Tangled Web Author Pages

Bill James --- Forget It
Severn House (0 7278 4744 9) £15.99 (writing as David Craig) Published January 1995

Detective David Brade has been assigned to protect a valuable police informant. Equipped with new identities, Geoffrey Dilsom and his family try to blend into the background of the docklands of Cardiff, but it's not going well. Dilsom's son seems to be cracking under the strain of the intensive witness protection program he and his sister have gone through. And when Brade's partner is badly injured while guarding Dilsom, Brade realises that someone is targetting his "client". Worst of all is the fact that Brade is waging a private battle of his own - because he has his own reasons for not wanting to keep Dilson alive ...
Other titles by Bill James include Lolita Man, Halo, Parade, Take and Club.

Elizabeth Peters --- Legend in Green Velvet
Severn House

It was a dream come true ....
Susan loved all things Scottish. So, when the opportunity presented itself, there was no question in her mind but that she would go in the archaelogical dig in the Highlands. It was everything she could have wanted. And more. Much more.
It was a living nightmare!
A cryptic message slipped to Susan by a sinister soap box orator was the first puzzle. Why did he choose her? Why was he chasing her? And why, Susan had to wonder, were she and the handsome young laird James Erskine suddenly being pursued by the police who wanted to talk to them about murder?
Other titles by Elizabeth Peters include, The Love Talker, Die for Love, The Night of 400 Rabbits, The Jackal's Head, The Seventh Sinner and Borrower of the Night.

Jennie Melville --- Murder has a Pretty Face
Severn House May 1995

This very unusual crime novel marks the reappearance of Woman Police Inspector Charmian Daniels, who featured in earlier stories by Jennie Melville.
Charmian was right that disorder was on its way to Deerham Hills. The first instalment had arrived in the shape of one dead man, unknown, probably murdered: and a robbery at the local furrier's which was Charmian's immediate business.
Was the strange woman who had recently come to town the catalyst which produced the violence? Or was she just a symptom of it? An eruption on the face of a patient who already has the plague? Charmian did not know. Not at first. There was nothing strange about a Woman Police Officer getting on with her job, but this was the first time it was a woman against a woman.
Short-listed for the Gold Dagger Award Murder has a Pretty Face follows the success of previous novels by Jennie Melville which include Come Home and be Killed, Axwater, Dragon's Eye and The Hunter in the Shadows.
About the Author
Jennie Melville started writing about a woman detective when she lived in Scotland. Women police officers were trained in the small university town of St. Andrews where she lived, and she became interested in one young woman with reddish hair who looked alert and clever. Jennie Melville thought she might go far, and sitting next to the local police chief one evening at dinner, she asked about her and was told she was a graduate on a rapid promotion course.
From this small encounter, Jennie Melville invented her own detective whom she called Charmian Daniels. No special reason for that, it just seemed a good name. And, since she was living in Scotland and missed England, she invented a fictional English town which she called Deerham Hills.
Melville and Charmian went on from there together. Charmian rested for a while when Jennie Melville wrote a few romantic suspense novels in which she had no place, but she returned to live and work in Windsor, Berkshire, where she is now a high ranking police officer.
The name of Jennie Melville is a pseudonym for Gwendoline Butler: it was her grandmother's name.
BIBLIOGRAPHY - Jennie Melville

• Come Home and Be Killed (Daniels) (Joseph, 1962)
• Burning Is a Substitute for Loving (Daniels) (Joseph, 1963)
• Murderers' Houses (Daniels) (Joseph, 1964)
• There Lies Your Love (Daniels) (Joseph, 1965)
• Nell Alone (Daniels) (Joseph, 1966)
• A Different Kind of’ Summer (Daniels) (Joseph,1967)
• The Hunter in the Shadows (Hodder and Stoughton, 1969)
• A New Kind of Killer, An Old Kind of Death (Daniels) (Hodder and Stoughton, 1970)
• The Summer Assassin (Hodder and Stoughton, 1971)
• Ironwood (Hodder and Stoughton, 1972)
• Nun's Castle (Hodder and Stoughton, 1974)
• Raven's Forge (Macmillan, 1975)
• Dragon's Eye (Macmillan, 1977)
• Axwater (Macmillan, 1978)
• Murder Has a Pretty Face (Daniels) (Macmillan, 1981)
• The Painted Castle (Macmillan, 1982)
• The Hand of Glass (Macmillan, 1983)
• Listen to the Children (Macmillan, 1986)
• Death in the Garden (Macmillan,1987)
• Windsor Red (Macmillan, 1988)
• A Cure for Dying (Macmillan, 1989)
• Witching Murder (Macmillan, 1990)
• Making Good Blood (Daniels)

Anthea Fraser --- The Macbeth Prophecy
Severn House July 1995

Crowthorpe seemed a pretty Lakeland village. No outward sign proclaimed it the site of ancient rivalry, whose legacy of hatred lingered into the present day. But Matthew and Philip Selby were destined to find out otherwise. Two factors singled them out: the fact that they were twins, and their life-long phobia about crows...
Yet the terrifying outcome might have been averted had not the gypsy girl at the fair made her fatal Macbeth Prophecy...
Currently secretary of the Crime Writers Association, Anthea Fraser is the author of many bestselling mysteries. Her most recent title is Presence of Mind, and she contributed to the More Women of Mystery anthology, both available from Severn House. She is known for such popular works as Gospel Makers, Three Three the Rivals and Symbols at your Door.

Jason Foss --- Byron's Shadow
Severn House August 1995

Idealistic archaeologist, Dr Jeffrey Flint cannot resist mysteries, ancient or modern. Back in his own past, a puzzling death on a Greek excavation remains unsolved. He returns to Greece to cure his own doubts about the incident. And, to attempt to relive a passionate affair with an hotelier named Lisa.
What appears to be a murder with no suspects, no clues, and no motive rapidly escalates into a conspiracy which stretches back in time. The couple probe twenty-three centuries of Greek history to uncover a tale of romance, heroism, death and betrayal. Greeks, Romans, Turks, Germans, Americans and eccentric Englishmen throw their shadow across the plot, but who and where is Byron?
Flint makes a welcome return to build upon the great success of his first appearance in Shadow in the Corn, in this, his second novel.

Jason Foss --- Shadesmoor
Severn House

When a field archaeologist is clubbed to death with a stone axe, who better to step into his boots than Dr Jeffrey Flint? Promotion, a chance to move north and the task of leading the Shadesmoor project is too great to resist, but he knows there must be a catch.
Flint has not only to excavate a site, but must also dig his way out of a morass of intrigue and corruption. Towering over the scene is Shadesmoor Castle; haunted, besieged, now shuddering under the onslaught of development. Progress is costly, and someone is about to pay the price.
About the Author
Jason Foss alias Dr Jason Monaghan, uses his own archaeological background to bring to life the character of Jeffrey Flint.
Foss previously lived in York and has recently moved to Guernsey, his wife's native island, yet still commutes between the two. He has worked on excavations at home and abroad and more recently worked on a Roman shipwreck in St Peter Port harbour, Guernsey. He is a Roman pottery specialist and has published several academic papers and books on archaeology, pottery and military history.
Foss has written stories since he was a child and was a member of a local writers circle in York. It was from this area that his pen name originated as he crossed the river Foss each morning on his way to work. He is currently working on a third Flint story.

Dennis Casley Death Understates
Constable November 1995

Chief Inspector Odhiambo, en route from Cornwall to Kenya, feels out of place in Washington, D.C., where his wife Cari moves easily between international deals and the Georgetown arty crowd. He is thrust back centre stage when his father-in-law is suspected of the murder of an international banker - and promptly disappears.
As he doggedly moves around scenic Washington, Odhiambo's every move is watched by diplomats and killers and more bodies impede his search for the truth until he faces death himself in an untended rain forest within sight of the White House.
As Odhiambo in this third mystery continues his odyssey, with death as his constant companion, Dennis Casley exhibits again his sure touch with exotic locations and fast-moving plots.

Richard Hunt --- Cure for Killers
Constable November 1995

When news of a secret research project into an effective cure for drug addiction was leaked to a top-level conference, the Chief Constable of the Cambridgeshire Constabulary and his colleague DCI Sidney Walsh feared that half the world's hitmen would descend on their patch to wipe the research team off the map.
They were not far wrong. The first direct hit on the Neurological Research Laboratory killed one of the two leading scientists and provoked a seious mental breakdown in the other. Was this the work of some crazy animal rights activist or of the elusive DaSilva, trouble-shooter for the international underworld of organised crime, who had reportedly slipped into England?

Alan Hunter --- Jackpot!
Constable October 1995

What happens to a man when he hits the jackpot? Irascible Kenneth Wicks was from honest, working-class stock, a drayman in the brewery. Then the miracle happened: riches beyond dreams; big house, fast car, fast girls, booze unlimited, free days, parties in London....
After one such, driving home, he stopped at favourite spot in the forest, only to find a decrepit figure profaning the sacred spot, begging the price of a drink.
When Kenneth had taken his hands from the man's throat the wretch was dead.
Guilt does strange things to a man. When Kenneth was unfortunate enough to meet in his local the wise, acutely perceptive Chief Superintendent George Gently - local celebrity meets local celebrity - his luck ran out...