Peter Turnbull

Page Updated: 06/04/2005

Page 1

Page 2

Peter Turnbull - Page 1

24 Jan 05

by Peter Turnbull

About the Author

Bibliography

First British Edition Allison & Busby (2005)

Hopes and Fears
The body of a young Russian girl is found in woods near York in midsummer but she is not just dead, she’s frozen...
DCI George Hennessey knows that there is good and bad in everyone, and everything. So when he sees the condition of the young girl’s corpse he knows that even though it signifies a terrible death, it also means that the killer must be local, as any time in transit would have affected the body’s temperature. It is just lucky that she was discovered so soon and that this vital clue remained to give a good chance of bringing the criminal to justice.
All Hennessey has to do now is find out why a naive young exchange student became the target of a callous murderer. Was she killed by a jealous lover? Did she discover a dangerous secret? Or was she simply the victim of a vicious psychopath? The girl’s background suggests nothing sinister at first, in fact no one seems to know her. But Hennessey is sure they are lying. Somehow she is connected to some of York’s less attractive elements and one of them has killed her. Armed only with two obscure leads - a strange beggar girl and a single name - York’s finest detective, aided by forensic pathologist Louise D’Acre and fellow CID officer Yellich, is determined to catch the killer.
Hopes and Fears is a tense, psychological thriller that sees Hennessey following a trail that leads from York’s sinister under- ground to its high society. It is the eighth novel to feature George Hennessey, Tumbull’s brooding, thoughtful detective introduced in Fear of Drowning, and his assistant Yellich.
Praise for Peter Turnbull
`The best of our home-grown police proceduralists’ The Guardian
`Pulses with authenticity and atmosphere’ The Times
As good as the genre can get’ The Scotsman
A master’ The Sunday Times
`Exciting, atmospheric, unmistakably authentic’ The Literary Review
`Meticulously documented ... satisfying’ The Listener
`Our own mean streets done to a turn by Turnbull’ The Times
`Few can rival Turnbull for dire authenticity’ The Observer
`Starkly told and distinctly scary’ The Daily Telegraph
`Grips like the devil’s forceps’ The Observer

First British Edition Allison & Busby (2004)

Reality Checkpoint
One hot summer afternoon, taking his habitual route across the Fens, a walker strays from the marked path and, stopping to take a drink, glances down. Gleaming white in the sun, a skull is visible in the long grass. Excavating the grave, the police discover the remains of clothing, a rusted zip fastener. The skeleton is less than seventy years old: the death is a matter for the police.
Assigned to the case is DI Sydney Household. With the invaluable information provided by forensic pathologist, Veronica Sleaford, he manages to identify the body as that of Edward de Beer, a student who went missing suddenly from his digs in the early 1970s. Then, as now, Cambridge was divided firmly into ‘town’ and ‘gown’ ; the lamp-post on Parker’s Piece, ‘Reality Checkpoint’, the infamous marker between the two. De Beer seemed to have been caught between these different worlds but now, thirty years later, there seems little hope of finding out what really happened.
More pressing for the CID is the ‘Cambridge Panther’ - a man who is terrorising the young female community, abducting girls from the street and holding them hostage for days at a time. Leads are few, and the fear is that next time he may kill. When the Panther claims another victim the hunt is on, but very soon the dividing lines between past and present begin to blur...
Atmospheric and utterly compelling, Reality Checkpoint is the latest novel from a master of suspense.

First British Edition harpercollins (1999)

Fear of Drowning
First in an impressive new crime series from the author of the acclaimed P Division novels.

When middle-aged couple Max and Amanda Williams go missing from their home near York, Chief Inspector Hennessey suspects they may have been murdered and his worst fears are realised when their bodies are found in a shallow grave. Trapped beneath their bodies is a cheap biro bearing the name of Sheringham's, a local health club.
As Hennessey and Sergeant Yellich investigate, they uncover the sordid reality behind the Williamses' apparently blameless middle class existence: the affair between Amanda and health club owner Tim Sheringham, the bankruptcy Max announced at a family dinner just before his death, the threats from Richardson, a local builder swindled out of thousands of pounds. When the possibility of a conspiracy between Sheringham and Richardson comes to light, it looks as though the case is solved, but things are not always what they seem…

First British Edition Collins Crime (1996)

Embracing Skeletons
See Review by Val McDermid - Gold Dagger winner & creator of Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan & Tony Hill
Marston Moor - site of the Civil War battle - has been peaceful for centuries. Now violence has visited it again. The body of a child is found - part incinerated, half starved and worse. The detectives of York CID have seen some shocking deaths in their careers, but this murder is different.
For DC Carmen Pharaoh, fresh from London and struggling to make her mark, this could offer an opportunity for some proper detective work - as long as she doesn't get sidelined by her boss Leif Vossian. Vossian himself has a personal stake in the case - it brings back an appalling tragedy from his own past. Then there is the police pathologist, Bill Hatch, saddled with a sulky teenage daughter, who remembers hearing about a similar killing in another part of the country years earlier - is it connected?
Disturbing undercurrents underlie the investigation almost from the start. An eyewitness offers evidence as to who dumped the body but other information points to the existence of a more widespread evil than the murder of a single child. A young burglar, a local landowner, the newcomers on a housing estate, a convicted pornographer, a supposed schizophrenic - all appear to be involved, but in what? Vossian and his team are faced with an almost impossible task, one given an added edge when the suspicion arises that there is a traitor in their midst.

First British Edition harpercollins (1994)

The Killing Floor
An understandable error by a motorist leads to the discovery of a decomposed headless and handless corpse in the garden of a house in one of Glasgow's more prestigious suburbs. For Glasgow's P Division, the first task is to identify the body - an identification which reveals a person with a talent for making enemies.
Then there is another killing - a murderous stabbing in an east end housing scheme and the police investigation takes on an added urgency. The whiff of corruption is in the air, and soon they are unravelling a thirty-year-old fraud of massive proportions which, if made public, would shake the city to its very foundations.
Peter Turnbull's Glasgow-based P Division crime novels have earned him a reputation as the best British author writing in this genre, and The Killing Floor is a very fine addition to this admired series.

About The Author
Peter Turnbull is the author of nineteen previous novels and numerous works of short fiction. He worked for many years as a social worker in Glasgow before returning to his native Yorkshire.

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

Hopes and Fears (Allison & Busby, 2005) Jan 05 ( Hennessey & Yellich)

Reality Checkpoint (Allison & Busby, 2004)

Dark Secrets (Severn House, 2003) ( Hennessey & Yellich)

All Roads Leadeth (Severn House, 2003) ( Hennessey & Yellich)

After the Flood (Severn House, 2002) ( Hennessey & Yellich)

The Return (Severn House, 2001)

Perils and Dangers (Severn House, 2001)

Deathtrap (Severn House, 2000)

Fear of Drowning (harpercollins, 1999) ( Hennessey & Yellich)

Horses in an Autumn Landscape ( 1998) Jul 98

The Justice Game (Severn House, 1998) Severn House Sep 98

The Man With No Face ( 1998) Headline Apr 98 ( P Division)

Embracing Skeletons (Collins Crime, 1996)

The Killing Floor (harpercollins, 1994) ( P Division)

Long Day Monday ( 1992) ( P Division)

And Did Murder Him (Collins Crime, 1991) ( P Division)

Condition Purple (Collins Crime, 1989) ( P Division)

Two Way Cut ( 1988) ( P Division)

Big Money ( 1984) ( P Division)

Fair Friday (Collins Crime, 1983) ( P Division)

Dead Knock (Collins Crime Club, 1982)

Deep and Crisp and Even ( 1981) ( P Division)