Margaret Yorke Books in Order

A village fête should be the happiest day of the summer, until a fugitive arrives on the run. His presence throws Bramsbourne into fear and brings pain to the Trents, the vicar, and everyone around them.

Jane grows up shy and sheltered, carrying bright memories of summers on the Welsh coast into adult life. A disappointing wartime marriage leaves her struggling until remembered love helps her face what comes next.

Nine-year-old Christopher finds more kindness at boarding school than he does at home, and for a while he begins to thrive. Then a near-fatal accident reveals just how unhappy, and how vulnerable, he really is.

A seemingly senseless killing after a bout of vandalism shakes an English market town to its core. As parents fear what their children may know, an older, buried connection to murder starts to surface.

Penelope expects a peaceful first Christmas after marriage at her great-aunt's country home. A small china doll, an old friend, and growing doubts about her husband turn the visit quietly threatening.

Novelist Neill Addington hides away in a village cottage hoping to finish his book in peace. The place and its people, especially Anna Harris, pull him back into life and unsettle more than one future.

Meriel Graham expects her birthday to revolve around her, as it always has. Instead the day exposes the problems everyone else has been hiding, and the comfort she relies on begins to crack.

Harriet's life has long been tied to Harley Hall and the fortunes of the family who own it. War, decline, and tragedy give her a chance to rebuild the house, and to reshape her own future with it.

Ruth Castle arrives in Haverbury determined to salvage something from a damaged life. Christmas visitors, hidden tensions, and one sudden crisis turn a village friendship into a story of real danger.

Sarah Marston leaves an empty marriage and starts over in Shenbury with a little money and a cottage of her own. There she finds friendship, awkward freedom, and a new way to think about independence.

A country visit drops Patrick Grant into a household full of old grievances and uneasy newcomers. When a death that looks natural begins to look planned, he starts pulling at the family's secrets.

Patrick Grant heads to an Austrian ski resort for a holiday and finds a corpse instead. Trapped by snow with a hotel full of uneasy guests, he has to sort accident from murder before the tension breaks.

A fatal fall on the Acropolis is only the beginning of Patrick Grant's latest puzzle. Back in England, a country house, a missing book, and a string of suspicious accidents point toward murder.

Patrick Grant goes to Crete expecting a holiday and finds the body of a man he knows floating in the sea. What follows is a classic Yorke mystery of travel, curiosity, and quiet menace.

Retired Major Johnson approaches village life with military steadiness, only to find chaos waiting beneath the calm. Thieves, lovers, innocents, and killers all cross paths in a place that should have been safe.

Lorna watches the Titmuss family from the outside and envies what looks like a perfect life. Once she learns a secret that could destroy it, her obsession pushes the story into dangerous territory.

When actor Sam Irwin is found dead, everyone is ready to call it suicide. Patrick Grant is not, and his search through the theatre world uncovers deception, divided loyalties, and another dangerous performance.

Norman Widnes seems like the model husband, patiently caring for his invalid wife in a quiet town. Her murder exposes the secrets people had kept behind their neat front doors.

Gary never meant to kill the first girl. But once he realizes someone saw what happened, panic hardens into calculation and he starts planning a second, deliberate murder.

Robbie is mild, overlooked, and pushed around by almost everyone in his life. Then long-nursed fantasies of revenge stop being fantasies, and his quiet frustration turns frighteningly real.

An unseen intruder hides in a lonely old house while a tangle of good intentions and bad decisions gathers around it. By the time winter closes in, the story is heading toward a chilling Christmas murder.

George Fortescue is the sort of decent, ordinary man people trust without thinking. When a series of rapes and murders points toward him, Yorke builds a grim, unsettling portrait of suspicion and fear.

Alan Parker hides his redundancy from his wife and drifts into a risky new attachment with a lonely widow and her daughter. When the child disappears, his secret life makes him the obvious suspect.

Recently divorced Nina Crowther agrees to house-sit in a grand country home and hopes for a little peace. Instead she gets eerie phone calls, rising fear, and the shadow of a nearby killer.

Con man Terry Brett thinks lonely widow Alice Armitage will be an easy mark. Then a body is found, his greedy scheme spirals out of control, and he faces a murder charge he never planned for.

Stephen Dawes leaves prison after serving ten years for murdering his wife, certain the truth was missed. Retracing her final hours, he uncovers a far more dangerous story and puts himself in real peril.

Fresh out of prison, Mick Harvey is determined not to go back, until wounded pride turns into obsession. Laura and Marion report his dangerous driving, and he decides revenge is worth the risk.

Set around a busy provincial department store at Christmas, this novel follows staff whose lives overlap in uneasy ways. As tensions rise, the truth about Bertram Bliss's marriage threatens several carefully balanced lives.

When Thelma comes home to the quiet town of Milton St Gabriel, she brings a restless stranger and a trail of trouble. Long-buried family history soon tips into revenge, arson, and murder.

Widow Nesta Falconer seems to have built a settled life for herself and her daughter, until her sister returns from America. Old resentments and old damage come back with her, changing how everyone sees Nesta.

Carrie Foster has always treated rule-breaking as a way of life, while Gordon seems to have left his worst mistake behind. Their marriage, an affair, and one hidden truth make a dangerous mix.

Denis is skidding through life on odd jobs and desperation when he falls in with an inmate from an open prison. Their clever little scheme spins into murder, and Denis ends up running for his life.

Twelve years after Louise Vaughan vanished, the police reopen the case and stir up grief her family never escaped. As old lies surface, the renewed investigation brings appalling consequences.

William Adams has escaped conviction for murder and thinks a new identity will give him a clean slate. Then a chance meeting at a country guesthouse drags his past back into view.

Mrs Newton's tidy village life looks safe from the outside, but greed, grief, and old secrets are gathering all around her. Yorke turns a picture-postcard setting into a tense study of family strain and lurking violence.

Hermione has spent years living under her husband's control, watched, belittled, and worn down. When his need for power spills into murder, the quiet cruelties of married life become something far more deadly.

A burglary becomes far more devastating when a father fails to protect his daughter during the attack. When the rapist walks free, someone close to the family decides the law is not enough.

This short story collection shows Yorke at her sharpest, turning everyday grudges, unhappy marriages, and old sins into quiet menace. It also includes a welcome return for Patrick Grant.

Richard Gardner's unhappy home life makes a new friendship feel like an escape. Instead it draws him into a web of violence, bad influence, and choices that could wreck far more than one quiet commuter household.

Philip Winter is cleared in court, but the verdict changes nothing for the people around him. Shunned by family and employers, he drifts into a harsh life on the margins while the question of guilt keeps closing in.

Isabel takes in her goddaughter Emily after an arrest and expects trouble, just not this kind. Working as a nanny, Emily gets caught in a blackmail plot around a child, an absent father, and a family with plenty to lose.

After her husband leaves, Louise Widdows dares to imagine a freer life and a chance to find the son she gave away. Then missing money, buried secrets, and two bodies threaten to ruin her fresh start.

Jerry wants to leave petty crime behind, but a new job and an awkward friendship with troubled teenager Imogen pull him back into suspicion. When a woman is found dead near Granbury, going straight suddenly looks dangerous.

Susan Trent lives in fear of her abusive middle-aged son, and the village watches without knowing how to help. When a stranger lodges nearby, old secrets stir and the danger inside Susan's home turns even darker.