Short Shrift

Jonny Hainsworth is an autistic, penniless orphan who lives in a caravan on his auntie’s farm. He never seems to get it right. William Mortensen is an erudite, successful lawyer who lives behind electric gates and has a gardener. He never seems to get it wrong.

But not everything is as it seems.

William Mortensen is dead, slumped over a dank public bench in a rank public park.

In and around this park hover shady characters – warm and humorous yet deviant and debauched. All of these characters have an interest in William Mortensen’s life. All of these characters have an interest in William Mortensen’s death.

And now there is someone else interested in William Mortensen’s life. And he is also interested in William Mortensen’s death. No one seems to know who he is. No one seems to know what he is doing. He can’t tell them. The man with no name is mute.

This book is not about class. This book is not about money. This book is not about success. This book is not about failure.

This book is about guilt.

We all carry it. But how do we carry it? And what does it lead us to do?

Jonny keeps asking. But Jonny keeps getting Short Shrift.

Shoot for the Face

Jason Rogers couldn’t remember the last time he had slept soundly. After surviving 20 years in the high-octane world of Russian investment banking, he knew that his time there as the high-flying international banker to the oligarchs was coming to an end.

The bank he’d built from scratch in the 90s, Falcon Capital, his pride and joy, was being assailed on all sides by shadowy forces in Russian society with impeccable government connections, the “siloviki”. To compound matters, his chief risk officer had approved a loan to an oligarch, Ari Kandinskiy, who was down on his luck and had all but gone broke. His efforts to recover desperately needed funds from the stricken oligarch would pit him against powerful interests in Moscow – including Ruslan Akhmatov, the mercurial emissary of Russia’s most troublesome regional governor.

Desperate times would call for desperate measures. Jason Rogers would have to call one final time on the services of Dmitry Ovchinnikov, the Siberian hitman who was a little rough around the edges and dressed like an American cowboy – but who had proved so terribly effective at neutralising his client’s enemies over the years and despatching them to cemeteries all over Russia.

Dmitry Ovchinnikov’s capacity for violence and appetite for dispensing his own, unique brand of “justice” would result in some of Moscow’s most bloody executions in recent memory. It would trigger an orgy of revenge killings which would see the body parts of prominent members of the Russian underworld scattered all over the white tablecloths of that city’s finest restaurants.

Would Jason Rogers come to regret the murderous gang war that he had unleashed on the streets of Moscow? Would he become one of its victims?

Only time would tell…

Shaw Vengeance

Amid an escalating series of attacks, Australian Intelligence Service Agent Max 'Prince' Shaw hunts for the leader of a local terror group, known as The Pilot. Driven to stop the unfolding events, Max is thrown into a relentless pursuit across Australia, from Sydney to Canberra and Melbourne. Willing to do whatever it takes to protect the innocent, Max is ruthless and determined, but conflicted, as he is put on a collision course with his past. He is forced to question how he can live the life he always wanted while being the agent the country needs. Is it truly better to have loved and lost, and what would you do to honour your partner's memory and in the name of love? What lengths would you go to to protect your country and its people? When wronged, and in anguish and pain from loss, can you make it right and find peace and closure through vengeance?

Shallow Water

Private Investigator Agnes Trout once again finds herself investigating intriguing and dangerous cases. After she saves the life of an unconscious truck driver by dragging him out of his burning cab, he decides to engage her services, leading to her coming face to face with a cool, unbalanced protagonist who simply kills to resolve his problems. Agnes needs to use all of her resources to survive a violent encounter with this determined killer.
At the same time, through the designs of a cunning schemer, she emerges as the central suspect in the possible kidnapping and murder of the wife of a client. She mounts her own investigation, which leads her to a surprising and compelling resolution.

Shadows of the Missing

Are you a ‘sneaker’ – meaning, do you immediately flip to the back page, sneak a peek and surreptitiously read the ending before you read the whole story? Just a suggestion – don’t do it! Don’t rob yourself of the mystery, suspense and surprises that tumble around in the pages of this book. This second book of the trilogy, Shadows of the Missing (Whatever Happened to Lloyd?), is certainly worth the wait and promises to keep you hooked from beginning to end, the same way that Not Another Word! reeled you in and kept you guessing. At long last, dear readers, you are going to find out what happened to Lloyd!

Settlement

Former undercover police officer Justin Kell has settled into life as a financial journalist in the City of London. When he comes across a suspicious case of accidental death, his investigation leads him to Henry Gray, an unfulfilled soul whose life is dramatically changed by a series of coincidental events. Driven by his desire to establish the truth, Kell finds himself thrust into the world of organised crime whose cynical and ruthless exploitation of the lives of innocent people reawakens his nightmares from his time in the force.

Seth Bronx and the Coathanger Killer

When Eleandra Jacobson is murdered and her organs removed, it seems straightforward to Kentsville’s small police force that Clarke Richards is guilty. He was found dead, hanging from a noose next to her with a full confession in a suicide note. Eleandra’s mum and her cousin, Seth Bronx, disagree and the latter is out to prove they’re right. One year after her death, the now private investigator decides to find out for himself.
The town of Kentsville will be changed forever as Seth seeks truth and justice for his cousin, his blood and his family – for Eleandra.

Secrets in the Attic

Dame Henrietta Copeland in her new role as private investigator finds herself outsmarted by thieves at the local garage sale, when she attends incognito, is wrapped up in a curtain and delivered to a cliff edge, left to perish.

And while it seems like a wild goose chase, she is stalked by an associate of a suspected murdered/suicide victim, who seems to be getting hot under the collar with Henrietta’s enquiries.

She is constantly reprimanded by the magistrate for overstepping the boundaries of the law, while solving cases.

Her devoted family are appalled to find she is befriending an ex-prisoner, the very person who forced her to sell her beloved paddle wheeler after being disgraced for wildlife poaching on the Mighty River Murray.

Undeterred by adversity Henrietta travels to Perth in Western Australia, to assist her prisoned nephew and unwittingly discovers a diamond heist and to Mount Gambier in the Southeast of South Australia seeking a stolen herbal rose formula and inadvertently while sipping tea on her way back to Goolwa, through the Coorong, uncovers a love nest, the cause of an infidelity which she had refused to uncover at the beginning of her new career. There is personal tragedy when news breaks out of the sinking of the paddle wheeler Beatrice Lonsdale, formerly Laurel Wreath which had been moored at Pier 15 on the Goolwa wharf.

There are surprises and disappointments as Henrietta strives to make a living keeping secrets in the attic.

Seasons of Freedom

Robert Allen ‘Bubba’ Armentrout is an adventurous youngster, experiencing everything life has to offer in the 1960s’ rural community of Freedom, Virginia. His life is rich with loyal companions, exploits, carefree days and a burgeoning sexual awareness.

This tranquil normality crumbles when what begins as an innocent childhood predicament of Bubba’s own making transforms into his witnessing of a salacious encounter between two of Freedom’s most revered citizens. A chain of events that results in multiple homicides exposes him to the dark underbelly of his hometown and shatters his sense of safety and serenity in Freedom.

Only Bubba knows the truth behind these murders, and that truth is deadly. Seasons of Freedom is a coming-of-age mystery set in a politically fragile rural Southern community in the culturally volatile 1960s.

San Diablo, The Devil’s Haven

They had all heard the rumours about the place of course, but they had dismissed them as jailhouse myth and bullshit, a place where the prison doctor would pronounce you dead, and you would disappear from heart and memory, and enter into Hell on Earth as the warden’s guest in San Diablo the devil’s haven.

The Devil’s Haven is set in the middle of the baking hot desert. Hidden far from public view and scrutiny resides the top-level, top-secret super-max correctional facility, a warehouse of sorts for the very worst of the worst of humanity’s dregs and gangsters, those sentenced to death for their heinous crimes, those that no one would miss.

Through twists and intrigue, it soon becomes clear that all is not as it seems at San Diablo, neither is the hyper-sadistic warden, nor his new guest the bizarre and enigmatic high-profile inmate en route to the hell pit, or the mysterious CIA super agents entirely as they seem at the Devil's Haven, San Diablo.

Salt in the Wounds

Caught between an international drug smuggling operation and murderous local gang warfare, Peter Barker must find a way out from the international web of violence and intrigue he finds in Nigeria and Brazil.

Faced with threats from all sides, he uncovers more and more of the complex plot as the tentacles reach out to threaten not just him in Lagos but his family back in UK. Drawn into ever-increasing levels of violence, Peter realises this new job will lead to certain disaster and he must find an escape route before it is too late.

Running for His Lives

Dennis ‘Dutch French’ was determined to rid himself of the nightmare memories of his childhood; orphaned as an infant when his father was killed in action, his mother’s subsequent suicide had a profound effect. Constant bullying and humiliation, combined with a disadvantaged lifestyle throughout his early years, caused his behaviour to deteriorate and cause concern. However, all was to change when, following in his father’s footsteps, he joined the Army, immediately enhancing his life. Due to an unusual but fortunate assignment, he meets and marries Melanie. During years of happy marriage and a long, distinguished military career, a number of near-death experiences fuel an inward belief regarding the myth of nine lives. His sought-after peace is subsequently shattered when his wife is viciously assaulted and raped, triggering a series of fatal events, changing their lives forever.