Tim Hayes is a highly successful local businessman, who has single-handedly driven what began as a small electronics business to success. But there is a seedier side which the police are already investigating when Hayes is suddenly and violently murdered. Was he dispatched by the wife who had vowed to rid herself of him?

After an uneasy start to their marriage, Cherry and Lance Melchior are now living on a small working farm. It's a very different life for both Lance, a once-rich playboy, and Cherry, a former kitchen-maid. But when Lance's brother dies he becomes Lord Melchoir, and must return to Bristol to run the family estate.

When the body of a man is discovered in a rough grave deep in the woods, the police find that it is of one of their young undercover officers - who died nearly thirty years ago. As their inquiries from slender clues progress, it becomes clear that what they are also uncovering is a sordid tale of corruption and murder within their own ranks.

In August 1883, the first steam train on the new Princetown branch line makes its halting passage across Dartmoor, stopping near the quarrymen's hamlet of Foggintor. For Ling Southcott and her young sister, this is a momentous event. Ling realizes that the arrival of railway has the power to change her life, by making the outside world accessible.

In Bill James' London, everything seems to lead back to the drug-ridden housing estates of Whitsun Festival and Temperate Park Acres, where a connection, once made, is only ever one thing: trouble. Trouble for journalist Gervaise Maniciple Tasker, whose investigation into the drug firms at the heart of the estates leads to his murder.

Homicide Sergeant Matthew Payne is used to murder, but lately there's been an awful lot of it in Philadelphia. A gangland shooting in a popular tourist location has left six dead, most of them innocent bystanders, and days later the body of a headless Latina turns up in the Schuykill River.

Ingrid Langley isn't best pleased when her husband and colleague, Patrick Gillard, late of MI5 and now working for the Serious and Organized Crime Agency, is sent on assignment just days after the birth of their new son. She has no time to dwell on it though, what with nursing a newborn - and discovering a dead body, in the Church vestry.

In 1953 Anna Fehrbach, still remembered as the Countess von Widerstand, is enjoying her Bahamian hideaway, now happily married and contemplating raising a family. Anna has just begun to believe that her arch-enemy, Lavrenty Beria, has at last abandoned the chase. But Beria has been remorselessly tracking her all this time.

In Miami Beach, all hell is breaking loose. First, a swimmer makes a gruesome discovery in a rowboat, and soon after the city is rocked by an explosion. When Detective Sam Becket's sister-in-law Claudia becomes a blackmail victim, Sam wants to help her and Grace, but he has a vicious killer to find.

It's just weeks from the outbreak of the First World War, a conflict few expect to erupt. If it does, Russia is pivotal. But Russia, having survived one abortive revolution, seethes with unrest. Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin plot a second.

Bank Holiday Monday, and beautiful Zellah Wilding, straight-A student at St Margaret's, prefect, future Head Girl, lies dead near the famous Wormwood Scrubs prison in London. What was this good girl from a strict Christian family doing out there, dressed to kill, when she was supposed to be at a sleep-over with schoolfriends?

Jay, the orphan boy, doesn't want to hurt anyone. He tries so hard not to. Yet he has a frightening secret hidden under the ancient ruin. Nurse Laura Parris is determined to protect the children in her care. After Laura meets Victor Brodman, a widower, she wonders if she can trust him enough to reveal Jay's disturbing past.

The triumphant end of the war has not allowed beautiful but deadly Anna Fehrbach, alias the Countess von Widerstand, to retire gracefully. Working for the SS her principal antagonist was the Soviet Union, and to Joseph Stalin and his henchman Lavrenty Beria she remains the most wanted of all war criminals.

It is seven years since a stake was driven through the heart of the infamous Count, and the Dracula was beheaded and allowed slowly to crumble to dust. Neither Jonathan and Mina Harker nor their companions can find any trace of the horrific events. But beneath the earth, Dracula's fierce soul lies in limbo.

It's England, 1926. Sixteen-year-old orphan Jackie Hunt knows what she wants - to marry Wilhelm Furtmueller, to whom she has promised to be forever faithful, and to be an artist. Her second dream is already coming true, but Jackie is to be parted from Wilhelm, whose family is going back to his native Germany.

Carly Paladino, an investigator for a San Francisco security firm, re-evaluates her life and decides to strike out on her own. Her first case involves the death of the daughter of an old and moneyed Pacific Heights family. A mysterious young man is arrested for the murder, but Carly suspects the real murderer is inside the Hanover mansion.

When Morgan Adair arrives at the small seaside town of West Briar on the Long Island shore, she is looking forward to attending the baptism of her new godson, Drew. Morgan and Claire have been friends since childhood, and Morgan was delighted when Claire married the handsome Guy Bolton. But Morgan's excitement is tempered by concern.

Englishwoman Clio lives in Paris. Twice-married and unhappy in love, she has now become a realist. What she craves above all is stability for her son, Alex, the light of her life. This means she should marry her lover, Philippe, a handsome cultured Frenchman with a large and conventional family.

When Sarah Jenkins meets Connor Searles she is truly attracted to a man for the first time in her life. But Connor has just joined a new rock n' roll band, which means he'll be away for weeks on end. Connor's band proves to be a major success and his fame increases until he is blamed for an assault on a woman. Can he prove his innocence?

Charlotte Honeyman jilts her long-time swain, and on the spur of the moment marries a stranger. His pride damaged and his matrimonial plans upturned, sea captain Nick Thornton threatens to take revenge. Charlotte's younger sister, Marianne, takes pity on Nick and secretly boards his ship, where she meets with an accident.