1. Maxwell’s House
Peter Maxwell is perfectly content with his routine; by day, inspire students and, if lucky, annoy the headmaster and governing body. By evening, return home to explain the finer points of classic films to his long-suffering cat, Count Metternich. Until Leighford High student Jennifer Hyde is…
2. Maxwell’s Flame
Peter Maxwell is attending a teachers’ training course when one of the participants is battered to death. The timing suggests that the killer knew the victim’s movements precisely, yet everyone on the course appears to possess an alibi and no witness admits seeing anything useful. A…
3. Maxwell’s Movie
On a school trip to the Museum of Moving Images, teacher Alice Goode and sixth form pupil, Ronnie Parsons disappear without a trace. Peter Maxwell is determined to find his missing student and colleague. But what looks like a case of missing persons takes a sinister…
4. Maxwell’s War
Peter Maxwell is delighted when an old college friend asks him to be the historical adviser on a film being made on the coast. A Napoleonic invasion on Leighford beach is just what Maxwell needs to get him through the drudgery of exam season. But Maxwell…
5. Maxwell’s Ride
Peter Maxwell is about to die . . . That’s his view anyway as he plunges down a white-knuckled water ride at the local theme park with his nieces. But screams of delight turn to screams of terror when the ride ends and reveals a more…
6. Maxwell’s Curse
It’s not every day Peter Maxwell finds a corpse on his doorstep. Yet as the clock strikes midnight at New Year, the doorbell rings and there lies the frozen body of Elizabeth Pride, an elderly recluse . . . and a known witch. Elizabeth is stiff…
7. Maxwell’s Reunion
Peter Maxwell receives an invitation to his school reunion. His old chums will be there . . . So will a killer. Maxwell arrives expecting reminiscing and jovial japes with the ‘Old Boys’ of Halliards school. Instead, he finds the years have taken their toll on…
8. Maxwell’s Match
Peter Maxwell is participating in a teacher exchange. He expected a culture shock when swapping his beloved Leighford High for Grimonds private school, but he wasn’t expecting murder! Within a day of stepping through the imposing school gates, one of the housemasters plummets from the school…
9. Maxwell’s Inspection
Peter Maxwell is accustomed to murder investigations around Leighford, but this time the victim is found inside his own school. Inspectors are examining the staff and classrooms when the lead inspector is discovered in the school office with a skewer through his neck. Suspicion falls on…
10. Maxwell’s Grave
A school trip to a Saxon burial ground is the highlight of Peter Maxwell’s year. But his class are less enthusiastic about watching a team of archaeologists dig up the suspected body of Alfred the Great. Until the body turns out to be 1400 years newer,…
11. Maxwell’s Mask
Peter Maxwell is not a fan of musicals to say the least. So, he is unimpressed to be supervising Leighford High’s upcoming production of Little Shop of Horrors. A horror it will be. But not just for Maxwell. Rehearsals are brought to a shuddering halt when…
12. Maxwell’s Point
A body is discovered at Dead Man’s Point, turning Leighford’s local hiking spot into a grisly crime scene. The victim is a middle-aged man, found hastily buried and garrotted by a crucifix around his neck. The police race to uncover the victim’s identity and motive behind…
13. Maxwell’s Chain
Peter Maxwell is looking for any excuse to leave his tedious lesson planning. An accidental photograph of a murder is just the ticket. The school photographer has inadvertently captured the killing of homeless Lara Kent on Leighford beach. Then another body is discovered brutally stabbed in…
14. Maxwell’s Revenge
For Peter Maxwell avoiding overcooked school dinners has always been a priority. Now it’s saved his life. Candidates have arrived to be interviewed for the new position of deputy head. As they tuck into their lunch a scream rings out across the school dining room. One…
15. Maxwell’s Retirement
Peter Maxwell expects a staff team-building exercise to be tedious rather than lethal, but the day changes when a man is found dead during a paintball session. The victim proves to be an escaped prisoner serving a sentence for computer hacking, and the circumstances of his…
16. Maxwell’s Island
Peter Maxwell should be retired. Instead he’s been roped into supervising one last school trip to the Isle of Wight. At least he’s staying in a charming seafront hotel, and the staff are allowed a plus one. Art teacher, Tom Medlicott, brings his glamorous wife, Izzy,…
17. Maxwell’s Christmas
At Christmas, Peter Maxwell is drawn into two apparently unrelated deaths in Leighford. A woman falls from the roof of a car park, while on the same day a secretary discovers her employer murdered at his desk. The lack of an obvious connection leaves the police…
18. Maxwell’s Return
Peter Maxwell returns from his year-long sabbatical in America expecting a nasty case of jet lag. Instead, he lands in the middle of a nasty case of murder. The body of fourteen-year-old schoolgirl Josie Blakemore is discovered on Leighford beach. She’s been strangled. Then another fourteen-year-old…
19. Maxwell’s Academy
When Fiona Braymarr, the no-nonsense new head of Leighford High, starts swinging the axe on staff jobs, Maxwell decides to dig into her shadowy past. To his shock, he finds she doesn’t seem to have one. Then two local women meet grisly ends — one plunging…
20. Maxwell’s Summer
Peter Maxwell’s quiet summer break at historic Haledown House takes a sinister turn when it becomes the scene of grisly murder. Snooty aristocrat Colonel Roddy Hale-ffinch is found draped in a velvet smoking jacket, soaked in blood. His throat has been slashed, and the scene grotesquely…
21. Maxwell’s Zoom
Peter Maxwell hates modern technology. He prefers a textbook, a red pen and a classroom. But teaching takes a deadly turn when an online zoom lesson reveals a gruesome double murder. Student Marcus Ancaster’s parents have been bludgeoned to death in their bedroom. The only clue…
22. Maxwell’s Reality
A reality TV crew descends on Leighford High . . . and Head of Sixth Form Peter Maxwell braces for disaster - but not murder. The cameras pry into every corner of the school, exposing secrets better left buried. But when a member of the TV…
23. Maxwell’s Enigma
A meeting of Peter Maxwell’s history club ends in a deadly explosion, leaving a charred body and an immediate suspicion that Maxwell himself may have been the intended target. A subsequent hit-and-run attempt removes any doubt that someone is pursuing him, but neither Maxwell nor the…