The Heroes

Spring 1968

Formerly inseparable, five boys, known affectionately as ‘The Heroes’, all of them eight years of age, school together, play together and explore together. One day in the spring term, one of them dies suddenly, in the arms of his teacher and their headmaster goes missing without a trace.

May 2019

Fifty years later, local private investigators, Robert Fox and Rosemary Bennett are engaged by the dead boy’s sister to find out if the headmaster is still alive, because he may hold the key as to why her brother, Derek, died.

Everyone says that he died of natural causes, but the boy’s sister believes it is something more sinister.

The two private investigators seek out the four remaining boys and their teacher, to help them in their quest for the truth about what happened to her brother and of the headmaster’s disappearance.

But they are not the only ones seeking them out.

The boys each have held a chilling secret, and someone wants to keep it that way, no matter what it takes.

Will Fox and Bennet find out what the boys know before someone else does?

The Hiding Place

It was his safe place. No wonder that he would do anything to protect it.

Of the friends who visit Mark Atkinson on his island retreat, one of them, a girl called Lori, has been there before. What happened on that earlier visit and where is the friend her parents brought with them? Also, where is the jewellery Mary Arnold entrusted to Mark’s safekeeping before her death?

The Hiding Place deals not only with things concealed and the answers we seek, but with friendship and the demands that can be made by pursuing a quest.

“Whatever I tell you, I can’t get anywhere close to the impact this saga has made on Lori; and don’t lose sight of the fact that Mark has been working on it pretty well all of his life.”

The Highway Store and Other Stories

Trevor’s had a rough life. Growing up in the crime ridden suburb of Blacktown, struggling with PTSD from his tour in Afghanistan, and his girlfriend’s tragic overdose. All he wants is to get away from it all and find some peace. Opening a highway store in the remote outback seemed like a great opportunity for him. Little did he know, he wasn’t prepared for the unsavory characters that came his way. As these nefarious figures start to emerge, he is forced to confront a past he thought he had left behind.

The Honorary Male

Amanda has disappeared. For over a year there has been no news of the English teenager with a passion for dance. Has she followed her dream to join an international ballet company or is there another reason for her silence? Is it possible that a sighting in a far-off country could be her?

A missing person charity entrusts Jude Francis, a former nurse, to verify a young woman's identity and potentially bring her home to her family.

The year is 1994. Former Soviet states are undergoing extensive modernisation. Two British reconstruction workers in Central Asia help Jude's quest for the dancer. Will the outcome be what Amanda's family and friends hope? And what will be the consequences for the people involved if they succeed?

The House on Juniper Drive

The house on Juniper Drive becomes home to an assortment of people who take residence there and impact on the life of Judy Vernon from child to adult.

As a rather precocious child, Judy discovers a sixth sense within her. For some reason unbeknown to her there’s a link, a strong connection to this one house.

As Judy grows from childhood into adulthood, she feels a great need to one day own the house on Juniper Drive. But as time passes the likelihood of this ever happening seems to be nothing more than a pipedream. An impossibility.

But can the impossible really happen and a horror be uncovered?

The Hunter

Can you ever really outrun your past?

Since meeting Luke, Ali’s life has begun to fall into place. She is finally able to move on from the demons of her past and stop looking back over her shoulder at every turn.

But after a series of strange and disturbing events, her newfound happiness threatens to unravel as Ali begins to suspect that she has unwillingly entered into a deadly game of cat and mouse.

In her attempt to uncover the truth, she is forced to question everything she thought she knew.

With one girl already missing, the past won’t stay buried for long and Ali must decide who she can trust before it’s too late.

The Icky Wick Bowls Club

The Icky Wick Bowls Club invites you to join them at their private table known as the Gin Club Table, come and listen to hilarious tales of the past, or maybe witness the steamy night at The Vicars and Tarts party with a different story on every table. Travel to Ireland in the 60s with Molly and the gang as they cleverly remove marble fireplaces from a mansion in the wilds of Ireland and ship them off to the USA. Meet Micheal the renowned Irish raconteur singer/songwriter. Stay with Benny the septuagenarian gangster while he plans to bring his finest cannabis down from his factory in London filling up three golf bags, which he hides in the holiday coach carrying all the OAPs, to France. His journey with his wife Beryl, into and out of France with no passport, due to the fact he is on a lifetime ban from leaving the UK due to his criminal record.

The Illusion of Guilt

Roy’s life was not going well. He was clever, very clever, but his boss didn’t like him and finding other jobs in the computer industry at the ripe old age of forty-five could be difficult. He had bought a house with his girlfriend, but she was leaving him because he was “too nice”. He would have the debts of the house plus old debts that he was still repaying. Then there was Rosemary, but she seemed preoccupied with her stalker who had threatened Roy, grabbing by the throat on one occasion. Would he end up like his friend Keith who drove to the top of a car park and jumped off?

However, Roy had done something remarkable: he had saved the life of a man at one of his favourite hiking spots. He didn’t know what this would mean at the time. Then he realised there were other options for the stalker and his boss. What would he do? Would he feel guilt or was guilt just an illusion?

The Impaler Prince

In fifteenth-century Eastern Europe, Vlad III of Wallachia conducted a reign of terror. He had citizens impaled by the thousands. People were butchered on his merest whim. In his realm, and beyond it, men and women lived in dread of the Impaler Prince. And this Prince revelled in the horror he inspired.

He was a sadist, seen by some as a being of unequalled depravity, even as the Devil’s own spawn. But Vlad was also a man who had the qualities of a great leader: strength, courage, intelligence and commitment to an ideal. He was a crusader against the infidel who considered himself a true warrior of Christ.

Here, his story is told by four men whose lives overlapped with his; men who were influenced by him to the point of obsession. But it is also told by Vlad himself. The inner thoughts of the butcher of Wallachia are exposed. And there is much more to this sinister figure than many would have imagined. 

The Impediment To My Success

Emma Anna Marie Clarke has written poetry from the age of 12, she started when her teacher was stuck for lesson ideas on rainy Friday afternoons. Her first poem was about a mouse called Freddy! Later English teachers, specifically a Mrs Huggett, encouraged writing poetry too, and so by the age of 17, she began to write poems for herself to vent emotions, creating her first grown-up poem called Mr and Mrs Personality. Then after marriage at age of 26, she stopped writing, maybe because she was happy! 15 years later, and a widow, she produced a collection of poems called The Impediment to my Success.

The Incumbent Spirit

Why are we here? What is our purpose? Is there a higher power and can we connect with it?

These eternal questions have been posed throughout the ages. Various views and opinions towards the answers have formed clusters of believers who then forge separate groups of thinking and ideology, sometimes causing division, war, and death.

This book of poetry challenges these questions once more, seeking universal answers which could bind the human race together in a way which respects life and its diversity, while suggesting commonalities of being. Thought provoking, inspirational and comforting, it inspires the reader to look at life through the eyes of others, raising levels of compassion and self-awareness on a journey of spiritual contemplation.

The Incumbent Spirit is an anthology of spiritual poetry inspired by the need for peace, understanding, and togetherness, composed in a year of fear and division. In here are words to inspire the seeking of love, peace, and wisdom from spirit, through spirit, to spirit.

The Infinity Pool

Lia Westlake works for a company that designs the insides of million-pound properties. After leaving University she started working for Tony Grossman and his partner Mark James, but an Infinity Pool she designed at the beginning of her career becomes a problem, and it’s serious. She has no way of proving her innocence and she is being pursued by a senior, Dominic Delgado, who is determined to punish her for what his friend Rosso Valentino left in a letter in his will that Senior Dominic Delgado is executor to. Lia suddenly finds herself actually working for the man when he buys the apartment block she was working on, the threats eventually get to the point that she disappears abroad to get away from the pressure. When he finds her Dominic Delgado is determined to punish her in a way she will never forget, but not seeing her doing her job he begins to think maybe Rosso Valentino was mistaken? He goes down a different avenue investigating Lia Westgate and what he finds makes him angry and determined to find her.