“Rope Enough (The Romney and Marsh Files)” by Oliver Tidy

Newly promoted Detective Sergeant Joy Marsh is shipped out to Dover on the Kent coast to work under Detective Inspector Romney, a copper with a reputation as a cantankerous bastard, but good at his job. On her first night as his Sergeant a brutal crime in the town starts a chain of events that will test the mettle, the resolve and the detective in both of them.

“The Turtle Boy (The Timmy Quinn Series (Book One))” by Kealan Patrick Burke

School is out and summer has begun. For eleven year old Timmy Quinn and his best friend Pete Marshall, the dreary town of Delaware Ohio becomes a place of magic, hidden treasure and discovery.

But on the day they encounter a strange young boy sitting on the bank of Myers Pond, a pond playground rumor says may hide turtles the size of Buicks, everything changes.

For it soon becomes apparent that dark secrets abound in the little community, secrets which come cupped in the hands of the dead, and in a heartbeat, Timmy and Pete’s summer of wonder becomes a season of terror, betrayal and murder.

“A Reason To Kill (DI Matt Barnes)” by Michael Kerr

Book 1 in the DI Matt Barnes Series.

Detective Inspector Matt Barnes is a cop dedicated to his job at the expense of all else. He and his team are protecting the star witness in the upcoming trial of gangland boss, Frank Santini.

All aspects of Matt’s life are altered forever when Santini hires a contract killer, Gary Noon, to hit the safe house. Only Matt survives the onslaught of an inventive and sadistic killer, but is left seriously wounded.

The subsequent search for Noon is both a personal and professional challenge, during which Matt is aided by Criminal Psychologist Dr. Beth Holder, who is brought in to build a profile on Noon.

The man they seek comes to consider Matt a threat to his continued wellbeing, and determines to eliminate him.

As Matt and Beth’s relationship flourishes, more people die at Noon’s hand, and events conspire to bring the cop and killer ever closer to a deadly showdown.

With an unknown enemy within New Scotland Yard, Santini’s goons hunting for him, and a second imported hitman also on his trail, Matt knows that the odds against him surviving by outmanoeuvring the various factions are at best slim.

Noon is the personification of evil; a psychopath using violence and cruelty to feed his sadistic needs. He considers himself a hunter: his fellow man, and especially Matt Barnes, the prey.