THE COMPLETE BEST-SELLING MYSTERY SERIES INCLUDING:
BOOK 1: DEAD WRONG A bag of severed fingers is found in the playground by a rough housing estate Calladine and Bayliss race against time to track down a killer before the whole area erupts in violence. Their boss thinks it’s all down to drug lord Ray Fallon, but Calladine’s instincts say something far nastier is happening on the Hobfield housing estate. Can the duo track down the murderer before anyone else dies and before the press publicize the gruesome crimes?
BOOK 2: DEAD SILENT A body is found in a car crash, but the victim was already dead . . . Calladine and Ruth Bayliss race against time to catch a vicious serial killer. The first two victims are American university students and both have livestock tags fixed to their earlobes. Who wanted them dead and what’s the connection? The detectives piece together the forensic evidence and track down the witnesses, to reach a shocking conclusion.
BOOK 3: DEAD LIST An unlikely serial killer with a bucket list of victims . . .Calladine and Bayliss battle a murderer who is working their way through a list of victims. Each murder is meticulously planned and unique, and a tarot card is left at the scene of the crime. When two children disappear in the local area, the stakes are raised and the team are baffled by the link between the crimes. Calladine and Bayliss race against time to prevent any more carnage.
BOOK 4: DEAD LOST An abandoned cotton mill holds horrific secrets
BOOK 5: DEAD & BURIED Annie Naden and her husband buy a remote country cottage at auction. It’s the home of their own they wanted, but as they begin renovations, Annie discover a schoolgirl’s satchel in a dusty old hidden cupboard. Inside are the usual schoolbooks, now over 40 years old, and a girl’s diary. Among the record of day-to-day crushes and pop concerts, is a secret that may have had terrible consequences. What happened to that girl forty years ago?
BOOK 6: DEAD NASTY A GIRL’S BODY IS FOUND IN A DUSTBIN. DEAD MEAT IS WRITTEN ON A NOTE FOUND WITH HER. When another girl goes missing from the same group of friends, Calladine must look elsewhere for the killer and comes across a sinister online predator who was in touch with all the girls.
BOOK 7: DEAD JEALOUS Two mothers have lost their daughters — seventeen years apart. can Detective Calladine bring them justice?
BOOK 8: DEAD BAD A woman’s body is found in a disused church, a homemade stuffed toy by her side. The victim had been dumped there months ago. The crime has the hallmarks of twenty-year-old case whose alleged perpetrator is in prison.
BOOK 9: DEAD GUILTY Detectives Calladine and Bayliss hunt for a missing child in a mystery with a shocking ending. Sophie Alder is the three-year-old daughter of local factory owner, Richard Alder. Richard and his wife Annie are locals from the rough housing estate who’ve made it big.
The nine books that are part of this collection are a treasure worth keeping for the long run.
DI Calladine and his team are easy to get attached to. They work great together and you find yourself rooting for them in every story, despite any idiosyncratic behavior (mainly Calladine).
Normally, I don’t care about the personal lives of the characters in my British mysteries and thrillers, but their personal lives are interwoven into the story in a manner that, on many occasions, are related to the stories.
Sometimes it is their personal lives that are relevant to the mysteries.
Unknowingly, you are quickly caught up in any part of the lives of the people in the series. You care so much about them that you want to know what is going on with them even when they leave work.
But make no mistake about the crimes. It’s still the crimes that are the center theme of every story and an excellent job is done by Calladine and his team, of gathering their evidence, completing their footwork (extremely important), and working collectively to solve the problem.
This is a great series and it’s very enjoyable being able to read all nine episodes together.
Calladine es el Líder Detective del precinto de Lessinton, el junto a su equipo son los encargados de investigar los crimenes mas atroces que suceden en su zona. Pueden investigar desde secuestro de menores, trafico de drogas, asesinatos, entre otras cosas, pero sus casos suelen ser complejos, y requiere de un grupo para resolverlos. Por eso Calladine cuenta con Bayliss, su amiga y segunda al mando, junto con Rocco, Imogen, y el grupo de CSI y forenses. En esta serie, nuestros heroes se enfrentaran a los crimenes mas espantosos que han visto, ademas de intentar equilibrar su vida personal con su trabajo.
Esta serie de libros resultan entretenidos. El autor nos sabe llevar de la mano en la investigacion de crimes realmente fuertes, pero tambien nos hace sentir que los detectives son seres humanos y que cometen errores. En mas de un libro estuve realmente sorprendida cuando descubrieron al criminal, pero en otros queria darles un coscorron a los detectives por no ver lo que tenian en frente. No me gusto la forma como manejaban sus problemas personales los protas. Calladine resultaba un nino malcriado, que daba pataletas si no le salian las cosas como queria. Y Bayliss, era la propia mujer "sufrida" que aguanta cualquier cosa con tal de mantener su relacion. En fin, son libros entretenidos, que cumplen con su objetivo, se hacen pasar el rato y olvidar, es seguro que mas adelante busque otros libros del autor para leer.
I throughly enjoyed this series. Non-Stop action, you will want to read and ignore the world. Series is a great distraction for those avid readers (junkies) who want to step away from life’s stressors. Helen Durant has the ability to tell a story that you feel like you are actually watching it play out in front of you as you read. I find the plot enjoyable and Helen Durant has a way of keeping the mastermind at bay - trust me....this is a great series written by an author that has a gift. I am anxious to read her other series. I suspect I will be thrilled as I was while reading this series. I LOVED THIS SERIES, avid mystery thriller idk who done it reader is who I am
I actually have read all these separately and thoroughly enjoyed each one. I like having the box sets as I can go back and re read them back to back without having to remember the order!
I read the box set of 9 back to back. The first I felt was slow and so many characters it was a brain ache keeping up remembering who was who, and as so many characters had nick names it felt even more complicated. I persevered and by the end of book one I had decided to continue....by book three I was into the back stories of Ruth and Tom, their relationship was growing on me too. The mysteries are involved with lots of twists and red herrings, plenty of clues to keep you busy trying to work out who dunnit! After finishing book 9, the last in my set, I discover book 10 and 11.... Well, what can I say.....I'm going to have to read them, if only to find out if Tom Calladine gets his promotion, or finally settles down with a woman!
My enthusiasm for this author started off slowly but by book two I was definitely hooked. And by the time I reached the last three I was giving them five star ratings, possibly because these were longer and had double inquiry lines. Durrant's use of primarily dialogue to tell the story is especially effective as it is done well and realistically. The characters of the team were well fleshed out and the plots truly fascinating. I am on to more of her books now.
I did enjoy the nine stories and I have reviewed each one separately so will just give an overview of the box set.
Overall, I liked each book because of the plots. I wasn't keen on the characters, especially Calladine, as he was like an annoying child in his private life. Ruth was a little better, however, none of the characters really rang true, except Alice, in my opinion.
They were all fast-paced and the writing style was okay, although there were numerous errors and references to American rather than English police procedures - CSI and not SOCO, for example.
I would say that these are good reads for those who enjoy this genre. The plots were very good.
Another area as bad as Midsomer Norton!! The deaths just kept on mounting up throughout this series. Every book was different in the way this all happened but youth and drugs were the main cause. And bent senior officers as well. Been interesting watching the working relationship network Calladine and Bayliss. Then when we get into the personal relationships they each have in their own right, well!! But it all gels together extremely well to give you hours of enjoyable reading and many twists and turns on the way. Must admit that in the last story, I did not expect the mastermind to be the person it was. Just brilliant!
I cannot make my mind up about these books. The stories are good, but some of the storylines are too incredible to believe. To have 3 corrupt police officers seems to be too many especially as they were all Superintendents and above! Also Tom Calladine cannot be that naive surely especially with women. It is a little farcical to say the least. I cannot say that these books truly gripped me, but I did read the full box set. Unsure whether I will read any more from this series.
Series claims 2 corrupt superintendents when there are 3. Tom's uncle the first superintendent is arrested & jailed early in the books then much later us talked about as having retired. Also there is mention on the last book of how unlucky it is to have two superintendents go bad when it us really 3. Finally there us Tom's uncle the corrupt super who is supposed to be banged up, at a family celebration. Also the series has lots of smaller issues and lacks consistency in character behaviours. Really quite a poor effort. Don't bother
Heleh H Durrant's Calladine & Bayliss Mystery series is a must read for fans of the genre, each book is both utterly tantalisingly and intriguing. The plots, so cleverly interwoven with the personal and sometimes complicated lives of the main characters, drive and build a beautifully visual narrative in each of the nine brilliantly gripping crime thriller series. Superbly stylish, well crafted and thoroughly recommended. An amazing TV series, waiting to be filmed. Alan Bruce
Sadly the graphic gore that begins these novels does not stop and figures in threads. It is completely unnecessary in the length and detail of horrible violence. The author is condescending and unrelenting talking about female character's weight. The principle character is dry and boring. His self-deprecation rings false throughout. There are a great many much better detective stories available. Doo yourself a favor and skip this set.
I have read these 9 books back to back. The characters and scenarios are totally believable and true to life. I loved the interaction between Calladine and his colleagues and family and friends. Lesson is a fictitious town but I could envisage the area it was so well written. I hope this isn't the end of Tom and Ruth's careers. I highly recommend!
Purchased this as a box set of 9 books. Reading the 1st, wasn't sure I had done the right thing, but the more you read the better they became. I must confess that DI Calladine was a bit of a disappointment, all the cases would have been sorted sooner had he been a bit more forthcoming with his team, but nevertheless extremely difficult to put down, and very addictive. A great read and deserving the 5 stars.
fun to read, moves along enough to be entertaining. Interesting characters, a bit flawed which makes a nice change from the perfect dashingly handsome superhero detective and his astonishingly beautiful assistant. Good story lines apart from ....SPOILER ALERT the reoccurring theme of bent coppers, that was predictable and annoying. Despite that I would read another in this series if it should become available.
I will never want to read a book that has this much swearing, and it’s awful swearing, come out of the mouth of a school aged child within the first few sentences of a book. I will now be deleting the whole 9 books I have from this authour. Adults can swear in books I still won’t read that. I really think this authour needs to look at a thesaurus before using the usual garbage form of language.
I loved these stories so much. Great characters. I couldn't put them down. I'm going to miss the characters but at least I'll get more sleep. I would definitely recommend these stories to any avid reader of crime stories. Plenty of murder and mystery to get the brain working. These detectives feel like friends and work colleagues to me now. Really great books.
Love Helen Durrant's style of writing. She has such a gift of weaving relationships and murderous plots together in a way of making for the characters coming alive on the page. I read all the Greco books too and hope she continues to write about both these police inspectors. I need to know if Bayliss becomes an inspector? Thank you Helen for hours of readings.
What a joy to read such a well written British crime series with some believable characters involved.
Well constructed and difficult to put down. In fact, there was only one very minor criticism, and that was when I was 90% into the book and the word "sensor" appeared when it should have been "censor"!
Love detective stories and this was brilliantly written, so many theories and red herrings. Kept reading at every opportunity as I was intrigued by the detective work used and the characters involved. Would definitely recommend this series and cannot wait to read more.
A wonderful and colourful series of Calladonr and Bayliß mystery stories. Well written and subtly scripted series of short stories, thoroughly dry up to captivate the trading audience. I wouldost highly recommend allurder/mystery lovers to enjoy these. Short novels and continue to follow the writing acumen of Helen Durrant.
This series of 9 book was wonderful. The characters were so well developed and the crimes they investigated were well thought out and believable. I was shocked when one of the secondary characters was killed and felt sad. Truly a fantastic experience getting to know all the detectives!
I can’t actually recommend this series but neither can I say don’t read it. Each book has a reasonable plot but the two main characters are utterly unlikeable in my eyes and the ending of each book is rushed so unsatisfactory. Some of the books are much better than others but none stand out particularly. Having said all that they were very good value for money .
I dislike the bad grammar. Whoever corrects the maniacs should know better. A sentence I have just read towards the end of book 9 states "it was her who's broke it off". Dreadful. Also, when describing two people one does not say " me and ..... ". It is ".... and I". Apart from all this, the book are compulsive reading. I have just read 1 - 9 without stopping.
This series is absolutely one of the best series i have read!! Characters which are all very well developed. The dialogue and exchange between the characters are great and the storyline is great.
Enjoyed every page! The mysteries and characters were believable and true to life. I’d recommend this series to anyone and look foreward to reading more from Helen Durrant.
Enjoyed the fact that this series was bundled from first to last
Interesting characters well written and not easily solved in the beginning plots slightly unrealistic with too many “just by coincidences”. I did enjoy reading the series being bundled from the first book to latest