Showing results by author "J. M. Gregson" in Literature & Fiction

Cajoled into auditioning for a local play by the formidable Mrs Dalrymple, Bert Hook finds that amateur dramatics are not quite as he imagined. He meets a rather surprising cast of characters: moody Michael Carey, a talented actor with a big future ahead of him; shoplifter Becky Clegg, who claims she has put her disreputable past behind her; and Jack Dawes, with a history of violent crime.

When Liz Upson reports that her husband, Matthew, has gone missing, he’s not exactly top priority for Detective Sergeant Bert Hook - he’s just one of thousands of missing persons reported each year. Anyway, Mrs Upson makes it clear that her husband may be missing, but he’s not missed. But when his body turns up with a bullet in the head in the Malvern Hills, Hook and his superintendent, John Lambert, have a formidable and complex case on their hands.

When Darren Chivers, a small-time drug dealer, narrowly escapes a drug arrest, he begins to develop a different sort of criminal activity. Blackmail proves lucartive, but ultimately dangerous. When Chivers is murdered, Chief Superintendent Lambert, DS Hook and the rest of the team uncover a variety of suspects in the murky world where Chivers operated.

Superintendent John Lambert finds that a round of golf is the perfect diversion, especially when he’s beating – and offering patronising tips to – his sergeant, Bert Hook. Hook isn’t having much fun, but when he tops a ball horribly, he comes across something far, far more horrible lying in a ditch. The dead young woman, it turns out, was not only a drug dealer, but she was also on the game.

As the Masonic Lodge Ladies' Night comes to a close and the guests drift away, a man is found in the car park, garroted at his steering wheel. Murder is no laughing matter, of course, but why look a gift horse in the mouth? DI Percy Peach has always taken a special pleasure in taunting his superior, Superintendent Tucker, about the indiscretions of his fellow Masons - now he's been given a free hand to dig up any amount of dirt about the secret order.

Lydon Hall is a house full of character, as the estate agent's literature claims. But its many interesting features should surely not include a corpse in the elegant drawing-room? Is this death the suicide it appears to be? The investigation centres upon a tight-knit village community. Both the glamorous French widow of the deceased and the man who lives rough on the moor after a mental breakdown seem to know more about this death than is at first apparent.