Showing results by author "Bruce Beckham" in All Categories

STAND-ALONE MURDER MYSTERY, #15 IN THE SERIES. MEET MAVERICK BRITISH DETECTIVE DI SKELGILL... "MAD, BAD AND JUST A LITTLE BIT COZY." VIRILE; HANDSOME; RUTHLESS. When gamekeeper Lawrence Melling takes over at traditional Lakeland sporting estate Shuteham Hall he soon ruffles the feathers of not only elderly Lord Edward Bullingdon and his younger model wife Miranda, but also their adult offspring and fellow estate workers. Meanwhile local conservationists perceive an existential threat to rare hen harriers nesting on nearby Over Moor. And when Miranda’s jewellery worth a six-figure sum goes...

When a high-flying adman is stabbed to death on a company weekend in the English Lake District, local detective Daniel Skelgill finds himself wrenched from his rural Cumbrian comfort zone. As the investigation unfolds, DI Skelgill is led a merry dance between London and Edinburgh, at every turn confronted by uncooperative suspects—colleagues, wife and lovers of the deceased—each of whom is possessed of motive and opportunity. Is this a crime of passion, a professional hit, or a cleverly calculated killing borne out of greed and jealousy?

NEW FOR 2024 – STAND-ALONE, #23 IN THE SERIES. MEET MAVERICK BRITISH DETECTIVE DI SKELGILL... "A COMPELLING BRITISH CRIME MYSTERY." LAKELAND’S MOST FAMOUS 24-hour fell running feat was accomplished by local man Bob Graham, who in June 1932 scaled 42 peaks over a distance of 66 miles, with an attendant height gain just a little shy of Mount Everest – arriving back at Keswick Moot Hall with 21 minutes to spare. ‘The Bob Graham Round’, as this route came to be known, is etched into Cumbrian folklore, not least because the 42-year-old Keswick B&B owner ran in tennis shoes, long shorts...

IN THE LAKE DISTRICT’s natural larder, deadly poisons lurk unseen. Pretty flowers and exotic fungi may flatter to deceive, and they should not be underestimated. Their toxins evolved in prehistoric times to deter great grazing beasts like bison and elk and the Ice Age aurochs. But in the modern fashion, rare plants and other wild fare – Grizedale venison, Arctic char, Herdwick lamb – are blended with traditional ingredients to make Cumbria a gourmet’s paradise. The rugged and beautiful county boasts more Michelin stars per head than any other part of the British Isles. And each year...

STAND-ALONE MURDER MYSTERY, #11 IN THE SERIES. MEET MAVERICK BRITISH DETECTIVE DI SKELGILL... "MAD, BAD AND JUST A LITTLE BIT COZY."WHEN BEAUTIFUL YOUNG SOCIALITE Scarlett Liddell apparently commits suicide during a ‘Murder Mystery Weekend’, extravagantly staged at a Lakeland castle, the coroner calls in DI Skelgill to tie up the loose ends. Post mortem results, however, cast doubt upon the provisional verdict – and circumstantial evidence begins to point to one obvious suspect – the woman’s multi-millionaire husband, Will Liddell. And when Will Liddell is accused of a separate ...

STAND-ALONE, #18 IN THE SERIES. MEET MAVERICK DETECTIVE DI SKELGILL... "A COMPELLING BRITISH CRIME MYSTERY." A BLIND EYE TURNED, AN INJUSTICE DONE. High in lonely Swinesdale, notorious burglars Jake and Boris Baddun perish in a burnt-out stolen Mercedes. Known associate Dale Spooner leaves his biological signature and the predatory DI Alec Smart moves in for the kill. Spooner is convicted, and now languishes in jail. A rumour reaches Skelgill: Spooner is innocent and can prove it – a cast-iron alibi, a video on a hidden mobile phone. But Spooner will not talk. At stake is the safety of ...

STAND-ALONE MURDER MYSTERY, #14 IN THE SERIES. MEET MAVERICK BRITISH DETECTIVE DI SKELGILL... "MAD, BAD AND JUST A LITTLE BIT COZY."‘A KILLER IN OUR MIDST?’ cried a newspaper headline to commemorate the disappearance of Mary Wilson. It is two decades since Britain’s first mass DNA sweep failed to incriminate a single local male. Mary was listed merely as a missing person. Now archaeologists have unearthed human remains in Cummacatta Wood. The forensics match – age, sex, fragments of clothing... and dental records. But the murder hunt has only just begun when an outsider, a convicted...

STAND-ALONE MURDER MYSTERY, #13 IN THE SERIES. MEET MAVERICK BRITISH DETECTIVE DI SKELGILL... "MAD, BAD AND JUST A LITTLE BIT COZY."MURDER ON THE MIDNIGHT EXPRESS? When the exclusive London-to-Edinburgh sleeper plunges into a snowdrift deep in the Cumbrian fells, DI Skelgill awakes to discover one fellow passenger dead and another missing. Through a blinding blizzard Skelgill leads a daring evacuation – but even before they reach the sanctuary of an isolated coaching inn, a third traveller suffers a life-threatening mishap. As suspicion pervades the elite group of apparent strangers, ...

THE LAST WOMAN TO BE TRANSPORTED FROM CUMBRIA BARELY OF AGE, eighteen-year-old Flora Mary Graham was found guilty by a jury of twelve good Kendal men and true of the murder in his prime of the Seventh Earl of Fellside, by striking him about the head and sending him to his death in Blind Beck, the town’s stream running in violent spate on the stormy night of Halloween, 1852. Apprehended at the scene bearing a babe in arms, the child swaddled and soaked, three gold sovereigns were found in Flora’s possession, half a year’s wages for a servant girl such as she. The motive ascribed was ...

STAND-ALONE MURDER MYSTERY, #16 IN THE SERIES. MEET MAVERICK BRITISH DETECTIVE DI SKELGILL... "MAD, BAD AND JUST A LITTLE BIT COZY." NOBODY SAW HER. NOBODY CAN FIND HER. When 37-year-old Lisa Jackson sets out for work one Friday morning she is in high spirits. Things are going well with her new boyfriend. But when she does not reach her desk, or answer her mobile phone, her colleagues and family raise the alarm. Suspicion immediately falls on co-worker Ray Piper. A married man, he and Lisa have recently ended an affair. But steely-eyed Piper denies any knowledge of Lisa’s ...

STAND-ALONE MURDER MYSTERY, #4 IN THE SERIES. MEET MAVERICK BRITISH DETECTIVE DI SKELGILL... "MAD, BAD AND JUST A LITTLE BIT COZY." BY THE TIME Detective Inspector Skelgill becomes the tenth person to be stranded on secluded Grisholm (Pigs’ Isle in Old Norse) where a writers’ retreat is taking place, one of the assembled literati is already dead. Though natural causes may provide the explanation, a second ‘accidental’ death and a raft of curious experiences convince Skelgill that a cold and calculating killer is at large. But where is his evidence? Set around Derwentwater in the ...

STAND-ALONE MURDER MYSTERY, #3 IN THE SERIES. MEET MAVERICK BRITISH DETECTIVE DI SKELGILL... "MAD, BAD AND JUST A LITTLE BIT COZY." WHEN A MAN IS FOUND STRANGLED by a climbing rope beneath the Lake District's notorious Sharp Edge, it is assumed he is the victim of a tragic accident. But Detective Inspector Skelgill suspects otherwise, and his fears are borne out when a second corpse is discovered close to Striding Edge. Soon it appears that a ritualistic serial killer stalks Cumbria's fells. As the body count increases, Skelgill must determine the connection between the seemingly randomly ...

STAND-ALONE MURDER MYSTERY, #17 IN THE SERIES. MEET MAVERICK BRITISH DETECTIVE DI SKELGILL... "MAD, BAD AND JUST A LITTLE BIT COZY." TWELVE CLOSE FRIENDS, ONE DEADLY ENEMY. A Ouija board spells out ‘MURDER’ and next morning wealthy widow Daisy Mills is found drowned at a Lakeland beauty spot. Was this a warning from beyond the grave, or an agent provocateur among the house party? Could the earlier death of successful businessman Simon Mills really be the accident it seemed? And was it by coincidence that the same clique of old school friends had met before each tragedy? Pitched into ...

When a dog walker discovers a decaying corpse in Harterhow Woods it is surely just a matter of time before the police will close in upon the murderer. But despite a nationwide appeal the distinctive remains defy identification. Skelgill believes he knows the perpetrator - but his team have other ideas. As they unearth contradictory clues Skelgill becomes impatient - an arrest is made. But when the victim is finally named a new prime suspect emerges. Skelgill is determined to prevail - but the facts don't fit his gut feel.

When a long-serving Master at one of England's most prestigious public schools drowns in Bassenthwaite Lake, Detective Inspector Skelgill is summoned to investigate his apparent suicide. It soon becomes clear that senior members of staff are not all that they seem. As the school closes ranks, Skelgill realizes he is pitted against a sinister power struggle for control of its highly lucrative operation.

When latter-day lothario and expert kayaker Roger Alcock disappears on the night of the "Great Cockermouth Flood", his attractive wife Maeve takes 24 hours longer than might reasonably be expected to notify the authorities. When Roger’s corpse washes up on the Solway coast, a postmortem suggests his death could legitimately be classified as misadventure. Maverick British DI Skelgill, detects a sinister undercurrent that pervades the tightly knit community in which Roger Alcock moved. As the floodwater recedes, reasons surface why Roger’s erstwhile associates might celebrate his demise.

If the curse blighted Old Man Crow, could it now be visited upon his descendants? Granddaughter Antonia is found dead beneath the crags. Her twin Vivienne survives a life-threatening ordeal. Murder? Attempted murder? Or coincidence? Skelgill is torn - until a long-serving zoo hand falls victim to a rifle bullet. Unearthly baying hound there may be, it takes a finger to pull a trigger - and human predators circle the ailing zoo and its land. Skelgill is drawn inexorably to Dead Crags. But will his legendary intuition read the signs before the curse makes its final destructive strike?

STAND-ALONE MURDER MYSTERY, #5 IN THE SERIES. MEET MAVERICK BRITISH DETECTIVE DI SKELGILL... "MAD, BAD AND JUST A LITTLE BIT COZY." A SPATE OF VICIOUS ATTACKS upon valuable Herdwick sheep, the sudden disappearance of a foreign hiker, and the unexplained drowning of a woodland hermit – a series of apparently unconnected events – draw Detective Inspector Daniel Skelgill to the white-knuckle passes and isolated dales of deepest Lakeland. Straws in the wind suggest there is sorcery afoot – and a connection to an equally sinister trade in human traffic – Skelgill and his team risk dire ...

NEW FOR 2023 – STAND-ALONE, #20 IN THE SERIES. MEET MAVERICK BRITISH DETECTIVE DI SKELGILL... "A COMPELLING BRITISH CRIME MYSTERY." AN ATTEMPTED MURDER in the United States … a tragic road death in a Cumbrian forest … an old photograph stolen from an ancient coaching inn. Unrelated events – until a midnight drowning below Ouse Bridge exposes a connection. After two decades, has a killer returned to Cumbria to ply their trade? Does a suspect hide in plain sight among loose acquaintances? Who is truthful and who is lying? Skelgill must patiently circle … until finally he picks up ...

NEW FOR 2024 – STAND-ALONE, #24 IN THE SERIES. MEET MAVERICK BRITISH DETECTIVE DI SKELGILL... "A COMPELLING BRITISH CRIME MYSTERY."IT IS ALMOST three decades since the body of a young housewife was pulled from Wastwater, England’s deepest lake. The corpse had been weighted and sunk twenty years earlier – wrapped and concealed in a carpet, a submerged landmark that was actually known to leisure divers. Such a grisly fact only added to the horror that haunts the neighbouring dales; how long before another picturesque Lakeland water gives up its dark secret? BRUCE BECKHAM brings a ...