The Heir... Apparently, and Ashes to Ashes, a Short Story

The Heir … Apparently tells the story of the rise of a simple fishmonger who unexpectedly inherits a dukedom. His family then face the many trials and tribulations of restoring and running an extravagant but dilapidated mansion. Can they succeed against the odds? In Ashes to Ashes, a short story exploring some of the characters in The Heir ... Apparently, after the skeletal remains of a body are found in the cathedral. The hunt is on for the murderer, but can he or she be found after so many years?

The Heroes

Spring 1968

Formerly inseparable, five boys, known affectionately as ‘The Heroes’, all of them eight years of age, school together, play together and explore together. One day in the spring term, one of them dies suddenly, in the arms of his teacher and their headmaster goes missing without a trace.

May 2019

Fifty years later, local private investigators, Robert Fox and Rosemary Bennett are engaged by the dead boy’s sister to find out if the headmaster is still alive, because he may hold the key as to why her brother, Derek, died.

Everyone says that he died of natural causes, but the boy’s sister believes it is something more sinister.

The two private investigators seek out the four remaining boys and their teacher, to help them in their quest for the truth about what happened to her brother and of the headmaster’s disappearance.

But they are not the only ones seeking them out.

The boys each have held a chilling secret, and someone wants to keep it that way, no matter what it takes.

Will Fox and Bennet find out what the boys know before someone else does?

The Lawyer's Last Words

Upon his release from a prison in the South of France, Marlon Crappy, a daunting and fierce behemoth of a man, unexpectedly discovers he’s now a wealthy heir, courtesy of his late brother’s estate. This sudden fortune, including a luxury yacht, only fuels his thirst for revenge. He’s convinced that the affluent owners of a grand chateau are responsible for his brother’s tragic end.

However, the chateau’s proprietors are not to be trifled with. Comprising an ex-US Navy Seal, a formidable Dutch Judo Champion, and the enigmatic Eva, a former French Secret Service agent, they are a force to be reckoned with. When tragedy strikes the chateau’s youngest members, and with Parisian politicians entangled in the fray and an unknown thief plundering Crappy’s newfound riches, the trio must delve deep into their formidable pasts to face this escalating threat. The battle lines are drawn, and in this high-stakes game, every move could be their last.

The Lonely Man

The action begins with a safe blowing at a large publishing house.

Conspiracy and murder scenes are just as compelling, along with intelligence and mastermind criminals.

All the characters race against time and are determined not to be murdered, delivering all the storytelling twists that readers will want more of.

The Long Shot

High stakes gambling, murder and cricket. An unlikely mix? Perhaps in the genteel days of games on the village green, but not so now. The introduction of sports betting has changed the game for players and fans alike. 

Millions change hands with every match. As the financial incentive grows, so too does the temptation to cheat. 

Perhaps even to commit murder?

A brilliant young South African batsman, Winston Olonga, is assassinated in a Test match at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Enter Lucas Fox, commentator and private eye, who witnesses the killing and sets out to find the culprit.

The Man who Cleaned Gravestones

Why would a retired detective be cleaning gravestones? Bob Macinaly had to retire from the job he loved after having been shot by a bank robber. He had taken a holiday in Mallorca trying to get his life back together. By chance, he found himself in a Salvation Army charity shop and purchased a second-hand book. A letter hidden inside changed his life forever. As a police officer he moved from one case to another and very seldom could he follow up on the unseen victims left behind, namely the close families who would suffer forever whilst the convicted murderer would live out life in, some would say, comparative luxury.

From now on this would be different; he would become close to human trafficking and the evil controllers and the crime lords making millions at the cost of human lives.

The Matthew Chance Legacy

The Matthew Chance Legacy is the gripping, split-storyline sequel to Maria's Papers.

In 2006, historical researcher Naomi Wilkes and her intrepid friends and allies uncover new documentation dating back to the early 1800's, and are thrown back into a dangerous pursuit of the truth surrounding ownership of the Whitewall Estate in Lancashire.

In 1871, Harland Chance believes that he should be the one living at Whitewall. As his resentment plumbs to ever-deeper levels, he recruits two fearful and murderous psychopaths to help him eliminate his Aunt Maria, her husband Silas, and their notorious monster dog, Sugg...

The Retreat

Rhia’s life changed forever when she was 14; now happily married, the past is catching up with her.

A move to run a B&B in a house whose former inhabitants are loath to leave reveals to Rhia that the past cannot be changed, nor can it be outrun.

Someone is watching and knows the truth of what happened on that fateful day.

A truth they intend to keep buried at all costs.

Is anyone going to be safe when they check in to The Retreat?

The Scales of Justice

Nobody on her college staircase seemed able to understand how Rowan came to be in the Intensive Care Ward following an overdose, nor could Rowan.  She could remember nothing leading up to her admission.  Over the next few weeks, as first one, and then another of her college acquaintances was murdered, Rowan began to vaguely recall some of the events, but there was always a block to fully remembering what happened on that fateful afternoon and evening.

Detective Inspector Jerry Gregory and his team investigating the murders linked them to a drug dealing syndicate based around Cambridge and London, and to the back story of one of the murder victims.

The Seminar Murders

This story opens with a murder: a prominent criminologist at a provincial university is found dead, with his head beaten in. Neither his academic colleagues nor his students liked the victim it seems, and the police investigating the crime are confronted at the outset with too many motives and too many suspects. Then the professor of the criminology department is found with her throat cut. Apart from being colleagues, did this pair have anything else in common? Who hated them both enough to kill them? Who else is at risk? Is there a malign presence stalking the calm corridors of academe, and can the police move quickly enough to prevent further deaths? In a fast-paced narrative, persuasive in its realistic depiction of both university life and a police murder investigation, the reader is immersed in the events and is present at the interviews of suspects. Using multiple strands of narration, the author takes us on a forensic path into the mind of a clever and ruthless killer.

The Silvercage

Any worker attempting to help an abused and neglected child must gain the victim’s trust – much easier said than done!

The drawing took shape, the thin almost angular face with its little nose, sad mouth, and alert eyes. As I worked on the hair, I could sense Stella’s footsteps, quiet though she tried to make them. A moment later, I was just quick enough to prevent her from snatching the book away from me and only just observant enough to catch the amazement on her face when she saw what I had made of her. I held my work out of her reach and was rewarded by the cry: “Let me see it! Ah, let me have it!”

I gave her the drawing. “I don’t want it torn up, Stella.” She carried it away with her into the bedroom and closed the door.

Things That Go Bump in the Night

ONE CITY. TWO KILLERS
A serial killer and a supernatural killer terrorise a city. One kills willingly preying on adulterers and the other unknowingly with no memory of being a monster. The city knows about the serial murders committed by the Sin Killer, but unaware of the shape-shifter whose murders are blamed on the Sin Killer. The captain of police is related to one of the killers.