Jude's life has been turned upside down due to her new man Piers, who's obsessed with Tennis and keen for Jude to get involved. When one of Pier's friends dies on the court in suspicious circumstances, Jude gets caught up in the police investigation. Meanwhile, Carole is trying to identify human remains known locally as the 'Lady of the Lake'.

Coerced into joining the Save Polly's Cake Shop Action Committee, Fethering resident Jude finds the committee meetings fraught with petty power struggles and clashing egos. Matters take a turn for the worse when she and her neighbour Carole come across a badly-decomposed body on Fethering beach - and uncover a link to Polly's.

Jude has landed a starring role in the local AmDram Society's production of George Bernard Shaw's The Devil's Disciple. It's an ambitious play, culminating in a dramatic execution scene: a scene that's played for real when one of the actors is found hanging from the stage gallows during rehearsals. A tragic accident - or something more sinister?

After the body of a man is found outside a lido he was fighting to save from closure, suspicion falls on those looking to redevelop the site. Soon after the man overseeing the development dies in suspicious circumstances. Are the deaths connected to the development, or is there another reason behind them? DI Gilchrist and DS Heap investigate.

The notoriously difficult landowner Richard Rabbitt is found floating in a lake. Rabbitt had links to shady businessmen in the area, an ex-wife who hated him, and many he was disputing land with including a charismatic former actress. DI Gilchrist and DS Heap must figure out who'd benefit the most from Rabbitt's demise... and who can be trusted?

May, AD 41. The emperor Claudius has acceded to the throne, and Rome's citizens look forward to an era of peace. Not so Marcus Corvinus however, who finds himself investigating two murders. At first Marcus refuses to cooperate - but when his enquiries lead him to Rome's busy trading port, he uncovers a disturbing connection between the two deaths.