CRIME BOOKS

All of my crime books feature a character called Dennis ‘Mac’ Maguire. He’s an ex-policeman and murder specialist who was forced to retire from the force because of damage to his lower spine. His disability was brought to light after his wife had died and he could no longer cover up the fact that he was constantly in pain. The books chart Mac’s progress back into work first as a private detective and then as a consultant to his local Major Crime Unit, where he once again discovers the unique gifts that help him solve the most puzzling crimes.

JUST PUBLISHED

MAC’S CHRISTMAS PRESENT – The thirteenth Mac Maguire mystery

Christmas is looming and Mac is on tenterhooks as he awaits the birth of his first grandchild. In order to pass the time, he reluctantly takes on the job of catching an office thief. However, he soon finds that something much more serious than petty larceny might be going on. He enlists the help of Leigh Marston and together they discover the awful truth.
The second case is that of a hunt for a missing heir. Mac discovers that the man he is looking for had disappeared seven years ago in suspicious circumstances. He was rich, successful and had a beautiful young wife, yet he appears to have walked out one evening and nothing had been heard from him since. His wife is in a hurry to declare him dead so that she can get her hands on her husband’s considerable fortune but Mac has his doubts. On reading the police reports, he suspects that the missing heir may well have been murdered and his wife is in the spotlight.
However, Mac is in for more than a few surprises and a festive season that he will never forget.

Available in Amazon Books UK / Amazon Books US / Amazon Books Canada

THE BODY IN THE BOOT – The first Mac Maguire mystery

Just over six months before Mac had been the head of  a London Murder Squad and a policeman renowned for his skill in cracking the most difficult cases. Now Mac finds himself in a dark place. He’s recently lost his wife and his grief has made a chronic spinal condition worse leaving him in constant pain. After six months of doing nothing his daughter and best friend decide that he needs to be working. They set him up as a private detective in the hope that this may break the cycle of depression that has overwhelmed him and so the Garden City Detective Agency was born.

However Mac doubts himself and is no longer sure if he has the will or the energy to make a success of his new career. His first case comes by chance as a mother’s grief sends him into a town’s red light district to find out how her daughter died.

Mac soon finds himself working with a team of local police detectives who are hot on the trail of a cold-blooded serial killer. He has to dig deep and rediscover all his talents in order to solve the case of The Body in the Boot.

Available in Amazon Books UK / Amazon Books US / Amazon Books Canada

THE DEAD SQUIRREL – The second Mac Maguire mystery

One of Mac’s neighbours discovers that a squirrel found dead in her garden has been poisoned. A short while afterwards he learns that a woman has also been found, murdered by the same exotic poison, and the investigation kicks off. Mac helps the local police investigate a cold-blooded murder and the members of a local Jane Austen society are all suspects. The investigation, however, turns up something quite unexpected and shocking.

Available in Amazon Books UK / Amazon Books US / Amazon Books Canada

THE WEEPING WOMEN – The third Mac Maguire mystery

Mac’s hit a new low. With only daytime TV to look forward to he agrees to help cranky old Monty Llewellyn-fforbes find out who broke into his house and stole an Easter egg. When he talks to the local police he finds out that there have been four other burglaries in the area where only chocolate has been stolen. Both Mac and the police suspect that there is far more to the break-ins than at first meets the eye.

Following a tenuous lead he discovers that the crimes may have been connected to an incident in a Greek town just after the end of the Second World War. He eventually uncovers a dark secret from the past, so dark that it is still causing tremors seventy years later.

Mac also helps the daughter of a world famous artist open her father’s safe. Does it really contain evidence of a crime being committed within the family?

Two cases linked by deception, the beauty of art and women’s tears.

Available in Amazon Books UK / Amazon Books US / Amazon Books Canada

THE BLACKNESS– The fourth Mac Maguire mystery

A young girl goes missing in a Hertfordshire town on a Saturday night and Mac is called in to help the Major Crimes Unit with their first case. The investigation leads Mac and the team into some dark places as they explore every avenue in a race against the clock. It takes a memory from the past to finally lead the team in the right direction, away from the light and into the heart of blackness.

Available in Amazon Books UK / Amazon Books US / Amazon Books Canada

23 COLD CASES– The fifth Mac Maguire mystery

In ‘The Blackness’ Mac injures his back saving a young girl’s life and has been told that he will need to spend the next six weeks in bed. In desperation he asks the head of the Major Crime Unit Dan Carter for something to keep his mind off his increased pain levels. Dan sends him some cold cases that his unit has been given, twenty three brutal murders, and Mac gets to work. All he can do is apply his mind but that is more than enough. With help from a new recruit, the mercurial DS Kate Grimsson, and DC Tommy Nugent the team manage to re-open the case of an axe murder supposedly carried out by a drugs gang. However they find that there is far more to the case than initially meets the eye.

But there is another cold case that Mac just can’t get out of his mind. He gives it his best efforts but will he ever find out what really happened?

Available in Amazon Books UK / Amazon Books US / Amazon Books Canada

TWO DOGS– The sixth Mac Maguire mystery

Mac reluctantly and against his better judgment goes to work for an actress who’s the star of a famous TV soap. She’s certain that her rock star ex-husband has dognapped her German Shepherd and she wants Mac to prove it. Mac’s heart isn’t in it but he does his best little knowing that he would soon find himself embroiled in a murder investigation that not only takes him abroad but hot on the trail of a European super-criminal.

Mac also tries to help his local priest who’s been accused of killing his next door neighbour with his own shotgun. This troubles Mac who looks upon the priest as a friend. The only problem is that the more he investigates the case the more it looks like only he could have done it!

A story of murder, violence, theft, international skullduggery…

…and two dogs.

Available in Amazon Books UK / Amazon Books US / Amazon Books Canada

THE ‘MATCH OF THE DAY’ MURDERS – The seventh Mac Maguire mystery

It’s been the worst summer in years and Mac is once more at a loose end. He then meets the mother of a murdered girl and is asked to look into an unsolved murder case that is nearly five years old. Her daughter wasn’t the only girl who died in what became known as ‘The Match of the Day Murders’. Three girls had been found on football fields exactly one week after the other and all had been strangled to death. Mac agrees to do what he can but, before he can even get started, he is asked by his old friend DI Andy Reid from the Major Crime Unit to help. They are also re-investigating the case and so Mac finds himself working alongside Kate Grimsson once again as they dig deep into the past. A serial killer appears to be still on the loose and Mac is worried that he might start killing again.

Mac too has an anniversary coming up and it’s bothering him. It will soon be a year since his wife Nora died and he is totally unsure as to how he will face it. Meanwhile Kate has her own personal problems as the past comes back to haunt her and she finds that she has an important decision to make.

A story of life, death and football.

Available in Amazon Books UK / Amazon Books US / Amazon Books Canada

THE CHANCER – The eighth Mac Maguire mystery

Mac is on his way back to Ireland for a funeral when a body is found at the airport.  A man has been stabbed three times in the back and Mac volunteers to help his police colleagues. He’s flying back to Donegal where he hopes to find out something about the victim’s background.

It appears that the dead man was ‘a chancer and romancer’ and Mac has his work cut out delving into his numerous, and mostly nefarious, dealings in the north of Ireland. With the help of a troubled colleague from the Irish Police Mac soon discovers that the murder in the airport has set off a ticking time bomb that will soon explode.

Mac finds himself delving into his own past as his childhood memories of Donegal come flooding back and an old family mystery is also solved.

Available in Amazon Books UK / Amazon Books US / Amazon Books Canada

THE TIGER’S BACK – The ninth Mac Maguire mystery

It’s January and winter is biting hard. Mac has been asked to investigate the brutal murder of a homeless man in London by his grieving daughter. Meanwhile two of Mac’s police colleagues are looking into the suspicious death of a Cambridge history professor. Their paths cross and they realise that both deaths are somehow linked.

During the investigation Mac meets someone from his past, someone he’d hoped that he’d never see again. The Tiger, the most fearsome and violent criminal that Mac had ever dealt with, is once again loose on the streets.

Available in  Amazon Books UK / Amazon Books US /Amazon Books Canada

THE EIGHT BENCH WALK – The tenth Mac Maguire mystery

After a long hard winter Mac goes on holiday to Cyprus to soak up some sun and becomes involved in a murder investigation. An old man has fallen from the balcony of his holiday apartment and the police believe that he was pushed. Mac helps the police teams in Cyprus and the UK uncover the truth behind his death. What they find leads them on a deadly chase for a priceless treasure…

Available in Amazon Books UK / Amazon Books US / Amazon Books Canada

A CONCRETE CASE OF MURDER – The eleventh Mac Maguire mystery

Mac is just back from holiday and is once again getting bored when he is asked to help out by the local police. It turns out to be one of the strangest thefts that Mac has ever come across – a whole house has gone missing! Evidence is hard to find but, with some creative thinking and the help of his partner, Mac finds himself on the track of a suspected murderer. Despite his best efforts, tragedy strikes, and he is left to wonder if the murderer will ever be brought to justice and whether this might be a case that he will never recover from.

Now available in Amazon Books UK / Amazon Books US / Amazon Books Canada

THE BLOOD MOON MURDERS – The twelfth Mac Maguire mystery

It’s October and, with Halloween approaching, Mac has been having a recurrent nightmare. He finds himself in a dark wood being tracked by unseen presences. A blood-red Moon hangs in the sky as he fearfully walks down a path overhung by crippled trees. He hears a piercing scream and comes across the body of a young girl. She is dead and her lips are as blood-red as the Moon. There is a word written in blood on her forehead. As he bends over to try and read the word, her eyes open and that’s when Mac wakes up. Then, on a bitterly cold morning, a shaken Mac takes his dog for a walk in the woods when he hears a scream. A woman backs out onto the path and points to the dead body of a young girl.
A girl with blood-red lips…

Now available in Amazon Books UK / Amazon Books US / Amazon Books Canada

GHOST and HORROR STORIES

13 Ghosts of Winter

Thirteen ghost stories for Christmas and the Winter season. Original tales of the supernatural that will make you shiver!

Available in Amazon Books UK / Amazon Books US / Amazon Books Canada

The Black Vaults Experiment

Renovation work at a large Victorian pub called the Black Vaults is halted as the builders refuse to work saying that the pub is haunted. In desperation the owners call in Martin Jorgensen, a young Professor of Anomalistic Psychology, who sees this as a chance to test his pet theory. Together with his assistant and four student volunteers he spends two nights at the pub as part of an experiment in the hope that he’ll be able to record some real paranormal activity. However the Black Vaults is full of surprises and they experience strange events that will change all of their lives forever.

Available in Amazon Books UK / Amazon Books US / Amazon Books Canada