Rame

This gripping story is set in the secretive, dark days of smuggling Cornwall. One family falls foul of the violent men who will stop at nothing to get what they want. Dom, his friends and family are caught up in the deadly rivalry of the two connected villages. Murder and mystery threaten their challenging lives where even the sea can be an unpredictable rival. However, when a deadly plague occurs, it is a force beyond their control; all are endangered; none are safe. In the final conflict can love overcome hatred or will violence and greed destroy love?

Rogue Justice

Someone disillusioned with the criminal justice system has decided that there is only one option available to prevent the scales of justice from tilting in favour of those that carry out heinous crimes. Believing the system broken, he ruthlessly dispenses his own brand of retribution.

Cutting a swathe through a rural community, he subjects his hapless preys to unimaginable cruelty in twisted games of cat and mouse before executing them in escalating brutality.

Detectives Englund and Hicks are tasked with tracking down a killer amidst their close-knit community, seemingly without motive.

When a young girl is kidnapped, coinciding with the release of a notorious paedophile, Englund is forced to evaluate his own position and question what justice really means.

Will Englund and the enigmatic Hicks catch the killer before the town implodes and takes justice into its own hands?

Or will they become another statistic in an ever-increasing body count?

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…

The First Shadows of Morning

A young British businessman is sent to Ukraine to help formulate a strategy for a company near Kyiv which is owned by the London-based group he works for. He encounters corruption and gangs, and the effects of the civil war in the east between government forces and Russian-backed militants, as well as falling in love.

There is an explosion in the factory. He has to work out who has caused it and why, at the same time trying to save the business.

This leads to narrow escapes from death and to fear at a level he has never felt before. His experiences greatly expand the repertoire of his emotions and change the direction of his life.

“In an unusual and interesting setting, Timothy Noble has penned a thoroughly satisfying and exciting read.”

— Alexander McCall Smith

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 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 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 Big Dead Dry

Would you drive into a small Australian town in drought, packed with intrigue, lust and murder?Brumby Flat, a small country town in South Australia, suddenly rises to notoriety and becomes the centre of the world through a baffling series of murders and accidental deaths.Raquel Willaston and her son, Steve, have just moved into town, and Raquel soon gets caught up in the local goings on, whether she wants to or not, and a love entanglement she’d rather not deal with.The quiet arrival of a mysterious homeless man and his subsequent brutal murder at the base of the town silos is the catalyst for the chaos which erupts.City-based Senior Detective Phillip Duncan is in charge of the ensuing investigations and has to cope with some colourful and quirky characters to find out who the killer is. There’s Anabella Williams who wears vintage clothes and still lives in the 1950s and is renowned for her ‘killer cakes’. Famous silo mural painter Phil Proctor, newly arrived from New York, seems to know more than he lets on. There’s Chris Jones, an ex-military officer, who lives his life with military-like precision. Bridie Browne, who runs the local post office, seems more preoccupied with the male of the species rather than actually sorting mail.And then there’s ‘The Raindrops Shop’ run by Bette Mitchell which offers a range of merchandise completely at odds with a town in the middle of a two-year drought.Nothing is as it seems in Brumby Flat. It’s going to be a tough ask to identify the serial killer hiding amongst them.

Fool’s Gold

Vicky Taylor was not looking forward to the coming year, and with good reason. No job, no boyfriend, and no prospects. However, a chance meeting with a charismatic young man and the promise of a new job help her start to put the dark days of her past behind her. Her life is looking up, but then Covid hits, and like the rest of the country, her world is turned upside down as the demons from her past return to haunt her.Meanwhile, Justin Kell faces his own problems when Molly’s father becomes the victim of a callous investment fraud. The case puts him on the trail of a ruthless criminal determined to maintain his corrupt empire. With Molly expecting their first baby in the spring, the outbreak of Covid pushes their relationship to the limit, forcing Justin to make some stark choices.When murder happens on his doorstep, the ensuing chain of events leaves Kell wondering if their lives will ever be the same again.

Hidden Agenda

Paul Enfield decided to take a five-year ‘Gap Year’ to work on a small island in the South Atlantic. After completing his contract, he returned to London, finished his degree, and secured a job with the Department of Health. However, his supervisor is determined to provoke Paul into an attack, aiming to get him dismissed.

Caroline Aston befriends Paul and, using her unique gift, they uncover a series of letters and documents from the Department of Health’s computer. Realizing the significance of their discovery, Paul sends the materials to a friend who ensures their distribution to the media, causing a major scandal for the government. Together, Paul and Caroline work as a team to expose the civil servants and businesses profiting from the scheme in the South Atlantic.

Beyond Sight

Jonny Sears, a young boy seeking refuge from his parents’ troubles, embarks on a summer adventure that takes a terrifying turn when he finds himself trapped in the depths of hell, encountering both benevolent and malevolent characters as he navigates the treacherous landscape, testing his resilience and determination in a gripping tale of a perilous odyssey that will leave readers breathless, wondering if Jonny will ever find his way back to the world he once knew.

The Silver Necklace

“A fascinating glimpse into complex characters on both right and wrong sides of the law, by author and retired judge Jack Billings, who undoubtedly has seen both up-close.”

                Randi Bjornstad, career journalist, founder, Eugene Scene, e-magazine

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Police always encounter people they never forget. For Megan O’Brian, one was Chad Mitchell, a scared, mistreated little boy she encountered while working as a juvenile corrections officer. She always wondered what happened to him. Then they met again.

By then a sheriff’s detective, O’Brian was lead investigator for the disappearance of talented Cassie Edwards, who failed to return home from her regular bus trip to and from a piano lesson after her 15th birthday party. She wore as always her favorite gift, a beautiful and unusual necklace, given to her by her grandmother.

The trail goes frustratingly cold as O’Brian and fellow investigators, Cal Underwood and Herman Jackson, search in vain for clues to her whereabouts and her fate, until a deer poacher finds Cassie’s body in a remote area.

But finding her killer eludes them, until O’Brian has a sudden, middle-of-the-night realization: a photograph Jackson had taken of recovered stolen property in another case. One of those photos shows an unusual necklace, identical to the one Cassie wore in a picture from her birthday party.

Did Cassie’s killer take the necklace as a trophy? How did it get into a trove of stolen property? Did the killer try to get rid of it? Or was it stolen from the killer? And who were they looking for?

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         “Well-developed characters, engaging story, professional police work. A good read.”

                                Kurt Wuest, Lane County Sheriff’s Detective (ret.)

“Untreated autism, methamphetamine addiction, interstate fencing of stolen property propel this story of murder and apprehension to a conclusion.”

                                Chuck Tilby, Captain, Eugene Police Department (ret.)

“Billings’ writing evokes Michael Connelly. A bus system’s operation is cleverly woven into the plot.”

                Mark Pangborn, General Manager, Lane Transit District (ret.)