Actress Adelaide Banks is swapping her native New York for London to spend Christmas with her widowed Aunt Rose. Rose wrote in her note that she was off to Paris for a few days and would be back in time for Addy's arrival. But when Addy reaches Rose's Knightsbridge address, no one's home, and she has two unexpected callers . . . Where is Rose, and what has she got herself entangled in? Dragged into a deadly game of cat-and-mouse on the snowy streets of London, Addy finds herself navigating a dark underworld of ruthless assassins, rogue agents and international crime. Can she survive long enough to uncover the truth?

The Reckoning is a stunning, atmospheric crime novel teeming with twists and moving between the 1940s, the First and Second World Wars.The Second World War has ended, leaving a bruised and fragile peace. But this tranquillity is threatened when a shocking murder takes place in the Sussex countryside. Before long, police experts discover a link to another, earlier, killing hundreds of miles away . . .While Scotland Yard detective Billy Styles struggles to find a link between these two murders, a strange twist of fate brings former Detective Inspector John Madden into the investigations.As the victim count rises it becomes clear that to catch this serial killer Madden, Styles and young policewoman Detective-Constable Lily Poole must act quickly. But Madden remains haunted by the mysteries at the heart of the case. Why was his name in a letter the second target had been penning, just before he died? Could the real clue to these perplexing murders lie within the victims' pasts? And within his own?Rennie Airth, the author of River of Darkness, The Blood-Dimmed Tide and The Dead of Winter presents his greatest and most compelling novel yet.

In Rennie Airth's The Blood Dimmed Tide it is 1932 and John Madden, former Scotland Yard Inspector, is now a farmer in the peaceful Surrey countryside. However his peace is about to be shattered, for when a young girl goes missing, it is he who discovers her disfigured body hidden in a wood. Disturbed by what he has seen he is convinced the killer has struck before . . .When a second body is found, Madden's instinct is proved right – there is a multiple killer at large. Allying himself with his old colleagues, and against the wishes of his anxious wife, he immerses himself in one more case, and his insights into the personality of the man they are seeking are soon borne out.But he will have to stay one step ahead of a killer who is a master of reinvention, and who has been covering his tracks for many years. And soon significant links are discovered in Germany, where the Nazis are on the brink of power . . .Enjoy more of this historical crime series with The Dead of Winter and The Reckoning.

Shortlisted for the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Dagger Award, retired Inspector John Madden returns in Rennie Airth's The Dead of Winter.During a blackout on the streets of London on a freezing evening in late 1944, a young Polish land girl, Rosa Nowak, is suddenly and brutally killed. For the police, their resources already stretched by war regulations and the thriving black market, this is a shocking and seemingly random crime. No one can find any reason why someone would want to murder an innocent refugee.For the former police inspector John Madden, the crime hits close to home. Rosa was working on his farm and he feels personally responsible for not protecting her. His old colleagues Angus Sinclair and Billy Styles are still at the Yard, but struggle to make sense of their few clues.Their only lead points towards war-torn Europe – but as the fighting sweeps across the continent, will they find the killer before he strikes again?Enjoy more of this historical crime series with The Reckoning and The Death of Kings.

In Rennie Airth's River of Darkness it is 1921 and a terrible discovery has been made at a manor house in Surrey – the bloodied bodies of Colonel Fletcher, his wife and two of their staff. The victims have all been stabbed and the lack of disturbance in the house suggests that the attack was one of terrifying speed.The Surrey police force seem ready to put the murders down to robbery with violence, but Detective Inspector Madden from Scotland Yard sees things slightly differently. For he has experienced the horrors of World War I and has seen madness at first hand. And he is certain this crime has been perpetrated by a psychopath who will strike again . . . and soon.Enjoy more of this historical crime series with The Blood Dimmed Tide and The Dead of Winter.

From the critically acclaimed author, Rennie Airth, comes the fifth John Madden mystery, The Death of Kings.I have reason to believe that the jade pendant accompanying this letter is the same one that disappeared from Miss Portia Blake's body in August 1938 . . . Since the piece could not have been stolen by the man who was hanged for Miss Blake's murder, the question arises: who else could have taken it? And why? 1949. An unsigned letter arrives on the desk of Chief Inspector Derry of the Canterbury police. Enclosed is a jade pendant, identical to the one that went missing from the body of Portia Blake, an actress murdered a decade previously. The case had been shut quickly at the time – the accused vagrant gave a written confession and was sentenced to the gallows - but in the police's haste to close the inquiry, the necklace was never recovered. Until now. Inspector Madden is asked to investigate the letter's worrying claims by his old friend, and former Chief Inspector, Angus Sinclair, who fears the wrong man may have been hanged on his watch. But with a world war separating Madden from the murder, the truth will not come easy . . .

An American actress arrives in London to find herself the target of a ruthless assassin in this compelling standalone thriller.Actress Adelaide Banks is swapping her native New York for London to spend Christmas with her widowed Aunt Rose. Rose wrote in her note that she was off to Paris for a few days and would be back in time for Addy's arrival. But when Addy reaches Rose's Knightsbridge address, no one's home, and she has two unexpected callers . . . Where is Rose, and what has she got herself entangled in? Dragged into a deadly game of cat-and-mouse on the snowy streets of London, Addy finds herself navigating a dark underworld of ruthless assassins, rogue agents and international crime. Can she survive long enough to uncover the truth?

Kesä 1921 on sodanjälkeisistä kaunein. Kesäpäivän rauhan rikkoo maalaiskartanossa paljastunut raaka joukkomurha. Osa poliiseista pitää tapausta väkivaltaisena ryöstönä, mutta omien sotakokemustensa valossa Scotland Yardin komisario John Madden päättelee tekijän raiteiltaan suistuneeksi psykopaatiksi. Ja on oikeassa: uhrit eivät olleet ensimmäiset eivätkä viimeiset. Pimeyden virta on psykologisesti vakuuttava kertomus sodan satuttamista ihmisistä. Rennie Airth kuvaa uskottavasti, miten kovat kokemukset sisäänsä koteloinut Madden alkaa palata normaaliin elämään, jopa rohkenee kiintyä jälleen. Synkän menneisyyden, lempeän maalaismiljöön ja uuden elämän valonkajastuksen varaan kiristyvä jännitys huipentuu huimaan loppuratkaisuun, jossa Maddenin tulevaisuus joutuu vaakalaudalle.