Watchers of the Dead

Watchers of the Dead

Simon Beaufort

Mystery & Thrillers

"All Londoners will see what the Watchers are capable of on Christmas Eve ..." December 1882. Attending the opening of the new Natural History Museum, Pall Mall Gazette reporter Alec Lonsdale and his colleague Hulda Friederichs are shocked to discover a body in the basement, hacked to death. Suspicion immediately falls on a trio of cannibals, brought over from the Congo as museum exhibits, who have disappeared without trace. Alec however has his doubts – especially when he discovers that three other influential London men have been similarly murdered. When he and Hulda discover a letter in the victim's home warning of a catastrophic event planned for Christmas Eve, the pair find themselves in a race against time to discover who exactly the Watchers are and what it is they want ...
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The Killing Ship

The Killing Ship

Simon Beaufort

Mystery & Thrillers

A group of scientists in the Antarctic face a desperate battle for survival as they are hunted down by hostile intruders. Having spent the summer conducting fieldwork on stark Livingston Island, marine biologist Andrew Berrister is looking forward to returning to civilization. But his final days in Antarctica take an unexpected turn when it becomes clear that he and his small group of scientists are not alone on the island. Deducing that the intruders are a crew of illegal whalers, the scientists face an increasingly desperate struggle for survival when two members of their shore party disappear and their supplies are deliberately sabotaged. As Berrister and his remaining companions flee across the treacherous, icy terrain, they are pursued unrelentingly by ruthless killers whose true reasons for being in the Antarctic are darker and more dangerous than the scientists could ever have imagined.
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The Bloodstained Throne

The Bloodstained Throne

Simon Beaufort

Mystery & Thrillers

The new 'Sir Geoffrey Mappestone' mystery - When the former crusader knight Geoffrey Mappestone and his friend Roger of Durham try to slip out of England to the Holy Land, a ferocious storm destroys the ship they are on and casts them ashore. The two knights are unwillingly thrust into the company of other shipwrecked passengers, and while attempting to evade the unwelcome attention of the more dangerous members of the group, they become unwillingly drawn into a plot to overthrow the king and return England to Saxon rule . . .
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A Dead Man's Secret

A Dead Man's Secret

Simon Beaufort

Mystery & Thrillers

The new 'Sir Geoffrey Mappestone' mystery - When the former crusader knight Geoffrey Mappestone is ordered by King Henry to deliver a series of mysterious letters to the restless western reaches of Wales, he agrees only reluctantly. His conviction that the simple mission hides something more sinister is strengthened when the letters' scribe is murdered before the journey begins. Then one of Geoffrey's travelling companions is killed, and he knows he must uncover the secret behind the letters before more victims are claimed . . .
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The Coiner's Quarrel

The Coiner's Quarrel

Simon Beaufort

Mystery & Thrillers

Westminster, 1102. Once again about to depart for the Holy Land, Sir Geoffrey is furious to be summoned back by the King, trusting neither his methods of persuasion nor his motives. When he arrives at Court he finds two argumentative groups of Saxon moneyers, one accusing the other of devaluing the King's currency. There may be more to it than mere greed, however, and, unappealing though the prospect is, Geoffrey has no choice but to accept the King's commission to investigate whether this is part of a treasonous plot - especially as it is his only hope of saving his sister from the consequences of her own involvement.
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Dead Man's Secret

Dead Man's Secret

Simon Beaufort

Mystery & Thrillers

The new ‘Sir Geoffrey Mappestone’ mystery - When the former crusader knight Geoffrey Mappestone is ordered by King Henry to deliver a series of mysterious letters to the restless western reaches of Wales, he agrees only reluctantly. His conviction that the simple mission hides something more sinister is strengthened when the letters’ scribe is murdered before the journey begins. Then one of Geoffrey’s travelling companions is killed, and he knows he must uncover the secret behind the letters before more victims are claimed . . .
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Deadly Inheritance

Deadly Inheritance

Simon Beaufort

Mystery & Thrillers

Murder, intrigue and marriage in the Welsh Marches of old . . . - When Sir Geoffrey's unpopular brother, Henry, is murdered, he unwillingly inherits Goodrich Castle in the Welsh Marches. Immediately, his sister pushes him towards a marriage that will provide an heir and stability for the family. But when Geoffrey survives attempts on his own life, he wonders whether they are linked to Henry's death, to his potential brides, or even to the rumoured murder of the Duchess of Normandy, as a Welsh revolt against the English looms.
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A Head for Poisoning

A Head for Poisoning

Simon Beaufort

Mystery & Thrillers

The second book in the critically acclaimed medieval mystery series featuring Sir Geoffrey MappestoneIn the year 1101, Sir Geoffrey Mappestone returns to his home at Goodrich Castle on the Welsh border. He is travelling in the company of a knight who claims to be carrying an urgent message for King Henry I. When the knight is killed during an ambush, Geoffrey feels obliged to deliver the message to the King himself, but quickly regrets his decision when the King orders him to spy on his own family in order to ferret out a dangerous traitor.Geoffrey returns home to find his father gravely ill and his older brothers and sister each determined to inherit the Mappestone estate. Geoffrey's father claims he is being poisoned by one of his own children, a claim no one takes seriously until he is found murdered with his own knife in the dead of night.Geoffrey's investigation of the murder, however, takes him far beyond a family quarrel. Accusations are flying, and...
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Mind of a Killer

Mind of a Killer

Simon Beaufort

Mystery & Thrillers

Newspaper reporter Alec Lonsdale discovers that a series of seemingly random murders may be connected in this absorbing historical mystery. London, 1882. Alec Lonsdale, a young reporter on the Pall Mall Gazette, is working on a story about a fatal house fire. But the post-mortem on the victim produces shocking results: Patrick Donovan's death was no accident. But why would someone murder a humble shop assistant and steal part of his brain?When a second body is discovered, its throat cut, and then a third, Lonsdale and his spirited female colleague, Hulda Friederichs, begin to uncover evidence of a conspiracy that reaches to the highest echelons of Victorian society.
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The King's Spies

The King's Spies

Simon Beaufort

Mystery & Thrillers

A Sir Geoffrey Mappestone mystery. March 1102March 1102, and Robert de Belleme, the Black Earl of Shrewsbury, is summoned to appear before King Henry's Easter Court, to answer for siding with the King's older brother, the Duke of Normandy, in an attempt to steal the King's throne.Meanwhile, in the crowded and dangerous streets of Southwark, south of the river Thames, Crusader Knights Sir Geoffrey Mappestone and the hearty Sir Roger of Durham witness a man murdered by hanging from the window of the Crusader's Arms Inn. But this is not just any man, he is the illegitimate nephew of Robert de Belleme, and had apparently been holding a meeting with two mysterious men. In fact, it turns out the inn has been used for many meetings of the earl's spies, and there are plans afoot to obtain a terrible weapon to use against the King, one that the Crusader Knights remember with a terrible fear from the Siege of Jerusalem Greek Fire.Solving the murder is only the...
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The Murder House

The Murder House

Simon Beaufort

Mystery & Thrillers

When PC Helen Anderson takes the files for a forthcoming court case to study over the weekend, she commits a cardinal error. For those files are not supposed to leave the police station - and the moment they fall into the wrong hands, Helen's ordinary, uneventful life begins to spiral out of control. For one small lie will lead to another, then another - culminating in a rendezvous in an ordinary suburban house in an ordinary Bristol street ... the scene of a gruesome and extraordinary murder.
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