Charmian Daniels

Series · 18

books · 1964-2025

By Gwendoline Butler, Jennie Melville

Books in series

Come Home and Be Killed

1964

The first Charmian Daniels book

Murderers' Houses

1964

A Charmian Daniels novel

Nell Alone

2015

It was a big old violent city where Nell lived, alone since her sister had married and moved away. This city was full of secrets and strange crimes. An unidentified body was discovered not far away from where Nell worked. People said it was dangerous for a young woman to live alone in such a city. Her young friends Amabel and Charlotte thought the house where she lived had its dangers too. But was Nell alone? Or if she was, in what sense was Nell Alone? Nell had her secrets, and her violence too.

A New Kind of Killer, an Old Kind of Death

1970

Sergeant Charmian Daniels of the Deerham Hills police force was at Midport University on a three-fold mission-to lecture to local police cadets, to keep an eye on student trouble-makers and to start a diploma in criminology. The subject of her thesis was already forming in her mind-the new kind of killer. The population was growing younger all the time; given a decade or two, statistics would show that one man in three would have a violent act in his past. Society was creating a new kind of killer, casual, committing murder almost without thought. And in the world of the future, Charmian knew that woman stood a better than average chance of being victims. What she didn't know was that even as she thought about the new pattern in crime, the ominous statistics for it were already being proven on dangerously close ground.

Murder Has a Pretty Face

1981

Police Inspector Charmian Daniels knew that disorder was on its way to Deerham Hills. There was a murder of an unknown man and a robbery at a local furrier's. Was the strange woman who had recently come to town the catalyst for violence? Or was she just a symptom of it? There was nothing unusual about a woman police officer getting on with her job, but this time it was woman against woman... "I read on unstoppably.' THE TIMES

Murder in the Garden

1987

The Garden is a London enclave, home to best friends and busy career women Edwina, Cassie and Alice. The trio attends the wedding of Edwina's father to his second wife, where Edwina is preoccupied with thoughts of her pregnancy by a lover recently killed in an auto crash. But when the women gather after the reception, they discuss a more immediate subject: the fatal poisoning of another guest. Meanwhile, anonymous, menacing phone calls to Edwina increase, simultaneous with murderous attacks on her neighbors. The disturbances strain the women's friendship and, ultimately, the reader's patience, as repetitious details about dozens of unrealistic characters become confusing and irritating. When, at long last, the denouement comes, it's less a surprise than an anticlimax.

#10

Windsor Red

1988

Policewoman Charmian Daniels takes a sabbatical to study feminist crime at Wellington Yard in Windsor, but soon after her arrival, several children disappear, and parts of dismembered bodies turn up around the town

#11

A Cure for Dying

1989

This crime novel features Chief Superintendent Charmian Daniels who finds herself caught up in the investigation of a series of murders. All the victims are female and it looks as though she may be next on the killer's list. The tale is set in Windsor with its castle and park, and polo season in full tilt. Jennie Melville has also written "Listen to the Children" and "Windsor Red", and is the creator of the Inspector Coffin series and a Silver Dagger award-winner.

#12

Witching Murder

1991

Charmian Daniels (last seen in Murder in the Garden ), chief metropolitan police superintendent of Central London, interrupts a medical leave when beautiful Vivien Charles, member of a witches' coven, is found fatally stabbed in her home, her corpse surrounded by cult objects. An autopsy reveals that Vivien was pregnant and the fetus deformed. Vivien's fellow witches, still reeling from the shock of her death, are dumbfounded by the finding, but sexy Joshua Fox, the lone male in the coven and laughingly called its warlock, is unsurprised. When Charmian learns that the primary duty of a warlock is to impregnate witches, the hapless man becomes the prime suspect—until he, too, is stabbed in his home. Every clue leads to the coven, but Charmian is unconvinced, and digs into Vivien's past to discover a more pedestrian kind of sorcery that might conjure up a killer. Melville serves up a balanced brew of career politics, the occult, and the psychology of murder.

#13

Footsteps in the Blood

1992

A recently promoted—and deeply resented—Chief Superintendent Daniels pursues the killer of a young blackmailer, but evidence begins to suggest that Daniels is the killer's real target. By the author of Dead Set. 10,000 first printing.

#14

Dead Set

1992

AN ENIGMA INSIDE A PUZZLE INSIDE A... — Quiet, unassuming Ted Gray stumbles over the body of a strangled youn woman, and peole are shocked to hear that Ted himself is a prime suspect. This case, with all of its complexities, intrigues policewoman Charmian Daniels. — When Ted goes missing, Charmian believes that his wife, Una, knows much more than she's telling. An connected to the case somehow is a young boy, haunted by visions. But as more victims are claimed by the voracious killer, the trail of blood leads Charmian to the chocking truth... and the most twisted of motives.

#15

Whoever Has the Heart

1994

As a refuge from her job, police inspector Charmian Daniels buys a weekend cottage, but the discovery of part of a young woman's body nearby proves that Charmian's new neighbors are neither quaint nor charming. By the author of Dead Set.

#16

A Death in the Family

1994

Windsor may look picturesque and old-fashioned, but policewoman Charmian Daniels knows all too well that the charming village is not immune to the realities of modern life and crime, most recently evidenced by the disappearance of eight-year-old Sarah Holt. Charmian's worst fears are exacerbated by the discovery of a young male corpse, lying next to the skeleton of a baby buried nearly a century before. Could the two deaths and Sarah's disappearance be somehow related? As Charmian races toward the truth, a killer races to stop her—and to keep an ancient secret dead and buried.

#17

The Morbid Kitchen

1995

Nancy Bailey turns to high-ranking policewoman Charmian Daniels when she discovers that the murder that closed the school she used to run had not been the only crime for which the killer was responsible and that the murderer is still on the loose.

#18

The Woman Who Was Not There

1996

The Woman Who Was Not There (Charmian Daniels) \[paperback\] Jennie Melville \[Jun 04, 2015\] …

#20

Stone Dead

1998

Winifred Eagle and Birdie Peacock, white witches of Windsor, are preparing for the opening of their new bookshop, which will specialize in crime fiction. So perhaps they are extra-sensitive to the mystery that is currently dominating local news - the disappearance of two Windsor women. But they would be even more disturbed if they knew what Chief Superintendent Charmian Daniels now knows - that four other women have gone missing from the surrounding areas. And that with every disappearance the local police have received a letter containing the victim's name and one of her possessions.

#21

Dead Again

2000

As Joan Dingham awaits release from prison, her former partners in crime—Beryl Andrea Barker (otherwise known as Baby), Phyllis and Bee—prepare for her return with hushed excitement. Only one of the original gang is missing—Diana King, now deceased. But before the prison gates have opened for Joan, another spate of murders rocks the town. The corpses bear the same marking as those of Joan's victims years before. Senior policewoman Charmain Daniels, assigned to protect Joan, is put in charge of these new murder cases—but soon senses an uncomfortable echo of the past inhabiting the present...

#22

Loving Murder

2025

Charmian Daniels heads the investigation of a man murdered within sight of Windsor castle. Then things get closer to home when another man is murdered in the tower-block where Daniels works . . .

Authors

Gwendoline Butler

Author · 40 books

Gwendoline Williams Butler (aka Jennie Melville) Gwendoline Williams was born on 19th August 1922 in South London, England, UK, daughter of Alice (Lee) and Alfred Edward Williams, her younger twin brothers are also authors. Educated at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, where she read History, and later lectured there. On 16th October 1949, she married Dr Lionel Harry Butler (1923-1981), a professor of medieval history at University of St. Andrews and historian, Fellow of All Souls and Principal of Royal Holloway College. The marriage had a daughter, Lucilla Butler. In 1956, she started to published John Coffin novels under her married name, Gwendoline Butler. In 1962, she decided used her grandmother's name, Jennie Melville as pseudonym to sing her Charmian Daniels novels. She was credited for inventing the "woman's police procedural". In addition to her mystery series, she also wrote romantic novels. In 1981, her novel The Red Staircase won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association.

Jennie Melville

Author · 19 books

Gwendoline Williams Butler (aka Gwendoline Butler) Gwendoline Williams was born on 19th August 1922 in South London, England, UK, daughter of Alice (Lee) and Alfred Edward Williams, her younger twin brothers are also authors. Educated at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, where she read History, and later lectured there. On 16th October 1949, she married Dr Lionel Harry Butler (1923-1981), a professor of medieval history at University of St. Andrews and historian, Fellow of All Souls and Principal of Royal Holloway College. The marriage had a daughter, Lucilla Butler. In 1956, she started to published John Coffin novels under her married name, Gwendoline Butler. In 1962, she decided used her grandmother's name, Jennie Melville as pseudonym to sing her Charmian Daniels novels. She was credited for inventing the "woman's police procedural". In addition to her mystery series, she also wrote romantic novels. In 1981, her novel The Red Staircase won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association.