Harriet Martens Books
Detective Chief Inspector Harriet Martens has earned the nickname the Hard Detective — but she’s had to be unyielding to make it in a man’s world. It was, after all, this toughness that inspired her successful Stop the Rot campaign, which has so provoked local criminals. But now two of her officers have died within hours of each other. Harriet comes to believe both have been murdered — and a disturbing idea follows. For the circumstances of each death echo words from the Book of Exodus: A Life for a Life, an Eye for an Eye … Has a killer chosen this gruesome ritual to tell Harriet she has been pushing too hard? And if so, can she prevent the six deaths that will surely complete the quotation? Beginning with a tooth for tooth… Harriet Martens may find that she is not the Hard Detective for much longer… ‘The Hard Detective’ is another gripping, edge-of-your-seat thriller in the DCI Martens series from master of the genre H. R. F. Keating. Praise for H.R.F. Keating: ‘Another first-class mystery from one of the doyens of British crime writing.’ Sunday Times ‘One of his best … It really is a top-notch story.’ Birmingham Post ‘Few who pick up this latest offering from a master will be disappointed by the superior fare on offer here.’ Crime Time ‘H.R.F. Keating breathes new life into the classic detective story.’ Reginald Hill H.R.F. Keating, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, was the crime books reviewer for The Times for fifteen years. He has served as Chairman of the Crime Writers’ Association and the Society of Authors, and in 1987 was elected President of the Detection Club. He has written numerous novels as well as non-fiction. He is perhaps best known for his Inspector Ghote series, the first of which, The Perfect Murder, was made into a film by Merchant Ivory and won a CWA Gold Dagger award, as did The Murder of the Maharajah. A Detective in Love is the second in H.R.F. Keating’s Harriet Martens series, following The Hard Detective.
It was six-thirty in the morning when Detective Superintendent Harriet Martens took the call that informed her that Britain’s number one tennis star and media darling, the wonderfully pretty Bubbles Xingara, has been murdered in the grounds of her big country house. Harriet is now in charge of a case that will have the world’s media – already massing for the start of Wimbledon out in force. But it is not the investigation that is about to explode Harriet’s life, for Harriet wife and mother has fallen madly in love with a fellow officer...
Harriet Martens, named ‘The Hard Detective’ by the media because of her unrelenting opposition to every sort of evil-doing, has been secretly summoned to London to investigate corruption in the country’s most prestigious crime-fighting team, the elite Maximum Crimes Squad. And she suddenly finds herself under fire. Not only is she opposed at every turn by the head of the Squad, but she is menaced by other, more mysterious, figures.
‘Who killed the Preacher?’ Harriet Martens is startled. This is her first face-to-face meeting with the new, fanatically determined, Chief Constable of the Greater Birchester Police, and he greets her with the question immediately. Why is he setting out to antagonize her? He is talking about the famous Boy Preacher, the charismatic youth who was strangled in the empty ballroom of the city’s Imperial Hotel in 1969. And he is giving Harriet the mystery to solve because he wants her out. The case has been unsolvable for over 30 years and now she is tasked with making use of the latest DNA techniques to narrow down the list of suspects; Harriet's inevitable failure to solve it now will take care of her… But Harriet has more than earned her title of The Hard Detective. She is determined to turn the tables on the chief, so determined that the case takes over her dreams. With a list of seven different suspects, will Harriet be able to use her already proven skills to work out who had the motive to kill the wildly popular young figure before it is too late, all the while trying to save her reputation and job from the efforts of the media and the new Chief Constable? ‘The Dreaming Detective’ is a gripping crime thriller from master of the genre H. R. F. Keating. Praise for H. R. F. Keating: ‘Few, if any, contemporary writers are as entertaining as the remarkable H. R. F. Keating’ Len Deighton ‘One of the doyens of British crime writing’ Sunday Times ‘Classic crime from a master of the genre’ Nottingham Evening Post ‘Masterly as ever’ Times Literary Supplement ‘Another first-class mystery from one of the doyens of British crime writing’ Sunday Times ‘Superior fare from a master’ Good Book Guide ‘Few who pick up the latest offering from a master will be disappointed by the superior fare on offer' Crime Time H.R.F. Keating, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, was the crime books reviewer for The Times for fifteen years. He has served as Chairman of the Crime Writers’ Association and the Society of Authors, and in 1987 was elected President of the Detection Club. He has written numerous novels as well as non-fiction. He is perhaps best known for his Inspector Ghote series, the first of which, The Perfect Murder, was made into a film by Merchant Ivory and won a CWA Gold Dagger award, as did The Murder of the Maharajah. The Dreaming Detective is the fourth in H.R.F. Keating’s Harriet Martens series, following The Hard Detective, A Detective in Love and A Detective Under Fire.
Detective Superintendent Harriet Martens takes great pride in her twin sons, who decided to follow in her footsteps by joining the police force in London. She is devastated one night when she learns that one of her sons has been killed by a terrorist bomb and that the other is in the hospital, gravely injured. In the wake of the bomb outrage, every available police officer is occupied with antiterrorist precautions. Harriet, on the other hand, finds herself investigating the theft of a herbicide specimen from a Birchester research station. The stolen sample is capable of causing more destruction than any single bomb. Harriet must work in secrecy, all the while fighting off her overwhelming grief and unceasing fears. All but alone in a deceptive world where people aren't quite what they seem, she has to become, once again, the Hard Detective. H.R.F. Keating, a living legend in the crime fiction world, delivers another stellar mystery featuring this fascinating and unstoppable sleuth.
