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Series

Home Front Detective

The Home Front Detective series follows Detective Inspector Harvey Marmion and Sergeant Joe Keedy through wartime London from 1915 to 1918. Their cases arise from anti-German violence, conscription, munitions work, air raids, espionage fears and the pressures placed on a depleted police force while much of the country’s manpower is serving overseas.

Alongside the investigations, the novels follow the effects of the war on Marmion’s family and on Keedy’s relationship with Marmion’s daughter. The sequence treats the British home front as a place of bereavement, social change and opportunity as well as patriotism, showing how ordinary crimes acquire new motives and new forms under wartime conditions.

Reading order

Books in this series (11 books)

A Bespoke Murder cover

#1 – A Bespoke Murder

Edward Marston

May 1915. While thousands of Britons fight in the trenches, a severely depleted police force remains behind to keep the Home Front safe. In London, the sinking of the Lusitania sparks an unprecedented wave of anti-German riots and arson attacks across the city. Among the victims…

Five Dead Canaries cover

#3 – Five Dead Canaries

Edward Marston

1916. As thousands of Brits are fighting on the Front Line, a new breed of women emerges to hold the Home Front together. Fiercely independent and fiery-spirited, the munitionettes, or 'canaries', are easily recognisable with their chemically-stained yellow faces. Among the raucous group of women is…

The Enemy Within cover

#6 – The Enemy Within

Edward Marston

Pentonville Prison. Wally Hubbard is serving a long sentence for arson. But after befriending and tricking one of the officers, Hubbard makes an audacious escape. Inspector Marmion, the detective who arrested Hubbard, is warned to watch his back, but it seems that Hubbard has another target…

Orders to Kill cover

#9 – Orders to Kill

Edward Marston

December 1917. Ada Hobbes arrives on a frosty morning to clean the house owned by Dr Tindall, a surgeon at the Edmonton Military Hospital. She is shocked to find the blood-covered body of her employer sprawled across the floor. He has been hacked to death. Detective…

Danger of Defeat cover

#10 – Danger of Defeat

Edward Marston

February, 1918. In the small hours of a cold morning, a burglary in Limehouse has escalated into a sinister siege between a band of thieves and the authorities, and a police constable lies dead. Detective Inspector Harvey Marmion and Detective Sergeant Joe Keedy hasten to the…

Spring Offensive cover

#11 – Spring Offensive

Edward Marston

London, March 1918. British newspapers carry the dire news that the German Spring Offensive has begun, with thousands of British lives lost. Against this sombre backdrop, further mayhem strikes in the capital when a fire provides the diversion needed for an audacious bank robbery which leaves…