The Felse Investigations Series

When Inspector Felse arrests a woman for the murder of a beer tycoon, his son sets out to prove her innocence in this Edgar Award–winning mystery. Is a vulgarity ground for murder? Alfred Armiger had antagonized many with his greed and crass acquisitiveness. So when the ruthless beer baron is discovered dead, his head beaten in by a magnum of champagne, there is no shortage of suspects. All of Comerford is shocked when Detective George Felse arrests Kitty Norris, the daughter of a rival beer baron, the last person to see Armiger alive, and the main beneficiary of his will. But Kitty, charming and popular, has an unexpected advocate in Felse’s young son, Dominic, who has fallen in love with her. Passionately convinced of Kitty’s innocence, Dominic sets out to find the true culprit, a hazardous undertaking that could cost him his life.   Death and the Joyful Woman is the 2nd book in the Felse Investigations, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

In this “hypnotically good” debut, a Nazi murdered in an English village sets Sergeant Felse and his son on an investigation few want solved (Boston Sunday Globe). It is 1952, and the shadow of World War II still lies over the green fields of the small village of Comerford on the Welsh borders. When ex-prisoner of war Helmut Schauffler is murdered, local policeman Sergeant George Felse has his work cut out: Schauffler was Nazi to the core and the majority of the villagers had good reason to despise him. Sergeant Felse’s fourteen-year-old son, Dominic—who found Schauffler’s body in a shallow brook—is fascinated by the case. Much to his father’s disapproval, he resolves to find the murderer—a decision that places his own life in great danger. . . .   Fallen Into the Pit is the 1st book in the Felse Investigations, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

In the mountains of Czechoslovakia, a possible murder has Dominic Felse suspicious of everyone—including his friend, the dead man’s beautiful stepdaughter. Theodosia Barber had been planning to spend her summer vacation in Europe in any case, so what could be simpler than persuading her travel companions to make a minor detour to the scene of the crime? Bewitched by Theodosia’s beautiful brown eyes and blissfully unaware of her real motives, Dominic Felse cannot refuse her plea for a change of plan. And he’s certainly not prepared for their innocent touring holiday to become a murder investigation, with Theodosia in grave danger of becoming another unlikely victim. . . .   The Piper on the Mountain is the 5th book in the Felse Investigations, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Ignored on her birthday by her husband and son, Bunty Felse takes herself out to celebrate—and finds herself in mortal danger. On the eve of her forty-first birthday, Bunty Felse is overcome with depression. The weather is dreary; her only child, Dominic, fails to call with birthday greetings; and her husband, George, arrives home only to announce that he has to leave for London immediately to attend to urgent police business. After almost twenty years as a detective’s wife, Bunty doesn’t protest or complain; she sends George off with a swiftly packed case. To shake off her black mood, Bunty goes out for a solitary evening walk. She stops at the local pub for a drink and accepts a lift home from a sad young man whose troubles draw her out of her own and makes her feel compelled to help him. But as soon as the car door closes, the driver reveals a dark secret that could lead them both to early graves. Will she manage to escape the mysterious fugitive before it’s too late?   The Grass Widow’s Tale is the 7th book in the Felse Investigations, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Superstition clouds the investigation into a dead body found outside a village church in this historical mystery from the author of Fallen Into the Pit. A news photographer is found dead at the threshold of the church of Saint Eata, his hand extended to the door’s great cast-iron knocker. Surely it is not a coincidence when a second victim is discovered in eerily similar circumstances? Legend holds that sinners who seize the knocker have their hands burned by the cold iron, but Gerry Bracewell didn’t die of burns, and neither did the second victim. Did they knock on death’s door, or is a more down-to-earth killer at large? Detective Chief Inspector George Felse watched the ceremony to rededicate the door, but little did he know that he would be called back to Mottisham to investigate murder. . . .   The Knocker on Death’s Door is the 10th book in the Felse Investigations, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

From the author of the Chronicles of Brother Cadfael, the first three mysteries in the Edgar Award–winning series about an English policeman and his son.   In the English village of Comerford, just on the border of Wales, it’s Det. Sgt. George Felse’s duty to keep the peace—and keep his fourteen-year-old son, Dominic, out of harm’s way . . .   Fallen into the Pit: The shadow of World War II still looms over the village of Comerford. Dominic finds the body of a German ex-prisoner of war and develops a dangerous interest in solving the case.   “Hypnotically good.” —Boston Sunday Globe   Death and the Joyful Woman: Dominic falls in love with an heiress who stands accused of bludgeoning a millionaire beer baron to death with a magnum of champagne.   “Felse . . .is a fully-dimensioned character who plumbs the experiences of his personal life to understand his case.” —Publishers Weekly   Flight of a Witch: Felse handles a strange case involving the disappearance of a local beauty, a fatal robbery, and witchcraft.   “A tension-laden, consistently intriguing puzzle.” —Kirkus Reviews

When an antiques mogul is murdered in an English village, there are many suspects and very few tears, making it a difficult case for Superintendant Felse. The sleepy village of Middlehope is suddenly jerked into life by antiques mogul Arthur Rainbow. In a whirlwind of activity, he extravagantly refurbishes the manor house; joins the golf club, angling society, and arts council; and—in a ruthless coup—dislodges the old church organist to take over the position himself. But for all his reforming zeal, the Middlehope community rejects Rainbow. And when Rainbow’s crushed body is found in the graveyard of Saint Eata’s church, there is very little surprise or sorrow—but much speculation as to whom the murderer could be. After all, there are so many candidates—from his young, beautiful, flirtatious wife to the usurped organist and his mutinous choir. It falls upon Superintendent George Felse, newly promoted head of the Midshire CID, to solve this most perplexing murder case.    Rainbow’s End is the 13th book in the Felse Investigations, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

When two attendees go missing from a folk music festival at a remote Gothic mansion, Inspector Felse arrives to solve the mystery—and protect his son. Singers and musicians are gathered for a weekend course in folk music at the impressive neo-Gothic country mansion Follymead. Most come only to sing or to listen, but one or two have nonmusical scores to settle. When brilliantly talented Liri Palmer sings “Black, black, black is the colour of my true-love’s heart,” she clearly has a message for someone in the audience. And as passions run high, there is murder brewing at Follymead. Among the music students are Dominic Felse and his girlfriend, Theodosia. When not one, but two, members of the group go missing from the hall, Dominic calls upon his father, Detective Inspector George Felse, to help him solve this most perplexing mystery.   Black Is the Colour of My True Love’s Heart is the 6th book in the Felse Investigations, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

While on vacation in India, Dominic Felse investigates the violent deaths of two landowners Landlords are never popular, and there is little mourning when the greedy, ruthless Mahendralal Bakhle is blown up on his boat on the beautiful Periyar Lake. Suspicion falls on the boat-boy who died with him, but Dominic Felse, one of a party of young tourists visiting the landlord’s game reserve, is not convinced of the boy’s guilt. And when the party moves on to the next destination, the terror pursues all the way to the southernmost tip of India. The police blame local terrorists targeting wealthy landlords, but what would that have to do with a group of innocent travelers? To get to the bottom of this trail of violence, Dominic Felse must unravel a deadly Indian rope trick of hatred and murder.   Death to the Landlords is the 11th book in the Felse Investigations, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

A recent murder in Wales leads Detective Inspector Felse to the mysterious disappearance of an architect and a case dating back to ancient Rome. When archaeologist Alan Morris disappears in Turkey, his great-niece, Charlotte, regrets never having gotten to know him better. In an attempt to better understand him, Charlotte begins reading the books he wrote. One of them leads her to visit the Roman site of Aurae Phiala on the Welsh border—the last place her great-uncle worked before leaving for Turkey. But when Charlotte arrives, she finds more than just a few old stones. . . . First there is a charming young man, coincidentally staying at the same hotel, who is very insistent on being her guide. Then a troublesome schoolboy disappears and a corpse is found. Detective Chief Inspector George Felse is called in to solve a case with origins in ancient Rome.   City of Gold and Shadows is the 12th book in the Felse Investigations, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

A detective investigates the disappearance of a beautiful Welsh teenager in this “deeply satisfying” mystery by the author of the Brother Cadfael series (Publishers Weekly). Annet Beck is hauntingly beautiful, which worries her parents so much that they guard her as closely as a prisoner . . . until the rainy Thursday in October when she disappears. Annet is last seen vanishing over the crest of the eerie Hallowmount, a hill said to be the abode of witches. Five days later, she mysteriously reappears, claiming that she was only gone for two hours. Enchanted by her beauty, Annet’s parents’ lodger Tom Kenyon is determined to find the explanation for her disappearance: Could it be deceit, amnesia, or witchcraft? Tom’s amateur investigations lead to nowhere until Detective Inspector George Felse finds cause to connect those missing five days with his inquiry into a death.   Flight of a Witch is the 3rd book in the Felse Investigations, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

From the author of the Chronicles of Brother Cadfael: More mysteries in the “admirable” Edgar Award–winning series about an English policeman and his son (Anthony Boucher, The New York Times Book Review).   In the English village of Comerford, just on the border of Wales, it’s Det. Inspector George Felse’s duty to keep the peace—and keep his teenage son, Dominic, out of harm’s way.   A Nice Derangement of Epitaphs: While on a seaside vacation in Cornwall with his son, Detective Inspector Felse is called upon to investigate when an old grave reveals two bodies, neither of which belongs to the man named on the tombstone, an infamous smuggler.   The Piper on the Mountain: When Herbert Terrell tumbles off a mountain during his annual climbing holiday in Czechoslovakia, his young stepdaughter is not convinced his death was an accident. Enchanted by Theodosia’s beautiful brown eyes, Dominic cannot help but become involved.   Black Is the Colour of My True Love’s Heart: When two attendees go missing from a folk festival at a remote Gothic mansion, Detective Inspector Felse arrives to secure the safety of Dominic and his girlfriend, Theodosia—and to make sure the culprit faces the music.

Dominic Felse and his girlfriend escort a young girl through India and investigate a murder in this mystery from the bestselling author of Fallen Into the Pit. When his girlfriend’s beautiful but erratic film-star mother, Chloe, calls to ask a favor, Dominic Felse fears the worst. But she makes the couple an offer they can’t refuse: an all-expense-paid trip to India to escort Anjili Kumar, the fourteen-year-old daughter of Chloe’s costar, to stay with her father while her mother is filming in England. But Dominic’s fears are not unfounded, and they soon discover that traveling with the spoiled, precocious Anjili is no vacation—and the task of delivering her back to her family will be less than easy. For behind the colorful, smiling mask of India that tourists see, there is another country—remote, mysterious, and often shatteringly brutal. . . .   Mourning Raga is the 9th book in the Felse Investigations, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

The grave of a Cornish poet reveals a centuries-old mystery and leads Detective Inspector Felse on a dangerous trail of secrets and crime. While on a seaside vacation in Cornwall with his son, Dominic, Detective Inspector George Felse can’t help but investigate a dark mystery of smuggling, missing bodies, and murder. Jan Treverra was a legendary Cornish poet and smuggler who died two centuries ago. But when local scholar Simon Towne arranges to open Treverra’s grave in search of his long-lost literary legacy, the tomb yields two dead bodies . . . and neither one is the body of Jan Treverra. In this derelict seashore graveyard, Felse uncovers a trail of violence in Maymouth’s history that casts shadows centuries long. . . .   A Nice Derangement of Epitaphs is the 4th book in the Felse Investigations, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

A car crash survivor is convinced she committed murder, and private eye Francis Killian joins forces with George and Bunty Felse to uncover her past. World-famous opera singer Maggie Tressider wakes up in a hospital after an accident, haunted by the certainty that she has committed a murder. Her doctor suggests that, with the help of a psychiatrist, she may be able to lay the nameless specter to rest. But Maggie chooses a very different expert to help her unearth the secrets of her past. Her commission launches private investigator Francis Killian on a hunt across Europe in search of a grave. But the trail also leads him to one Bunty Felse, a former colleague of Maggie’s, and the wife of Inspector Felse. The successful end of Killian’s search is only the beginning of a long pilgrimage—a journey that leads not only back into the past, but also to a remote corner of the Austrian Alps where death awaits.    The House of Green Turf is the 8th book in the Felse Investigations, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.