Wire in the Blood

DI John Rebus is a hard drinking, unkempt, womanizing police officer whose job is his whole life. He is the most senior and most experienced DI at his station. He has a mysterious past that his partner DS Siobhan Clarke learns about from time to time through various comments Rebus makes. She is a young woman who wants to succeed, but does not have much of a personal life. She feels being paired with Rebus jeopardizes her career because of his unorthodox methods, but she is also fascinated by the man and is extremely loyal. DI Rebus' boss is Chief Superintendent Templar, a woman who was one of Rebus' lovers in a distant past. Their relationship is now one where they barely tolerate each other.

Chief Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh investigates the death of Alice Liddell who ran a home for unwed mothers. One of the residents there is Sally Jupp, who was a witness in a drug-smuggling and murder investigation in London. Sally works at the local manor house for the Maxie family, and it is apparent that eldest son Stephen has more than a passing interest in her. When a murder occurs at the Maxie residence, the question is whether it is related to the London investigation or was committed for a completely different reason altogether.

In the eighteenth century, London is a city filled with prostitutes, pimps, gamblers and villains. In a time before the invention of modern policing procedures, the novelist Henry Fielding and his blind brother John, battle the perilous streets of Covent Garden in their quest to clean up the crime-ridden city.

Sir Paul Berowne - a prominent Government Minister - turns to his old friend Adam Dalgleish following a series of threatening letters delivered to his London home. The minister's wife is in an adulterous affair with a prominent surgeon and she makes no secret of it. Berowne's only daughter is involved in left-wing politics and rejects her conservative father. Adding to his woes, his own mother favoured her other son who was killed in an IRA terrorist ambush over Paul. The informal investigation has barely began when Dalgliesh is faced with a series of bizarre deaths that turn the case into an urgent assignment.

When a student nurse with a penchant for petty blackmail is lethally poisoned during a routine procedure, Commander Dalgliesh and Inspector Massingham have to discover which, of the many guilty secrets held by the staff and students at Nightingale House, was a strong enough motive for murder.

New Street Law, set in Manchester's legal community, follows the exploits, competitiveness and legal cases of two rival law firms of barristers that both have very different attitudes to justice.