Wexford had almost made up his mind that he would never again set eyes on Eric Targo's short, muscular figure. And yet there he was, back in Kingsmarkham, still with that cocky, strutting walk. Years earlier, when Wexford was a young police officer, a woman called Elsie Carroll had been found strangled in her bedroom.

Eugene Wren is fifty, with prematurely white hair. He is too secretive for his own good. But he has cut back radically on his alcohol consumption and has given up cigarettes. Which is just as well, considering he is going out with a doctor. For all his good intentions, though, there is something he doesn't want her to know about.

A man and his daughter lie dead after a car accident. Strangely, no other car was involved and no cause has been found. Wexford's only option is to wait and hope that the one surviving victim - the mother, Mrs Fanshawe - regains consciousness. But when she awakens six weeks later, Wexford's attention has been distracted by a new violent case.

Anita Margolis has vanished. Dark and exquisite, Anita's character is as mysterious as her disappearance. But with no body and no apparent crime, seemingly there's nothing to be investigated. Until Wexford receives an anonymous note claiming 'a girl called Ann' was killed the very night Anita disappeared.

The discovery of Elizabeth Nightingale's broken body in the woods near her home could not have come as a bigger shock. Called in to investigate, Chief Inspector Wexford quickly determines that the Nightingales were considered the perfect couple - wealthy, attractive and without an enemy in the world.

Wexford believed he'd solved Mrs Primero's murder fifteen years ago. It was no real mystery. Everyone knew Painter, her odd-job man, had done it. There had never been any doubt in anyone's mind. Until now, Henry Archery's son is engaged to Painter's daughter. Only Archery can't let the past remain buried.

On a stormy February afternoon, little Stella disappeared. There were no clues, no demands and no traces. There was nowhere else for Wexford and his team to look. Just months later, another child vanishes - five-year-old John. Wexford and Inspector Burden are launched into another investigation and chilling similarities to the Stella case emerge.

No one believed Mr Parsons' fears for his missing wife. Until two days later she was discovered in the woods, her face swollen and her clothes damply clinging to her lifeless body. With no useful witnesses and a victim known only for her mundane life, Chief Inspector Wexford has just one clue: a lipstick found at the scene.

Searching for truffles in a wood, a man and his dog unearth something less savory. The body, as Chief Inspector Wexford is informed later, has lain buried for ten years or so, and the post-mortem can not reveal the precise cause of death. Wexford knows it will be a difficult job to identify the corpse.

The first girl had a bite mark on her neck but they traced the DNA to her boyfriend. But the tabloids got hold of the story and called the killer 'The Rottweiler'. The latest murder takes place near Inez Ferry's antique shop. The murderer usually strangles his victims and removes something personal - like a cigarette lighter or a necklace.

When Wexford was a young police officer, a woman called Elsie Carroll had been found strangled in her bedroom. Although many had their suspicions that her husband was guilty, no one was convicted. Another woman was strangled shortly afterwards, and every personal and professional instinct told Wexford that the killer was still at large.

It's first light and George Marshalson's daughter hasn't returned home. He doesn't yet know that she never will - that her body lies prone just yards from the family house. Or that he will himself make the shocking discovery. Chief Inspector Wexford has never known a case of a father finding the murdered body of his daughter.

Eugene Wren inherited an art gallery from his father near an arcade that now sells cashmere, handmade soaps and children's clothes. On a shopping trip one day, Eugene came across an envelope containing money. He picked it up. For some reason, rather than report the matter to the police, he wrote a note and stuck it up on lamppost near his house.

Wexford had almost made up his mind that he would never again set eyes on Eric Targo's short, muscular figure. And yet there he was, back in Kingsmarkham, still with that cocky, strutting walk. Years earlier, when Wexford was a young police officer, a woman called Elsie Carroll had been found strangled in her bedroom.

Ismay and her sister, Heather, lived in a house in Clapham. Ismay worked in public relations, and Heather in catering. They never discussed the changes to the house. But even lives as private as these, where secrets hang in the air like dust, intertwine with other worlds and other individuals. And the truth will emerge.

After ten years in prison for shooting - and permanently crippling - a young policeman, Victor Jenner is released to make a new life for himself. However, he was never convicted for all those rapes he committed. Then Victor meets David, the policeman he shot, and David's girlfriend, Clare. And suddenly Victor's new life is not new anymore.

The Portobello area of West London has a rich personality vibrant, brilliant in colour, noisy, with graffiti that approach art, bizarre and splendid. An indefinable edge to it adds a spice of danger. There is nothing safe about PortobelloEugene Wren inherited an art gallery from his father near an arcade that now sells cashmere, handmade soaps and children's clothes. But he decided to move to a m

Four members of the Coverdale family died in the space of 15 minutes on St Valentine's Day. Eunice Parchman, the housekeeper, shot them down on that Sunday evening while they were watching opera on television, and was arrested two weeks later. But the tragedy neither began nor ended there.

Mary Jago had donated bone-marrow to save the life of someone she didn't know. This generous act led to her break-up with Alistair, for whom it was as if her beauty had been plundered. However, the man whose life she had saved would change Mary's life in a way she could never have imagined.