The Novels
!!New for 2024!! Six Days in Kashgar and The Green Mamba have now been released by Spruce Goose Publications and are available to purchase, either as E-books or in paperback. They are distributed by Amazon, Apple Books. Kobo, Barnes & Noble etc. See the links below .
Six Days in Kashgar
What if — you were a Uyghur boy living in the oasis city of Xinjiang, on the edge of the great Taklamakan Desert, and your annoying little brother was wrongly arrested by the Chinese police . . . . .
And, in desperation, what if you kidnapped a minor Chinese official to try to get him released.
And, by accident, you captured an American Senator as well . . .
The Chinese government don’t negotiate with terrorists. But the Americans want the Senator back.
And the Chinese bungled it . . .
Ismail Samir was a good lad.
He never meant to hold half the world to ransom.
On the one side, two of the Great Powers, China and America.
They have Spy Satellites, tanks, helicopters, the Chinese Red Army, the largest intelligence service on the planet, the combined might of the American Seventh Fleet.
On the other side, Ismail.
He has some rusty rifles, half a dozen friends, a second-hand truck and a couple of camels (that he borrowed).
Maybe “They” can get lucky.
Click links below to purchase a copy
Six Days in Kashgar was long-listed for the Bridport novel prize
The Green Mamba
Andrew Finch is a man broken by the failure of his marriage, trapped by money pressures in a thankless existence of endless work and travelling, a hamster in a wheel, living a life of quiet desperation.
When, in a Cambodian airport, he meets Bullen, a boisterous American and a passing acquaintance, who offers him an unspecified ‘adventure’ with the chance of a big payday at the end of it, he accepts. What he doesn’t know is that Bullen’s adventure will become the most dangerous thing that he has ever done in his life.
Everyone likes the idea of an adventure – but they just don’t expect it to be fatal.
The Green Mamba is a novel of romance, assassins and double-crossing, spies and plots, mysterious enemies and unexpected allies, the shadow of the murderous Khmer Rouge regime, all set against the vibrant colours of Cambodia and Laos.
Click links below to purchase a copy
In the Carpathians mountains in the mid-1700s, Stefan – together with his uncle and cousin – goes up to the high pasture to destroy two dark and mysterious Creatures that have been preying on sheep – and who have now taken a village child.
But, despite succeeding, a dreadful vengeance is visited on Stefan, waking decades later to find himself marooned on that same hillside; a lost soul without form or substance – and with worst yet to come.
This is the epic story of Stefan’s life, an outcast locked in a battle with forces beyond his understanding, with the elements around him and, ultimately, with himself.
Doggedly determined to survive, he becomes an almost mythical figure in the mountains and, ultimately, emerges into a life that he could never have foreseen.
An Angel of Blizzards is a tale about the mountains, about nature, about adventure, about savagery and revenge, about mercy and finally about the endurance of the human spirit.
The Gift of Madame Xebec
Everybody loves Madame Xebec.
At the school in Serbia where she teaches, the Headmaster appreciates her, the children adore her, the parents trust and admire her; the pupils that come to her at weekends for piano lessons are fond of her. She is warm and she is kind and she is chic and she is elegant, she is thoughtful and generous and patient. She is a gifted woman.
But maybe she isn’t who they think she is. Maybe, in the ruinous aftermath of the civil war that tore Yugoslavia apart, she is hiding in plain sight. Maybe Madeleine Xebec is actually Colonel Rita Milatovic, the Commandant of the notorious Internment Camp, D9.
And it is Detektiv Misha Radjen’s job, with his small team of police officers, to discover the truth, to work his way through the apparently impossible contradictions.
But these are dangerous times in post-war Serbia; the anger and resentments that caused neighbour to turn against neighbour, friend against friend, still exist below the surface. Merely because an uneasy peace has been declared doesn’t mean that the conflicts don’t still run deep – in some people’s minds, the war isn’t over.
And all the time, Misha is struggling with his central dilemma because, in the end, beyond the evidence that seems to point in two directions at once, it all comes down to an understanding of character – could she be innocent? And if not, how could she have done the terrible things that she must have done?
The Lion and Sophie Weller
Leonard Carter (known throughout the dark underworld of London as The Lion) is a man who has achieved everything through sheer willpower. He is urbane, determined and ruthless – and serially unfaithful to his wife. To his wealthy clients he is an respectable accountant, knowledgeable, capable, well-connected – but to the upper circles of the city’s crime, he is their go-to advisor, trusted to evade their taxes, falsify their books and launder their money.
When he is told that he is terminally ill, that he’s going to lose his own life, he does what he’s always done – he steals someone else’s.
He steals the wrong one.
What if . . .
You looked in your mirror –
And didn’t recognise the person looking back at you?
This is a story of deceit, theft, secrets exposed, murder, betrayal and revenge. What happens to Leo Carter will alter his life forever, force him to experience the world as he has never seen it before – and change him more profoundly than he could have ever imagined.