Priscilla Masters at Tangled Web UK

Page Updated: 09/07/2007

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Priscilla Masters - Page 1

Slipknot

25 Jun 07

Wings Over the Watcher

River Deep

A Plea of Insanity

Endangering Innocents

About the Author (Photo (c) Andrea Dale)

Bibliography

First British Edition Allison & Busby (2007)

Slipknot
Hiding from the truth brings dark and fatal consequences
Callum Hughes has been labelled a killer and a psycho. He has been labelled by the press, by his classmates and most of all by the family of the boy he stabbed. Roger Gough has been labelled a victim. He is described by everyone that the police question as a sporty. funny and popular boy who was brutally murdered by Callum. At least, that’s what his friends and family are saying.
But things are rarely so black and white.
The coroner. Martha Gunn, a widow who is also dealing with her son moving out of the family home to attend a football academy, understands the pain of loss and the importance of justice for the dead. When Callum is found dead in his cell just two days after his arrest, it is accepted that he simply could not cope with his new environment and killed himself. Was such a timid and intelligent boy really capable of motiveless murder? Indeed, was he really capable of taking his own life?
Martha dares to dig a little hit deeper, unravelling a truth that is far more disturbing and distressing than anything the papers could have made up. She is determined to solve the mystery and reveal the truth behind the destroyed lives of two very different boys.
A deeply fascinating and unsettling read from the skilled pen of Priscilla Masters.
Praise for Priscilla Masters
'More than a match for Rendell and Christie' Hampstead and Highgate Express
‘It’s always a joy to discover a crime writer with a sure touch and the capacity to shock. More please and soon’ Peter Lovesey
‘One of the most respected and prolific writers of crime fiction in Britain.’ Shropshire Star
A deservedly acclaimed author’ Tangled Web
`Powerful novel well anchored in contemporary events’ The Guardian
`Deft mixture of life in a small town with the kind of crime that Christie couldn’t abide - actual bloody murders performed by working-class people’ Chicago Tribune
‘Something of a small masterpiece of crime writing’ Sherlock Holmes
‘Expertly crafted’ Good Book Guide
‘Highly recommended. This is one of those books that every so often you look up and around the room to confirm to yourself that you are safe!’ Mystery Woman

First British Edition Allison & Busby (2005)

Wings Over the Watcher
Dedicated to her profession, DI Joanna Piercy has built her imposing reputation on the foundations of thorough investigative police work. A stalwart of the force, her years chalked up in the service have taught her to trust instinct over the speculation of co-workers and locals. However, the job which had once excited and intrigued her with every passing day, has now fallen into a familiar pattern of form filling and snide office banter. Distracted from her duty, by her recent miscarriage and split with her partner Matthew, Joanna is battling through this painful emotional period alone. She finds solace in her work, yet her focus and coherence are out of sync. She resorts to formulaic solutions to resolve her cases. Having seen the same situations time and time again, she assumes all cases have a simple repetitive answer.
So when Arthur Pennington enters her office in a state of confused distress and reports his wife Beatrice missing. Joanna does not reciprocate the same concern. Convinced that his wife is merely involved in an extra-marital affair, Joanna is dismissive of Arthur’s concerns. But when Beatrice’s strangled body is discovered recklessly dumped on the Leek moorlands, she is forced to revaluate her stance. Unbeknown to even her closest family, Beatrice had been harbouring a secret and dangerously obsessive infatuation, which had grown from her deep-rooted insecurities and low self-esteem. Joanna knew that unrequited love could be hurtful, but fatal?
Continuing the DI Joanna Piercy mystery series, Wings Over the Watcher delves deep within the complex puzzle of the female psyche, examining the warped impact marital neglect can have on a woman’s mental stability.

First British Edition Allison & Busby (2004)

River Deep
See Review by Cath Staincliffe - Author of the highly acclaimed Sal Kilkenny Mysteries set on the Mean Streets of Manchester
See Review by Martin Edwards - creator of the highly acclaimed, Liverpool based Harry Devlin Mysteries
One of the most idyllic towns in England, Shrewsbury is usually a very placid place. But when the River Severn bursts its banks, nature can turn ugly...
Coroner Martha Gunn is among the first to be called to the scene when a man’s body is found in a small cottage fronting the river. Floating face-down in the rising water, it appears to have been raised from the cellar by the flood. In the dark and fetid cottage, Martha’s instincts tell her that this is a homicide - a hunch borne out by the post mortem.
But there are many questions about the dead man’s identity. He is initially thought to be James Humphreys, a respectable, middle-aged businessman who had rented the cottage a couple of months ago, and had recently gone missing. The corpse certainly fits his description. Yet when Mr Humphreys’ wife, Cressida, comes to identify the body, she is adamant that it is not her husband. So who is it? Why has he been murdered? And where has the real Mr Humphreys gone?
A tense and gripping mystery, River Deep is the first in a series featuring Martha Gunn and set in the old market town of Shrewsbury.

First British Edition Allison & Busby (2004)

A Plea of Insanity
See Review by Martin Edwards - creator of the highly acclaimed, Liverpool based Harry Devlin Mysteries
On a late summer Monday, Doctor Claire Roget takes up her new post of clinical psychiatrist at Greatbach Secure Psychiatrist Unit in the Midlands city of Stoke on Trent. Six months ago, her predecessor Heidi Faro was brutally murdered in her office by one of the inmates, Stefan Giulio, who suffers from brain damage. As Claire is adjusting to her new job, she becomes increasingly suspicious that someone else might have been involved in the murder...

Paperback - Allison & Busby (2004)

Endangering Innocents
Something is amiss at a small primary school in the village of Horton. A local man, Joshua Baldwin, has been sitting in his car outside the school watching the children as they play. So DI Joanna Piercy is called out to investigate. She meets with the teachers and with Baldwin and eventually decides there is nothing to worry about.
She is terribly wrong. A few days later little Madeline Wiltshaw goes missing. Joanna is distraught that she trusted her gut instinct so implicitly, that she was not more suspicious of Baldwin. The coming weeks will be a testing time for Joanna, as she desperately tries to find the child. But with foot and mouth disease ruling the surrounding countryside off-limits, Joanna’s task looks almost impossible...
'All the Joanna Piercy police procedurals are excellent… If you've not read any of Master's books, do' Yorkshire Post
`Deft mixture of life in a small town with the kind of crime that Christie couldn’t abide - actual bloody murders performed by working-class people’ Chicago Tribune
A gripping whodunit, which keeps you guessing to the last’ Sentinel Sunday
`Masters has a couple of tricks up her sleeve before the mystery is resolved’ Birmingham Post

About The Author
(In Her Own Words)
All my books are contemporary police procedurals set in the moorlands of Staffordshire and the small town of Leek and feature Detective Inspector Joanna Piercy, a feminine feminist who likes cycling and her (married) pathologist boyfriend, Doctor Matthew Levin. Ably supported by half Polish body building Detective Mike Korpanski she sets about ridding the moorlands of its too frequent homicides. And as far me, I was born in Halifax, Yorkshire, in 1952, spent a brief few years in Bristol before my family returned to the Welsh mining valleys where I started reading detective stories in my wooden Romany caravan and scaring myself half to death. Then I began writing and really did scare myself. Married to a doctor I currently work as a GP attached nurse, healing the sick and mentally murdering people. Having decided that far from the thin veneer of being a "caring" profession doctors can be really nasty people I've now just finished a medical crime novel with a female doctor threatened and manipulated by her patients. And treated none too well by her husband either!

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Bibliography
N.B. dates and publishers in dark red indicate British First Editions. Dates and publishers in black indicate recent reprints.

Slipknot (Allison & Busby, 2007) Jun 07

Wings Over the Watcher (Allison & Busby, 2005) (Joanna Piercy)

River Deep (Allison & Busby, 2004) Allison & Busby Pbk Jan 05 (Martha Gunn)

A Plea of Insanity (Allison & Busby, 2004) Allison & Busby Pbk Nov 05 (Claire Roget)

Endangering Innocents ( 2003) Allison & Busby Pbk Feb 04 (Joanna Piercy)

Disturbing Ground ( 2002) Allison & Busby Mar 02 Pbk May 03

Embroidering Shrouds ( 2001) Macmillan May 01 Pbk Mar 02

A Fatal Cut (Macmillan, 2000)

Scaring Crows (Macmillan, 1999) (Joanna Piercy)

Night Visit (Macmillan, 1998) Allison & Busby Pbk Jan 00

And None Shall Sleep (Macmillan, 1997) Allison & Busby Pbk Aug 99 (Joanna Piercy)

Catch the Fallen Sparrow (Macmillan, 1996) Allison & Busby Pbk 1998 (Joanna Piercy)

A Wreath From My Sister (Macmillan, 1995) Allison & Busby Pbk Apr 99

Winding Up the Serpent (Macmillan, 1992) Allison & Busby Pbk 1997 (Joanna Piercy)