Drake and Hepple Mysteries on Amazon and Kindle (5 volumes)
volume 5
The badly mutilated body of a woman floats down the River Dee in Chester and disturbs evening drinkers at a popular pub on the riverbank. Detective Chief Inspector Drake and his sergeant, Grace Hepple, investigate. Their first problem is that it proves almost impossible to identify the victim, and nobody has reported a missing person.
Eventually, she is identified as a highly successful painter. Gradually, her somewhat tortured personal life begins to emerge. Before long, Drake and Hepple are working on a confusing mystery. They discover a world in which they have no experience. It seems art has a dark side. It is run by ruthless crime syndicates working across at least three countries.
Drake and Hepple also discover a curious quasi-religious sect. It has had a disastrous effect on the victim’s life. But has it also had a hand in her death?
volume 4
The historic city of Chester has just built a new concert hall thanks to the generosity of an anonymous benefactor. A gala concert is organized to celebrate the opening and an internationally famous flautist, Evinka Whyte who lives locally, has agreed to play. The concert is however, marred by a dramatically sinister event.
DCI Drake and his assistant DS Grace Hepple are called in to investigate. They soon discover that Evinka Whyte had a confusing and mysterious private life. This is made more complex by the history of her illustrious but secretive family. The investigation takes Drake to that most historic and musical city of Prague where the mystery deepens.
volume 3
In FATAL PRACTICE an internationally famous architect, Sir Julian Porter, fails to turn up to the public launch of a series of new landmark buildings for the UK Government. Detective Chief Inspector Drake and his assistant DS Grace Hepple are called in to investigate. They begin their work in the historic city of Chester where Porter’s architectural practice is located. Drake soon discovers that Sir Julian seems to have made many enemies. Some strangely mutilated bodies become the focus of the investigation. One is in Chester and another on the Malaysian Island of Penang where the practice is designing a prestigious housing development.
These two murders appear linked but the question is how? The case leads Drake into dangerous water involving organised crime and a mysterious oriental cult.
volume 2
Lord Richard MacCracken, a minister for the arts in the British Government, disappears during the interval of a performance at Covent Garden. He seems to have vanished WITHOUT TRACE between the two acts of an opera. The nightmare gets darker when the postman delivers a copy of the Royal Opera House programme. It contains death threats and a set of the victim’s bloody fingerprints. DCI Drake and his assistant DS Grace Hepple are called in to recover Lord MacCracken safely and discover who is holding him.
The kidnappers have covered their tracks with a web of deception that leads Drake around the world. The sinister and dramatic crimes he uncovers could have come straight from the operatic stage.
volume 1
A member of the Singapore Parliament is found murdered on a footbridge in Chester. A DEGREE OF DEATH is a crime novel about the past sneaking up on the present and making a real mess of things. It is September 2005. Murky oriental history is entangled with events at Deva University in Chester, a brand new institution doing its best to invent tradition. But do these new ivory towers hide more worldly pursuits, and what really goes on behind the genteel façades in the historic city of Chester?
DCI Carlton Drake is widely recognised for being as clever as he is tall and clumsy. He resumes duties after a sabbatical, taken for personal reasons, to investigate this diplomatically sensitive case. By contrast his high-flying young assistant Grace Hepple is stylish but inexperienced. Together they uncover an intriguing mystery.