"A death in custody. A life in jeopardy.
When Ben Holdsworth dies alone in a police cell, riots erupt in Manchester. But after a post mortem, the authorities have decided nobody was to blame.
DI Ridpath is asked to investigate by the coroner before an inquest, and immediately uncovers some discrepancies in the witness statements.
Why was the CCTV not working that night? Where was the custody sergeant, and did he know the victim? Wherever he turns there are lies and gaps. It's a dangerous game and the net is closing… On Ridpath himself.
There is only one way out: uncover what really happened in the prison cells on that dark Manchester night.
A stunning crime thriller from a master of the genre, perfect for fans of Mark Billingham, Val McDermid and Ian Rankin."
"Three severed hands. No clues. A race against time.
Three embalmed hands are discovered in a disused Victorian house. Is it a gangland ritual? The work of a cult? Or just a prank played by Medical Students? And what happened to the bodies?
Meanwhile the Coroner needs to issue a Presumption of Death certificate on a teenage girl who vanished eleven years ago in mysterious circumstances.
As hints emerge the two cases are connected, DI Ridpath pushes himself to the limit to find out what really happened. It soon emerges the house is a former children's home. When another woman, a local social worker, disappears, he is under immense pressure to find answers. What really happened at Daisy House Children's Home all those years ago?
He has just one week to discover the truth…
The latest in the #1 bestselling DI Ridpath crime thriller series, perfect for fans of Mark Billingham and Peter James."
"A child's body in an unmarked grave. A killer waiting to strike again.
A young boy's body is found in a meadow beside the River Mersey. No DNA. No witnesses. No clues. It brings back painful memories of the Moors Murderers.
After two weeks, the police have made no progress finding the killer. The one thing they do know; he will kill again. It is a race against time – and they are losing.
DI Thomas Ridpath has just returned to work. Diagnosed with PTSD and undergoing supervised psychological therapy, he is dragged into the case against his better judgement. When another child is kidnapped, Ridpath must confront his own demons to stop a killer before he strikes again.
A nail-biting thriller that takes the Ridpath novels to new heights, this is perfect for readers of Peter James and Damien Boyd."
"The past is never over. It's just waiting for an opportunity to return…
When the notorious serial killer the Beast of Manchester was captured, the streets should have been safe. Except the police got the wrong man. An innocent person was convicted, and only later was the culprit put away.
Now, those connected to the case are being targeted. Someone wants revenge. DI Thomas Ridpath has to relive the horrors all over again. As the bodies stack up once more, Ridpath knows the answers lie in the mistakes made the first time round.
But as he is searching for clues from years ago, fresh terror awaits. While Ridpath seeks to save lives, he risks overlooking the greatest danger of all – and losing more than he can stand.
Don't miss this unputdownable crime thriller featuring one of Britain's best-loved fictional detectives, perfect for fans of Angela Marsons, Mark Billingham and Cara Hunter.
What readers are saying about When the Past Kills
'A fabulous read, the plotting is genius and the characters, even the nasty ones, are so true to life' NetGalley review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'Totally riveting, don't start it if you have things to do later that day as I promise it's unputdownable' NetGalley review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐"
"Play with fire, and you're going to get burned. The unputdownable new Ridpath crime thriller
In Manchester, a block of flats is burning. The only victim is a middle-aged man, sat watching TV. Are the fire and the man's death an accident or is something more frightening at work?
Meanwhile, DI Ridpath is back with his wife and enjoying work at the Coroner's Office, his myeloma still in remission. But the quiet life is soon shattered by a new threat.
More corpses start appearing; charred, burnt, silent bodies, strewn in the streets and lodged in buildings. Next to each one is a chilling message sprayed in orange ink.
Fighting on all fronts, Ridpath will be drawn into the dark past of his city and the youth football clubs of the 1990s. He must find the link before any more people die. Before the flames come close to home...
An absolutely gripping, nerve-shredding crime thriller from master storyteller M J Lee, perfect for fans of Mark Billingham, Robert Bryndza and Patricia Gibney."
"Nowhere is safe. No one can be trusted.
A bloodied body is found in a Manchester Immigrant Removal Centre. The investigating officer and the pathologist seem certain: a suicide. But for DI Ridpath something doesn't add up.
As the evidence starts to unravel, and with few leads, the pressure is on to find answers before the Inquest is closed. Caught between the police, the coroner and a system that doesn't care, Ridpath isn't making any friends.
And at the centre of the case Ridpath will find a heart of darkness. Innocent people are suffering. How many more will die before Ridpath discovers the truth?
The fourth instalment of the unputdownable DI Ridpath series is perfect fans of Mark Billingham and Patricia Gibney."
"A woman appears on the streets of Shanghai. She has thousands of cuts – and is screaming for Inspector Danilov...
Days later, the woman is dead. But another body is left waiting for the Inspector. Someone is playing with Danilov... someone prepared to kill, just to get their message across.
At first, the victims seem unconnected. But with each body bringing a new message for Danilov, he knows this is a riddle especially designed for him.
As more bodies start appearing, time is running out to solve the deadly puzzle...
Haunted by the past and riven with tension, The Murder Game is hair-raising and unputdownable, perfect for fans of Philip Kerr and David Young.
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M J Lee has spent most of his adult life writing. As a university researcher in history, as a social worker with Vietnamese refugees, as the creative director of an advertising agency.
He has lived in London, Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore, Bangkok and Shanghai. While working in Shanghai, he loved walking through the old quarters of that amazing city, developing the idea behind a series of crime novels featuring Inspector Pyotr Danilov, set in the 1920s."
"As tensions simmer in Shanghai, children go missing...
Shanghai 1932: Inspector Danilov hasn't recovered from the death of his child... but across a Shanghai riven with communal tensions, children are going missing.
Missing, and then murdered. Who is responsible? Why have the children's bodies been exhibited for all to see?
Just as Danilov thinks the stakes couldn't be higher, there is a new dimension, Japan, a rising power flexing its muscles. In fractious Shanghai, an explosion is long overdue. With the clock ticking can Danilov and his assistant Strachan solve the case? The fate of Shanghai may be at stake. So is Danilov’s job... And his sanity.
The latest instalment of the Inspector Danilov mysteries will leave you breathless. Perfect for fans of Philip Kerr or Rory Clements.
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M J Lee has spent most of his adult life writing. As a university researcher in history, as a social worker with Vietnamese refugees, as the creative director of an advertising agency.
He has lived in London, Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore, Bangkok and Shanghai. While working in Shanghai, he loved walking through the old quarters of that amazing city, developing the idea behind a series of crime novels featuring Inspector Pyotr Danilov, set in the 1920s."
"One chance encounter, one murder, will change everything.
DI Thomas Ridpath is in the process of getting his life back together when everything goes wrong. Caught in a gruesome motorway incident, one question remains: why did nobody else see what happened?
Ridpath's investigations soon pulls the police force itself into question, and hints at something even more sinister.
With Manchester on the brink of violence unlike anything seen in decades, Ridpath must battle this unprecedented conflict alongside his own demons…
A nail-biting crime thriller, MJ Lee's Where the Dead Fall is an absolute must-read, perfect for fans of Mark Billingham and Peter James."
"The case was closed. Until people started dying…
DI Thomas Ridpath was on the up in the Manchester CID: a promising detective who captured a notorious serial killer. But ten years later he's recovering from a serious illness and on the brink of being forced out of the police. Then the murders began, in an uncanny echo of his first case.
As the death count grows, old records, and bodies, go missing. Caught in a turf war between the police and the coroner's office, Ridpath is in a race against time. A race to save his career, his marriage, and innocent lives.
When a detective disappears everything is on the line. Can Ridpath save his colleague?
A nail-biting crime thriller, perfect for fans of Mark Billingham, Peter James and D. S. Butler."
"July 8, 1921. Ireland. A British Officer is shot dead on a remote hillside south of Dublin.
November 22, 2015. United Kingdom. Former police detective, Jayne Sinclair, now working as a genealogical investigator, receives a phone call from an adopted American billionaire asking her to discover the identity of his real father.
How are the two events linked?
Jayne Sinclair has only three clues to help her: a photocopied birth certificate, a stolen book and an old photograph. And it soon becomes apparent somebody else is on the trail of the mystery: a killer who will stop at nothing to prevent Jayne discovering the secret hidden in the past."
"Shanghai, 1928. The body of a blonde is washed up on the Beach of Dead Babies, in the heart of the smog-filled city. Seemingly a suicide, a closer inspection reveals a darker motive: the corpse has been weighed down, it’s lower half mutilated…and the Chinese character for ‘justice’ carved into the chest.
The moment Inspector Danilov lays eyes on the dismembered body, he realises that he has an exceptional case on his hands. And when the first body is followed by another, and another, each displaying a new, bloody message, he has no option but face the truth. He is dealing with the worst kind of criminal; someone determined, twisted…and vengeful.
Someone who must be caught….whatever the cost.
Death in Shanghai is the first novel in M J Lee’s Inspector Danilov series, perfect for fans of Philip Kerr."
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