`Sidra sangrienta` es la historia de un crimen «con solera». Duke Donovan, un militar norteamericano de servicio en el Reino Unido, fue ahorcado en 1945 acusado de asesinato. Él y otro soldado ayudaron en la cosecha de manzanas en una granja, en la que se produjeron algunos disturbios. El descubrimiento de un cráneo humano en un barril de sidra condujo a la detención y condena de Duke. Un niño refugiado, Theo, fue el principal testigo en el juicio. Años después, en 1964, Theo está realizando un lectorado en una universidad y una muchacha norteamericana, Alice, que se presenta como la hija de Duke Donovan le convence para regresar al lugar de los hechos y tratar de demostrar la inocencia de su padre…

On Lansdown Hill, near Bath, a battle between Roundheads and Cavaliers that took place over 350 years ago is annually reenacted. Two of the reenactors discover a skeleton that is female, headless, and only about twenty years old. One of them, a professor who played a Cavalier, is later found murdered. In the course of his investigation, Peter Diamond butts heads with the group of vigilantes who call themselves the Lansdown Society, discovering in the process that his boss Georgina is a member. She resolves to sideline Diamond, but matters don't pan out in accordance with her plans.

"A wickedly clever writer." – Ruth RendellClarion Calhoun is a fading pop star wanting to launch an acting career. The audience at her debut on stage at Bath's Theatre Royal are expecting a dramatic evening – but what they get is beyond their wildest imagination. When Clarion is rushed to hospital with third degree burns, rumours spread through the theatrical community and beyond. In the best theatrical tradition, the show goes on, but the agony turns to murder. The case falls to Peter Diamond, Bath's top detective – but for reasons he can't understand, he suffers a physical reaction amounting to phobia each time he goes near the theatre. As he tries to find its root in his past, the tension at the Theatre Royal mounts, legends come to life and the killer strikes again…

An anthology of storiesFollowing the huge success of the previous BBM collections comes the latest batch of stories from the UK's top-flight crime writers. Alongside an "Inspector Morse" story from Colin Dexter and a "Rumpole" tale from John Mortimer, is Jake Arnott's first short story and a wealth of exclusive stories from some of Britain's most exciting up-and-coming young crime writers. An ideal present for anyone who has ever enjoyed a good murder-mystery, "The Best British Mysteries 2006" will cause many sleepless nights of avid page turning!

The Rosemary and Thyme series, to which this new Peter Lovesey story belongs, has been adapted for TV in the U.K., with Felicity Kendal and Pam Ferris in the starring roles. In its first successful season, the show drew in seven million viewers with each episode. (It’s available in the U.S. on DVD.) Fans of Peter Lovesey’s other popular series, the Peter Diamond mysteries, won’t want to miss two new titles from Soho: The Circle and The Secret Hangman.

Macavity AwardsThe identification of the woman found murdered on Whiteview Sands poses more questions than it answers. Emma Tysoe was a respected psychologist and an official criminal profiler with several successful cases to her credit. Why was she sun-bathing alone so far from home? How did she get there? Who is the mysterious 'Ken' in her private life? What was the murder weapon? Why did the man who noitce she was dead then completely disappear from the scene? When Peter Diamond is brought into the investigation he sheds some light on these matters – most importantly by discovering that she had been seconded under the greatest secrecy to work on the profile of the person who has assassinated one celebrity and is threatening to kill more. Are these killings connected to Emma's death? Diamond thinks so, but he cannot persuade his colleagues to agree with him, and even he cannot make all the pieces fit the jigsaw he's envisaged.

OVER 40 NEW STORIES FROM BRITAIN’S LEADING CRIME WRITERSLeading editor and reviewer Maxim Jakubowski has compiled another beguiling collection of the year’s best new short crime fiction from the UK. Ian Rankin’s perennially popular Edinburgh cop, Inspector Rebus, makes an unexpected comeback in a short, but intriguing story, ‘The Very Last Drop’, and the collection closes with another Rankin story, ‘Driven’.Making their first appearance in the series are many luminaries such as Kate Atkinson, Louise Welsh, Stephen Booth, Christopher Brookmyre, Colin Bateman, A. L. Kennedy, Sheila Quigley, Lin Anderson, Simon Kernick and David Hewson. Also represented are exciting up-and-coming talents such as Nick Quantrill, Jay Stringer, Paul D. Brazill and Nigel Bird.

Thirty-five short stories from the top names in British crime fiction, by the likes of Lee Child, Ian Rankin, Alexander McCall Smith, Jake Arnott, Val McDermid, and more.

An anthology of storiesA new anthology of twenty-nine short stories features an array of baffling locked-room mysteries by Michael Collins, Bill Pronzini, Susanna Gregory, H. R. F. Keating, Peter Lovesey, Kate Ellis, and Lawrence Block, among others.

The Washington Post described Peter Lovesey’s crime fiction as “ingenious... irresistible... wickedly clever.” In “The Sedgemoor Strangler,” a serial killer leaves a naked corpse among the reeds, and a young waitress gradually comes to suspect that she is the next victim. Another serial killer terrifies a nineteenth-century housewife in the shocking, twisting tale of “Dr Death.” Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson investigate the stealing of the Christmas Star in “The Four Wise Men.” “The Amorous Corpse” is one of the finest recent impossible crime detective stories — a robbery is committed by a man proven by unimpeachable evidence to have been dead several hours earlier. In “The Problem of Stateroom 10,” the famous mystery writer Jacques Futrelle investigates a murder as the Titanic goes down.Full of wit, irony, tricky plots, and an engaging sense of place and time, The Sedgemoor Strangler is an extraordinary collection of sixteen extraordinary stories.Peter Lovesey has won honors around the world, including the Gold and Silver Daggers, the Macavity, and the Grand Prix de Litterateur Policière. The British Crime Writers Association has recognized Lovesey with its highest honor, the Cartier Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement.The Sedgemoor Strangler and Other Stories of Crime includes a complete checklist of Peter Lovesey’s crime writing.