Thea Osborne and her faithful spaniel, Hepzie, have taken on a house-sitting assignment in the Cotswold village of Temple Guiting. But as always, an idyllic village can harbour a disquieting number of secrets and when a skeleton is discovered at the roots of an old beech tree, Thea is grateful for the presence of her partner DS Phil Hollis.

Florist Persimmon 'Simmy' Brown and her new assistant are busy compiling wreaths but there's word of a series of sinister dognappings occurring in nearby Troutbeck. Whilst taking a walk, Simmy and her father stumble on a dog, strangled to death. It's not long before Simmy reluctantly finds herself caught up in a murder investigation.

1935: Harry Jardine is a soldier of fortune. Forced to flee Hamburg after helping Jews escape Nazi Germany, he is recruited to smuggle guns from Rumania into Abyssinia, under threat of Italian invasion. But seeing how ill-equipped the Ethiopians are to face the Italian army, can Jardine just walk away?

1936. Having returned from Abyssinia, soldier of fortune Cal Jardine is convinced to travel to Barcelona and help facilitate rival athletic games to the Berlin Olympics. But now he finds himself in Spain as the first shots of civil war ring out; and the demands of friendship, love, and politics embroil Jardine once again in foreign war.

London, 1958. In the jazz clubs of Soho and the coffee bars of Notting Hill the young and the restless - the absolute beginners - are forging a new lifestyle of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll. Moving through this world is MacInnes' young photographer, whose wit and honest views remain definitive of 1950s London and what it means to be a teenager.

The fifth book in a series featuring painter/photographer Rose Trevelyan. Rose suspects a murder has been committed. In trying to help young, talented Joel, Rose uncovers family secrets. She is proved right; there is a murder, but not the one she had forseen nor one which the family could possibly have anticipated.

When obscure crime writer Ethelred Tressider vanishes from his home, his indefatigable agent, Elsie Thirkettle, is soon on his trail. Finding him proves surprisingly easy. Bringing him home is another matter. Having followed Ethelred to a hotel in the French Loire, she find herself confined there with him after a prominent philatelist is murdered.

Foster, a British agent sent to Germany to obtain vital information, falls passionately in love with Baroness von Reudath. The Marshal, almost insane with jealousy, seizes Foster and had him removed from the sight of prying eyes. With cool and calculating courage, Sir Leonard Wallace makes plans to free Foster and the Baroness.