by Ted Tayler
DCI Phil Hounsell pitted his wits against Colin before, so he is sent to Durham, where he teams up with super intelligent young DS Zara Wheeler; together, they track their man to Manchester and then eventually south to Bath. The final scenes take place on the Roman city streets; Phil Hounsell’s family is threatened. In a dramatic conclusion reminiscent of Holmes and Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls, the two men struggle above the historic Pulteney Weir's foaming waters.
A Sting In The Tale
A collection of twelve short stories, each with an unexpected twist at the end. Love stories, ghost stories, and tales of revenge sprinkled with a touch of humour.
For young or old, there is something for everyone from the elderly bookshop owner with an unusual talent and his summer of love with a young schoolteacher. To the haunting account of the journey on the last bus back to town from the heart of the countryside. Each story has characters and situations you will recognise. But will you identify the 'sting in the tale' before you turn that final page?
The Phoenix Series
The Olympus Project
Rescued by strangers from a watery grave and given a new identity.
The Phoenix is a stone-cold killer.
An ideal fit for the Olympus Project, a secret organisation fighting injustice.
With hard, fast action and a cast of characters you can reach out and touch, this is the thriller series for which you’ve been searching.
Gold, Silver, and Bombs
The eyes of the world are on London 2012.
British security services anticipate an organised terror attack.
Safety is paramount. What if the real danger comes from a lone wolf?
Don’t miss the page-turning intensity of the second story in this gripping series.
Nothing Is Ever Forever
The action never slows. The tension never slackens.
The Phoenix stares death in the face once more.
Detectives Hounsell and Wheeler return.
The past threatens to catch up with Phoenix.
What will the future hold for the Project? What dramas lie ahead? After all, nothing is ever forever.
In The Lap Of The Gods
Olympus battle vicious gangsters on home soil. The body count rises.
Dimitar Marinov cements his reputation as the most brutal criminal to have set foot on UK soil.
Phoenix and Athena attend their first meeting with Zeus and the other Gods.
If you’re a fan of savage, underworld criminals, fast-paced action and intense characters, then you’ll enjoy following the Olympus Project and its fight against evil. Take a deep breath; once you start, you’ll want to keep turning pages until the end.
The Price Of Treachery
The Olympians and the Titans are in a power struggle.
A traitor inside Larcombe Manor must be uncovered.
There’s a new life to protect as Athena prepares to become a mother.
All these story threads in book five are woven together to produce a rich tapestry of good and evil.
Life’s all about balance. Who will win the day to face ‘A New Dawn’ that awaits?
A New Dawn
A rogue cosmetic surgeon causes the deaths of several patients.
Drug dealers target young children. The school gates are the latest point-of-sale.
The Project’s leaders need to strengthen the organisation after the recent attempted coup.
The Titans may have been defeated, but a new era dawns. The nightmares are far from over.
Who is the mastermind behind this network? Can Olympus prevent it from gaining a stranglehold? Time will tell.
Something Wicked Draws Near
Newly-weds Phoenix and Athena battle The Grid and its leader Hugo Hanigan.
Olympus seeks fresh faces to join the Gods and provide finance for its missions.
Grid gang leader, Tommy O’Riordan, is convicted of murder.
Hugo Hanigan immediately takes bloody revenge.
A nostalgic trip to Dublin for Hugo Hanigan brings the curtain down on this part of The Grid’s story. It continues in the eighth book, ‘Evil Always Finds A Way’.
Evil Always Finds A Way
The drama unfolds over forty days and forty nights across the UK.
The Grid’s story continues as death becomes a constant companion to Phoenix and his colleagues.
Can Olympus halt the reign of terror perpetrated by The Grid?
When this story reaches its conclusion, one thing is sure, what follows next promises to be even more exciting and unpredictable.
Revenge Comes In Many Colours
Justice and revenge are to the fore.
A senior Grid members meeting has a dramatic conclusion.
Colleen O’Riordan strengthens her grip in the capital.
Who is her secret assassin?
What does the future hold for Hugo Hanigan?
The excitement never lets up as the vigilante organisation battles organised crime.
Step by step, the Olympus story moves closer to its final instalments.
Three Weeks In September
The Grid becomes all-powerful under its new leadership. The UK is on the brink.
An onslaught from organised crime combined with attacks by Islamist extremists takes its toll.
Can Olympus stem the tide without revealing its hand? These are some of the story threads in this tenth Phoenix book. The pace is relentless. There are enough passion, excitement and tragedy to last a lifetime. All squeezed into three weeks.
A Frequent Peal Of Bells
The Islamist terror attacks resume.
The Grid wields its power with sustained bursts of criminal activity.
Government resources are stretched to breaking point as austerity cuts hamper their response.
Packed with current political and economic concerns, this eleventh book retains the intensely realistic feel of the whole Phoenix Series.
Larcombe Manor
Can Olympus continue to thwart the ambitions of the all-powerful Grid? Will the authorities uncover the truth behind the Olympus Project? Can the Larcombe families survive the troubled waters that lay ahead? These are the unanswered questions. Many dangers face the Olympus agents before the climactic conclusion of this final book in The Phoenix Series.
The Freeman Files Series
Fatal Decision
Gus Freeman is a retired Detective Inspector who has spent the past three years alone.
Freeman’s wife, Tess, died from a brain aneurysm six months to the day after retirement. He is still coming to terms with his enforced solitary existence.
His old boss wants Gus to head up a Crime Review Team investigating cold cases.
Gus can't resist the chance to enter the fray for one last hurrah.
Last Orders
A newly-formed Crime Review Team is investigating cold cases that defied their colleagues. Austerity cuts mean that Gus Freeman only has a team of three to assist him.
‘Last Orders’ follows Trudi Villiers' case, a 26-year old barmaid murdered as she walked home from the Ring O’Bells pub in October 2003. Trudi may have been a good-time girl with a string of lovers, but she was someone’s daughter, and Gus wants his team to find the truth about what happened to her on that fateful night.
Pressure Point
Laura Mallinder left home for work on Sunday, 12th June 2011. She walked to ‘Gentle Touch’, a massage parlour in Broadgreen, Swindon. Her boss, Maggie Monk, discovered her body later that evening. Laura, twenty-seven years old, sustained fatal stab wounds to her back.
Gus Freeman’s Crime Review Team has two successful cold case investigations behind them. Will it be the third time lucky? The victim’s profession might make it hard to find someone to speak out. ‘Pressure Point’ has a wide array of characters and offers action, romance, humour and drama.
Deadly Formula
Dr Ian McGuire, a research scientist, was shot dead in his kitchen in 2004.
Th
e original investigation found no motive, no leads, and no suspects.
Gus Freeman and his Crime Review Team have a tough cold case to solve.
In this fourth book in the series, the case becomes the least of their worries.
Final Deal
Will the frantic search for DI Suzie Ferris and her kidnapper have a successful outcome? Can Gus end the careers of the corrupt senior officers behind her disappearance? Despite everything, the Crime Review Team has another cold case to unravel.
Dennis Gates was shot dead in August 2010. His killer was never found. The team members have their own crises to face. Will they buckle under the pressure?
Final Deal has two stories woven together to produce a gripping climax, not to miss.
Barking Mad
Why did pet shop owner Mark Malone die in a hail of bullets in May 2015?
Gus and the Crime Review Team face many questions but have few answers.
Killer Ricky Gardiner is on the run from the police. Who will catch up with him first?
Tragedy and triumph intertwine in another gripping instalment in The Freeman Files
Barking Mad has a variety of characters and story threads that keep you turning pages.
Creature Discomforts
A lone sniper killed Grant Burnside, the leader of a violent gang, in May 2014.
Four years later, Gus Freeman and his team reviewed a case that refused to give up any answers.
Why does every stone they turn over lead to the solving of unrelated crimes?
The Burnside family prides itself on being impregnable. Nobody speaks out against them and lives.
Gus keeps digging away at the foundations until the fortress topples like a house of cards. But will Gus find Grant Burnside’s killer?
Silent Terror
A brutal murder occurred at a remote bungalow in January 2013.
Gus Freeman reviews the murder of Ursula Wakeley, a seventy-eight-year-old spinster.
Why did the former librarian become a victim? Was it a robbery or something more sinister?
Alex Hardy returns to the fold, and new girl Blessing Umeh joins the Crime Review Team.
With a strong cast of characters, this gripping series provides more twists than a corkscrew.
Night Train
Ivan Kendall died in a station toilet eighty miles from home in March 2014.
Why did the quiet family man travel to Westbury from South Wales so late at night?
The Crime Review Team tackle two cold cases in an intriguing ninth title in the series.
The team closes in on Grant Burnside’s assassin an old adversary stands in their way.
Suzie Ferris moves in with Gus, and Lydia Logan Barre finds her father.
All Things Bright
Stacey Read was thirteen and a half when she disappeared.
Police found Stacey's body in the canal ten days later.
Gus Freeman and his team are reviewing the unsolved case.
All things bright and beautiful. Nothing is ever what it seems.
Gus has his work cut out in this tenth cold case as the real horror gets revealed.
Buried Secrets
Alan Duncan met Maddy Mills at a party. They fell in love and moved in together.
What led to Alan’s murder as he went on his weekly run four years later?
Gus Freeman suspects that both Alan and Maddy were hiding from someone.
This intriguing and complex case takes all Gus’s skill to unravel.
Life is never dull for Gus, his team, and the other characters in his life.
A Genuine Mistake
A wealthy businessman lay dead on his doorstep from a single shot to the head.
Gerry Hogan was an honest, hard-working family man with no known enemies.
His young sons stood frozen with shock as Gerry’s partner cradled him in her arms.
When Gus and the team interview Gerry’s friends and family, they get a shock.
At the start, they had a handful of suspects. Soon they had too many. Why?
The twelfth case for the Crime Review Team is their most baffling mystery so far.
Strange Beginnings
Who stabbed Marion Reeves in a frenzied attack in her car back in March 2011?
Marion’s past holds the answer, but dark forces blocked the original investigation.
Gus Freeman confronts a group of wealthy people desperate to hide the truth.
Each witness interview provides another missing piece of the jigsaw.
Can Gus complete the picture and unmask the killer?
The thirteenth case for the Crime Review Team keeps you turning pages to the end.
The Long Hard Road
Are you searching for real characters and original storylines?
Do you want books that you can't put down?
For anyone that hasn't read me before, this collection gives a flavour of what to expect.
Why not give it a try? I can't promise French hens or turtle-doves, but two short stories, two anecdotes, three blog posts, poems, a sketch, a dash of humour, and a full-length novel to enjoy.
