David Thorpe

A man falls to his death in western Scotland. From a distance, another man watches. He approaches the body, tucks a book into the dead man’s pocket, and leaves. When the Scottish police show visiting Detective Chief Inspector Domenic Jejeune the book,...

Newly estranged from his girlfriend, Lindy Hey, Inspector Domenic Jejeune returns to Southern Ontario, where he receives news that his brother, Damian, has gone missing in Wood Buffalo National Park while conducting research on Whooping Cranes....

Three murder scenes; two causes of death; one body. It is a case that would challenge Domenic Jejeune even under the best of circumstances. But his DCS’s temporary absence means that Jejeune must work under Marvin Laraby, an ex-superior with whom he...

Judge not, lest ye be judged. This timeless wisdom has guided the Anglican Church, fostering a certain tolerance of eccentricity among its members. Good thing, too. The "Mermaid of Morwenstow" excommunicated a cat for mousing on a Sunday. When he was...

On suspension and unable to work, DCI Domenic Jejeune finds his attention snared by an unexplained death at an Antarctic research base. Meanwhile, DS Danny Maik investigates a string of arson attacks in Norfolk._x000D_When a corpse is discovered in a...

1861, Victorian England. When Matthew and Harriet Rowsley are invited to a party at Clunston Park by Matthew's cousin, Colonel Barrington Rowsley, Harriet is nervous - surely the aristocratic guests will snub her? Her fears are realised on their first...

Prior to assuming his new role with a different constabulary, Danny Maik has taken a holiday in Singapore to reconcile with an old friend, Guy Trueman. When a street brawl turns deadly, Danny is facing a charge of manslaughter, but when evidence...

A story from the collection Do Not Exceed the Stated Dose. The narrator of this short story is unimpressed when all he is bequeathed by his uncle George upon his death, a notorious diamond robber, is his noisy, blue and yellow macaw parrot called...

Why would a killer ignore expensive jewellery and take a pair of turtledoves as the only bounty? This is only one of the questions that piques Chief Inspector Domenic Jejeune’s interest after a senior attaché with the Mexican Consulate is found...

'Seventeen-year-old Alan can’t stand rows. But, though the Second World War has ended, peace hangs by a fine thread at home: his troublesome sister Madge creeps off for night-time liaisons with a German POW; their ineffectual father – broken by the...

A short story from the British Library Tales of the Weird collection Glimpses of the Unknown. Writer Cyril Glendinning is waiting for his big break. He is well reviewed by cultured newspapers but he makes very little money. Then he is commissioned to...

Chief Inspector Domenic Jejeune hopes an overseas birding trip will hold some clues to solving his fugitive brother’s manslaughter case. Meanwhile, his long-time nemesis Laraby has been drafted in as cover to investigate an accountant’s murder. With...

Newly appointed police inspector Domenic Jejeune doesn’t mind ruffling a few feathers. His success has elevated him into a poster boy for the police. The problem is Jejeune doesn’t really want to be a detective at all; he much prefers watching birds....

Everyone knows about the Cambridge Spies from the 1950s, but no spy ring was ever unearthed at Oxford. Because one never existed? Or because it was never found . . . ? 2022: Former spy Simon Sharman is eking out a living in the private sector. When a...

Russia is struggling to defeat Ukraine on the battlefield. But can it win the war for influence? August 2022. Simon Sharman is out for revenge, pursuing the assassin of his former colleague across war-torn Ukraine. Back in London, a Russian spy ring...

When his most celebrated case is suddenly reopened, Detective Chief Inspector Jejeune's long-buried secrets threaten to come to light. Meanwhile, his girlfriend, Lindy, faces an unseen threat of her own, one which Jejeune may not be able to protect...

Soundings and Choc Lit present the audio edition of A Wedding on the Riviera. When out-of-work actor Ryan Calder attends a wedding as the plus-one of successful businesswoman, Nadine Wells, he doesn’t expect to get in a scuffle with the groom. But...

A parent's worst fear is realised when seven-year-old Libby Hallforth goes missing at a funfair; no witnesses, no leads, and no trace. Months later, human remains are found, but they're too old to be Libby. It's the tip of a gruesome iceberg – bodies,...

A short story from the British Library Tales of the Weird collection A Phantom Lover and Other Dark Tales by Vernon Lee. Written in diary entries from a Polish scholar, this short story features a mysterious femme fatale Medea who is responsible for...

48 assassinations - from Archduke Franz Ferdinand to Osama Bin Laden - that changed the world.We live in an age of asymmetric warfare. Huge armies no longer face each other on the battlefield. Instead heads of major powers and lone assassins (or...

Constantinople, 388 AD. Videricus, son of Vithimer, heir to the throne of the Greuthungi, runs from the City Guard, his latest theft from the markets in hand. Unwittingly he bumps into a colossus of a man. Armoured in glistening scales, draped in a...

Bruce Attleton dazzled London’s literary scene with his first two novels but his early promise did not bear fruit. His wife Sybilla is a glittering actress, unforgiving of Bruce’s failure, and the couple lead separate lives in their house at Regent’s...

A story from the collection Do Not Exceed the Stated Dose. Professor Patrick Storm and Bishop Ben Tattersall receive a call out of the blue from their Cambridge university chum Cape Brown. He is honouring the pact they made 40 years previously – to...

A story from the collection Do Not Exceed the Stated Dose. Some might think that Bertie, Prince of Wales’ first case was the suspicious death of jockey Fred Archer in 1886, but here the self-important amateur sleuth recalls how his talent for...