Patricia Hall's much-praised first mystery novel, The Poison Pool (SMP, 1993), prompted Library Journal to say, "This first novel promises good things to come." And now Hall fulfills that promise with the introduction of a winning new character, reporter Laura Ackroyd. A hotly contested parliamentary by-election is raging in Bradfield, Yorkshire, much to the professional delight of newspaper reporter Laura Ackroyd, who knows the town and its politics much better than the self-styled experts hot off the London train. Balancing the job is Laura's relationship with her wry, politically active granny and the return of an old boyfriend from the bright lights of London. Laura's workload gets heavier, though, as she is assigned other news stories to follow, like the police investigation of an unidentified body on the moors, the student campaign to "out" various public figures, and the hints of some dirty dealings in the back rooms of town hall. As Laura diligently peels away the veneer of each story, she discovers a tangle of old and new indiscretions, emotional blackmail, and a disturbing amount of violence. Eventually, her inquiries reveal a common thread tying all these events together, bringing her to the attention of attractive, reserved Inspector Michael Thackeray - and to the attention of the murderer as well.

An oppressive heat wave has blanketed Bradfield, Yorkshire, sharpening tensions in the crime-ridden council estate known as the Heights. The latest grievance is the nightly joy-riding of youths racing stolen cars around the residential streets. Next, reports surface of children being assaulted, and Inspector Michael Thackeray sends in an undercover police officer. A young girl is killed, though, and the residents' unease turns to anger. Covering the situation in the Heights, reporter Laura Ackroyd notices similarities between the current death and one that occurred ten years earlier. She's been researching the case of Stephen Webster, found guilty of murdering his step-sister, for a television program reexamining the crime. Stephen Webster has already been in jail for a decade, however. Could he have been innocent all those years ago, or is someone playing a twisted game of copycat? Working from different sides of the case, Ackroyd and Thackeray face deceit, fraud, and torn loyalties while exploring their growing attraction to each other in this mystery of dazzling ingenuity and suspense.

It is a bitter winter in Yorkshire when Bradfield's Chief Inspector Michael Thackeray is called to investigate the death of young estate agent Linda Wright, found drowned in her own car in a nearby reservoir. Reporter Laura Ackroyd, whose relationship with Thackeray is too close to be called friendship and too precarious to be called an affair, has recently transferred from Bradfield to the nearby town of Arnedale to work on the local newspaper for just a few months, and she's received a less than warm welcome from the locals. She soon uncovers a link between a story she's working on about corruption in local land deals and the death of Linda Wright. Then another woman is killed, this time someone directly involved in protesting the land development. Thackeray and Ackroyd, crossing paths personally and in their respective professions, are determined to pursue the solution to this absorbing case through to its deadly finish.

The latest Yorkshire mystery for reporter Laura Ackroyd and Chief Inspector Michael Thackeray starts when Laura goes undercover seeking information about prostitution and gets herself arrested, just as Michael begins investigating a prostitute's horrificstabbing death

A thriller with a very convincing plot chock-full of psychological tones, which seeks to prove that the past always ends up encroaching on the present, in its eagerness to survive.

Witness to a brutal murder in London's Docklands, Laura becomes entangled in the poverty and racism of the city's underbelly and goes face-to-face with those interested in hiding the reasons behind this bloody crime.

Book by Hall, Patricia

Yorkshire newspaper reporter Laura Ackroyd and DCI Michael Thackeray are finally trying their hand at living together after years of carrying on a tumultuous affair. Though they care deeply for one another, each seems to constantly have one foot out the door, reluctant to allow their personal relationship to interfere with intense professional ambitions that often conflict. Neither is surprised when their new domesticity proves complicated as they end up investigating the same controversial case—-the fatal shooting of a young teenager outside a women’s health center and abortion clinic in town. Tensions in Yorkshire are running high anyway, because the tragedy coincides with the visit of a notorious American right-to-lifer, and the vicious murder adds fuel to an already out of control fire. Ackroyd and Thackeray must use their vastly different investigation styles to find the truth about what happened to the young victim, and before they are finished they just might be forced to work more closely together than they ever have before. Patricia Hall’s Yorkshire mysteries are highly praised both for her intricate and authentic procedural style and for the engaging and complicated relationship between Ackroyd and Thackeray. In Deep Freeze, Hall once again delivers a tense, emotionally involving, superbly plotted, and suspenseful mystery.

The Carib Club is one of Bradfield's most popular night clubs, especially in the local black community-but it's in the heart of a Muslim district. Members of the local mosque are keen to get the club closed down, so when, after a night out clubbing, Jeremy Adams is knocked down by a taxi and left in a coma, the pressure on the Carib Club starts building. Jeremy had taken ecstasy tablets before the accident happened and his father, wealthy local businessman Grantley Adams, wants to know who supplied him with the pills. DCI Michael Thackeray is put on the case but when none of the boy's friends seem willing to talk he finds himself getting nowhere fast. Meanwhile Thackeray's girlfriend, reporter Laura Ackroyd, is conducting her own investigation into Bradfield's drugs problem. A young boy has died after falling from a tower block on the Wuthering Heights housing estate-the police are blaming the accident on a heroin overdose, but his friends swear that he was clean. A gripping and thought-provoking mystery, Death in Dark Waters is the latest to feature Patricia Hall's acclaimed Thackeray and Ackroyd, and is sure to please fans of this always fascinating, intelligent series.

Earnshaw’s mill is one of the last remnants of Bradfield’s glorious industrial past; however times are changing and Earnshaw’s future is hanging in the balance. Staff cuts need to be made if the mill is going to survive but the union is unhappy and its members are threatening strike action. With racial tensions already running high throughout the city, the prospect of mass redundancies at the heart of Bradfield’s Muslim community could cause even more trouble. The Earnshaw family’s problems spiral out of control when they discover that their son Simon has been murdered. As Michael Thackeray’s team investigate the death the mill is left teetering on the brink. And as the increasing popular far right political group the British Patriotic Party start campaigning for local elections violence spills on the streets of the city and it isn’t long before areas of Bradfield go up in flames.

A teacher is bludgeoned to death and a volatile black teenager is arrested: as far as DCI Michael Thackeray is concerned, that's it, case closed. Though absent at the time of the murder and subsequent arrest, Thackeray is convinced that it was an open-and-shut case; that justice has been done. But when his long-term girlfriend, Laura Ackroyd, begins digging into the case for a newspaper article she's working on, some disturbing facts come to light - facts that cause the case against the accused youngster to unravel at an alarming rate and lead Thackeray to wonder if there could have been a sinister reason behind the youth's speedy arrest. With the case re-opened, it becomes clear that difficult questions need to be asked and Thackeray soon finds himself under attack from within the Police Force, as his own loyalty and integrity are called into question. Under threat from all sides, can Thackeray - his career and his personal life - survive the heavy strain of suspicion, or will the pressure finally become too much?

A young boy running for his life through the snow, his sister hovering between life and death in intensive care: it seems that another father has been driven to the edge and turned on his family when DCI Michael Thackeray reluctantly enters a family home turned blood-stained charnel house. But as he and his lover Laura Ackroyd dig deeper the tragedy becomes darker and much more dangerous. While Thackeray seeks to find where the children's father has gone, Laura begins to ask just who he is. This seems to have been a family with no past long before its future was so brutally taken away. Who is Gordon Christie? Who is he hiding from? Is it only the police who are looking for him? Where has he gone with a loaded gun and his son in tow? And who seems to be obstructing Thackeray's inquiry at every turn, driving him to the brink of resignation and Laura to despair? As things fall apart, the tangle of violence they uncover turns lethal and their lives hang in the balance as the police eventually uncover the full tragedy of the elusive Gordon Christie.

The dark of the night. Two girls are running for their lives. Terrified, one falls, and unable to get up, she forces her friend to go on without her, to save herself. For her there is no escape as their attackers close in…The following morning the body of a young girl is found in the canal. DCI Thackeray, recently returned to the force after a bungled kidnapping operation left him near death, is put on the case. But with the entire town’s attention focused on the football team’s upcoming match against Chelsea, no one seems to be able to tell the police anything about how the girl died, let alone identify her. Thackeray’s girlfriend, reporter Laura Ackroyd, also has much to investigate. The appointment of a female chairman at the football club has annoyed many people, in particular the men who dominate the share holders and who will apparently stop at nothing to force her out.

Laura Ackroyd, the journalist girlfriend of DCI Thackeray, becomes drawn into the plight of Jenny and her daughter, Anna, when she writes an article about domestic abuse. Suffering violence at the hands of her husband, Jenny takes flight to a refuge. But her dreams of safety are shattered when Anna goes missing.

Karen Bastable is a woman longing for more excitement in her life, and illicit group meetings in a local forest have added plenty of spark and pleasure recently. That is until one night she meets a man in search of a more sinister kind of gratification. When her abandoned car is discovered days later, the case becomes a race against time and it is up to DCI Michael Thackeray to find her alive, that is, if he isn't too late. Meanwhile, Thackeray's girlfriend, Laura Ackroyd is struggling with the burden of keeping her unexpected pregnancy a secret from him. As she barely copes with her demanding workload as a journalist, Laura is then dealt the troublesome task of profiling Sir David Murgatroyd, a wealthy venture capitalist with plans to take over a local school. Yet while his tragic family history is widely acknowledged, he alternatively remains a mystery. So what has he to hide?

To DCI Michael Thackeray's dismay, reporter Laura Ackroyd pursues a new crusade to clear a miner of the brutal murder of a policeman during the bruising coalfield strike of the 1980s. She soon finds old hatreds returning to haunt survivors and sparking fresh violence. A second murder brings Thackeray and his team onto the scene. With lives and their tangled relationship in jeopardy, they find revenge and retribution stalking the coalfield again and taking a horrifying toll amongst guilty and innocent alike.