An experienced detective’s unorthodox methods land him in troubled waters in this first book in the DC Smith/Kings Lake Investigation series by prolific British crime writer Peter Grainger.The story opens with the apparently accidental drowning of a sixth form student in the Norfolk countryside. As a matter of routine, or so it seems, the case passes across the desk of Detective Sergeant Smith, recently returned to work after an internal investigation into another ...

DC Smith has solved hundreds of crimes, but he’s never been accused of one. Until now.In the peace and tranquility of the woods at Pinehills on a Saturday afternoon, a mobile phone begins to ring. The phone belongs to DC Smith, and it isn’t unusual that the call is from Kings Lake Central police station; what is unusual is the fact that he seems to be the subject of an investigation rather than taking part in one. What can the links be between a prisoner’s violent ...

In this thrilling novel, dark secrets and reminders of the past must be brought into the light as DC Smith and his team try to stick together and solve their most challenging case yet.“We are living in the departure lounge,” said Ralph Greenwood, “and flights leave with monotonous regularity.” So when another resident of the Rosemary House care home is found dead in her chair one Saturday evening in December, no-one is very surprised—not until the results of a rout...

In this heart-pounding thriller, DC Smith is looking for a body, but what he finds is far more sinister ...When a worker goes missing from a North Sea gas platform, there seem to be just two possible explanations—it was a tragic accident or a suicide. It does not take Smith and his detectives long, however, to discover that James Bell led a double life back onshore in Kings Lake, a life complicated enough to make him at least one dangerous enemy.Before the ...

Detective Sergeant Chris Waters got the call at 5:29 that July morning. “This is it,” said DCI Reeve, “you'll be first there, it's all yours.” Suddenly, after months of waiting and wondering, Waters finds himself in at the deep end, and alone at the scene of a puzzling murder. When a young woman's body is discovered near the edge of town, the Kings Lake Major Investigation Team must learn that the smallest details can hide the darkest secrets. Known to some as charming and vibrant—and to o...

DC Smith is determined to find the connection between two crimes that take place over a century apart in this thriller from a bestselling author.On a quiet Monday morning, an unexpected appointment unsettles the delicate balance at Kings Lake Central. A new Detective Inspector takes up the post, while veteran investigator Detective Sergeant D.C. Smith, chooses this moment to submit his resignation. With just months left before retirement, Smith must confront not on...

A simple case takes an unexpected turn as the Kings Lake Central murder squad must learn to work together in order to solve the twisted murder mystery.The new Kings Lake Central murder squad is about to spend its first morning on team-building exercises and reviewing cold cases when the call comes in that the body of one of the city’s rough sleepers has been found in a shop doorway. It happens, someone says, he isn’t the first to die on the streets and he won’t be ...

Sometimes the past comes back to haunt you, and for DC Smith, that time is now ...When fourteen-year-old Zoe Johnson doesn’t come home on a Monday night in early December, the alarm bells in Kings Lake Central police station do not ring straight away—after all, she’s from the Dockmills, one of the toughest estates in the town. But for Detective Sergeant DC Smith, due to retire in just three weeks’ time, there are some strange echoes of the case that has haunted him...

In this heart-pounding novel, Detective DC Smith’s unorthodox investigation methods land him in a royally twisted situation as he looks into the tragic death of a Lord.During DC Smith’s third investigation with the Diver and Diver Associates agency, they have been asked by a member of Norfolk’s aristocracy to look into the tragic death of her younger brother, Freddie, the late Lord Thorpe.The inquest verdict was of misadventure, but it isn’t long before Smi...

DC Smith’s job is put on the line when a woman’s insurance company hires him to confirm that her missing husband is no longer alive—so her second husband can cash in on a hefty insurance claim.Jo told him the phone call had been about a woman who wanted to have her husband declared dead. DC Smith is called by a woman named Amanda Fitch who wants to have her husband declared dead, but there's no body, no proof of death, and Smith does not want to get involved.

As the first anniversary of the formation of the Kings Lake murder squad approaches, there's a problem—they’ve run out of murders. As a result, they are given the task of reviewing unsolved cold cases. One of these comes back to life in unexpected ways as the team tries to discover the identity of the young woman whose body was found in the Norfolk countryside two decades ago. And even if they can give her a name, how can they possibly find her killer after so many years?

When Caroline Thorpe succeeded in casting doubt on the verdict of the inquest into her brother’s death, she could not have anticipated what would follow.Freddie was Earl Thorpe of Burnham, and as the Kings Lake detectives, headed by DCI Cara Freeman, soon begin to realise, influential people have gone to considerable lengths to cover up a potential scandal surrounding the young man’s death.Their investigation will take them from Norfolk into the capital, and from idealistic y...