Bleeding Heart Square

A spelling-binding historical mystery novel set in the Golden Age of crime writing

FEATURED IN THE TIMES TOP 100 CRIME &amp; THRILLERS SINCE 1945 
 
Bleeding Heart Square is a tense historical thriller from the bestselling author of The Ashes of London 
 
1934, London 
 
Into the decaying cul-de-sac of Bleeding Heart Square steps aristocratic Lydia Langstone fleeing an abusive marriage. However, unknown to Lydia, a dark mystery haunts Bleeding Heart Square. What happened to Miss Penhow, the middle-aged spinster who owns the house and who vanished four years earlier? Why is a seedy plain-clothes policeman obsessively watching the square? What is making struggling journalist Rory Wentwood so desperate to contact Miss Penhow? 
 
And why are parcels of rotting hearts being sent to Joseph Serridge, the last person to see Miss Penhow alive?

There are echoes of Agatha Christie in the complex plot set in 1934, but Taylor's portrait of desperate lives is infused with a sharp sense of class and politics as British society fractures under the threat of a world war

The Times, Top 100 Crime & Thrillers since 1945

Taylor is the modern master of a very Dickensian underworld... A sense of brooding evil pervades the complex plot, handled with great assurance

The period atmosphere, as in all Taylor's work, is flawless. He simply gets better and better

Andrew Taylor is the author of a number of crime novels, including the ground-breaking Roth Trilogy, which was adapted into the acclaimed drama Fallen Angel, and the historical crime novels The Ashes of London, The Silent Boy, and The American Boy, a No.1 Sunday Times bestseller and a 2005 Richard &amp; Judy Book Club Choice. 
He has won many awards, including the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Award (the only author to win it three times) and the CWA's prestigious Diamond Dagger.

1934, London. 
 
Into the decaying cul-de-sac of Bleeding Heart Square steps aristocratic Lydia Langstone fleeing an abusive marriage. However, unknown to Lydia, a dark mystery haunts Bleeding Heart Square. What happened to Miss Penhow, the middle-aged spinster who owns the house and who vanished four years earlier? Why is a seedy plain-clothes policeman obsessively watching the square? What is making struggling journalist Rory Wentwood so desperate to contact Miss Penhow? 
 
And why are parcels of rotting hearts being sent to Joseph Serridge, the last person to see Miss Penhow alive?

The Barred Window

From the author of the bestselling The American Boy - over 250,000 copies sold

48 years in the same house, in the same room, with the same barred windows 
 
The Barred Windows is a psychological thriller packed with twists and turns from the bestselling author of The Ashes of London 
 
It is 1993 and Thomas Penmarsh has lived in Finisterre, the house by the sea, all his life, sleeping each night in the room with the barred window. He's only 48 but has been an old man since one evening in 1967 when he lost everything he valued. 
 
With the death of his controlling mother, Thomas finally becomes master of his own house. When Esmond, his cousin and childhood confidante, comes to live with him Thomas is overjoyed - Esmond always looks after him . . . 
 
But is Esmond all that he seems? And why is he so concerned that Alice wants to come home too? Darling Alice, whom neither have seen since that fateful night twenty-six years ago.

It is 1993 and Thomas Penmarsh has lived in Finisterre, the house by the sea, all his life, sleeping each night in the room with the barred window. He&rsquo;s only 48 but has been an old man since one evening in 1967 when he lost everything he valued . . . 
 
However now his controlling mother has died and he is master of the house. When Esmond, his cousin and childhood confidante, comes to live with him Thomas is overjoyed &ndash; Esmond always looks after him . . . 
 
But is Esmond all that he seems? And why is he so concerned that Alice wants to come home too? Darling Alice, whom neither have seen since that fateful night twenty-six years ago&hellip;

A Stain on the Silence

Past crimes can be forgotten but never erased.

A Stain on the Silence is a gripping thriller from the bestselling author of The Ashes of London 
 
You can run from a guilty conscience, but you can't hide . . . 
 
James wasn't much more than a child when he had an affair with Lily. And now, twenty-four years later, Lily confesses to James that their affair led to a daughter, Kate. 
 
And Kate desperately needs her father's help: she's wanted for murder. 
 
But there is no room for murder in James's life. He has a wife, a good job, a nice house in the country . . . 
 
As Kate comes crashing into his world, so she lights the fuse under his ordered life. Because James has also been keeping a secret - a very dark and deadly one...

You can run from a guilty conscience, but you can't hide . . . 
 
James wasn't much more than a child when he had an affair with Lily. And now, twenty-four years later, Lily confesses to James that their affair led to a daughter, Kate. 
 
And Kate desperately needs her father's help: she's wanted for murder. 
 
But there is no room for murder in James's life. He has a wife, a good job, a nice house in the country . . . 
 
As Kate comes crashing into his world, so she lights the fuse under his ordered life. Because James has also been keeping a secret - a very dark and deadly one...

Andrew Taylor

1786, Jerusalem College, Cambridge. 
 
 The ghost of murdered Sylvia Whichcote is sighted prowling the grounds by fellow commoner Frank Oldershaw. As he appears to be descending into madness, Frank's anxious mother employs John Holdsworth - a stingingly vocal sceptic - to investigate the sighting, throwing the uneasy status quo at Jerusalem into chaos. 
 
 As Holdsworth sees the sinister Holy Ghost Club govern the privileged life at Jerusalem, he realises it rules Jerusalem more effectively than even its Master, Dr Carbury. With the ghost of his dead wife, Maria, and Elinor, the very-much-alive Master's wife, now haunting his movements, Holdworth's fate is sealed. He must unravel the circumstances surrounding Sylvia's death . . . or the hauntings will continue.

Andrew Taylor

Books by Andrew Taylor

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