Kate Ellis has 20 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 3 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4★ across 6 ratings. The most-rated is The Merchant's House.
The Merchant's House
Summary
DS Wesley Peterson, newly arrived in the West Country town of Tradmouth, has his hands full when a child goes missing and a young woman is brutally murdered on a lonely cliff path. Then his old friend, archaeologist Neil Watson, unearths the skeletons of a strangled woman and a newborn baby in the cellar of an ancient merchant's house nearby. As the investigation continues, Wesley begins to suspect that these deaths, centuries apart, may be linked by age-old motives of jealousy, a sexual obsession and desperate longing. And the pressure is on if he is going to prevent a further tragedy....
©1998 Kate Ellis (P)2017 Soundings
The Skeleton Room
Summary
When workmen converting former girls' boarding school Chadleigh Hall into a luxury hotel discover a skeleton in a sealed room, DI Wesley Peterson and his boss, Gerry Heffernan, are called in to investigate. But within minutes they have a second suspicious death on their hands: a team of marine archaeologists working on a nearby shipwreck have dragged a woman's body from the sea. And it becomes clear that her death was no accident. The dead woman's husband may be linked with a brutal robbery of computer equipment, but Wesley soon discovers that the victim had secrets of her own. As he investigates Chadleigh Hall's past and the woman's violent death, both trails lead in surprising directions.
©2003 Kate Ellis (P)2018 Soundings
The Bone Garden
Summary
An excavation at the lost gardens of Earlsacre Hall is called to a halt when a skeleton is discovered under a 300-year-old stone plinth, a corpse that seems to have been buried alive. But DS Wesley has a more recent murder case to solve. A man has been found stabbed to death in a caravan at a popular holiday park, and the only clue to his identity is a newspaper cutting about the restoration of Earlsacre. Does local solicitor Brian Willerby have the answer? He seems eager to talk to Wesley, but before he can reveal his secret he is found dead during a 'friendly' game of village cricket.
©2001 Kate Ellis (P)2018 Soundings
An Unhallowed Grave
Summary
When the body of Pauline Brent is found hanging from a yew tree in a local graveyard, DS Wesley Peterson immediately suspects foul play. Then history provides him with a clue. Wesley's archaeologist friend, Neil Watson, has excavated a corpse at his nearby dig - a young woman who, local legend has it, had been publicly hanged from the very same tree before being buried on unhallowed ground five centuries ago. Wesley is now forced to consider the possibility that the killer knows the tree's dark history. Has Pauline also been 'executed' rather than murdered, and, if so, for what crime? To catch a dangerous killer, Wesley has to discover as much as he can about the victim.
©1999 Kate Ellis (P)2017 Soundings
The Armada Boy
Summary
Archaeologist Neil Watson did not expect to find the body of American veteran Norman Openheim in the ruins of the old chantry chapel. He turns to his old student friend, Detective Sergeant Wesley Peterson, for help. Ironically, both men are looking at an invading force - Wes the WWII Yanks and Neil a group of Spaniards killed by outraged locals as they limped from the wreckage of the Armada. 400 years apart, two strangers in a strange land have died violently - could the same motives of hatred, jealousy and revenge be at work? Wes is running out of time to find out....
©1999 Kate Ellis (P)2017 Soundings
The Death Season
Summary
When DI Wesley Peterson is summoned to investigate a killing, he assumes that it is a routine case. But soon dark secrets start to emerge from the victim's past.... Meanwhile archaeologist Neil Watson is pulled from the historic Paradise Court to a ruined village from World War One. Even with the help of the attractive and enigmatic Lucy, Neil cannot shake the feeling that something is missing from his explorations: a cryptic clue that might have been lost when Sandrock tumbled into the sea many years ago. As more victims fall prey to a faceless killer, Wesley sees the investigation affecting him more personally than ever before. And when his family becomes a target, Wesley has no time to lose....
©2015 Kate Ellis (P)2015 Soundings
The Flesh Tailor
Summary
When Dr James Dalcott is shot dead it looks very much like an execution. And as DI Wesley Peterson begins piecing together his life, he finds that the well-liked doctor has been harbouring dramatic family secrets. Meanwhile, archaeologist Neil Watson has discovered a number of skeletons in nearby Tailors Court that bear marks of dissection and might be linked to tales of body snatching. But when Neil finds the bones of a child buried with a 1930s coin, the investigation takes a sinister turn. Who were the children evacuated to Tailors Court during World War II? And where are they now? When a link is established between the evacuees and Dr Dalcott's death, Wesley is faced with his most challenging case yet.
©2010 Kate Ellis (P)2010 Soundings
A Perfect Death
Summary
When a woman is burned to death in Grandal Field in Devon, it seems like a case of mistaken identity. Until DI Wesley Peterson learns of a legend involving a French woman who burned to death there in the thirteenth century. And when he discovers that records of a previous excavation on the site have vanished, and that two archaeologists involved in that dig died in tragic circumstances, Wesley starts to investigate the possibility of a link between the legend and recent events. But edging closer to the truth brings unexpected danger to Wesley. For the truth echoes a story of twisted love and obsession from many centuries ago - a truth that someone wants to keep hidden, whatever the cost...
©2009 Kate Ellis (P)2009 Soundings
The Mermaid's Scream
Summary
Why did literary legend Wynn Staniland suddenly become a recluse in the 1980s? Most assumed he stopped writing because of his wife's bizarre suicide. And now a promising young author called Zac Wilkinson is working on Staniland's biography and hopes to reveal the true story to a waiting world. When Wilkinson is found brutally murdered, DI Wesley Peterson finds links to the unexplained poisoning of a middle-aged couple - and Staniland appears to be the connection. The case becomes personal for Wesley when he discovers his son is involved, and as he begins to unravel decades of secrets and deception, the shocking truth proves almost too much to bear....
©2017 Kate Ellis (P)2017 Soundings
The Funeral Boat
Summary
When a skeleton is discovered on a Devon smallholding, DS Wesley Peterson, a keen amateur archaeologist, is intrigued by the possibility that it is a Viking corpse, buried in keeping with ancient traditions. But he has a rather more urgent crime to solve - the disappearance of a Danish tourist. Wesley finds disturbing evidence that the attractive Dane has been abducted. His boss, Gerry Heffernan, believes that Ingeborg's disappearance is linked to a spate of brutal robberies and that she witnessed something she shouldn't have. But is her disappearance linked to far older events? For it seems that this may not have been Ingeborg's first visit to this far from quiet West Country backwater....
©2000 Kate Ellis (P)2018 Soundings
The Plague Maiden
Summary
When a letter arrives at Tradmouth police station addressed to a DCI Norbert it causes quite a stir. For though DCI Norbert has long since moved on, the letter claims to have evidence that the man convicted of murdering the Rev. Shipbourne, Vicar of Belsham, during a robbery in 1991 is innocent. Despite having a full caseload, DI Wesley Peterson is forced to at least follow up on the claims. Meanwhile, archaeologist Neil Watson is excavating a site in Pest Field. He discovers a mass grave that leads him to conclude that the site is one of an ancient medieval plague pit. But, more disturbing, is the discovery that the grave is home to a more recent resident....
©2004 Kate Ellis (P)2018 Soundings
The House of Eyes
Summary
When Darren Hatman reports his daughter, Leanne, missing, DI Wesley Peterson isn't too concerned. However, Darren's claim that a photographer has been stalking her soon changes Wesley's opinion. Leanne works at Eyecliffe Castle, now converted into a luxury hotel. When Darren is found murdered on the grounds, the police fear that Leanne has met a similar fate. Meanwhile, archaeologist Neil Watson, recently returned from an excavation in Sicily, makes a disturbing discovery nearby and surprises Wesley with the news that, while in Sicily, he met Leanne's alleged stalker. With Eyecliffe Castle becoming the scene of another death, Wesley suspects a connection between the recent crimes, the disappearance of two girls in the 1950s and a mysterious Sicilian ruin called the House of Eyes.
©2016 Kate Ellis (P)2016 Soundings
A Cursed Inheritance
Summary
The brutal massacre of the Harford family at Potwoolstan Hall in Devon in 1985 shocked the country and passed into local folklore. When a journalist researching the case is murdered 20 years later, the horror is reawakened. Sixteenth-century Potwoolstan Hall, now a New Age healing centre, is reputed to be cursed because of the crimes of its builder, and it seems that this inheritance of evil lives on as DI Wesley Peterson is faced with his most disturbing case yet. And when the truth is finally revealed, it turns out to be as horrifying as it is dangerous.
©2018 Kate Ellis (P)2018 Isis Publishing Ltd
The Jackal Man
Summary
When a teenage girl is strangled and left for dead by an attacker she describes has having the head of a dog, the police are baffled. But when the body of another young woman is found mutilated and wrapped in a white linen sheet, DI Wesley Peterson suspects that the killer is performing an ancient ritual linked to Anubis, the jackal-headed Egyptian god of death and mummification. Meanwhile, archaeologist Neil Watson has been called to Varley Castle to catalogue the collection of Edwardian amateur Egyptologist, Sir Frederick Varley. However, as his research progresses, Neil discovers that Wesley’s strange murder case bears sinister similarities to four murders that took place near Varley Castle in 1903.
©2011 Kate Ellis (P)2011 Soundings
The Marriage Hearse
Summary
When Kirsten Harbourn is found strangled on her wedding day, DI Wesley Peterson makes some alarming discoveries. Kirsten was being pursued by a stalker, and she had dark secrets her fiancé knew nothing about. But Kirsten's wasn't the only wedding planned to take place that day. At Morbay register office a terrified young girl makes her wedding vows, but a few days later her bridegroom is found dead. Wesley suspects that his death and his bride's subsequent disappearance might be linked to Kirsten's murder. Meanwhile a skeleton is found buried in a farmer's field - a field that once belonged to the family of an Elizabethan playwright. Is his bloodthirsty play, The Fair Wife of Padua, a confession to murder?
©1998 Kate Ellis (P)2018 Soundings
The Shining Skull
Summary
Little Marcus Fallbrook was kidnapped in 1976, and when he never returned home, his grieving family assumed the worst. Thirty years later, teenage singing star Leah Wakefield disappears and DI Wesley Peterson has reason to suspect that the same kidnapper is responsible. Meanwhile, archaeologist Neil Watson's gruesome task of exhuming the dead from a local churchyard yields a mystery of its own when a coffin is found to contain one corpse too many: a corpse that may be linked to a strange religious sect dating back to Regency times. As Wesley's investigations pursue the line of recovered memories, he discovers that the past can be a very dangerous place indeed.
©2007 Kate Ellis (P)2007 Soundings
The Blood Pit
Summary
DI Wesley Peterson is called to an unusual crime scene. The victim, Charles Marrick, has been murdered, his body drained of blood. Described by those who knew him as "evil", it seems there won't be a shortage of suspects. But when a popular local vet is murdered in an identical fashion, Wesley wonders what the two men could possibly have in common. Meanwhile, Wesley's archaeologist friend Neil Watson is alarmed when he starts getting disturbing anonymous letters about macabre events at a medieval abbey. Neil fears that the author of the letters is the killer that Wesley is tracking. As the sinister truth unfolds, both Wesley and Neil are forced to face shocking revelations.
©2007 Kate Ellis (P)2008 Soundings
The Shadow Collector
Summary
Lilith Benley and her mother, rumoured to be witches, were convicted of the murder of two teenage girls. Eighteen years later Lilith is released from prison, and shortly after she returns to her old home, a young woman is found dead. DI Wesley Peterson is called in to investigate. Meanwhile, archaeologist Neil Watson discovers a gruesome wax doll at a house that once belonged to a woman hanged for witchcraft. And when Neil has a near-fatal accident, some suspect a supernatural connection. Even though Wesley has problems closer to home to solve, it is up to him to uncover terrible secrets and banish dark shadows collected in the past - to bring a dangerous killer to justice.
©2013 Kate Ellis (P)2014 Soundings
A Painted Doom
Summary
Teenager Lewis Hoxworthy discovers a disturbing painting in a medieval barn - a discovery which excites archaeologist Neil Watson, who is excavating an ancient manor house nearby. But when former rock star Jonny Shellmer is found shot through the head in Lewis' father's field and Lewis himself goes missing after contacting a man on the Internet, Detective Inspector Wesley Peterson and his boss, Gerry Heffernan, face one of their most intriguing cases yet. It seems that the Devon village of Derenham is not only full of resident celebrities seeking the rural idyll but also of secrets, ancient and modern.
©2002 Kate Ellis (P)2018 Soundings
The Shroud Maker
Summary
A year on from the mysterious disappearance of Jenny Bercival, DI Wesley Peterson is called in when the body of a strangled woman is found. The discovery mars the festivities of the Palkin Festival, held each year to celebrate the life of John Palkin, a 14th-century mayor of Tradmouth who made his fortune from trade and piracy. Could there be a link between the two women? And is there a connection to a fantasy website called Shipworld, which features Palkin as a supernatural hero with a sinister faceless nemesis called the Shroud Maker? When archaeologist Neil Watson makes a grim discovery on the site of Palkin’s warehouse, it looks as if history might have inspired the killer.…
©2014 Kate Ellis (P)2014 Soundings