Shadows of the Past, DMSMT692A

Robinson, Cleeves, May and Griffiths have each built their reputations on detectives who think rather than act - people whose intelligence and patience are what the story turns on, not speed or violence. This set brings four of those characters into their most testing ground: cases where the truth has been buried long enough to grow comfortable, and where finding it will cost something. Atmospheric, measured and genuinely absorbing, this is crime fiction for readers who want more than a body and a solution.

Peter Robinson, 'Standing in the Shadows' - An archaeological dig reopens a forty-year-old murder, and Banks faces the case that will define his final chapter.

Ann Cleeves, 'Come Death and High Water'- Storm, fire and a suspicious death on an isolated Devon island, with no way off until Palmer-Jones finds his answer.

Peter May, 'Freeze Frame' -  On a remote Breton island, Enzo Macleod honours a dying man's last request and finds a decades-old murder carefully preserved.

Elly Griffiths, 'The Midnight Hour'- A poisoned theatre impresario, a widow under suspicion, and Max Mephisto backstage in Music Hall's fading final years.