The DCI Isaac Cook Thriller Series: Books 4 - 6: Murder (The DCI Isaac Cook Thrillers Series Boxset)

by Phillip Strang

  ‘Why are you here, Shafi?’ The Master had tears in his eyes.

  ‘I have been given a task. Why are you crying?’ Shafi was not used to seeing the Master portraying signs of weakness.

  ‘My daughter is to become a martyr.’

  ‘Surely that is a time for rejoicing?’ Shafi said.

  ‘Yes, but I have shown a weakness towards her. She was, is, a lovely person who a father could only be proud of.’

  ‘Your time is over,’ Shafi said.

  ‘I know about Haji and Yasser Lahham,’ said the Master. ‘I know that they see me as weak, unworthy of the task ahead. Are you the instrument of death?’

  ‘Yes, I have been tasked with your martyrdom,’ Shafi replied.

  ‘It is not martyrdom that I desire, just the opportunity to be near my daughter. I will not resist you.’

  The knife that Yasser Lahham had given to Shafi at the apartment was long and thin. It entered Faisal Aslam cleanly on his left side, three ribs down, and penetrated his heart. Shafi stabbed him three more times, twice in the chest, once more in the heart.

  He was neither sad nor angry with what he had done. He only regretted that his attempts to distance himself from crime continued unabated. He hoped that either the Prof or Isaac Cook would protect him, regardless of which side won.

  ***

  Clifford Bell was enjoying the reception. It was good to be in the company of people who showed him the necessary respect. Even Anne Argento had excused herself, something to do with a pressing issue in her electorate.

  Sara Styles introduced herself to the Prime Minister after he left one group of relatives heading to another. The glass of beer he held in his hand was almost empty, and he was looking for another. He was a moderate drinker, but it was a relaxed environment, almost a party, and he had taken two beers. He should not have drunk more, but he thought a third would not do any harm.

  ‘I’m Sara Styles. My husband was an officer on the Ambush.’

  ‘Pleased to meet you, Mrs Styles. Would you like another drink?’ the Prime Minister asked.

  ‘White wine would be fine.’

  ‘Waiter, a white wine for Mrs Styles and a beer for me,’ the Prime Minister asked the white-coated, white-gloved waiter who hovered to one side. He turned back to Sara. ‘And what have you been doing since the tragic accident?’

  ‘I spent some time in India.’

  ‘And what of the future?’ the Prime Minister asked.

  ‘I have no future. And neither do you?’ Sara had previously decided to say nothing before administering the lethal poison, but at the moment she felt the need to speak.

  ‘What do you…?’

  The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Clifford Bell, a good man, one-time lover of his deputy, soon to replace him, had been scratched on the back of his hand by the sharpened end of a mascara brush. The paralysis was almost instantaneous, and he collapsed to the ground.

  He was followed shortly by Sara Styles, nee Sara Aslam, the daughter of the Master, who had also scratched herself with the same brush and liberally smeared the inside of her mouth with the lipstick that had killed Ray’s mother, Mavis, in the bathroom at Downing Street. All three were to die within the hour.

  Three weeks later, Anne Argento, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, met with Isaac Cook at Chequers, the country residence since 1921 of the leader of the country. She had planned to finally seduce him the day she became leader, but there had been a war to declare, a Prime Minister to mourn, and a new and more determined Master, Yasser Lahham, to contend with.

  The End

  ALSO BY THE AUTHOR

  Death Unholy – A DI Tremayne Thriller

  All that remained were the man’s two legs and a chair full of greasy and fetid ash. Little did DI Keith Tremayne know that it was the beginning of a journey into the murky world of paganism and its ancient rituals. And it was going to get very dangerous.

  ‘Do you believe in spontaneous human combustion?’ Detective Inspector Keith Tremayne asked.

  ‘Not me. I’ve read about it. Who hasn’t?’ Sergeant Clare Yarwood answered.

  I haven’t,’ Tremayne replied, which did not surprise his young sergeant. In the months they had been working together, she had come to realise that he was a man who had little interest in the world. When he had a cigarette in his mouth, a beer in his hand, and a murder to solve he was about the happiest she ever saw him. He could hardly be regarded as one of life’s sociable people. And as for reading? The most he managed was an occasional police report or an early morning newspaper, turning first to the back pages for the racing results.

  Buy here: Amazon.

  Murder in Little Venice – A DCI Cook Thriller

  A dismembered corpse floats in the canal in Little Venice, an upmarket tourist haven in London. Its identity is unknown, but what is its significance?

  DCI Isaac Cook is baffled about why it’s there. Is it gang-related, or is it something more?

  Whatever the reason, it’s clearly a warning, and Isaac and his team are sure it’s not the last body that they’ll have to deal with.

  Buy here: Amazon.

  Murder is Only a Number – A DCI Cook Thriller

  Before she left she carved a number in blood on his chest. But why the number 2, if this was her first murder?

  The woman prowls the streets of London. Her targets are men who have wronged her. Or have they? And why is she keeping count?

  DCI Cook and his team finally know who she is, but not before she’s murdered four men. The whole team are looking for her, but the woman keeps disappearing in plain sight. The pressure’s on to stop her, but she’s always one step ahead.

  And this time, DCS Goddard can’t protect his protégé, Isaac Cook, from the wrath of the new commissioner at the Met.

  Buy here: Amazon US. Amazon UK.

  Murder House – A DCI Cook Thriller

  A corpse in the fireplace of an old house. It’s been there for thirty years, but who is it?

  It’s clearly murder, but who is the victim and what connection does the body have to the previous owners of the house. What is the motive? And why is the body in a fireplace? It was bound to be discovered eventually but was that what the murderer wanted? The main suspects are all old and dying, or already dead.

  Isaac Cook and his team have their work cut out trying to put the pieces together. Those who know are not talking because of an old-fashioned belief that a family’s dirty laundry should not be aired in public, and certainly not to a policeman – even if that means the murderer is never brought to justice!

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  Murder is a Tricky Business – A DCI Cook Thriller

  A television actress is missing, and DCI Isaac Cook, the Senior Investigation Officer of the Murder Investigation Team at Challis Street Police Station in London, is searching for her.

  Why has he been taken away from more important crimes to search for the woman? It’s not the first time she’s gone missing, so why does everyone assume she’s been murdered?

  There’s a secret, that much is certain, but who knows it? The missing woman? The executive producer? His eavesdropping assistant? Or the actor who portrayed her fictional brother in the TV soap opera?

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  Murder Without Reason – A DCI Cook Thriller

  DCI Cook faces his greatest challenge. The Islamic State is waging war in England, and they are winning.

  Not only does Isaac Cook have to contend with finding the perpetrators, but he is also being forced to commit actions contrary to his mandate as a police officer.

  And then there is Anne Argento, the prime minister’s deputy. The prime minister has shown himself to be a pacifist and is not up to the task. She needs to take his job if the country is to fight back against the Islamists.

  Vane and Martin have provided the solution. Will DCI Cook and Anne Argento be willing to follow it through? Are they able to act for the good of England, knowing tha
t a criminal and murderous action is about to take place? Do they have an option?

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  The Haberman Virus

  A remote and isolated village in the Hindu Kush mountain range in North Eastern Afghanistan is wiped out by a virus unlike any seen before.

  A mysterious visitor clad in a space suit checks his handiwork, a female American doctor succumbs to the disease, and the woman sent to trap the person responsible falls in love with him – the man who would cause the deaths of millions.

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  Hostage of Islam

  Three are to die at the Mission in Nigeria: the pastor and his wife in a blazing chapel; another gunned down while trying to defend them from the Islamist fighters.

  Kate McDonald, an American, grieving over her boyfriend’s death and Helen Campbell, whose life had been troubled by drugs and prostitution, are taken by the attackers.

  Kate is sold to a slave trader who intends to sell her virginity to an Arab Prince. Helen, to ensure their survival, gives herself to the murderer of her friends.

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  Malika’s Revenge

  Malika, a drug-addicted prostitute, waits in a smugglers' village for the next Afghan tribesman or Tajik gangster to pay her price, a few scraps of heroin.

  Yusup Baroyev, a drug lord, enjoys a lifestyle many would envy. An Afghan warlord sees the resurgence of the Taliban. A Russian white-collar criminal portrays himself as a good and honest citizen in Moscow.

  All of them are linked in an audacious plan to increase the quantity of heroin shipped out of Afghanistan and into Russia and ultimately the West.

  Some will succeed, some will die, some will be rescued from their plight and others will rue the day they became involved.

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  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Phillip Strang was born in England in the late forties, during the post-war baby boom. He had a comfortable middle-class upbringing, spending his youth, a time of innocence, in small town seventy miles west of London.

  There were relatively few rules, and as a teenager he had complete freedom, thanks to a bicycle – a three-speed Raleigh. It was in the days before mobile phones, the internet, terrorism and wanton violence. He was an avid reader of science fiction in his teenage years: Isaac Asimov, Frank Herbert, the masters of the genre. Much of what they and others mentioned has now become a reality. Science fiction has now become science fact. Still an avid reader, the author now mainly reads thrillers.

  In his early twenties, the author, with a degree in electronics engineering and a desire to see the world left the cold, damp climes of England for Sydney, Australia – his first semi-circulation of the globe. Now, forty years later, he still resides in Australia, although many intervening years were spent in a myriad of countries, some calm and safe, others no more than war zones.

  Author’s Website: http://www.phillipstrang.com

  Email; phillip@phillipstrang.com

  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PhillipStrangWriter/