Crime fiction
Galmouth Mysteries - Book series
Galmouth Mysteries 1
How much death and violence can a man witness without it destroying him? And how do those who love him cope as they watch him change?
Four years ago, Detective Inspector Rick Evans discovered the bodies of three girls in Elmwash Woods.
Rick played a major part in the investigation, which ended after the suicide of the prime suspect. Now Rick’s life is falling apart and his wife, Annie, does not know how to help him.
When seven-year-old Stacie Frewer vanishes under similar circumstances to the Elmwash victims, Rick has to face his worst fears. Did he get it wrong? Is the Elmwash Killer back? He knows he has to discover what has happened to Stacie, no matter what it costs.
Immersed in their work and personal problems, Rick and Annie fail to notice that they too are in danger – until the peril is so close it threatens both their lives.
Galmouth Mysteries 2
After enduring twenty-five years of an increasingly abusive marriage, Gina Grey runs away from her violent husband and rents a small studio flat in the seaside town of Galmouth.
Her only companion is the elderly pet rabbit that her husband had threatened to have put to sleep. In her new refuge, Gina hopes to have a quiet future, working at the local Art College while she attempts to rediscover the courageous and creative person she'd once been.
All her tentative plans for the future change when four young students move in next door and she provides assistance when one of them falls and injures himself. As she patches up his injured hand, Gina suspects that Chris has things in his past that he is struggling to overcome and she instinctively wants to help him.
However, she does not imagine that the boy she is reaching out to is an ex-drug addict and an acquitted murderer, with powerful drug dealers still determined to silence him. Soon Gina finds herself embroiled in a dangerous situation, with enemies that are willing to go to any lengths, including murder.
Can Gina regain her long-lost courage and ingenuity and save both herself and Chris?
Galmouth Mysteries 3
In The Fragility of Poppies, the first book featuring Detective Inspector Rick Evans, Rick struggled to overcome the unacknowledged effects of Post Traumatic Stress. This had disastrous consequences for his own well-being and efficiency and on his marriage to his artist wife, Annie.
After ten months sick leave, Rick is coping much better and is contemplating his return to work. He is appalled to discover that Annie has agreed to accept as a student, Chris Harland, a young man that Rick has had dealings with in the past. Chris is an ex-drug addict who has lived on the streets since he was fifteen, bur, more to the point, he has just been acquitted of murder.
Against all the odds,Chris has created a series of paintings based on his life on the streets and has called them Lazarus, and Annie considers him the most talented young artist she has encountered during her teaching career. Rick does not dispute Chris' talent or his intelligence but he is convinced that he is dangerous.
Ironically, Rick and Chris have more in common than either of them could imagine as they both struggle to regain and rebuild the lives they thought they had lost forever.
A Psychological Crime novel
It has taken seven years for Honey Alder to regain her life after the illness and death of her teenage son, but now she has her anxiety and depression under control. She has returned to her teaching job and happily shares the care of her infant grandson with her student daughter. One casualty that cannot be restored is her marriage, and Honey is aware that no new relationship can compare to the love she’d shared with her ex-husband, Matt.
Honey’s plans for spending the Easter weekend at a local folk festival are disrupted when Matt arrives unexpectedly at her house. The story he tells her about being haunted by a strange old woman seems implausible, but Honey knows that Matt does not lie.
Are Matt’s strange visions an effect of mental illness? Or a cruel trick? Or is he indeed being haunted by a phantom from his past?
To save the man she once loved, Honey must find the strength to play and win this perilous game of ghosts.
A Mia Trent Scene of Crimes novel
The Terminal Velocity of Cats
Scene of Crimes Officer Mia Trent is summoned by Detective Inspector Oliver Sutton to examine a pit of bones discovered on a building site.
Mia expects to find an ancient burial, but soon realises this victim has died within the last few years. Intrigued by the strangeness of the burial, Mia helps Sutton to identify the dead man and discover the brooding malice behind his death.
Mia’s presence at the crime scene provokes the attention of a killer who has already murdered three women in the town. Can Mia and her colleagues capture him before he strikes again? Or is Mia going to be the next victim?
Karma and the Singing Frogs
“It says Justice for the Singing Frogs.” Mia slanted the camera for the sergeant to see.DS Anderton stared at it. “You’re right,” she said. “But what the hell are singing frogs?”
The body of Paddy Hanover, a young male prostitute, is discovered in a disused air-raid shelter and, from a house nearby, a seventeen-year-old girl goes missing. Who killed Paddy and where was the original scene of crime? What has happened to the missing girl? How are the two crimes related to the Justice for the Singing Frogs campaign?
Cosy Crime
‘YOU are EVIL I KNOW What You DID’.
Despite occasional squabbles, the senior citizens living on the Clayfield Residential Estate are happy to be part of the close-knit community. Without warning, a spate of anonymous letters shatters the residents’ contented retirement, leaving them feeling vulnerable and isolated.
Maddie Summer and Grace Winton are determined to identify the poison pen and restore peace to Clayfield. Under the baleful stare of the griffin statue, installed by an eccentric resident, the two sleuths keep on probing. But, as their investigation draws closer to the truth, Maddie and Grace discover that being a detective can be dangerous and potentially deadly.
Cosy Crime
Things are returning to normal at the Clayfield Residential Estate after the distress caused by anonymous letters, blackmail and violence.
When Grace Winton returns from a visit to her elderly aunt, she is not amused to discover that her friend, Maddie Summer, has acquired a penguin costume and a leading role in an amateur Christmas Show. Grace is even less happy to hear that Hatty, layfield's most recent resident, is a self-styled medium.
When Hatty is attacked, Maddie and Grace come to her aid. They want to be supportive but neither of them share her belief that her assailant was a spectral snowman.
The two intrepid sleuths decide that it is time for them to start investigating again.
About the Children
"We've found something you ought to see, sir. In there."
Tyler took the torch and hunkered down to peer inside a child's makeshift den. He stood up. His face was grim.
Gill's stomach tied in knots. "What is it?"
"Take a look." He passed her the torch.
She squatted and played the light across the dark hollow. A multi-coloured pile of sticklebricks and a child's picture book lay abandoned. Thomas the Tank Engine beamed up at her from the crumpled pages. She edged back and stood up.
"So now we know," said Tyler. "The missing child is a toddler."
Two children and three adults have been shot in a quiet suburban park. Detective Superintendent Kev Tyler is the head of Saltern's Serious Crimes Team and, in his twenty-five years as a cop he has seen many terrible things, nevertheless the murder of the two young boys utrages him and his team. The pressure increases when the police realise another, much younger child was resent at the crime scene and has now disappeared. Tyler and his newly appointed second-in-command, D.I. Gill Martin, struggle to find the motive behind the apparently random killings. Who were the intended victims? What lies behind the evil legends of Stone Park? And can they find the missing child in time? About the Children is the latest tense, fast-moving, police procedural by the author of The Terminal Velocity of Cats.
