Judith Cutler crafts her novels against the vibrant backdrop of the Midlands, a region she knows intimately. A prize-winning short-story writer, she brought her extensive experience as an English lecturer to teaching creative writing at university. Her engagement with the literary world extends to leading writing courses and contributing to organizations for crime writers.
Unruly guests are the least of Harriet and Matthew Rowsley's concerns when an accident turns out to be brutal murder at Thorncroft House. With a house full of suspects, the sleuthing duo has to find out who is behind this and why. Harriet has her own theory and decides to follow her hunch. After all, every aspect should be considered, just in case!
May 1861, Victorian England. Harriet and Matthew Rowsley find themselves stranded at a house party at Clunston Park due to flooding when shockingly, one of the guests is murdered! The finger is pointed at Clara, an eleven-year- old maid, and convinced she cannot be the culprit, Harriet and Matthew agree to investigate!
On a freezing winter's night, an unexpected visitor arrives at Thorncroft House. Tensions soon arise as the household is trapped indoors by the snow, escalating when the dead body of a young housemaid is discovered, and housekeeper Harriet Rowsley and her husband Matthew must consider that they may be harbouring a murderer in their midst . . .
Land agent Matthew Rowsley and his capable wife Harriet are part of a group of trustees assigned to manage Thorncroft House - until matters take a disturbing turn when Lord Croft's long-lost cousin and heir, Julius Trescothick, arrives, ready to claim his inheritance. But is he who he claims to be . and what are his true intentions?
Newly appointed as land agent to the youthful Lord Croft, Matthew Rowsley is distracted from his tasks on the country estate by the disappearance of a housemaid, and teams up with housekeeper Mrs Faulkner to get to the bottom of the matter. Something rotten is going on at Thorncroft - and it's up to Matthew and Mrs Faulkner to unearth the truth.
Jane's is busy preparing for the school play, but the threat of cuts to the school's budget puts a strain on morale. She's also concerned over her landlord's deteriorating health and the odd behaviour of her neighbours. With her students' welfare at the forefront of her mind, can Jane unravel the curiosities in which she finds herself tangled?
Fran is preparing for her forthcoming wedding to Assistant Chief Constable Mark Turner, but renovations at the rectory they plan to move into are disrupted by the discovery of a skeleton buried in the vegetable patch. As investigations into its identity progress, it's also clear that Mark's two grown-up children are less than ecstatic at the prospect of their father's forthcoming nuptials. In fact, at least one of them seems to be behaving very strangely indeed . . .
When city career woman Jodie Welsh marries Reverend Theo Welsh and moves to the country village of Lesser Hogben, she encounters hostility from locals and the mysterious disappearance of a local boy she had hired to work in her garden.
Head teacher Jane Cowan is a victim of her own success and is expected to bring other schools up to scratch. Jane can't turn a blind eye when some of the poorer new students disappear. When everything points to people smugglers in the area, she has her work cut out seeing justice done. And that's before a threat far closer to home rears his head.
With her abusive ex-husband in prison, Jane Cowan finally has the confidence to accept a new job: head teacher of the primary school in the Kentish village of Wrayford. But her new life is soon disrupted when a mysterious intruder breaks into her school, and then later when a child is badly hurt in the playground - only Jane suspects that her fall was not an accident. After another child suffers life-threatening injuries, Jane must become the pursuer and not the prey if she is to protect the pupils in her charge. However, when the children and teachers alike begin to act suspiciously, and Jane finds that she herself is a target, the fears and doubts that she thought were behind her begin to resurface...