Catherine Aird Books in Order

When Sister Anne is found dead at the foot of convent stairs, Inspector C. D. Sloan must look past the appearance of an accident. Her past, her wealthy family, and the convent's strict routines all hide possible motives.

Forced into retirement after a heart attack, Thomas Harding buys a country manor and finds a skeleton in a hidden priest hole. A fresh local murder and a long-buried crime pull him into two linked mysteries.

A woman is killed in what looks like a hit-and-run, but the autopsy reveals both murder and a startling lie about her family. Inspector Sloan must discover who Henrietta really is before the past claims another victim.

When a tourist lifts the visor of a suit of armor at Ornum House, he finds a dead man inside. Inspector Sloan and Constable Crosby sort through the troubled noble household before the killer can strike again.

A skeleton uncovered in a Berebury bomb site seems like another wartime casualty, until evidence shows the pregnant woman was shot. Sloan and Crosby reopen a murder that has lain hidden for more than twenty years.

On a sweltering day, an industrialist disappears and is later found crushed beneath a fallen church tower. With little access to the body and a second death looming, Sloan faces a grim, tightly locked puzzle.

A dinner party ends with its host dying in a violent car crash, but the autopsy finds a fatal dose of barbiturates. Every surviving guest had the chance to poison him, leaving Sloan with an intimate suspect list.

Campus unrest, a dormitory break-in, and a dying student's final words, "twenty-six minutes," draw Sloan into a baffling university case. With Crosby at his side, he must connect a petty crime to murder.

A retired school chemistry teacher dies with an unexpectedly large fortune, and eager people soon circle her money. As Sloan prepares for fatherhood, he must learn how Beatrice Wansdyke became wealthy and why others may kill for it.

At a village flower show, beloved nurse Joyce Cooper vanishes from a fortune-teller's booth and is found strangled nearby. Sloan and Crosby face a colorful group of suspects, each with reasons to resent the helpful spinster.

A fisherman pulls a body from the river, yet the victim did not drown. Sloan and Crosby investigate strange deaths, local history, and building disputes as they search for the reason behind this waterlogged killing.

A crow drops a severed finger at the feet of two walkers reclaiming a public path. Inspector Sloan follows the clue into farming country, where several missing people give him far too many possible victims.

Lucy Durmast refuses to speak at her murder trial after a man she fed is poisoned. When the original detective is incapacitated, Sloan reopens the seemingly simple case and uncovers missing people, politics, and deeper motives.

An engineer escapes prosecution abroad after a fatal accident, then dies during a war reenactment back in Calleshire. Sloan must find out whether international business interests, political threats, or local grudges led to murder.

Octavia Garamond's will demands police attendance at her funeral and a thorough examination of her body. When her home is ransacked, Sloan investigates why an elderly woman expected danger even after death.

This collection gathers sixteen compact mysteries involving thieves, impossible accidents, suspicious confessions, and stolen research. Several stories revisit familiar faces from the Sloan and Crosby books, while each puzzle delivers a quick, clever turn.

An elderly woman's death raises fears that a drug trial has harmed vulnerable heart patients. As similar cases emerge, Sloan investigates medical malpractice, a missing doctor, and the powerful company behind the treatment.

A letter delivered after an old woman's death suggests that her nursing-home demise was murder. Sloan follows the lead into a home for former members of a Second World War regiment, where more than one secret survives.

A local man's colonial-era collection is bequeathed to the Calleshire museum, including an ancient mummy case. When the case holds a body dead for less than a week, Sloan must identify the victim and the killer.

A body appears in the center of the yew maze at Aumerle Court, while a slaughtered rabbit is left at a bishop's door. Sloan and Crosby pursue a case with as many turns as the maze itself.

This varied collection of short mysteries ranges from Sloan and Crosby's modern Calleshire cases to 1930s diplomacy and sixteenth-century Scotland. Murder, family trouble, medical suspicion, and historical puzzles keep the stories moving.

A death on the golf links looks impossible, yet Inspector Sloan is soon convinced it was murder. With Constable Crosby adding pressure, he works through the strange circumstances behind a crime that should not have been possible.

The theft of an eighteenth-century painting is discovered just before the manor shown in its background burns down. Bones appear in the blaze, and Sloan must untangle arson, development schemes, and Berebury's troubled past.

A young girl is found murdered in a river, and Sloan discovers that her death may be tied to the recently deceased Josephine Short. Following the evidence backward, he uncovers the hidden story that links the two women.

Sabotage at a greenhouse seems pointless until similar incidents multiply across Calleshire. Then a woman disappears from her ransacked cottage, and Sloan and Crosby must prove how the two unsettling cases connect.

Twenty-two short mysteries bring back Sloan and Crosby for quick cases full of sharp turns. The collection also introduces other investigators, including figures involved in secret service work and puzzles set beyond Calleshire.

A dying research chemist suddenly cries out that he was murdered, leaving Sloan and Crosby to decide whether it was confession or delirium. Their search uncovers drownings, an old caving death, and a fatal car crash.

Five strangers inherit part of a fortune made from a dubious patent medicine, but a sixth heir cannot be found. When one beneficiary dies in suspicious circumstances, Sloan and Crosby investigate the dangerous family windfall.

When Mike Wakefield's business partner vanishes with their printing firm's money, Sloan expects an embezzlement case. Then threats escalate and an employee dies during a launch party at Ornum House, turning financial ruin into murder.