DI Joanna Piercy is irritated at what she perceives to be an attempt to wrap her up in cotton wool during her pregnancy when she is asked to take on the case of Zachary Foster, a missing ninety-six-year-old man suffering from dementia. Zachary has vanished from his residential care home on the edge of Leek during the night with his beloved old teddy bear. He can't have gone far, surely, but how did a frail, elderly man manage to abscond from a secure house at night? As Joanna investigates, it soon becomes clear that this apparently minor case is far more sinister than it first appears. Could her own life, and that of her unborn child, be at risk?

Where's Nora Selleck? Nurse Florence Shaw investigates when a mysterious stranger walks into her patient's life - and then she disappears . . .Nurse Florence Shaw is worried about her patient and friend, elderly widow Nora Selleck. When she encounters Nora in the market town of Stone seeming confused, Florence decides to pay her a visit in more familiar surroundings. But at Nora's house she meets Ben Evans, a mysterious young stranger who has befriended Nora. Who is Ben, and why is he encouraging Nora to miss her surgery appointments?Florence doesn't trust Ben. She's sure he doesn't have Nora's best interests at heart and is a threat to her vulnerable patient. But no one else, not even Nora's doctor, shares her concern. Until, one day, Nora suddenly disappears . . .

Joanna Piercy must rescue an elderly man from a hostage situation that has chilling roots in the past in this enthralling mystery.Detective Inspector Joanna Piercy's joy at her close colleague Detective Sergeant Mike Korpanski's return to work is short-lived. Elderly Joseph Holden has been taken hostage in his secluded mansion overlooking Rudyard Lake by an armed intruder. And the hostage taker insists he will only speak to her.With just a four-day hostage negotiation course under her belt, Joanna is feeling the heat. How does the hostage taker know her name? What does he want? As the questions multiply and Rudyard Lake is sealed off by an armed response unit, Joanna is about to discover that the roots of this shocking event lie deeply buried in a terrible crime - a crime that happened far away and many years ago . . .Set in the beautiful Staffordshire countryside, featuring a compelling heroine and a stunning final revelation, this...

Two violent suicides leave Coroner Martha Gunn with some disturbing questions to answer – but the most difficult one of all lies closer to home . . . Gina Marconi was a beautiful young barrister with everything to live for – a loving fiancé, a young son and a successful career. So why did she leave her home in the middle of the night and drive her car into a stone wall? Soon afterwards, Patrick Elson, a clever twelve-year-old schoolboy, jumps off a bridge on to the A5. The victims are unrelated, but neither suicide makes sense. Could there be a connection? Then there's a third unexplained death: DI Alex Randall's wife, Erica. With Alex on gardening leave pending an investigation, Martha must search for answers to the questions raised by the suicides on her own. Not only that, she must confront the most difficult question of all: could Alex Randall be a murderer?

She's not the first. Will she live to be the last? Jennifer Lomax is twenty-one, but she's already taken some hard knocks in life. So when older, reserved and enigmatic widower Steven Taverner asks her to marry him, she's desperate to believe she's found true love. That her lifelong dream could finally become a reality. But Jennifer also knows there's something not right about Steven. What secrets is he hiding about his dead wife, Margaret, and why does he refuse to talk about her? Jennifer decides to uncover the truth about Margaret. She soon wishes she hadn't. Is she about to make a devastating mistake?

A former child soap star needs Detective Inspector Joanna Piercy’s help – are her claims real-life drama or just an act?Just back from her honeymoon, the last thing Detective Inspector Joanna Piercy wants deal with on her return to work is nuisance calls from an old lady ringing the police incessantly to report seemingly trivial incidents.The woman in question is Timony Weeks, a sixties’ child star in the once-popular soap Butterfield Farm, who lives in an isolated farmhouse. Is she putting on an act and wasting police time, or is someone really trying to frighten her? Joanna is dubious, but as events become even more creepy and disturbing, her instinct tells her something is not right. What is Timony hiding? As she digs into her past, Joanna discovers a shocking secret. It seems that someone may have sinister intentions towards Timony after all . . .   Review“A solid police procedural especially likely to appeal to 1960s nostalgia buffs.”Kirkus Reviews on The Final Curtain"Masters well-paced 11th Joanna Piercy mystery, produces surprises to the end."Publishers Weekly on The Final CurtainAbout the AuthorPriscilla Masters is the author of the successful 'Martha Gunn' series, as well as the 'Joanna Piercy' novels and a series of medical mysteries. She lives near the Shropshire/Staffordshire border, works part-time as a respiratory nurse in the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and has two grown-up sons and one grandson.

A missing girl. A dark secret. Dr Claire Roget is drawn into a deadly game to find the truth behind a young girl's disappearance in this chilling mystery. It's been six years since fourteen-year-old Marvel Trustrom went missing - six long years for Marvel's seriously ill father, Tom Trustom, who's desperate to know what happened to his daughter. DS Zed Willard has always believed that Jonah Kobi, a serial killer serving life for the murders of four other girls in the area, is responsible for Marvel's disappearance - but with no evidence or witnesses, and Kobi denying any involvement, forensic psychiatrist Dr Claire Roget is Willard's last hope. Can she persuade Kobi to reveal the truth and finally confess to Marvel's murder? Claire is soon drawn into a battle of wits with a dangerous psychopath, as well as a world of dark secrets. Can she find out what really happened to Marvel and fulfil a father's dying wish before it's too late?

A former child soap star needs Detective Inspector Joanna Piercy’s help – are her claims real-life drama or just an act?Just back from her honeymoon, the last thing Detective Inspector Joanna Piercy wants deal with on her return to work is nuisance calls from an old lady ringing the police incessantly to report seemingly trivial incidents.The woman in question is Timony Weeks, a sixties’ child star in the once-popular soap Butterfield Farm, who lives in an isolated farmhouse. Is she putting on an act and wasting police time, or is someone really trying to frighten her? Joanna is dubious, but as events become even more creepy and disturbing, her instinct tells her something is not right. What is Timony hiding? As she digs into her past, Joanna discovers a shocking secret. It seems that someone may have sinister intentions towards Timony after all . . .   Review“A solid police procedural especially likely to appeal to 1960s nostalgia buffs.”Kirkus Reviews on The Final Curtain"Masters well-paced 11th Joanna Piercy mystery, produces surprises to the end."Publishers Weekly on The Final CurtainAbout the AuthorPriscilla Masters is the author of the successful 'Martha Gunn' series, as well as the 'Joanna Piercy' novels and a series of medical mysteries. She lives near the Shropshire/Staffordshire border, works part-time as a respiratory nurse in the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and has two grown-up sons and one grandson.

Detective Inspector Joanna Piercy investigates the disappearance of a young husband - and discovers all is not as it seems. Jadon Glover is good-looking, professional, reliable and a perfect husband, according to his wife. So when he fails to return home one miserable March night, she rings the police, certain that something has happened to him. DI Joanna Piercy and DS Mike Korpanski are sceptical: there is no such thing as a perfect marriage. So what is the truth about Jadon? As the investigation proceeds, it soon becomes apparent that Jadon Glover has been keeping dark secrets from his wife. And as the police pursue their house-to-house enquiries through the claustrophobic, jumbled streets of cramped Victorian terraces, they unearth other secrets from behind the net curtains. But, whatever else has been going on among the inhabitants' quiet, desperate lives, it's clear that at least one of them knows what really happened to Jadon.

A spate of robberies targeting elderly women is disturbing enough, but especially so in a town as peaceful and sedate as Leek. Then one attack turns to murder, and DI Joanna Piercy is called to the eerily named Spite Hall.The body of Nan Lawrence has been found bludgeoned to death, lying over the tapestry she was in the process of embroidering. But what could have made the robbers move from simple theft to murder?When Joanna calls on Nan's neighbours she is surprised to find that they are none other than the old lady's estranged brother and his teenage grandson, neither of whom seem particularly willing to co-operate with her enquiries.Slowly, aided by her colleague Mark Korpanski, Joanna unravels a mystery—the tangled threads of which are rooted years in the past.

Jakob Grimshaw has eked out a precarious living as a Staffordshire moorland farmer by selling off some of his land to Gabriel Frankwell, a local businessman, who seized the opportunity to build a select development of nine houses, the Prospect Farm Estate.But having been sold a rural idyll, the residents of the estate quickly realise that they do not like Grimshaw's old farm building – surely such an eyesore will mean their properties will depreciate in value? And so the war begins . . . each inhabitant with his or her own reason for wanting Grimshaw to move away. What none of the residents realise is that the old farmer is neither simple nor honest. When Grimshaw's body is discovered at the foot of his boundary wall, his head crushed by one of the copestones, it is up to DI Joanna Piercy to unravel the events leading up to his death.But Joanna has worries of her own in her personal life and the last thing she needs on her desk is a gruesome murder investigation . . .

Hiding from the truth brings dark and fatal consequencesCallum Hughes has been labelled a killer and a psycho. He has been labelled by the press, by his classmates and most of all by the family of the boy he stabbed. Roger Gough has been labelled a victim. He is described by everyone the police question as a sporty, funny and popular boy who was brutally murdered by Callum. At least, that’s what his friends and family are saying. But things are rarely so black and white.When Callum is found dead in his cell just two days after his arrest, it is accepted that he killed himself. But the coroner, Martha Gunn, dares to dig a little deeper, unravelling a truth that is far more disturbing and distressing than anything the papers could have made up. She is determined to solve the mysetery and reveal the truth behind the destroyed lives of two very different boys.ReviewHighly recommended. This is one of those books that every so often you look up and around the room to confirm to yourself that you are safe! --Mystery Women About the AuthorPriscilla Masters was born in Halifax and is one of seven adopted children. The family moved to South Wales where she lived until she was sixteen when she went to Birmingham to work and then to train as a nurse. She is married to a GP and now lives in Shropshire. She works part-time as a nurse.