Parish & Richards: Books 4-6

The Shadow of Death: DCI Marshall has taken the place of Chief Walter Day, transferred Kowalski to Traffic Analysis, and is taking an active role in running the investigations... But what you don't know is that DCI Marshall has an agenda! Toadstone finds a body in a trunk at the landfill site, which isn't connected to the Bin Bags Case, and between him and Parish they decide to investigate the body in the trunk themselves. Parish is then suspended from active duty - now, (you know and I know) that he should really hand over the case, but the trouble is Toadstone's done an illegal post-mortem, so they decide to carry on investigating the murder using the backroom of Parish's house as a base. Richards is not happy because Marshall is using her as a driver and not involving her in the Bin Bag Case, but she realises that the trunk murder is a copycat of a murder from the 1950s, and there are more to come... Also, the Chief Constable goes to Klosters skiing with his family, and Sir Charles Lathbury from MI6 decides that it would be better all round if he had an accident and didn't come back until Parish's career was ruined, but there's an ex-Stasi killer tracking the assassins and Sir Charles, who thinks he's incognito, but isn't. The reporter, Catherine Cox from the Chigwell Herald, becomes involved when the killer contacts her wanting publicity, but because Parish is running an illegal investigation, she has to hide the vague report on page 5 of the paper. The killer contacts her and tells her she's on his list, which means that Parish has to look after her. Not only does she move into Parish's spare room, much to the chagrin of both Angie and Richards, but she also tries to tempt him away from Angie. What am I doing? I've nearly told you the whole story, but not quite... There's more twists and turns in this book than a game of Twister! And I haven't even mentioned the wedding, a clue coming from a friend about Parish's parents, or St. John - the killer!

His Wrath is Come: PC Lola Laveque in Missing Persons identifies a pattern. Murders are thin on the ground, so Parish and Richards decide to investigate. Their investigations lead them all over Essex, and eventually to Maldon where they discover one man's obsession for his family. Also, Sergeant Ed Gorman has a different problem with his family. After the death of an investigative journalist, Parish decides to stop looking for his parents.

The Breath of Life: Parish and Richards investigate a case involving recently pregnant headless bodies disposed of in the sewers. Not only do they struggle to discover the identity of the victims, but they can't find the babies either. Kowalski and Nash investigate the death of the landlady of The Smutty Pig who has been bludgeoned to death and a withered flower left on the body. Also, Parish finds out who his father is, somebody wants Angie's baby, and Richards has another relationship disaster. Oh, and a favourite comes back... for a while!


Genre: Mystery