Bøger af Mignon Warner

It was a picture-postcard English village, but like all such villages, it had its share of secrets, scandals and tragedies. The Player murder, however, was seldom discussed: in fact, the whole unpleasant affair was as good as forgotten - or would have been if a visitor to the village hadn't fed the local rumour mill with the startling information that the rather mysterious woman known as Mrs Edwina Charles had, ten years earlier, been the notorious clairvoyant, Madame Adele Herrmann, implicated in a sensational, unsolved murder case. And then the gossip really began. What had happened to the fabulous diamond necklace that Edwina Charles was reputed to have made away with after that earlier crime? What was her exact relationship to the eccentric Cyril Forbes, who was known as 'the Punch and Judy man'? Finding it necessary to solve not one but two murders out of the past, ex-Detective Chief Superintendent David Sayer hopes to silence the wagging tongues and restore peace and tranquillity to the village. There were too many coincidences, but he needs proof that Henrietta Player was the enigmatic medium's second homicidal success. And that's where Edwina Charles surprises him - in more ways than one. And without her crystal ball! 'A Medium for Murder', the first of the Mrs Charles Murder Mysteries, which introduced the clairvoyant/private investigator, was published in the US under this title and in the UK as 'A Nice Way to Die'.

Emma Parson's invitation to thoroughly spoilt Willow Darling's birthday party was very specific. DRESS FORMAL Emma has only one problem with this, and it's a big one. Her mother cannot afford to buy her the dress she has set her heart on. With only four days to go before the party, Emma has to act fast.Somehow she has to find the money she needs.Emma has no option, she has to get a job, and the Wanted Urgently Situations Vacant card in a newsagent's window is the answer to her predicament. Fortunately, she has the required qualifications for walking a much-loved pet dog named Algernon and, after giving it much thought, she makes this absolutely clear when she sits down and composes the reference she must supply.Emma finds herself in a very sticky situation when she attends her job interview with Algernon's three owners at their very strange cottage in Witchypool Lane. The first obstacle she has to overcome is Algernon. He isn't a pet dog. The second, his owners - three, even stranger, very old ladies - are witches, who don't like children and can't be trusted.EMMA IS WARNED.BEWARE, TAKE CARE!Emma Parson's invitation to thoroughly spoilt Willow Darling's birthday party was very specific. DRESS FORMAL Emma has only one problem with this, and it's a big one. Her mother cannot afford to buy her the dress she has set her heart on. With only four days to go before the party, Emma has to act fast. Somehow she has to find the money she needs.Emma has no option, she has to get a job, and the Wanted Urgently Situations Vacant card in a newsagent's window is the answer to her predicament. Fortunately, she has the required qualifications for walking a much-loved pet dog named Algernon and, after giving it much thought, she makes this absolutely clear when she sits down and composes the reference she must supply.Emma finds herself in a very sticky situation when she attends her job interview with Algernon's three owners at their very strange cottage in Witchypool Lane. The first obstacle she has to overcome is Algernon. He isn't a pet dog. The second, his owners - three, even stranger, very old ladies - are witches, who don't like children and can't be trusted.EMMA IS WARNED.BEWARE, TAKE CARE!

Young women are being murdered, the only clue to the identity of their killer, a Tarot card left with their bodies. That is, according to Professor Rupert Roxeth, the recognised authority on the Tarot called in by the Gidding police to assist them in their enquiries into the murders. The clairvoyant, Edwina Charles, when approached privately by ex-Detective Chief Superintendent David Sayer, acting on behalf of friends of his, who have a vested interest in knowing the identity of the Tarot murderer, has other ideas. Her reading of the cards left by the Tarot murderer tells an entirely different story. Playing a lone hand, Mrs Charles pits her wits against the Tarot murderer, using both her knowledge of the Tarot and her undisputed natural psychic skills, before he claims yet another victim. It proves to be no easy task. She finds herself up against Professor Roxeth, who is far more interested in protecting his reputation than in finding the Tarot murderer. Added to the mix is Amery Walters, a prominent racehorse trainer with a guilty conscience, and young nursing students with petty jealousies. It becomes a game between the Tarot murderer and Mrs Charles, a deadly game that only one of them can win.

Twenty-seven-year-old Natalie Miller is struggling to come to terms with the death of her stepmother, Ellen, whom the police believe, but cannot prove, Natalie murdered. Natalie doesn't deny that she murdered Ellen: there are terrifying blanks in her memory, things she should remember but can't following Ellen's highly suspicious death eighteen months ago. And then, in the space of one short week, Natalie's life becomes even more of a nightmare. Not just for her, either, but for a disparate group of people whose paths cross hers, three of whom ultimately pay the price for it with their lives. She also suspects that she is being stalked by someone whom she feels she should know but can't remember from where or when. Abandoned by all of her friends, consumed with self-doubt and fearful of the renewed interest in her by the police following the savage murder of an elderly down-and-out whom she befriended while out jogging, Natalie nevertheless cannot rid herself of the feeling that despite everything that is going on around her - and for all of which she can find no explanation - her own life is never at risk. There is some other reason why she is being stalked; some other reason why she repeatedly finds a stranger, Miss Purple Painted Toenails - a teenager with plenty of attitude who seems to know more about Natalie than she does herself - waiting for her when she returns home from her daily early morning jogging sessions. Natalie has no idea why the teenager has become so determinedly involved in her life which is now spiralling rapidly out of control. She finds herself with no alternative, however, but to agree to the teenager's typically bizarre plan to bring matters to a head, only to become even more deeply embroiled in trouble when things go disastrously wrong at the last moment.

This is it, payback, and Johnnie "the Boot" Swann, boss of the East End Swann gang, has a master plan for taking out his rivals, the Beaney brothers and with them, Star Cleary, and it isn't going to be with all guns blazing. It all looks good for Johnnie, but then what goes round, comes round. Johnnie would have done well to remember this and been ready to expect the unexpected. No one could say he wasn't warned.The story of the Nine-to-Five Shelter continues in BAD book #4, scheduled to be published in 2016. The unexpected for Johnnie doesn't end with BAD FELLAS. And he isn't the only one to be caught up in what is to come. It is a bolt from the blue, and something neither he nor the Beaney brothers and in particular, Star Cleary, would have ever considered possible.

Star Cleary - young, beautiful, but with a deeply troubled past - assists the late middle-aged woman known as Mother Mary at the East End Nine-to-Five Shelter for the homeless. The shelter is rumoured to be funded by Krait Beaney, the head of the feared London Beaney gang, who is definitely both a friend and minder of both Star and Mary. Through a bizarre twist of fate, Star, while on an errand for Mary, helps an old woman who has been brutally attacked in the street. A day or two later, the same old woman is found murdered in her home and having been given a gift by the old woman for having helped her, Star finds herself placed 'in the frame' by the police for her murder. Ever present is the escalating war between the two rival London gangs, the Beaney brothers and Johnnie 'the Boot' Swann when Johnnie, in revenge for his having been disrespected by Krait, orders the savage murder of Stick Beaney, the Beaneys' baby brother, who is both slightly physically and mentally handicapped. Never test a gangster's family honour. It was no mistake that Krait Beaney was named after a deadly black Indian snake. Put one foot wrong where his family is concerned and he will strike out. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow nor the day thereafter, but strike out he will. And with deadly intent. Something Johnnie Swann was going to learn the hard way.

GONE BAD continues the story from BAD APPLE, an East End gangster thriller, of Star Cleary, Mary, who manages the Nine-to-Five Shelter with Star's help, and the gang war between the Beaneys, who are rumoured to finance the shelter, and the Swann gang... A war that escalates out of control with devastating consequences for all concerned. Star Cleary's life, following the death of her beloved father, becomes a nightmare. As far as the police are concerned, she is still in the frame for the murder of Lily Henderson, and worse is to come. She is being blackmailed by Shaun Sawle, the contact man who set up the Henderson hit. Sawle has arranged another hit. Big money is at stake and Star finds herself with no alternative but to take on the contract. Further pressure is brought to bear on Star by her selfishly self-centred mother, Stephanie, this time in the form of emotional blackmail. Be careful what you wish for, it is said. Vicky Swann and her daughter, Libby, don't just make the mistake of wishing for something, they take the steps necessary to ensure that they get it by arranging for Johnnie "the Boot" Swann, to be murdered while he and Vicky are on their honeymoon in the Caribbean. Libby Swann takes over the Swann gang from her father, and then sets about making a catalogue of mistakes, not least of which is thinking that she is Krait Beaney's equal and that by bringing pressure to bear, he will agree to a merger between the two gangs. The East End Nine-to-Five Shelter story isn't going to end there. There will be more to come of the shelter, Star and the detective from the Met, who loves her and tries to protect her, and the ever-increasing hostilities between the Beaney and Swann gangs. It is going to get messy!