In 1937, the coming war is only a distant cloud on Britain's horizon. As the Cazalet households prepare for their summer pilgrimage to the family estate in Sussex, readers meet Edward, in love with but by no means faithful to his wife Villy; Hugh, wounded in the Great War; Rupert, who worships his lovely child-bride Zoe; and Rachel, the spinster sister.

Agreeing to talk to Joy Williams about her missing husband, Detective Inspector Wexford thinks he is merely doing a neighborly good deed. Instead, he learns of a militant feminist group called The Ravens, and must investigate a homicide.

Former Chief Inspector Wexford returns from retirement to solve a most unlikely case: the mystery of who killed the three people whose corpses were last seen at the bottom of a coal hole in A Sight for Sore Eyes (1999). In the decade since Franklin Merton left St. John's Wood in 1998, Orcadia Cottage has changed hands twice by the time Martin Rokeby pulls up a manhole cover in his backyard and shines a light down a dark shaft to reveal not only the...

Chief Inspector Wexford, injured in a car bombing, must rely on Detective Mike Burden to catch a killer in what appears to be a murder without motive   Chief Inspector Wexford couldn't know that the bundle of rags in the parking garage concealed a body-he'd just been doing a bit of light shopping, after all, not looking for dead housewives. Wexford won't be on the case for long; a car bomb sends him to the hospital, and Inspector Mike Burden must...

The third story of the Cazalet family opens in the spring of 1942 and follows through to VE day, 8 May 1945. Polly and Clary have left Home Place for London; Louise has wed; Polly and Archie Lestrange each fall in love. Sombre days are echoed in the struggles of the characters' lives.

At first there was no reason to link the killings. The first one, months earlier, seemed totally random: a lump of concrete pushed off an overpass onto a passing car. By contrast, the gruesome bludgeoning death of Amber Marshalson, returning home late from a night out clubbing with friends, was obviously calculated. The killer had been seen waiting for the girl in a nearby wood. But when Chief Inspector Wexford discovers that Amber had been the driver...

"The moment orphaned American heiress Titania 'Tansy' Danforth arrives on English shores she cuts a swath through Sussex, enslaving hearts and stealing beaux. She knows she's destined for a spectacular titled marriage, but the only man who fascinates her couldn't be more infamous--or less interested"--Page 4 of cover.

The aftermath of war, and the slow dawning of a new era of freedom and opportunity, shape the destinies of the Cazalets in the final volume of this magnificent family saga. Polly, Clary and Louise, now grown up, are ready to discover the truth about the adult world. While Rupert, Hugh and Edward must make the choices that will decide their own - and the family's - future. For the Cazalets, and all those close to them, one end is another beginning....

Inspector Wexford and his assistant Burden unravel the threads connecting the drowning of an elderly, world-renowned flautist and the murder of a woman whose identity confounds them.