MURDER ON THE HIGH SEAS
Eric’s wife, Anne, has followed the advice of handsome lawyer Mark Fenham and invested a small fortune in a merchant bank also involved in underwriting marine insurance. Now her company must pay out a vast insurance claim for the Sea Dawn, a ship sunk in Spanish waters. Eric Ward smells fraud.
His wife could lose everything.
And then, one by one, people connected to the Sea Dawn start to die. The murderous trail takes Ward to sunny Spain—where he comes face-to-face with his arch enemy.
Will Ward uncover the truth about the sinking of the Sea Dawn?
St Michael’s Church may be derelict but it’s not deserted. Someone still comes here to worship on nights when the moon is full. Arnold Landon should know. He’s seen the grisly evidence for himself. Blood among the roses.
The butchered remains of a man, tangled in the undergrowth. The victim was a traveler. How did he come to be in the churchyard? Arnold has a theory that leads back centuries, all the way to the cult of the Raging Wolf. Everyone tells him it’s impossible, that the cultists are dead and buried. But the devil wears many faces—Arnold’s worked in planning long enough to know that much for sure.
Can he unmask the modern-day killer before anyone else pays the price?
Originally published as The Devil Is Dead.
Arnold Landon can’t help but feel drawn to Oldham Manor, an atmospheric medieval house in the middle of nowhere.
When he is invited to catalogue the library there, he jumps at the chance. The place is a maze of musty old papers and books.
And that’s not all. Late one night, he stumbles on a secret passage, twisting deep under the ground. Where will it take him? And why was it walled up?
When a stranger turns up dead in a ditch, Landon begins to realize that someone is watching his every move. And they have a plan to ensure the past stays buried for good.
What did the victim know that was worth killing for?
An offer too good to be true
Former police officer-turned-solicitor Eric Ward is recovering from a serious eye operation when the offer comes in.
Come down to London.
Help Philip Scarn, a successful entrepreneur, break into the North East.
Get paid handsomely doing it.
On the journey, Ward is nearly killed. At the other end of a phone call, a shadowy voice warns this is just the beginning. Then a young woman is murdered. Ward finds himself caught up in a turf war between gangs as he races to prevent another killing. Is an old enemy from his policing days on his tail? Or is this something to do with Scarn?
Can Eric Ward discover his enemies when what’s preventing him from seeing them has nothing to do with his eyes?
Exploitation. Kidnap. Murder
Sam Turiff is a loan shark preying on the most vulnerable people in Newcastle.
Detective Eric Ward’s investigation runs into a brick wall trying to bring down the callous criminal. No one will give evidence against him. They are frightened what he’ll do to them.
Then Kate Geraghty is kidnapped. She is the granddaughter of local tycoon Liam Geraghty, and there’s a link to the loan shark.
But who carried out the kidnapping and why?
The case soon turns into a murder investigation, and Ward finds himself up against a Northern crime empire.
Can detective Ward bring down the crime lord before anyone else pays the ultimate price?
Three sons. Three farms. One murder.
Jack Saxby is trying to keep the farm he thought he’d been given by his mother. His vindictive father wants to take it away, and Jack’s two brothers also have their own agenda.
Then there’s a suspicious death, and the family’s dark secrets come to light. Can Eric Ward, representing Jack, find out who’s really guilty.
Eric is facing a risky eye operation and he’s still resisting a serious relationship with young heiress Anne Morcombe.
Can he solve the case and save his reputation?
This fast-paced mystery will have you enthralled from the start. Set in England in the early 1980s, this is the second book to feature Eric Ward. More coming soon.
A hunter stalks the wild, wooded grounds of the Kilgour Estates. But what—or who—is his quarry?
A haughty professor comes calling on Arnold Landon for research assistance. But he’s overlooked an important fact. Landon already has a job at the council—along with a raft of superiors who’d rather he focused on the dispute at hand.
Namely, who is the rightful owner of the Kilgour Estates? And the opulent manor house in the grounds? Dashing rake Patrick Yates insists it’s all his. But a black sheep in the family returns to claim otherwise. Who is telling the truth?
While Landon’s still grappling with the complexities of the case, Yates turns up dead—an ancient arrow planted firmly in his chest. And Landon realizes his search for answers is leading him down a dangerous path indeed.
A suspicious death and a large inheritance without anyone to receive it
Eric Ward is forced to retire from the police when he discovers he suffers from glaucoma. But he qualifies as a lawyer and sets up his practice on the Quayside in Newcastle, where he deals with the seamier side of the law.
Ward thinks there is something odd about Arthur Egan’s life and death, but the former police inspector is trained to be suspicious. Egan left a large sum, but Ward makes no progress tracing the dead man’s offspring. A photograph of an unknown tombstone is his only clue. He discovers Egan served a term for manslaughter and that the evidence against him may have been planted. Why had he accepted his fate so meekly?
Despite warnings that he is wasting the firm’s time, Ward persists in his investigations. And by the time he realizes why, he finds his life and career are both at risk.
This fast-paced mystery will have you enthralled from the start. Set in England in the late 1970s, this is the first book to feature Eric Ward.
A thriving law practice and a happy marriage are almost enough to convince solicitor Eric Ward he has overcome his painful past and started a new life.
All it takes is the wrong client for it all to unravel.
An investigative journalist beaten to a pulp.
A crooked Newcastle businessman living the high life in France.
A woman from a half-forgotten past.
Former police officer-turned-solicitor Eric Ward represents Eddie Stevens, an investigative reporter on the trail of a hot story. Badly beaten by a local roughneck, Stevens discovers he is on a bigger trail when finds a dead body of an unknown man.
Ward’s investigation leads him to Lansley, a shady Newcastle entrepreneur with criminal ties living in Marseilles. Then a woman from Ward’s own half-forgotten past turns up, looking to him to be her savior. A gruesome revelation in the first case just might be the solution to the second.
Ward quickly discovers excavating the past can be a dangerous business.
Arnold Landon finds himself drawn into another bitter dispute over land—in which a defenseless old woman pays the ultimate price.
To the casual observer, Penbrook Farm might seem like a ramshackle hovel, buried deep in the woods of Northumberland.
But to fragile old Sarah Ellis, it’s home. And the developers can have the place over her dead body.
Of course, no one ever expected it to come to that …
Least of all Arnold Landon, the peaceable planning officer assigned to Sarah’s case.
Late one night, he calls at the farmhouse to find the place in darkness. By the fire’s dying embers, he can make out a body lying on the hard stone flags.
Who wanted the farm so badly they were ready to kill for it?
And what has become of Sarah’s battered old prayerbook? In life she carried it with her constantly.
Does it also hold the key to the mystery of her death?
Meet Arnold Landon, mild-mannered history buff turned amateur sleuth. Murder in the Barn marks the beginning of an addictive new series, featuring an unlikely hero whose passions run deep.
IT STARTS WITH A SIMPLE PLANNING REQUEST …
Rampton Farm, Northumberland, has always been a gloomy, godforsaken place. Now it’s earmarked for demolition—to make way for just another tawdry amusement park. It will be progress, and nothing can stand in the way—except perhaps Arnold Landon, the Planning Officer who must glean the lie of the land.
Medieval architecture is Arnold’s passion. And scouting the grounds, he makes a thrilling discovery: the Old Wheat Barn. He is captivated the moment he crosses the threshold; its walls echo with whispers of the past. Then and there, he realizes he must save it from the developers. But his efforts meet with hostile resistance. And then the barn offers up its most shocking secret yet …
A dead body, sprawled in the straw.
What other crimes lay hidden in the dark history of the barn? Arnold won’t rest until he uncovers the truth.
Originally published as A Gathering of Ghosts, fans of Elly Griffiths, Peter James, P. D. James, Damien Boyd, Helen H. Durrant, JD Kirk, Bill Kitson, and Peter Robinson will devour this intriguing mystery.
Nine-year-old Jenny Carson is brutally murdered in Kenton Wood on her way from school. Then Charles Lendon is found stabbed to death with a skewer through his heart. He was a ruthless lawyer and something of a womanizer. Jenny's father blamed him for her murder.
As the local police struggle, Inspector Crow is called in. Can he connect the two killings? He discovers that several of those closest to Charles Lendon had good reason to hate him: his housekeeper lover, her unstable brother, even the boyfriend of his attractive young colleague Cathy Tennant.
Inspector John Crow
Skeletally-built, mild-mannered Inspector John Crow is established in the Murder Squad in London and constantly meets hostility when he is called upon to work on murder cases in regional crime squads in Wales and the Midlands. He displays strong moral feelings, and a sensitivity which brings him into conflict with regional staff as he doggedly and successfully pursues the truth in cases where he is called in.
