MEET HONEY DRIVER. HOTEL OWNER. WIDOWED MUM. CRIME SOLVER?

Honey Driver isn’t sure about becoming the new police liaison for the Bath Hotels Association — especially when DS Steve Doherty is her opposite number.

Yes, he’s good-looking, but he’s also arrogant and uninterested in partnering with “Bath’s answer to Miss Marple”.

But, Honey tells herself, nothing ever happens in pleasant, safe Bath.

Then an American tourist goes missing. And washes up dead on the riverbank, within sight of the famous Pulteney Bridge.

The tourist was staying at Ferny Down Bed and Breakfast across town, run by Cora Herbert.

Cora’s shifty ex has just come out of prison. The last thing she needs is a dead guest to ruin her reputation.

Honey has her suspicions about who’s behind the American’s death. DS Doherty doesn’t want to know, so Honey plunges into her own investigation.

And then Cora’s new husband is found dead in their garden.

Can Honey uncover a killer before any more Ferny Down residents turn up dead?

Originally published as Something in the Blood.

1913

Lydia Miller, daughter of a German doctor, is training to become a nurse when she first meets debonair Robert Ravening, the nephew of a Lord and a keen aviator and promptly falls in love.

When the Great War begins in 1914, Robert enlists with the Royal Flying Corps and as a nurse, determined to help all she can, Lydia is sent to France.

But her love affair with Robert has more than one consequence as secrets and sins are disclosed.

Also being both British and German Lydia finds herself in No Man’s Land, suspected by one and imprisoned by the other.

Previously published as Home for Christmas

Bristol 1941

Having left her abusive husband for very good reasons, Mary Anne Randall finds herself judged harshly by her friends and neighbours, after courageously risking everything for a second chance at happiness with Michael.

With Michael away fighting Mary Anne is less concerned by her tarnished reputation and focusses on keeping her beloved children safe. But with the bombs beginning to fall on Bristol, danger is all too close to home.

Will Mary Anne rise above her tarnished reputation and protect those she loves from the uncertainty of a world at war?

Bristol 1939

At forty years of age, Mary Anne Randall still turns heads. With an abusive husband spending most of his wages on beer, she has resigned herself to be the sole breadwinner to protect her family and keep the wolves from the door.

In order to make ends meet Mary Anne runs a pawnbroking business from the wash house at the end of the garden.

Following the outbreak of war an opportunity presents itself to escape her loveless marriage and find true love.

Will she take that chance, or carry on living just for her children and not for herself?

It’s 1953. Coronation Year.

While Bristol is still recovering from the aftermath of the war, three very different women are counting the cost. Polly longs for an easier, more glamorous life, but with her irrepressible young daughter and her charming – if scheming – husband, will things improve?

Charlotte is trying to forget her illicit wartime romance and accept the shortcomings of her marriage. And Edna is desperate to protect her young family, even if it means keeping secrets…

Bristol – 1945

The war has ended; the men are returning home to their loved ones, but for some things have changed.

Charlotte Hennessey-White’s husband, David is no longer the gentle loving man he once was and Charlotte, so independent during the war, is devastated.

Edna Burbage’s strong fiancée, Colin has suffered appalling physical injuries. He won’t hold her to her promise of marriage, but she insists her feelings are unchanged. But is that true? Is she marrying him out of love or pity?

And Polly Chandler’s sweetheart, Gavin who’d she’d planned her whole future around, hasn’t come home at all.

War and suffering have changed their men leaving the women to cope on their own. But they too are changed. They harbour secrets best kept that could do untold damage to these already fragile lives.

Will an unlikely friendship be enough to save them?

After escaping a train bound for a death camp with a trusty German Shepherd dog, a girl wakes to find that she has no memory of her former life.

Lily is fostered by the kind RAF pilot who found her and his wife, Meg. It is not long before their lives are disrupted once again by the war and, with their home in ruins, they are forced to flee to the country.

In the Somerset countryside, Lily is reunited with Rudy, the heroic German Shepherd. However it soon becomes clear that Rudy is not just her companion, he is protecting her too, and someone wants him out of the way…

“If at all possible, send or take your household animals into the country in advance of an emergency. If you cannot place them in the care of neighbours, it really is kindest to have them destroyed.”

Joanna Ryan’s father has gone off to war, leaving her in the care of her step-mother, a woman more concerned with having a good time than being any sort of parent to her.

But then she finds a puppy, left for dead, and Joanna becomes determined to save him, sharing her meagre rations with him. But, in a time of war, pets are only seen as an unnecessary burden and she is forced to hide her new friend, Harry, from her step-mother and the authorities. With bombs falling over Bristol and with the prospect of evacuation on the horizon, can they stay together and keep each other safe?

All she wants is somewhere to call home…

Frances Sweet can’t really remember her real parents. Brought up by her uncle, her cousins Ruby and Mary have always treated her like their little sister.

As the war continues to keep her cousins separated from the men they love – Frances is growing up fast enough to catch the eye of dashing American soldier Declan. But she also has a greater longing – to find the mother who abandoned her years before…

Some battles will be fought on the Homefront…

The war has had a devastating effect on the Sweet Family with young Charlie Sweet, lost at sea, presumed dead and bombs falling on nearby Bristol.

Still there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon in the form of Mary Sweet’s upcoming wedding to her Canadian beau. But even that has failed to rouse their father from his grief.

But in London a baby has been found in a bombed out house, sheltered in the arms of his dead mother. A child to make life worth living again…