Showing results by author "Frances Brody" in All Categories

Take one quiet Yorkshire Village, add a measure of mystery, a sprinkling of scandal and Kate Shackleton - amateur sleuth extraordinaire! Bridgestead is a quiet village: a babbling brook, rolling hills and a working mill at its heart. Pretty and remote, nothing exceptional happens...except for the day when Joshua Braithwaite goes missing in dramatic circumstances, never to be heard of again.

1929, London. In the darkness before dawn, a London railway porter discovers a man's body as he unloads a special goods train from Yorkshire, all means of identification stripped away. Hitting a dead end, Scotland Yard call on indomitable sleuth Kate Shackleton, hoping her local Yorkshire knowledge and undoubted skills at winkling out information will produce the results they need. 1929, Yorkshire. Fears of unrest in the Yorkshire coalfields mean that Kate must conduct her investigation with the utmost secrecy.

Kate Shackleton's sterling reputation for courageous sleuthing attracts the attention of the venerable Lady Coulton. Hidden in her past is a daughter born out of wedlock and given up to a different family. Now Lady Coulton is determined to find her and puts Kate on the case. But as Kate delves deeper into Lady Coulton's past, she soon finds herself thrust into a scandal much closer to home.

When the landlord of a Yorkshire tavern is killed in plain sight, Freda Simonson, the only witness to the crime, becomes plagued with guilt, believing the wrong man has been convicted. Following her death, it seems that the truth will never be uncovered in the peaceful village of Langcliffe. But it just so happens that Freda's nephew is courting the renowned amateur sleuth Kate Shackleton, who decides to holiday in Langcliffe with her indomitable teenage niece, Harriet.

Young Harriet and her brother, Austin, have always been scared of the quarry where their stonemason father works. So when they find him dead on the cold ground, they scarper quick smart and look for some help. When help arrives, however, the quarry is deserted, and there is no sign of the body. Were the children mistaken? Is their father not dead? Did he simply get up and run away?

When amateur sleuth detective Kate Shackleton receives a dawn telephone call from her cousin, James, his news soon snaps Kate into wakefulness. The India office seek her on-the-spot help in finding a maharajah last seen on the Bolton Abbey estate. He has with him a hugely valuable diamond. Investigative successes and good family connections put Kate in the highly trusted category. Perceived as 'establishment', Kate feels like an outsider in her sympathies.

Yorkshire, 1928. Indomitable sleuth Kate Shackleton is taking a well-deserved break from her detective work and indulging in her other passion: photography. When her local Photographic Society proposes an outing, Kate jumps at the chance to visit Haworth and Stanbury, in the heart of Brontë country, the setting for Wuthering Heights. But when an obnoxious member of their party is murdered, the group is thrown into disarray. Is the murderer amongst them, or did the loud-mouthed Tobias have more enemies than they might have imagined?

A Pawnshop Robbery: It's no rest for the wicked as Kate Shackleton picks up her second professional sleuthing case. But exposing the culprit of a pawnshop robbery turns sinister when her investigation takes her to Harrogate - and murder is only one step behind.... A Fatal Stabbing: A night at the theatre should be just what the doctor ordered - until Kate stumbles across a body in the doorway.

Yorkshire, 1927. Eclipse fever grips the nation, and when beloved theatre star Selina Fellini approaches trusted sleuth Kate Shackleton to accompany her to a viewing party at Giggleswick School Chapel, Kate suspects an ulterior motive. During the eclipse, Selina's friend and costar Billy Moffatt disappears and is later found dead in the chapel grounds. Kate can't help but dig deeper and soon learns that two other members of the theatre troupe died in similarly mysterious circumstances in the past year.

Kate Shackleton arrives at the garden party with her niece Harriet to celebrate the success of newly crowned Yorkshire Brewery Queen Ruth Parnaby. As companion to Ruth, Harriet explores the brewery but it's Kate who opens the wrong door, finds herself staring at the body of a brewery worker and in danger of asphyxiation. With the discovery of financial discrepancies, family secrets and the lure of national success for Ruth, motives for murder and abduction abound. Sometimes a threat comes from the most unexpected quarter, and it's up to Kate to fathom the mystery.

1930, Yorkshire. Intrigued by a mysterious letter from a stranger offering important information, private investigator Kate Shackleton arrives in the mill village of Saltaire. At nearby Milner Field mansion, overshadowed by its reputation for misfortune and untimely deaths, she expects to meet the letter writer, Ronnie Creswell. Kate soon hears the shocking news that Ronnie has been killed. At first his death appears to be a tragic accident at the mill, but soon it becomes clear that Ronnie's demise was no mishap.

The Woman Unknown: Deirdre Fitzpatrick is married to a man who wants to know where she really goes when supposedly taking care of her sick mother and calls on the expertise of Kate Shackleton, amateur sleuth extraordinaire, to investigate. The Gentleman: Everett Runcie is a banker facing ruin and disgrace. His American heiress wife will no longer pay for his mistakes or tolerate his infidelity and is seeking a divorce.

Yorkshire, 1969. Nell Lewis is four months into her new role as governor of HMP Brackerley when the prison takes on a catering contract for Brackerley village's wedding of the year. Almost all the female inmates are delighted to be involved in the celebrations, though Linda is desperate to avoid the event in case she is spotted, photographed, and once more appears on the front pages of the gutter press. During the wedding reception, one of the inmates discovers the father of the bride, Mr Chapin, stabbed to death behind the marquee.

Nothing ever happens in August, and tenacious sleuth Kate Shackleton deserves a break. Heading off for a long-overdue holiday to Whitby, she visits her school friend Alma, who works as a fortune-teller there. Kate had been looking forward to a relaxing seaside sojourn but upon arrival discovers that Alma's daughter, Felicity, has disappeared, leaving her mother a note and the pawn ticket for their only asset: a watch-guard. What makes this more intriguing is the jeweller who advanced Felicity the 30 shillings is Jack Phillips, Alma's current gentleman friend.

Leeds, 1914. Sisters Julia and Margaret Wood are struggling to rise above devastating poverty while the threat of war looms large over their community. Angry feelings about foreigners have reached a boiling point; their German-Jewish father's search for work proves hopeless, leaving entrepreneurial Julia to keep the family afloat by hawking homemade pies on the streets of Leeds.

Previously published as Sisters of Fortune. Sophie and Rosa Moran are born into a working-class family struggling to rise above poverty. Their father is a lowly employee at Thackreys' Bank, a powerful family-run concern. Sophie and her sister first come into contact with the Thackrey family - especially young Lydia - as children through their father's job. In spite of the social differences between them, they form an enduring friendship.

1969. A job in the Prison Service is not for everyone. The training is hard, the cells are bleak and a thick skin is needed. But for Nell Lewis, helping prisoners is something she cares about deeply, and when she's promoted into a new post as governor of HMP Brackerley in Yorkshire, she's tasked with transforming the renowned run-down facility into a modern, open prison for women. Just as Nell is settling into her new role, events take a dark turn when a man's body is discovered in the prison grounds.

In working-class Leeds in the 1920s, Jess is starting on her journey through life. Growing up in the aftermath of the Great War, she is torn between her downtrodden father and her cantankerous, ambitious mother. After a disastrous spell as housekeeper to the local priest, she works happily in the office of her uncle's shoe factory and falls in love with her childhood sweetheart, Wilf.