Michelle Williams, an attractive young woman with close family ties and an active social life, describes her first extraordinary year in her unusual new job as a mortuary technician. It's a year in which, with innate good humour, she encounters death at its most tragic, bizarre and hilarious. Her tale, neither gruesome nor sad, is enlivened by a range of colourful and eccentric characters, from pathologists and coroners to hospital porters and undertakers, giving us a glimpse of life - and death - that few of us will ever experience.

Pantomime director Libby Sarjeant has her hands full combining direction and detection when she's asked to look into threatening letters sent to Harry's gay friend Cy. At first she believes it to be a simple case of prejudice, but soon Libby uncovers links to particularly nasty crimes in the past, revelations that have catastrophic effects.

The tangled destinies of an unusual family are played out against the backdrop of the English countryside where two pretty sisters and a beautiful widow take center stage in a drama of dangerous flirtation and backstairs gossip. Esther Musgrave, an attractive widow, has her hands full trying to keep her energetic family together - and on speaking terms! Her three daughters, prickly Delia, sensible Meg and carefree Rose, mean everything to her, especially since the death of her husband, Charles. The story of the Musgraves in their Cotswold home, their loves and hates, hopes and disappointments, is vividly recounted in this charming chronicle of family life.

For Mattie Willit, caught in a thunderstorm running away from her bullying stepfather, rescue comes in the form of Jacob Kemble, a widowed farmer living with his two young children. She is escaping from an enforced marriage; he, struggling with the memory of a loveless one. As Jacob nurses Mattie back to health, the two come know and love each other. Meanwhile, wealthy and elderly Miss Emily Newington needs their help to save her from her greedy cousin who is plotting to take her house. Together they must all battle the odds, and Mattie's stepfather, to try and find a happy ending.

Superintendent John Lambert finds that a round of golf is the perfect diversion, especially when he's beating - and offering patronising tips to - his sergeant, Bert Hook. Hook isn't having much fun, but when he tops a ball horribly, he comes across something far, far more horrible lying in a ditch. The dead young woman, it turns out, was not only a drug dealer, but she was also on the game. These things left her vulnerable to the animosity of some of society's darkest and most secretive characters. For one thing, she had just decided to give up dealing and the powers that be were not amused...

In 20 years the de Hauteville brothers have gone from penniless obscurity to become the most potent warrior family in Christendom. Now, at the head of the tribe stands Robert, who has only one aim: to expand his power by military conquest. Roger, the youngest of the brothers, is a giant in build and a great figher. In company - and sometimes in conflict - with Robert, he will seek to raise the family to the pinnacle of influence. Their chosen enemies are the mighty Saracen Emirs of Sicily, and conquest comes before all, even if the path is not easy.

It's the early 1920s. Julia Howard's father is a toy manufacturer who created a paper doll in her image. However, Julia longs to cast off her goody-goody reputation, but her plans to do so are thwarted by wealthy businessman Latham Miller. When Julia marries Latham to please her father, Latham proves to be a controlling man who has no intention of giving up his outside pleasures. But when Julia is reunited with an old acquaintance, the attraction that once existed between them grows into love. The inevitable happens and Julia gives birth to a son. She is then faced with a heart-wrenching decision. Can she join the man she loves, knowing she'd have to abandon her beloved son - or should she stay?

Ten years ago CSI Darby McCormick investigated a child abduction case. Today, Charlie Rizzo is back and holding his family hostage. He makes only one demand. Bring me Darby McCormick... When Darby arrives to defuse the scene, she finds him horrifically mutilated, with a mask of human skin sewn in place over his own face. Within minutes, a group of men disguised as SWAT officers bursts in and releases deadly gas, killing the Rizzo family and leaving Darby barely alive. Where has Charlie Rizzo been held all these years? Who are The Twelve who have been executing this gruesome torture? And why are the FBI running scared? Darby is facing the toughest case of her career...

When attractive redhead Lorna Fernie is taken on to play saxophone in a post-war Glasgow dance band, she is at first over the moon - especially when she and likeable trumpet player Rod Warren fall in love. But then disaster strikes. Things go wrong between her and Rod. He leaves her life, she loses her job, and it's only when she forms her own band - the Melody Girls - that the future gradually brightens. Fate, however, still holds a surprise for her, one that she needs all her courage to face before she can look forward to success - and even perhaps to finding love again.

Bea Abbot runs a domestic agency that does not "do" murder. But the disappearance of Tomi, the star of an award-winning short film, is a different matter, especially when charming but feckless Chris bribes Bea to investigate with a bouquet of flowers. When Bea - working through personal problems - discovers that Tomi is not the only one amongst his friends to vanish, however, she wonders if her own life might be in danger too...

The Byzantine Empire rules in Southern Italy, but the indigenous populations are restless. The Lombards are no exception to this. One of their number, Arduin of Fassano, is appointed by a young Byzantine general to hold the key to Apulia. He is unaware that Arduin intends to join his Lombard brethren and rise up in revolt, hiring to aid him the Norman mercenaries of Campania. Led by William de Hauteville, the eldest of five mercenary brothers, the Normans cross into Apulia intent on more than aiding revolt: they are seeking land and titles for themselves. Will the might of the Byzantine Empire crush Arduin's Lombard revolt? Or will the treachery that stalks the lands favour the Normans?