Perfect for fans of Robert Bryndza, Helen H. Durrant, James Oswald, Joy Ellis, L.J. Ross, Alex Smith and J.M. Dalgliesh.

SEVEN DAYS TO DIE (Book 1, January 2023)

A twisted killer. A deadly game of cat-and-mouse. Detective Jack MacIntosh has seven days to find the truth.

A young woman’s body is discovered in Hyde Park. Wearing only one shoe. Close to the body, Detective Jack MacIntosh finds a black stiletto, diamante buckle glinting in the early morning sun. But it doesn’t belong to the victim. Two days later, another young woman is found strangled to death in nearby Green Park. Wearing just one shoe — the matching stiletto. Hidden in the long grass beside the body, the police uncover a low-heeled court shoe.

Detective Jack and his team are in a race against time to find the owner of the court shoe before it’s far, far too late. At the same time, Jack is fighting demons of his own. Demons which rise up from the past and threaten to cloud his judgement just when he needs it most.

Detective Jack is hunting a brutal killer. A killer who delights in playing twisted games. Who will win this deadly battle of wits?

THE DETECTIVE

Detective Inspector Jack MacIntosh is a dedicated and loyal police officer, the one person you would want to fight your corner if you had the choice. But he has been known to overstep the boundaries and cross the line to get the job done. As a four-year-old boy he discovered his mother’s body swinging from a light fitting — after which, Jack and his younger brother were taken into care.

Jack did OK, his brother not so much. A bit of a loner, Jack has never married or seems to be one for personal relationships — although plenty of women would like to give it a shot. He lives in a charming mews cottage in central London. No one is quite sure how he can afford it on a detective’s salary.

FIFTEEN REASONS TO KILL (Book 2, January 2023)

• #36 Amazon Australia
• #70 Amazon UK

Frail eighty-one year old Eddie Wakefield is found brutally murdered in his bed at the nursing home. Crudely carved into his flesh – while he was still alive – is the number fifteen. A scarf left in the old man’s room is the only clue.

Detective Jack MacIntosh and his team are determined to track down the killer of this harmless elderly man. But the investigation is leading nowhere. Then the second body is discovered. Stabbed to death in his own home. Again, the number fifteen is etched into the victim’s flesh. Jack’s enquiries lead to St Bartholomew’s School for Boys, a grim and forbidding institution on England’s south coast. As he delves into a series of secrets stretching back more than forty years, he uncovers a shocking link to his own family’s past.

With the evidence mounting, Jack is forced to think the unthinkable. His instinct is to protect those he love… but at what cost?

SIXTEEN CARVED PIECES (Book 3, February 2023)

• #58 Amazon Australia

Billie-Rose’s bloodstained body is found in the kitchen of her ground-floor flat. Strangled to death, a deep laceration to her upper thigh, and a wooden chess-piece clutched in her hand.

Daubed on the wall in Billie-Rose’s own blood is a strange symbol: a bishop’s mitre. All Detective Jack MacIntosh can think is: He’s back. Four years earlier, four young women were also strangled to death in their own homes, the same deep wound to the thigh, and the same symbol scrawled on the wall. The work of the killer they called the Bishop.

Is he back to kill again? Jack and his team are in a race against time to pull the pieces together and uncover the truth before more young women meet a gruesome fate.

TWENTY YEARS BURIED (Book 4, February 2023)

The call comes in the early hours of the morning. Human remains have been discovered in a suitcase, dumped on the muddy banks of the River Thames below London Bridge.

Detective Jack MacIntosh races to the scene. The suitcase contains a human torso, two arms and legs. It’s the body of a young girl. But where is her head? The following day, the police return to the scene at low tide – and make a further grisly discovery. A skull is embedded in the silt of the riverbed. But it doesn’t belong to the body in the case. The police have found their head – but it wasn’t the one they were looking for.

Are the two connected? As the river offers up more of its gruesome secrets, Jack begins to uncover a tangled web of dangerous secrets stretching back twenty years…