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 Signature Killer

The crosshairs of the rifle scope were focused on a spot just behind the left ear. Before taking the shot, the assassin picked up a pair of binoculars to scan the area to be sure the shot wasn’t going to be interrupted. He was looking at two men sitting at a small table outside a pub in Dublin, Ireland, each having a pint. Re-focusing the rifle scope, he took the shot. A small hole appeared just behind the left ear of the man known to be a high-ranking member of the Irish Republican Army. One eye popped out of his head and bounced off the table to the ground and rolled away. The other eye hung on his cheek by the optic nerve. A gray soup-like material that had been his brains, started to flow from his eye sockets, ears, and nose. As his body slumped over on the table, the other man, a secret member of an IRA opposition group from Belfast smiled and walked away from the table. 320 yards away, Stephen Finn was dismantling his rifle, removing his coveralls and gloves, and placing everything in his custom made briefcase. Stephen left the sparsely occupied building, and got into the stolen car he had waiting. He calmly drove to a small airstrip just outside of Dublin where he left the car, put on his flight suit and climbed into his very technologically advanced, custom designed jet and headed to the United States. After landing just south-west of Boston, Stephen Finn no longer existed. The man that emerged from that jet was now Antonio De Luca with all of the papers to prove he had been born and raised in the United States.

Follow Tony in the next Antonio De Luca Adventure Series Story titled, “Stephany’s Life”.

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.

The Tribulations of Miss Glass

Great Malvern sleeps peacefully beneath the quiet splendour of the hills and next to the comforting presence of Malvern Priory. But this apparent serenity is suddenly broken by the disappearance of a local headmistress in mysterious circumstances, leaving local police struggling to find a reason.

However, a potential suspect emerges. Will this get them any nearer to the truth about what really happened on that wet June evening in 1920? Then an elderly woman is battered to death in her home, once more leaving Malvern’s police baffled as to the motive. Subsequently, other incidents take place in the town and questions arise, are these events linked? And what of the missing headmistress? Police are left chasing their tails as desperation for answers mounts, whilst hovering over them is the ultimate humiliation of Scotland Yard being called in to take over the investigation.

Detective Chief Inspector Martin and Detective Inspector Carlsen become involved in a race against time.

The Vanishing of Venice

Every day, like the pigeons it’s famous for, Saint Mark’s Square is flocked by tourists, visitors from every corner of the world, all desperate to indulge in the ancient city of Venice’s flamboyant history, with its enchanting maze of cobble-stoned alleyways and romantic winding canals, dappled with shiny gondolas; naïve tourists, oblivious that their days were numbered as Venice floated along a path to destruction. The apocalypse was nigh. Only three days to go. Natural forces had been released. Already the weather had changed. The humidity was oppressive. Venomous storms brewed. Dark forces stirred. Hidden behind the walls of Saint Mark’s Basilica, a ‘brotherhood’ of priests, driven by the insane demands of their Holy Father, had arisen to take revenge upon the invasion of tourists.

The Watermeadow Mystery

Frothy Watermeadow is the lord of an idyllic estate, Watermeadow, ridden with debt for generations. Legend has it the estate has buried gold, which seems like the only solution to Frothy’s mounting problems with demanding creditors. The resident geologist Rock Solid finds some promising flakes and celebrations are in order. In the party for the ages, everyone is invited, but it is remembered for all the wrong reasons.

A night of fun culminates in a murder.

Who was murdered and why? Was there any gold or some other treasure? Why was it on the Watermeadow Estate?

With penurious kings, honest rectors, shady prospectors, professional eavesdroppers and lovers plotting for their own ends, everyone is a conspirator with motive and each one is downplaying culpability. The unlikeliest of suspects may have the most to gain from the murder. And the most important question of all – is the gold ever discovered?

The Woman in the Red Plastic Raincoat

Samantha Goodall has gone missing in Cowra, New South Wales. A group of locals, who are friends are perplexed when they stumble on a sleuth site sleuthersontheinternet.com, with posts about Samantha's disappearance. The fictitious character making the posts seems to be Bruce Antonio. They have already been reporting him to the police about disturbing information on his own blogsites. They are certain that Antonio has to be connected to a number of missing people cases in Queensland, he has talked about on his blog site spiritualitypsychics.com. Through extensive research, they discover multiple cases Antonio looks to be sleuthing about. How can they convince the police that there could be a serial killer talking about his crimes on sleuth sites?

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.

Three Times a Killer

A virus is in circulation in sub-Saharan Africa that has the potential to become a pandemic wreaking havoc on healthcare systems and economies worldwide. Millions will die.

The scientific community and governments work at speed to find a vaccine, but progress is slow. Research labs around the world turn their attention to this latest viral strain in an attempt to find a formula that can be manufactured in volume for global distribution. It’s a race against time.

Dr Dan Thomas was a research scientist working in such a lab to find such a vaccine, but unlike his peers, he was not content to use his talent and intellect to better the world. He had witnessed friends fast-track their careers and accumulate wealth, and he was envious. He was highly intelligent, but a flawed individual addicted to hard drugs and alcohol which affected his judgement. 

Dan’s role in the lab was pivotal. He had responsibility for workflow, monitoring and managing the progress of the lab’s research. A chance encounter with a venture capitalist at a party gave him the idea that he could prosper from stealing the intellectual rights of his employer’s vaccine research, making him a wealthy man, only to encounter challenges he hadn’t anticipated.

This tense and exciting story of one man’s quest for wealth and power reveals the lengths some are prepared to go to in an attempt to achieve their misguided ambitions. Lives are destroyed and people die.

Through the Gate of Horns

Having picked up her friend, Josie, at the station, Lorne hopes for an uneventful drive to Waydon where they will link up with five friends for a reunion weekend. While living in Brasilia, they had become a close group.

During a stop on their journey, a chance meeting with a smart young woman almost makes Josie faint from shock. This leads the woman to introduce herself as Arina Aubel and she insists that Josie and Lorne join her for tea to allow Josie to recover.

Back in the car, Josie tells Lorne that the woman’s face was identical to that of a woman she saw in a recurring dream, though its scene was some two hundred years before. Could the dream be a prophecy and if so, was Arina in danger? When later they see Arina accosted by an angry man, Josie becomes convinced that her dream has a purpose. This belief strengthens as a result of a local rumour heard about the premises Arina is directed to and the man’s quick exit after guiding her there.

As a result of all they have witnessed, Josie persuades Lorne that they have to become amateur sleuths. They stumbled upon organised criminal activity, but had those involved murdered Arina? How close the events will prove to be a re-enactment of the dream? Was it a prophecy?

Too Clever for His Own Good

Within the space of three days, two men are found brutally murdered. Their only connection is that they were both involved in the same cricket match. But the complete lack of evidence left at both crime scenes leaves Detective Inspector Steve Hardcastle in a quandary. Is he searching for one killer or two?

The few lines of enquiry he and his team are able to follow up quickly lead them down a succession of blind alleys and Hardcastle comes under increasing pressure from his senior officers to make an arrest.

And when a third man who was also involved in the match suddenly disappears without a trace, Hardcastle knows that it is only a matter of time before he is taken off the case. With his career prospects disappearing with each dead end, he is left with just one last throw of the dice.

Tragedy on the Hill

Set against the backdrop of 1930s England, Miss Quinn and Miss Abbott arrive on a perfect little holiday spot, but when one of their hosts is found dead at the bottom of a cliff, they have to ask themselves, was it suicide or murder?

Now, trapped between love, jealousy, and a murder investigation, Miss Abbott and Miss Quinn will discover how far people are willing to go for love, and the lengths people will go to, to prove its worth.