by W H Oxley
For Scotland Yard and the criminal fraternity, however, it is business as usual. When a pawnbroker’s assistant is wounded by a gunman wearing a gasmask, it appears to be a straightforward case of a bungled armed robbery, but as Detective Inspector Hawker of the Flying Squad, a devoted disciple of Sherlock Holmes, proceeds with his investigation, the more facts he uncovers the more confusing the affair becomes. A red-headed soldier, a missing gun, a dead cat, an empty violin case and a damaged violin are only a few of the threads that have to be unravelled before he can wrap up the case.
The Missing Gun is available for free download at this store.
*****
Steam: rocking’n’railing
Southend-on Sea at the start of the sixties sexual revolution, Monte Carlo at the start of the millennium, a humorous rock’n'rail tale involving a steam engine, a carousel, a girl forever new, a situation prone guy, a rock band of hopefuls, a policeman’s testicles, a couple of gangster twins, an Alsatian dog, a French poodle and a jukebox-full of songs.
Some people are accident prone; Ricky is situation prone. It was all a misunderstanding of course, he’d only been out walking the dog, and the situation would never have arisen if that copper hadn’t had a bit too much imagination. But apart from the gossip, living in a village had another downside for an aspiring guitar-man: there was nowhere to plug it. So it was definitely time for him to hit the road in search of fame, fortune and an electrical connection.
Overnight fame being a bit impractical, he gets a job as a fireman on a steam engine while trying to build a rock band from scratch, but the situations just keep on coming and his past keeps dogging him.
*****
An Accidental Millionaire
Once upon a time in Monte Carlo, there was an Englishman, an Irishman and a pig.
A conman’s job is not an easy one, and defrauding a Monte Carlo bank can be a bit tricky, especially if you are trying to do it by phone from somewhere up in the French Alps. This is why Sean is delighted when recently enriched Albert wanders into his hotel like a nice plump piggy waving a mouth-watering collection of credit cards: this should be a piece of cake…
But it isn’t! Money always attracts scavengers, and Sean finds himself in competition with Heidi. Whereas Sean presents Albert with an impressive business plan, she waves an impressive pair of tits. It’s the start of a saga that stretches all the way to the Italian National Polo Club in Rome, taking in Marseille, Nice, Monaco and Florence on the way, while involving sheep-loving Flemish bikers, an octogenarian nymphomaniac, the Earl of Donegal, a Serbian butcher a Croatian cockroach and many others, with a little bribery and corruption a la française thrown in for luck.
*****
Short stories available for free download in this store
Sherlock Holmes Revues the Case of the Ghostly Accident
Norsk Saga: the Shanghai policeman’s daughter
Santa’s Little Helper: a Christmas Carousal
Srebrenica: a Dutch fairy story
