The Health Farm Murders

A mystery thriller, set against the spectacular scenic backdrop of an imaginary health farm in the small mountain township of Blackheath in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, west of Sydney, Australia, this is the second suspense novel featuring Sergeant Merryll Merry Manning of the Miami Police Department. Sergeant Manning debuted in Merryll Manning: Trapped on Mystery Island in 2008. Although the characters are entirely fictitious, the plot itself was adapted from several factual incidents that occurred in Mexico, Chile, Peru and other mountainous areas of South America. The geographical details relating to Blackheath and Govett's Leap are accurate in every detail, although the atmosphere attributed to the town is purely imaginary. The health ideas touted in the book, however, are based on the advice of several highly respected nutritionists, including Mary C. Hogle and C.E. Clinkard.

The Times Literary Supplement said of The Murder Farm, "With only a limited number of ways in which violent death can be investigated, crime writers have to use considerable ingenuity to bring anything fresh to the genre. Andrea Maria Schenkel has done it in her first novel." The first author to achieve a consecutive win of the German Crime Prize, Schenkel has won first place for both The Murder Farm and Ice Cold. The Murder Farm begins with a shock: a whole family has been murdered with a pickaxe. They were old Danner the farmer, an overbearing patriarch; his put-upon devoutly religious wife; and their daughter Barbara Spangler, whose husband Vincenz left her after fathering her daughter little Marianne. She also had a son, two-year-old Josef, the result of her affair with local farmer Georg Hauer after his wife's death from cancer. Hauer himself claimed paternity. Also murdered was the Danners' maidservant, Marie. An unconventional detective story, The Murder Farm is an exciting blend of eyewitness account, third-person narrative, pious diatribes, and incomplete case file that will keep readers guessing. When we leave the narrator, not even he knows the truth, and only the reader is able to reach the shattering conclusion.

"I was lying in bed when Ms. May entered my bedroom and shot me in the chest...I fell to the floor. Someone picked me up, and cut my throat" This young woman survived a brutal and slashing attack to identify and help to prosecute and convict her attackers. "Hunter" tells this compelling story from his unique, first-hand perspective an honest, fascinating insight into the complex, often startling, legal processes involved in a brutal murder case...

The Sunday Times bestseller and the definitive story behind the ITV factual drama White House Farm, about the horrific killings that took place in 1985. On 7 August 1985, Nevill and June Bamber, their daughter Sheila and her two young sons Nicholas and Daniel were discovered shot to death at White House Farm in Essex. The murder weapon was found on Sheila's body, a bible lay at her side. All the windows and doors of the farmhouse were secure, and the Bambers' son, 24-year-old Jeremy, had alerted police after apparently receiving a phone call from his father, who told him Sheila had 'gone berserk' with the gun. It seemed a straightforward case of murder-suicide, but a dramatic turn of events was to disprove the police's theory. In October 1986, Jeremy Bamber was convicted of killing his entire family in order to inherit his parents' substantial estates. He has always maintained his innocence. Drawing on interviews and correspondence with many of those closely connected to the events – including Jeremy Bamber – and a wealth of previously unpublished documentation, Carol Ann Lee brings astonishing clarity to a complex and emotive case. She describes the years of rising tension in the family that culminated in the murders, and provides clear insight into the background of each individual and their relationships within the family unit. Scrupulously fair in its analysis, The Murders at White House Farm is an absorbing portrait of a family, a time and a place, and a gripping account of one of Britain's most notorious crimes.

World-renowned actress Charlotte Graham’s trip to a luxury spa is cut short when she’s forced to track a killer in this charming cozy mystery Charlotte Graham is a legend of the silver screen, a bona fide star straight out of the golden age of Hollywood. She has Oscars on her shelf, money in the bank . . .and a knack for solving murders. It’s been a few years since someone put a real bullet in a prop revolver, tricking Charlotte into killing her Broadway costar, but because she found the culprit herself, her friends drop her a line any time they need a sleuth. And Charlotte doesn’t mind; compared to the stress of life as a Hollywood legend, catching criminals is a breeze. On a cleanse at a friend’s health spa, Charlotte is put on a draconian regimen of health food and clean living. So when a fellow visitor overdoses on barbiturates and drowns, Charlotte suspects foul play. Healthy living is all well and good, but nothing gets a girl’s blood moving like a nice, old-fashioned murder. For fans of Hollywood, Broadway, or old-fashioned glamour, Charlotte Graham is as refreshing as an ice-cold gin martini. This book is a delightful reminder that even the most cunning killer can’t keep a good actress down. Murder at the Spa is the 1st book in the Charlotte Graham Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

 Australian crime fiction has grown from the country’s origins as an 18th-century English prison colony. Early stories focused on escaped convicts becoming heroic bush rangers, or how the system mistreated those who were wrongfully convicted. Later came thrillers about wealthy free settlers and lawless gold-seekers, and urban crime fiction, including Fergus Hume’s 1887 international best-seller The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, set in Melbourne. The 1980s saw a surge of private-eye thrillers, popular in a society skeptical of police. Twenty-first century authors have focused on policemen—and increasingly policewomen—and finally indigenous crime narratives. The author explores in detail this rich but little known national subgenre.