The el Toro Problem and Other Stories

Larry Carmody, private investigator, lives in a nighttime world of 1930s crime noir, a world of bottomless cynicism, triple standards, and scathingly black humor. There is no doing good in the world of Larry Carmody. There is only the cynicism and black humor needed to stay alive in the midst of convoluted plots and the nighttime world of crime. For some, that is. The accomplished and lucky ones. The rest perish.
In the world of Larry Carmody, you have to get the low-down. And you have to find a way out. Otherwise someone will show you the foolproof way out, by means of force-feeding you lead with an equalizer.
Larry Carmody himself says: “A case can sometimes be opened and shut in no time. It doesn’t often go down that way, but when it does, you can most often exchange the word ‘shut’ for the word ‘shot’. And I am not speaking of a shot of whisky in an instance such as this. I am using the word ‘shot’ in the sense of the main player in the case having been shot to death. Usually my client.”

The Frasco Diary

Emily Burel, a PhD, scientist and adventurer who works out of Sydney University, is head hunted by Security Agent Andreas Doratis, for Michael Westlake of the British Museum, and Marie de Becque from Le Musee du Louvre in Paris. De Becque believes she has evidence proving that a model for the Pieta was a woman from the Orient who lived with Michelangelo as his mistress. Burel, accepting the challenge to find the truth of this claim, begins her investigation at a monastery in the Swiss Alps. She is neither alone nor safe in her search though, as others from Europe, Asia and Africa follow dangerously close behind her, looking for answers, and rewards, of their own.

The Instruments of Death

“I am the end of all things to all things” – Amara

David was enjoying his very normal life until his world collapsed in on itself.

Grief and personal tragedy lead our unlikely hero to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of his young family and uncover a mystery that goes beyond our world and into the next. Unfortunately for David, a man in some very dark glasses is also on the case. Will he assist David or will he be an Instrument of Death?

Speaking of Death, the lord of the dead has a problem. One of the most dangerous men that has ever existed has managed to hide himself and his followers from the dark master’s gaze. What follows is a unique story featuring time travel, otherworldly beings, a civilisation at the centre of the earth, a gem that could alter our very existence and an adventure unlike anything you’ve ever read.

The Kilborn Murders

After the reading of the will at his brother’s estate, only Eric Kilborn is left alive. He is arrested and charged with the murders of his relatives. The only other witness to what happened at the estate, Nick Roberts, has vanished, and the authorities only have Eric’s word that such a person even exists.

The Mystery of Melsham Wood

An unidentified body of an apparent murder victim has been discovered within the gloom and darkness of Melsham Wood, hidden well off the beaten track and in the dense undergrowth in a place where travellers and sunlight rarely tread.

The case falls unexpectedly in the remit of DCI Mowbray who along with his dedicated assistant attempt to solve the case. In order to do this, they need to delve into the innermost workings of the village community, exposing dark and hidden secrets, uncomfortable truths, mysterious intrigue and step where no one has dared go previously.

Who could possibly have imagined how this case would have turned out and just how did DCI Mowbray find the determination and strength to solve the mystery.

The Poisoned Pen

In 1942, dead bodies were a common sight after an air raid, so no one was suspicious when a mutilated body of a young woman was found in a bombed-out warehouse. She was just another victim of a war that had claimed thousands of victims. At least that was what Sergeant Timothy Tipping assumed, yet his boss Inspector Ben Bishop was suspicious. Her shoes were missing, and so was her purse. It was the same modus operandi as the other bodies.

Surely it wasn’t murder? Yet as the investigation progressed, it was plain that inspector Bishop had a killer on his patch and the local doctor, Brian Dwyer, became his number one suspect. Even his brother John Dwyer, the Catholic Priest of St Joseph’s Church, believed in his brother’s guilt. Especially after both of Brian Dwyer’s wives died in suspicious circumstances.

Was Brian Dwyer guilty? Inspector Bishop thought so, and he was working hard to prove it, and to send Brian Dwyer to the gallows.

There was only one person who could save him. Only one person who knew the truth. Yet in telling that truth, Ellen Cooper, a complete stranger, put her own life in mortal danger.

The Vault of Svalbard

The vault of Svalbard, the global seed bank, has been robbed and its irreplaceable content stolen. The theft becomes a priority case for the Global Agency for Informed Consent (GAIC). As the agency’s director, Achilles is in charge of the investigation into the disappearance of the seeds. Suspicions first fall on the Earth Movement and its music band Save the Earth, because of their radical position on climate change and food shortages. Unpredictable circumstances though take the investigation to the Sahara Desert controlled by the Confederation of the Tuaregs.

The theft of the seeds is the first episode in a series of adventures that involve a mysterious small chamber hidden in the vault of Svalbard. When Achilles and its team eventually enter the chamber, its secret is finally unveiled. The chamber contains a jar full of water. Some say that it has healing powers. Others claim that it never evaporates hence one single drop could quench a person’s thirst forever. Is it is new water? Should the jar be removed from the vault? How can such water be protected from the grabbing hands of a thirsty humanity?

Two dramatic events now happen. The seeds are returned undamaged and a moving glacier destroys the vault of Svalbard. Achilles suspects that somebody removed the jar before the destruction. But where is it now, the water jar? The mystery surrounding the precious water stretches from the North Pole to the South Sahara and is resolved in the last pages of the story.

The Wind That Blows

Parul Das is an Indian woman doctor that has had a failed affair in England. She is going back to India hoping to find herself. In doing so, she finds love, a family and peace of mind. Dennis Galvin, an Anglo-Indian, happily married to Susan, lives in Swindon, England, with his twins, Donald and Michael, and wife. However, his happy life is thrown upside down when his wife leaves him for another man. He then takes a ship back to India to meet the love of his life, Parul. Dennis takes his twins to see his parents in Goa. Then, he and his twins visit Parul at the tea plantation just outside Darjeeling, where he meets Sutra, Parul’s aunty. The twins are taught cooking by Sutra. Parul announces that she is emigrating to New Zealand. Sutra, Dennis and the twins go too. They board the cruise ship, Electra, in Calcutta, which is bound for Australia and New Zealand. Whilst onboard the Electra, there are two murders which the three detectives, Parul, Sutra and Dennis, try to solve. The twins meet three young girls on board; Tilly, Bella and Badger. Bella gets jealous and pushes Don into the swimming pool on board. After he is rescued, he reveals the murderers. Once the murderers are caught, everyone looks forward to their new lives in a new land. But still, there lurks hate and murder.

Time For Revenge

The latest case for DI Keane is personal. A retired policeman is found murdered in amongst his flower beds, a second body turns up in a local church.

How are they intertwined, and what effect does it all have on village life and a mother?

Ray Keane has to work through it all to a conclusion.  

As things finish up, there is a sense of relief and new personnel to get used to.

Fortunately for Ray, his life is moving along nicely, does this all bode well for the future?

Where One Ends, The Other Begins

Derrick and Florence Thompson operate The White Horse motel in a sleepy town in 18th century Essex, providing food and sleep for visitors who are willing to pay the right price. One day, a stranger by the name of Oliver Dawkins arrives. And to make matters worse, he knows their secret. Soon, murders start occurring around town, and the more the bodies pile up, the more the two sides begin to clash, with the lives of their neighbours on the line.

Inspired by the likes of H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man and other assortments of classic horror literature such as The War of the Worlds and Dracula, Where One Ends, the Other Begins is filled with pitch-black comedy and murderous thrills to delight the reader with an entertaining and gory romp through a game of cat and mouse that slowly escalates to a public brawl that turns the unassuming town into a chaotic bloodbath.

Whispering Shadows

Money, the need of an estranged parent, paedophiles or trafficking, these are the usual motives for kidnappers. If their plans fail, fear and panic may end in murder.

It is June 1995 in Sydney, Australia. Detective Chief Inspector Martin Janson is investigating a heinous crime: a small boy is missing. It appears random, and motiveless. Janson is frustrated, there are no witnesses and few clues.

A troubled Irishman who is said to have a ‘mysterious gift’ which he uses in the TV show ‘Spirits and Mind-blowing Magic’. His manager, a flamboyant, loud showman; a known paedophile, a children’s entertainer and a Scotsman, are all suspects.

The Irishman, Kieran Madigan, may be a phony, and his ‘mysterious gift’ a nonsense, thought up for the TV show. Barchester, his manager, is a liar and a fraud, but does that make him guilty?

In Melbourne, where two women are found dead, a Scotsman is a major suspect. A Scot was seen near the scene of the crime in Sydney; is there a connection?

Detective Chief Inspector Janson and his team race the clock to solve the mystery and find the murderers before it is too late to save the child.

X Ray Vision

Ray’s small world is about to get a whole lot bigger. With his busy, regimented routines and affinity for drawing, his autism and Tourette's syndrome don’t bother him.

What really starts troubling Ray is what goes on behind closed doors? What hides within four walls? And what lurks beneath the river?

How will he cope seeing things differently?