Nuns are supposed to put worldly concerns behind them when they take their vows, but in the past fifteen years, Sister Agnes has not once forgotten Hugo, her abusive ex-husband. Even after having experienced his viciousness and his violence first-hand, however, Agnes is convinced that Hugo did not murder his second wife. The police disagree, prompting Sister Agnes' first investigation, one which pulls her into the monied circles of rural Gloucestershire as well as into the lives of the dispossessed - homeless local youth whose fierce friendships may hold the key to the murder. Will Sister Agnes discover the murderer's identity, or does she already know him...?

Sister Agnes is facing a crisis of faith. Working in a hostel for the homeless, Sam, a sixteen-year-old runaway, is forced to return to her family and then goes missing, and Agnes begins to question her relationship with God. Furious with the authorities, she feels she must do what she can to pull the runaway girl back from the brink of self-destruction. She sets out on a mission to find Sam and finds herself with a group of anti-road protesters in their tree-top encampment at the edge of Epping Forest. Amidst the beggars, travellers and anarchists, Sam is revelling in their fireside talk of apocalypse. But she is also contemplating returning to live with the father who deserted her sixteen years earlier and who, suspiciously to Agnes’s mind, has suddenly re-appeared. For the moment however Sam seems secure at the camp, a magic fortress in the sky, though its tents and tree houses can only provide a temporary bulwark against destruction. But even that safety is illusory. Only hours after Agnes’s arrival a body is found. Of a brutally murdered young girl… ‘The Quick and the Dead’ is a gripping crime thriller featuring inventive and original heroine Sister Agnes. ‘Enjoyable … with a satisfyingly believable conclusion’ Glasgow Herald ‘Nice one that doesn’t start with a bang and end with a whimper’ Newcastle-upon-Tyne Journal ‘A refreshingly different character’ Bolton Evening News ‘One helluva nun’ Hampstead and Highgate Express Alison Joseph was born in North London and educated at Leeds University. After graduating she worked as a presenter on a local radio station then, moving back to London, for Channel 4. She later became a partner in an independent production company and one of its commissions was a series about women and religion, the book of which was published by SPCK. She has since also worked as a reader for BBC Radio Drama. Alison, who has three children, now lives in London and is currently working on a new crime novel. Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent digital publisher. For more information on our titles please sign up to our newsletter at www.endeavourpress.com. Each week you will receive updates on free and discounted ebooks. Follow us on Twitter: @EndeavourPress and on Facebook via http://on.fb.me/1HweQV7. We are always interested in hearing from our readers. Endeavour Press believes that the future is now.

'Sister Agnes is a fascinating and complicated woman.' Val McDermid Young and fiercely independent, Sister Agnes Bourdillon has never felt the need of a wimple to express her spirituality. But her strength is tested by her secondment to Silworth, a South London women’s prison. She does, however, find the work compelling, as she attempts to negotiate the network of bullies and victims, loyalties and hatreds, prisoners and jailers, searching to understand the often violent histories that lie behind each woman. Then the father of Cally Fisher, one of the most turbulent inmates, is shot dead. The chief suspect is Cally’s boyfriend. Reminded unnervingly of how she is losing her own mother, who is rapidly retreating from reality in a French nursing home, Agnes finds that she too has become entangled in a dark world that stretches further than the prison walls… 'The Dying Light' is one of Alison Joseph's great mysteries which has the reader turning the page as Agnes gets embroiled in a crime which threatens her own being. Praise for Alison Joseph ‘Clever and intriguing - a must for all Agatha Christie fans’ - Peter James ‘Christie herself is the fulcrum of this highly diverting piece, delivered with all the quirky skill that is Joseph’s trademark.’ - Barry Forshaw, Crime Time Alison Joseph is a London-based crime writer and radio dramatist. She is the author of the series of novels featuring Sister Agnes, a contemporary detective nun based in South London, and has written numerous plays for radio, including the adaptations of Simenon's Inspector Maigret series broadcast on BBC Radio 4. She is currently chair of the Crime Writers Association.

The South London hostel is under attack, and Sister Agnes is trying to protect her vulnerable charges. At the same time, someone from her estranged father's past appears, bearing an odd collection of fossils. The apparent suicide of a desperate young woman resident throws Agnes into crisis – and the situation is made worse by the realisation that the fossil collection, with its strange journal, hides deeper secrets from her father's life. This page-turning crime story is about how the past informs the present, whether in the shape of fossils, or in our own family history. It is a meditation on faith, evidence, Darwinism and the age of the Universe.