Buy Murder in Suburbia

DI Kate Ashurst and DS Emma Scribbins investigate the murder of Nikki Pengelly who is found stabbed to death on her living room floor. Nikki was a very attractive woman, divorced but now engaged to Ralph Mitchell, who found her dead body. She was also a member of Applejacks, a club for rich, young singles and she had admirers. When the police learn that Mitchell had a fling with Hazel Lawrence, the list of suspects, not to say possible motives, starts to grow.
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DI Ashurst and DS Scribbens investigate the murder of a woman who was stabbed to death on the common near her home. They focus their investigation on the dead woman's close-knit group of friends who have two things in common. The first is that they all work quite hard at raising money for a local charity. The second is that they are a group of wife-swappers who regularly change sexual partners. When the police that dead woman may have been having an affair with someone else in the group, they think they have a motive but her husband doesn't fit the bill
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Ashurst and Scribbins investigate the murder of Charlie Egan who is found floating in his club's swimming pool with his hands handcuffed behind his back. His business partner, Simon Weaver had thrown a stag party for him and the handcuffs belonged to the stripper he had hired for the occasion. The dead man's fiancée, the local mayor's daughter, is strangely unmoved by his death and they learn she may be having an affair with Weaver.
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Detectives Ash and Scribbs investigate the murder of Gideon Finch, who was drugged and then set alight while sitting in his car. Finch had a reputation as a ladies man and was reputedly having an affair with a neighbor, Beth Whitmore. It turns out the dead man's wife Hannah was also having an affair with his brother Jamie and Beth's husband Philip is unable to account for his whereabouts at the time of the murder. Ash is happy in a new relationship with a man who isn't afraid to show his emotions, but she soon realizes that this may have a negative aspect to it as well.
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Detectives Ash and Scribs investigate the murder of Helen McKee, who was the victim of a hit and run. Helen was secretary at a popular - and oversubscribed - local comprehensive school. With parents desperate to get their children into the school, she was the object of a good deal of attention. One man purposely started having an affair with her, just to improve his son's chance of acceptance. Equally, there are parents who blame her for their children's non-acceptance and may have wished her harm. They get a break in the case however when they learn that Helen was run over by her own car.
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When Bernard Lloyd is killed in his home workshop, Ash and Scribs have quite a few suspects to choose from. He was a particularly noisy neighbor, always working with his power tools. Bernard's wife Wendy is the initial suspect, but both investigating officers have their doubts. One neighbor is trying to sell their house and are having difficulty doing so because of the noise. Another is the neighborhood curmudgeon who doesn't seem to get along with anyone. It's only when the police find a body buried in the garden do they manage to solve the case.
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Ash and Scribs investigate the murder of a student at a posh private school. It appears that the student may have been involved in witchcraft and that someone, likely another student, put a hex on her. There are several suspects given the normal goings on among teenagers where friendships are formed and broken all too quickly. There is also a music teacher who seems to spend just a bit more time with his students than seems proper. The detectives also have to put up with a new boss while DCI Sullivan is away for the week. Scribs also has a new boyfriend and if she isn't careful, she may accidentally kill him.
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Ash and Scribs investigate the murder of an estate agent, Phil Jakes, who was struck over the head with a paperweight and then strangled late one evening at his office. Jakes was not very popular with his colleagues and had a bit of a reputation for angering his clients. They also learn that he fancied himself something of a ladies' man and has quite a large number of conquests, including fathering a client's child some years before. The investigators believe he may have been blackmailing one of the women he had slept with, but the obvious suspects all have alibis. Meanwhile, Ash and Scribs continue to search for the perfect man and go clubbing together.
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When the father of the bride is murdered at the wedding reception, DI Ashurst and DS Scribbins find themselves unraveling a series of complex inter-personal relationships. The bride's father is a bit of a drunkard who, it seems, hit her in a fit of temper. The groom's family presents its own foibles. The groom hasn't accomplished much with his life and is a disaster in the family business. His father is having a long-standing affair with an employee and his mother may have had a fling with the bride's father. Meanwhile, Ash continues to pine for DCI Sullivan who seems to have taken an interest in a blond who happens to own a very smart sports car.
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Ash and Scribbs investigate the murder of Sandra Foy, who was thrown from her terrace after returning home from a salsa dancing lesson. Sandra liked to have a good time and when the police learn that she was having an affair with the dance instructor, known as the Italian Stallion, they immediately look to the husband as the culprit. It's not that simple however. She had also replaced another woman in a long-standing dance partnership and the woman is near hysterical as a result. It also turns out her husband was laundering money for organized crime through his travel business but hadn't met his obligations so she may have been killed as a warning to him. In the end, it's something from Sandra's past that has finally caught up with her. Meanwhile, DS Scribbins has decided to change her look, but she doesn't get the response she was hoping for.
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Ash and Scribbs investigate the death of Christine Archer, a kennel owner and dog walker who was killed in the woods. In doing so, they enter the strange world of dog owners and their pets with several of the former having a motive to kill her. They meet Malcolm Eysher, who has recently broken an affair with the dead woman, and his somewhat ditsy wife Fiona who, it turns out, knew what he was up to. Then there is her business partner, Steve, who was cheating her by taking clients on the side. Finally, there is William Marshall against whom Archer had filed a complaint of owning a vicious dog. With her death, he is set free. Scribbs realizes that a final photo taken by the victim with her camera phone provides the necessary clue to solve the crime.
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Ash and Scribbs investigate the murder of a 1950's singing star affectionately known as JJ who, it seems, still has a following in the retirement home where he and his wife now reside. He'd recently had major heart surgery but there's no doubt that someone drowned him while he was taking a bath. The man's wife had recently told him she was leaving him after 45 years of marriage and she was having an affair with a man in room next to theirs. Meanwhile, Ash has to put up with the incessant teasing from her colleagues when she and DCI Sullivan have to lock lips to maintain their cover while on a sting operation.
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