Jim Eldridge’s “Murder Mystery” novels are also available as audio books, ideal for great listening at home or in the car. Additionally, the BBC have recently released his classic 1970s radio comedy series PARSLEY SIDINGS (starring Arthur Lowe) as CD and download, and the same for his award-winning long-running Radio 4 drama-comedy series KING STREET JUNIOR.
All are available through Audible Audiobooks (at Amazon.co.uk and audible.co.uk)
MUSEUM MYSTERIES SERIES
MURDER AT THE LOUVRE
Abigail is surprised to receive an invitation from an old adversary, Professor Alphonse Flamand, to to join him on a dig in Egypt. She and Daniel travel to Paris so she can meet the Professor at the
Louvre to discuss details, but when she arrives she finds the Professor dead with a knife in his chest. Abigail is arrested and charged with his murder.
Daniel, who does not speak or understand French, has the almost impossible task of proving Abigail’s innocence and getting her released. The British Ambassador comes to their aid. Abigail is released on bail, but is still the prime suspect. The Museum Detectives have to work through conspiracies and intrigues to discover the real culprit and get Abigail’s freedom.
MURDER AT THE TOWER OF LONDON
London 1899. The dead body of a Yeoman Warder is found inside a suit or armour that belonged to Henry VIII. He had been run through with a sword. The Prince of Wales, worried that this may be an example of Republican unrest, calls in Daniel and Abigail Wilson to investigate. Their inquiries uncover more than just one murder, there are also echoes of past murders at the historic Tower, and a plot to rob the Tower of its precious jewels.
MURDER AT THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM
London 1899. Queen Victoria lays the foundation stone on the site of the new museum being built, which she names as The Victoria and Albert Museum. Shortly after Daniel and Abigail are called to the site because the dead body of museum curator Andrew Page has been found there.
The Queen is determined that nothing must sully the new museum, and by association her beloved Albert’s legacy. The more Daniel and Abigail dig, the more they uncover motives for the murder, some with explosive implications for the Royal family and the Government. They will have to tread carefully as someone is determined they will not uncover further.
MURDER AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY
London 1897. Has Jack the Ripper returned to haunt the streets of London? The artist Walter Sickert was once a suspect in the original Ripper enquiry. Now he’s been arrested after the bodies of women are found, eviscerated, on the steps of the National Gallery. Sickert protests his innocence, and calls in Daniel and Abigail to clear his name.
MURDER AT MADAME TUSSAUDS
London 1896. A nightwatchman is found decapitated at Madame Tussauds waxwork museum, and his fellow watchman vanished. The police think the watchman who’s disappeared killed the other watchman; but when the missing man’s dead body is found encased in wax, it becomes a grisly (and dangerous) case for Daniel and Abigail.
MURDER AT THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM
An attendant is found dead at the Natural History Museum by the famous theatre manager, Bram Stoker. Have the infamous Bone Wars – the bitter and deadly rivalry over dinosaur skeletons – brought their activities to Britain? Blackmail, betrayal, revenge all figure as Daniel Wilson and Abigail Fenton look into the mystery, with more deaths, and ultimately a serious murderous threat to Daniel and Abigail themselves.
MURDER AT THE MANCHESTER MUSEUM
A young woman is found murdered in the Manchester Museum, but no-one seems to know who she is. Then the body of a second dead woman, brutally killed and disfigured, is discovered at the Museum. Daniel Wilson and Abigail Fenton believe that the reason for these crimes may lie in Manchester’s murderous past, but getting to the truth becomes dangerous for both of them.
MURDER AT THE ASHMOLEAN
1895. A manager at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford is found in his office with a bullet hole between his eyes, a pistol close by. The death has officially been ruled as suicide by the local police, but with an apparent lack of motive for such an act, the museum suspects foul play and has called in former Scotland Yard detective Daniel Wilson and his partner, archaeologist Abigail Fenton to investigate. Their enquiries are hindered from the start by a lane Special Branch agent, secretive and intimidating in his methods. With rumours of a political motive for the murder involving South Africa, along with artefacts missing from the museum, and suggestions of a lost play by Shakespeare at the centre of it all, Daniel and Abigail find themselves caught up in a tangled web of blackmail, jealousy, deceit and murder.
MURDER AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM
1894. A well-respected academic is found dead in a gentleman’s convenience cubicle at the British Museum, the stall locked from the inside. Professor Lance Pickering was due to give a talk promoting the museum’s new “Age of King Arthur” exhibition when he was stabbed repeatedly in the chest. Having forged a strong reputation working alongside the inimitable Inspector Abberline on the Jack the Ripper investigation when he was a Scotland Yard detective, private investigator Daniel Wilson is called in to solve the mystery of the locked cubic murder, and he brings his expertise and his partner, archaeologist Abigail Fenton with him. It isn’t long before the museum becomes the site of another violent death and Daniel and Abigail face mounting pressure to deliver results. With their enquiries compounded by persistent journalists, local vandals, and a fanatical society, the pair find they must race against time to salvage the reputation of the museum, and catch a murderer.
MURDER AT THE FITZWILLIAM
1894. After rising to prominence investigating the case of Jack the Ripper alongside Inspector Abberline, Daniel Wilson has retired from the police force and now works as a private enquiry agent. Having built a reputation for intelligence and integrity, Wilson is asked to investigate a mysterious murder at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. A dead body has been discovered in a previously empty sarcophagus in the museum’s Egyptian rooms. Then other deaths occur, and there are suggestions of supernatural forces at work. Working with the Fitzwilliam’s curator and archaeologist, Abigail Fenton, Wilson has to solve the mystery and at the same time preserve the museum’s reputation. His problems are compounded by the reluctance of the local police force to work with him, and initially by the attitude of Abigail Fenton, an independent-minded woman with a First Class Degree in History from Girton College and a track record of archaeological digs in Egypt, who resents Wilson’s presence. Until she gets to know him. And even then the path to them having a relationship is rocky and unpredictable.
WW2 MYSTERIES SERIES
MURDER AT LORD’S STATION
March 1941. The Blitz continues, as intensive as ever. The dead body of a man is discovered outside the abandoned Lord’s tube station, seemingly beaten to death with a cricket bat. Could the dead man be associated with the British Empire XI cricket team, made up of players from Britain and far-flung parts of the globe who are playing a series of charity matches at the world famous cricket ground.
MURDER AT DOWN STREET STATION
Christmas 1940. The abandoned Down Street underground station is now a secret retreat for Prime Minister Churchill and his War Cabinet. When the dead body of a woman is found inside it, stabbed in the heart, DCI Saxe-Coburg and Sgt Lampson are called in, and find themselves embroiled in possible treason, as well as murderous plots by Soviet Russia, and quests for revenge that strike too close to home.
MURDER AT ALDWYCH STATION
December 1940. With the Luftwaffe pounding the city nightly, Londoners seek refuge in underground stations. Aldwych station has been taken out of service to shelter the British Museum’s priceless Elgin marbles, along with countless civilians escaping the bombing. The body of a young man is discovered in the tunnel just outside the station. Wearing evening dress, but barefoot, he’s been poisoned. Other bodies appear, some shot, one battered to death, and Detective Chief Inspector Edgar Saxe-Coburg’s wife, Rosa, also becomes a target. Coburg and his sergeant, Ted Lampson, find themselves caught up in a world of underground jazz clubs, tunnels and looters as they search desperately for a ruthless murderer.
MURDER AT CLARIDGES
October 1940. The Blitz bombing raids continue mercilessly. The body of a kitchen porter from Claridges hotel is found outside the back door of the hotel. He had been strangled. Detective Chief Inspector Saxe-Coburg’s investigation is complicated by the fact that so many of the hotel’s residents are exiled European royalty. King George of Greece is registered as ‘Mr Brown’, and even the Duke of Windsor is resident, though without Wallis Simpson. Clandestine affairs, furtive goings on and conspiracies mean Coburg must tread very carefully indeed.
MURDER AT THE SAVOY
September 1940. The height of the Blitz. Refugees from the bombing in the East End of London invade the Savoy, desperate to find safety in its opulent air raid shelter. Next morning the dead body of one of the Savoy’s aristocratic guest is found, stabbed. DCI Coburg and Sergeant Lampson are called in, with the finger of suspicion pointing at the EastEnders; but not everything is as it seems.
MURDER AT THE RITZ
August 1940. On the streets of London people watch with growing concern as German bombers fill the sky. But inside the famous Ritz Hotel the cream of society continue to enjoy all the glamour and comfort that money can buy – until an anonymous man is found dead, his throat cut, in the suite of an exiled King.
Detective Chief Inspector Edgar Saxe-Coburg and his loyal Sergeant, Ted Lampson are called in to investigate. But with mounting pressure from various intelligence agencies, rival political factions, and gang warfare brewing, Coburg and Lampson must untangle a web of lies and deceit if they are to solve the case, and survive.
DI STARK SERIES
ASSASSINS
London, 1921. Prominent politician Lord Amersham has been shot dead outside his Regent’s Park home. DCI Paul Stark is under pressure to produce a quick result. Secretary of State for the Colonies, Winston Churchill, is convinced that Bolsheviks are responsible. Special Branch believe there’s a connection to the Government talks taking place with Michael Collins and other IRA leaders over Irish Home Rule. Or could the murder be connected to Lord Amersham’s scandalous private life?
Then there is a second murder, and the case takes a terrifying new twist ….
SHADOWS OF THE DEAD
London, 1921. Lord Johnny Fairfax has been found dead in his study, along with a second victim, a mysterious American who arrived unannounced the previous evening. For DCI Paul Stark, the case is personal: he’s in a relationship with Lord Fairfax’s former wife, Lady Amelia.
The dead man had no shortage of enemies. Winston Churchill, his former colleague at the War Office, is convinced the murder is revenge for the disaster at Gallipoli. Lady Amelia herself is accused of the crime. And who was the American visitor? What was his connection with Lord Fairfax – and could he have been the real target?
As Stark digs deeper, he uncovers evidence of a shocking conspiracy that strikes at the heart of the British Establishment.
OTHER BOOKS
PARSLEY SIDINGS
Jim’s classic radio sitcom from the early 1970s, set in a small rural railway station and starring Arthur Lowe, Kenneth Connor, Liz Fraser and Ian Lavender.
King Street Junior & King Street Junior Revisited.
What the critics say about “King Street”: “King Street Junior” is the Sistine chapel of scripted radio drama. (Chris Campling, The Times).
The best popular drama series on radio. (The Listener).
A radio classic. The comedy is bred deeper, good writing so well performed that it creates another world. (Gillian Reynolds, The Telegraph).
King Street Junior was selected as one of the 75 Best BBC Radio Programmes of All Time in the celebration of 75 years of the BBC.