Orion: 2711 books

A colourful banquet at the Château Perdrix is noisily interrupted by Bishop Arkwright, an American trying to spread the cause of temperance in Europe. Inspector Gautier intervenes and has the bishop expelled. Later that night Michael O'Flynn, the Grand Officier of the Chevaliers, is murdered in the...

Two dramatically contrasting episodes face Inspector Gautier in his latest mystery: the death by stabbing of the vicar of the fashionable church of Saint Clothilde in the confessional box; and the theft of the Duchesse de Paiva's diamond necklace during the extravagant fête thrown by Armand de Saules...

A painter has vanished: normally an event of no importance, but Théo is the heir to a fortune, and so Inspector Gautier of the Sûreté is put on the case. Then a shady art dealer is murdered. A dealer who had acquired three paintings under dubious circumstances, from a minor artist who died in similarly...

When both his holiday plans and love affair collapse, London doctor Charles Mackinnon agrees to act as locum in Skye, looking forward to a peaceful stay. However, within hours of his arrival he witnesses someone being thrown off a distant cliff into the sea. When the body of Jamie Gillespie...

Everyone had agreed that the industrialist Mark Bascombe had committed suicide, even the coroner. Only Bascombe's son David believed - or professed to believe - that it was murder. And it was he who had hired private investigator John Bryant, rather belatedly it is true, to investigate his father's...

The small Hebridean island of Alsaig is facing a crisis. It is famous for its only export, a particularly fine malt whisky, upon which most of the islanders depend for their livelihood. But the distillery is threatened with a takeover by an American firm, which would not only make many of the workforce...

Disillusioned with life in the South of France, Hurford accepts an assignment for British Intelligence. He is told that, under the cover of a teaching post in Moscow, he will simply be expected to relay information back to Britain from a highly prized source. Once in Moscow, however, Hurford...

When a homemade bomb explodes on a houseboat moored on the Seine, following two brutal stabbings in Pigalle, the Paris police receive a list of targets for assassination that includes the President of the Republic himself. Each murder will be announced beforehand by the arrival of a playing card. Inspector...

With the Entente Cordiale still in its infancy, the Sûreté had assigned Inspector Gautier to keep a protective eye on English visitors to Paris for the racing at Longchamps. But it was not the English who engaged Gautier's attention, but an Irish surgeon - Michael Breen. Breen, fêted by...

Returning to Paris, Inspector Gautier is devastated to learn that his Dutch mistress Ingrid has been brutally murdered. Before he can begin to investigate, the British Ambassador informs Gautier that his daughter has been abducted in England. With the help of Sylvie, a secretary at the French Embassy,...

When the valet of a German baron visiting Paris is stabbed to death, the murder is not allowed to interfere with the glittering social life of the Belle Epoque. Inspector Gautier has scarcely begun to investigate the murder when he is instructed to make secret enquiries into a case of espionage...

A skilfully planned murder in Portugal; a clever con-game in Texas; a body washed up on the Galloway coast. What have these far-flung events in common? In a word: whisky. And not any kind of whisky, but a fine malt. Bruce Sanderson is on a ten-day holiday in the Highlands when he encounters...

When car trouble forces private detective John Bryant to spend the night in the small village of Foxall, he is immediately struck by the antagonism and secrecy of the locals. Why was there so much hostility and fear? And why were the streets deserted after dark? Next morning the murdered body...

After his father dies of a heart attack, Ian Blackie finds an old box full of a bizarre assortment of papers in the attic of his parents' home. Hidden amongst the papers are some mysterious personal mementos belonging to General Alexander Ballantine, his father's old school friend, recently killed...