Prelude Books: 72 books

“Actually—” Oh, dear, this was most embarrassing. It sounded so—so aggressive. But she must be exact. “Actually I was a little angry—at his rudeness, you know—so I poked him in the back...“ When Miss Seeton walks out after a performance of Carmen and witnesses a real-life stabbing,...

Classical music can be a dangerous pastime… What with love affairs, their conductor dropping dead, a stolen cello and no money, Stockwell Park Orchestra is having a fraught season. After Mrs Ford-Hughes is squashed and injured by a dying guest conductor mid-concert, she and her husband...

When a flood of perfectly faked banknotes hits the market, retired art teacher Miss Emily Seeton, the Yard’s famed ‘MissEss’, is chosen to investigate a respected Geneva bank. Somehow, the forger is also mixed up in the theft of valuable paintings, so it’s ‘set an artist to catch an artist’. But...

A terrorist has declared war on Hong Kong. It starts with mysterious gunfire in the harbour. Then come the atrocities: bombs, snipers and an ominous telephone warning. A Japanese man with an antiquated accent proclaims a “divine mission to eradicate all the uniformed forces of colonial depression”. The...

What killed every policeman in Fade Street Station? Their six mutilated bodies were found in the basement, lined up like wine bottles, and there are giant claw marks on the walls. Every object and surface in the station has been wiped clean…and the only witness, a vagrant, claims the murderer...

A planeful of passengers dead from cyanide poisoning. Twelve bodies riddled with bullets in the sewers of Hong Kong. And one evil genius who outwits the cops at every turn . . . The voice on the phone is cool – and vicious. His threat: a continued escalation of terrorism until his blackmailing...

Every attack makes the traffic flow faster. Isandula Street is flooded when a bomb destroys a water mains. On General Gordon Street, hidden explosives decapitate a row of parking meters. Detectives Christopher O’Yee and Harry Feiffer suspect a dangerous practical joker at play. The...

The year is 1940 and the British have their backs to the wall. Everyone is preparing for the battle that, as Winston Churchill said, would see the “whole fury and might of the enemy turned upon us.” Everyone including the young Miss Emily Seeton, London art teacher, who finds her strangely prophetic...

‘Ibbley, obbley, onker, my first conker!’ The ancient warcry of English conker battles heralds autumn in the Kentish countryside, where Plummergen, Miss Seeton’s home village, and its great rival Murreystone, are holding their Produce Show and – this year – impromptu fisticuffs! Plus...

Who should be hobnobbing with the great and the good at a Buckingham Palace garden party but little Miss Emily Seeton, retired teacher and artistic sleuth. It seems there may be a traitor amongst HM’s faithful retainers. But while Miss Seeton is viewing shrunken heads and other royal treasures...

Miss Seeton returns! – a new original (the first in almost 20 years) for this classic series of humorous cosy mysteries created by Heron Carvic. It’s practically a Royal Marriage! The highly eligible son of Miss Seeton’s old friends Sir George and Lady Colveden has wed the daughter of...

From her discovery of an aristocratic infant abandoned in a village telephone booth, to dark doings amongst Scottish banks and braes, it’s a rollercoaster ride for Miss Seeton in this adventure with a tartan touch. Grateful parents Lord and Lady Glenclachan sweep Miss S. northward to MacSporran...

Miss Seeton is most embarrassed. Her every attempt at a portrait of little Effie Goffer has become a chilling picture of a corpse. Is Miss Seeton actually drawing a clue to a series of child murders in rural England? Scotland Yard thinks so, and wants Miss Seeton to turn from sketching . ....

Britain's first Prime Minister, Robert Walpole, smuggled wine up the Thames with the help of the Navy. Tony Blair confessed that a stiff drink and half a bottle of wine a night had become a helpful crutch while in office. Joseph Stalin flushed out traitors with vodka. The disintegration of Richard...