‘Ma’am.’
‘Well, I’m glad that you’re on the mend, and look forward to having you back at Granville Lane. I expect you can’t wait.’
’Specially now, thought Mariner. ‘Yes Ma’am,’ he said.
Anna thought it hilarious when he told her about it that evening.
‘Great start,’ she said, ‘flashing your arse at the new boss. Will it cramp your style, this teamwork stuff?’ she asked.
‘What do you think?’ Mariner said. ‘Some people are team players, and some are not.’
‘No guesses which camp you fall into. It might not be as bad as you think.’
‘It’s serious enough for her to come here and lecture me on my sick bed. Maybe it’s time to stop getting so hung up on work.’
Anna brightened. ‘Really?’
‘And what would you think about adopting?’
‘Adopting?’
‘I’d like to take on Nelson.’
‘We’d need plenty of space to walk him.’
‘I know. And I’m not discounting kids,’ he said quickly.
‘I’m glad to hear it.’
‘But one thing at a time, eh?’
‘One thing at a time.’
Worm in the Bud
Chris Collett
In Birmingham a local journalist is found dead in his home. A puncture wound in his arm a testimony to his death by lethal injection, the cryptic note by his side: ‘no more’, seems at first to suggest suicide but Detective Inspector Tom Mariner has learned to take nothing at face value. There is something a little too staged about events, especially as just that evening Mariner had witnessed Edward Barham pick up a prostitute in a bar he was frequenting. As the police investigate the house further they discover there is another witness to events at 34 Clarendon Avenue. Barham’s younger brother, Jamie, is found in a cupboard under the stairs. It seems likely that Jamie Barham had witnessed his brother’s killing but his severe autism has left him without the means to communicate what he has seen . . .
Mariner is determined to build enough of a relationship with Jamie to get to the truth. And the fact that this means spending time with Anna Barham, Jamie’s new - and reluctant - guardian, is no great hardship. But is Edward’s death related to his recent investigations into a local crimelord? Or is there something else, something that only Jamie can tell them - if he so chooses . . .
Praise for The Worm in the Bud:
‘This first novel comes from a writer with twenty years experience of working with adults with learning disabilities and her depiction of Jamie and his effect on those who care for him rings true . . . While lonely Mariner is immediately engaging and his sexual vulnerability and lack of confidence adds both humour and poignancy. Collett sustains the intrigue - we want to know who done what and why - and is a writer with promise.’ Cath Staincliffe, author and series creator of TV’s Blue Murder
Blood of the Innocents
Chris Collett
When two teenagers go missing on the same day on Mariner’s patch, it seems to be nothing more than a coincidence. Leaving aside their age and disappearance, the two have little in common. Yasmin Akram is the talented grammar school educated daughter of devout Muslim professionals. Ricky Skeet disappears after storming out of his council house after a row with his mother’s latest boyfriend.
Mariner knows Ricky’s mother from his days in uniform, so he is less than happy when his superiors - bowing to media pressure - take him off the Skeet case and reassign him to the more politically sensitive investigation. The press - and his bosses - seem convinced that Yasmin’s disappearance is a racially motivated abduction, especially since the Akrams have found themselves the target of the far right and a prominent white supremacist group.
Working with Asian liaison officer Jamilla Begum on the more high profile case, Mariner soon discovers that the picture of Yasmin her school-friends paint is far cry from her parents’ claim that she is a total innocent . . .
Killing for England
Iain McDowall
Chief Inspector Jacobson and DS Kerr had been on leave when the body of a young black man, Darren McGee, had been fished out of the River Crow. The autopsy had pointed to suicide by drowning. But now Darren’s cousin, Paul Shaw, is in town: a top-notch investigative journalist with an axe to grind and a claim that Darren had really been the victim of a racially-motivated murder.
Jacobson isn’t convinced. But when Paul Shaw turns up as dead and as terminally-wet as his cousin, Jacobson and Kerr are faced with a baffling double-murder to investigate. And a dangerous confrontation lies ahead with the murky world of the Far Right.
Praise for Iain McDowall:
‘has a vivid sense of place . . . Crowby becomes more than a fictional town: it’s almost a state of mind. Moreover its inhabitants are wonderfully characterised’ ANDREW TAYLOR
‘a lean, impressive debut . . . Kerr and Jacobson are a pleasure to meet and who offer hoped for more rich reading in future additions to the series’ WASHINGTON POST
A Cursed Inheritance
Kate Ellis
The brutal massacre of the Harford family at Potwoolstan Hall in Devon in 1985 shocked the country and passed into local folklore. And when a journalist researching the case is murdered twenty years later, the horror is reawakened. Sixteenth century Potwoolstan Hall, now a New Age healing centre, is reputed to be cursed because of the crimes of its builder, and it seems that inheritance of evil lives on as DI Wesley Peterson is faced with his most disturbing case yet.
As more people die violently, Wesley needs to discover why a young woman has transformed a dolls house into a miniature reconstruction of the massacre scene. And could the solution to his case lie across the Atlantic Ocean, in the ruined remains of an early English settlement in Virginia USA?
When the truth is finally revealed, it turns out to be as horrifying as it is dangerous.
Praise for Kate Ellis:
‘a beguiling author who interweaves past and present. Like its predecessor . . . the book works well on both levels’ The Times
How to Seduce a Ghost
Hope McIntyre
Although she loves her boyfriend Tommy, Lee is suffering from commitment phobia because, as a ghost-writer, she values her privacy above all else . . . and she can’t bear his mess. At the same time, though, she doesn’t really like living alone in her big, creaky old house in Notting Hill. But whilst Lee tries to remain in denial about the state of her crumbling home, a neighbour is suddenly killed in a fire, and it looks like arson.
Lee’s latest commission, ghosting the autobiography of a soap opera star, seems to offer her an escape from her problems at home. Until she meets her subject’s smoulderingly sexy manager, and finds herself compulsively attracted to him. But then Lee is drawn into a murder investigation as there is a second fire and another murder closer to home. As her home deteriorates further and her precious privacy comes under increasing pressure from all sides, could it be that Lee herself is in danger?
Praise for How to Seduce a Ghost:
‘Smart and hugely enjoyable’ Elizabeth Buchan
Written in Blood Page 31