A set of compelling British whodunits featuring Detective Inspector Sloan—from a CWA Diamond Dagger winner and “most ingenious” author (The New Yorker). Over the course of twenty-four crime novels set in the fictional County of Calleshire, England, and featuring the sleuthing team of shrewd Detective Inspector C. D. Sloan and his less-than-shrewd sidekick, Detective Constable William Crosby, award-winning author Catherine Aird maintained the perfect balance between cozy village mystery and police procedural. These three entertaining crime novels offer “the very best in British mystery” (The New Yorker). Parting Breath: On the campus of the University of Calleshire, a young woman finds a student slumped against a cloister’s column, covered in blood. Before he dies, he manages to breathe the words “twenty-six minutes”—which is all Sloan and Crosby have to go on to solve a case that’s anything but elementary. Some Die Eloquent: As Sloan learns he is about to become a father, a suspicious death demands his attention. It turns out that a murdered mistress at the Girls’ Grammar School in Berebury was secretly a very wealthy woman. What was an elderly chemistry teacher doing with a small fortune—and who was willing to kill to get it? Passing Strange: When the village spinster, a nurse who also played the organ every Sunday at church, is found strangled behind a fortune-teller’s booth, Calleshire’s greatest detective will need more than a crystal ball to see who killed her.

A trio of sharp-witted British whodunits featuring Detective Inspector Sloan—from a CWA Diamond Dagger winner and “a most ingenious” author (The New Yorker). In her debut novel in the long-running mystery series, The Religious Body, Catherine Aird introduced the sleuthing team of shrewd Detective Inspector C. D. Sloan and his less-than-shrewd sidekick, Detective Constable William Crosby, in the fictional County of Calleshire, England. Over the course of twenty-four crime novels, the award-winning author has maintained the perfect balance between cozy village mystery and police procedural. The Religious Body: When Sister Anne’s body is found at the bottom of a steep set of cellar stairs, her veil askew and her head crushed, it’s clear she’s been viciously attacked. Heaven help Detective Inspector Sloan as he’s called to the Convent of St. Anselm to determine why someone would want to murder a nun. Henrietta Who?: In a quiet English village, a woman’s body is found in the road, the victim of a hit-and-run. Miles away, her daughter, Henrietta, is given the bad news. But an autopsy brings even more shocking news: Not only was Mrs. Jenkins’s death no accident, the woman never had a child. If Henrietta is not her daughter, who is she? It’s up to Detective Inspector Sloan to find out. The Stately Home Murder: To survive financial hard times, the Earl of Ornum has opened his estate to tourists. One curious young boy sees a full suit of armor and lifts the visor . . . only to see a face staring back at him. Now Ornum House is a crime scene, with Sloan and Crosby determined to discover how a murdered man ended up in knight’s garb.

In this gripping mystery by CWA Diamond Dagger winner Catherine Aird, the village spinster dies behind a fortune teller’s booth, and Calleshire’s greatest detective looks into the future—and sees justice The annual Horticultural Society Flower Show would have gone off without a hitch were it not for one very pesky murder. When nurse Joyce Cooper goes missing from the parish’s fortune-telling booth at the flower fair, her friends at the local church are immediately concerned. It’s not like this old lady, who plays the organ during service every Sunday without fail, and who, it’s told, lives for the purpose of helping others, to disappear without notice. So when she’s found strangled to death under a tarp, the community is thrown into an uproar. Who better to calm the crowd than Calleshire’s greatest detective? Alongside his bumbling sidekick, Constable Crosby, C. D. Sloan runs through the bizarre list of suspects—the daughter of a deceased anthropologist, a greedy developer, a jealous tomato gardener, and a set of wealthy farmers—to find out who would have benefited most from the beloved nurse’s death. What he finds will astonish the entire village.

At a stately manor home, open for public tours, a young boy lifts the helmet on a suit of armor and finds a human face staring back at him! Detective C.D. Sloan and his wisecracking sidekick, Crosby, must figure out who stashed the body and why.

Detective Inspector C. D. Sloan puzzles over an industrialist crushed under the rubble of a church tower in this crime novel by a CWA Diamond Dagger winner. On the hottest day in living memory, Richard Mallory Tindall, the owner of a patent firm, does not return home to Cleete village. When a man is found crushed to death, Tindall’s case goes from missing person to homicide. In the course of solving murder cases, Detective Inspector C. D. Sloan has seen all manner of ugly death. But there’s something particularly gruesome about this one, the body crushed beneath the marble and iron of an old Saxon church tower. With rubble blocking off access to the crime scene, no one can get close enough to inspect the body. What little evidence is available—a burned match, a black thread, an earring—doesn’t bode well for a quick and easy solution. Even the legendarily cool-headed great detective might begin to crack when a second body turns up. And then an important file goes missing from Sloan’s office. How does it all connect?

A must-have collection of British whodunits featuring Detective Inspector Sloan—from a CWA Diamond Dagger winner and “most ingenious” author (The New Yorker). Over the course of twenty-four crime novels set in the fictional County of Calleshire, England, and featuring the sleuthing team of shrewd Detective Inspector C. D. Sloan and his less-than-shrewd sidekick, Detective Constable William Crosby, award-winning author Catherine Aird maintained the perfect balance between cozy village mystery and police procedural. These entertaining puzzlers offer “the very best in British mystery” (The New Yorker). The Body Politic: A British-based mineral company finds itself in hot water when one of its engineers kills a pedestrian while driving in a foreign country. The engineer is whisked back to Calleshire, but the foreign government is threatening to strip the mining company of its most valuable contract. When the engineer dies suddenly in a war reenactment, it seems a little too convenient a solution. Enter Detective Inspector Sloan. A Going Concern: In this “intricate, witty and thoroughly delightful” mystery, a bizarre clause in an elderly woman’s will that the police must be present at her funeral and the coroner should be exceptionally thorough exposes a dirty secret—and a murder for Sloan to solve (Publishers Weekly). After Effects: Dozens of elderly patients suffering from heart disease have been “gently pushed” toward taking part in a double-blind drug trial from a powerful pharmaceutical company. Now there’s been a string of eerily similar deaths. Malpractice or foul play? When the doctor in charge is found dead as well, it’s up to Sloan to see who really needs to be brought to trial. Injury Time: These sixteen “clever” short stories feature mysteries solved by Detective Inspector Sloan as well as Henry Tyler of the Foreign Office, and “serve as an excellent introduction to new readers and . . . a sure delight to fans” (Publishers Weekly).

A set of perfectly puzzling British whodunits featuring Detective Inspector Sloan—from a CWA Diamond Dagger winner and “most ingenious” author (The New Yorker). Over the course of twenty-four crime novels set in the fictional County of Calleshire, England, and featuring the sleuthing team of shrewd Detective Inspector C. D. Sloan and his less-than-shrewd sidekick, Detective Constable William Crosby, award-winning author Catherine Aird maintained the perfect balance between cozy village mystery and police procedural. These three entertaining crime novels offer “the very best in British mystery” (The New Yorker). Last Respects: A local fisherman finds a body in the river—but the coroner’s report reveals the victim didn’t die from drowning. Now Calleshire’s most successful pair of puzzle-solving policemen must plumb the depths of this mystery and haul in a murderer. Harm’s Way: When a crow drops a severed human finger, Sloan begins the search for the body that goes with it—and the list of people who have gone missing from Great Rooden’s farming country is lengthy. With Constable Crosby lending a hand, it’s up to Sloan to point the finger at the culprit. A Dead Liberty: A crime of passion, a poisoned meal, and a jealous woman who would kill before she would be spurned—it might all fit if only the accused would talk. But Lucy Durmast refuses to utter a single word. With Lucy’s lips sealed, Sloan has no choice but to listen to his intuition.