Lake District Mysteries

Following a personal tragedy, florist Persimmon “Simmy” Brown has moved to the Lake District to be nearer her parents. But her peace is shattered when, at a wedding, the bride's brother is found brutally murdered. As the florist of the wedding and one of the last people to talk to Mark Baxter alive, Simmy gradually becomes involved with the relatives. When events take another sinister turn, Simmy finds herself at the heart of a murder investigation.

After an eventful year, Persimmon "Simmy" Brown is adjusting to life in Windermere, running her florist shop and trying to put her tragic past behind her. But just when Simmy thinks her life is quietly coming together, it begins to unravel at the seams. With the delivery of a bouquet of flowers to an elderly lady - complete with mysterious message attached - old secrets come creeping into the light. When another old woman is found murdered in her own home, Simmy is drawn into the centre of a murder investigation.

With Valentine's Day fast approaching, Persimmon "Simmy" Brown's flower shop near Lake Windermere receives a string of anonymous delivery orders. But each one causes their recipient great distress, and Simmy suspects that the messages they contain mask a sinister intent. Then one of the recipients disappears…. As if that isn't enough, Simmy's friend Kathy turns up, on the trail of her wayward daughter Joanna, who has grown unhealthily close to her university tutor.

A huge funeral for Windermere’s popular resident, Barbara Dodge, is taking place, and florist Persimmon 'Simmy' Brown and her new assistant, Bonnie Lawson, are busy compiling wreaths in preparation. There’s word of a series of sinister dognappings occurring in nearby Troutbeck, and whilst taking a walk up Wansfell Pike, Simmy and her father, Russell, stumble on a dog strangled to death - it’s not long before Simmy reluctantly finds herself caught up in a murder investigation.

Summer has come to Windermere, where Persimmon "Simmy" Brown runs her own florist shop. But the shop is struggling for money, so a contract to provide floral displays for a hotel in Hawkshead couldn't have arrived at a better moment. However Simmy's association with the hotel soon turns sinister when she finds a body in the lake. To make matters worse, her friend, Ben Harkness, is now missing and thought to be kidnapped.

Winter has arrived in the town of Windermere and has brought with it the death of Frances Henderson, the best friend of Persimmon 'Simmy' Brown's mother. Simmy must cope with the loss of an important figure from her childhood as well as the confusion at being bequeathed something in Frances' will. When Frances' husband is violently murdered, Simmy must face the fact that the family she was once so close to as a child holds some dark secrets.

Simmy Brown has a lot on her mind. Not just keeping her florist business afloat, her father’s failing health and the challenge of developing a long-term relationship with Christopher but also the approach of Mother’s Day, a busy and painful day for her. But in taking an order for a retirement party in Staveley, she is pulled into her most challenging investigation. When a daughter starts accusing her own mother of murder, Simmy, Ben and Bonnie find themselves taking different sides of the investigation. With her relationships under strain, Simmy is tried on all fronts....

Returning from a much-needed holiday, Persimmon 'Simmy' Brown discovers that life in the Lake District is, as ever, far from relaxing. Before she can enjoy the idea of being the future Mrs Chris Henderson, her fiancé discovers the body of his friend, antique dealer Jonathan Woolley, brutally strangled in a house in Grasmere. Enlisting the help of her friends and amateur detectives Ben and Bonnie, the investigation appears to ask more questions than it answers as historical grudges against the dead man are revealed. It seems that many people had a reason for wanting him dead.

Simmy Brown had hoped that her autumn would be less frantic than usual to give her a chance to enjoy her pregnancy, her upcoming nuptials, and some time looking for a new house in the Patterdale area of the Lake District. But it is not to be. When one of the lodgers at her parents’ B&B dies in her arms after seemingly being poisoned, she becomes embroiled in a complex investigation, headed up by her friend DI Moxon.

Spring has brought many new beginnings into the world of Persimmon ‘Simmy’ Brown. Not only has her baby arrived, but she and her fiancé, Christopher, have moved to the historic village of Hartsop - and their forthcoming nuptials are only a short month away. But when a former acquaintance of Christopher’s reminds him of an undertaking made a decade previously that he hasn't fulfilled, their lives soon take a sinister turn. Yet even with a young baby to consider, Simmy cannot ignore her instinct to investigate.

Persimmon 'Simmy' Brown's wedding day to Christopher Henderson has arrived on a glorious summer's day in the pretty Lake District village of Threlkeld. While the day passes off without undue calamity, later when most of the guests have departed, a young man is found nearby, possibly the victim of a vicious attack. The mystery of the attack is complicated by pressure on police resources. Was it an accident or something far more sinister? Speculation is rife as to what precisely happened, and a chilling suspicion develops into a theory that might be impossible to prove.

Set in the picturesque town of Askham, near Ullswater, the story opens with the funeral of Humphrey Craig, the builder who converted Simmy's new house in Hartsop. The following day, when Simmy goes back to look at the grave and the flowers on it, she meets two women, Lindsay Wilson, an academic in her late twenties who is writing a thesis on Charles Dickens' Dombey and Son, and Pauline Parsons, a local matriarch aged 90. Just 24 hours later, Mrs Parsons is found dead on Askham Fell and Simmy is summoned to Penrith police station.

Two days before an auction of the contents of High Gates House in Borrowdale, Christopher Henderson bumps into Jennifer Reade, the heir to the entire estate, and the expected recipient of the proceeds of the house clearance sale. She discovers a dead man in the cellar of the house but threatens and cajoles Christopher into remaining silent about it until after the auction to avoid complications and delays. The auction begins but is soon halted by the police with the news that a murder has been committed.

As Christmas draws nearer, Simmy Henderson is invited to a party in Glenridding at the heart of the Lake District. However, the festivities are overshadowed by two alarming discoveries: a man's body in the beck above the village, and a vulnerable newborn baby, apparently abandoned by its mother. Caught in the crosscurrents and tensions of the inhabitants of Glenridding, Simmy is drawn into the investigation. The season of goodwill has been eclipsed by far darker emotions, and a murderer must be found.

Simmy is four months pregnant, working partly from home and partly from her Windermere florist shop when her husband Christopher asks her to take flowers to Eleanor Padgett. Eleanor has helped him in his auction house, as she is an expert in antique textiles. She lives near the church at Dacre, and Simmy meets her in the nearby churchyard. But when they notice the body of a young man by one of the gravestones, the happy outing turns dark. It is not long before Simmy once again finds herself in a complex and puzzling investigation, led by DI Moxon and aided by her friends Ben and Bonnie.

Heavily pregnant yet still running her flower shop in Keswick, Simmy Brown agrees to deliver an unusual bouquet to remote Eskdale. There she encounters three generations of women—and the next day, one of them is brutally murdered.