Raffles: The Gentleman Thief
I A tendril of smoke gracefully swirled up from his cigarette into the low-lying, jaundiced fog. Jermyn Street was…
Extract from Dr. Watson’s War
Chapter One: 221b Baker Street It was the smell of the place. The rooms that I’d agreed to take…
If Only You Knew I Can See You
On the twenty-fourth of February 1909 my husband decided to kill me. I like to believe he had thought…
The Changeling
The baby is crying. Downstairs there is music – Freddie and the Dreamers’ You Belong to Me. Moira straightens…
The Day of the Dead
Raul awoke weeping. He put his hands to his face and found his cheeks wet with tears. Startled, he…
On Being Watched
Some years ago I was sitting in a restaurant about to eat a fine meal. I had that curious…
A Mystery Murder
I don’t know what got into me. Why did I accept the invitation? Mortally wounded amour-propre, most likely. After…
Museum of Flight
A young man works alone in a sparsely furnished office, tapping at a computer keyboard. He wears dark wool…
A Short-term Overseas Contract
A Filipino is clearing debris from the pool when Linda steps outside into the oily black evening. A group…
Round Trip
Something has been forgotten, something important. At first, she thinks it’s an object, a ring of some sort –…
Final Furlong
He pulls the bolt back quietly and slips in through the crack. It’s gloomy, and the straw on the…
The Love-Light of Granny Bones
I was so careful but she caught me in the child’s room anyway – with the child mind you…
Extract from ‘Smoke Portrait’
Mrs Maes told me that our lesson would have to end early because her husband was going to his…
Out of the Dark
The grey man had been staying in the hotel for a fortnight now. This was unusual. It was a…
The Clearance
The traffic wasn’t going anywhere. The Harrods sale had just started and it had taken George twenty minutes to…
The Voice Behind
The extravagance of a first-class ticket on a cross-country train to Edinburgh, Daisy Barker reflected, was worth it: few…
Extract from Caribou Island
My mother was not real. She was an early dream, a hope. She was a place. Snowy, like here,…