The STAC Mysteries – Excerpts

The seventh STAC Mystery, The Chocolate Egg Murders, is released next Wednesday. In the run up, I thought it would be good to remind you of previous titles, so over the next few days, I’ll be putting up excerpts from each of the six published titles, two per day, and we begin with…

The Filey Connection

Nicola Leach has been killed in a hit and run accident, and the police have just informed Joe, Sheila and Brenda that Eddie Dobson has fallen into the sea and is believed drowned. Joe thinks it was suicide. Searching Eddie’s personal effects, they can find no trace of food or drink. Not even sandwiches.

“Maybe he already ate them,” Brenda suggested. “Or maybe someone took them after he fell in.”

“Oh naturally,” Joe sneered. “You see someone fall in the sea and the first you think is, ‘right, I’m having his sandwiches.’ Talk bloody sense, woman.”

“Perhaps,” Sheila ventured, “he intended coming back from the Brigg to get something to eat.”

Joe waved a frantic arm at the searing day and clear sky. The sun glistened on his leathery skin, and added weight to his irritation. “So what you’re saying is, he goes out for eight hours’ fishing, it’s a scorching hot day, and yet he doesn’t even have a bottle of water with him? It doesn’t make sense. And have you ever walked out onto the Brigg?”

Sheila nodded. “Years ago, when the children were young and Peter and I brought them here on holiday.”

“Then you should know how bad it is underfoot,” said Joe. “It’s a good half-mile from the shore, and like that cop said, the rocks are jagged, slippery, and difficult to get across. It’s not the kind of journey you wanna make twice or three times in a day. You think he’s gonna walk out, walk back to get a brew and a butty, walk back again, walk to the shore for a pee and another brew a couple of hours later? Naw. He knew he wasn’t coming back, and that says he was out to commit hari kari.”

“I think you’ll find it’s called hara-kiri,” Sheila corrected him, “and in Japanese it’s a vulgar term for the practice of seppuku.”

Joe snorted. “I’ve got a puzzle on my hands and she gives me a lecture on Japanese etiquette.

The Filey Connection is available for download from:

Amazon (Kindle)

Smashwords (All formats)

Crooked Cat Books (MOBI, EPUB, PDF)

And in paperback from:

Amazon

***

The second STAC Mystery was The I-Spy Murders.

Set in a Chester, it centres on a reality TV series, not dissimilar to Big Brother, and Brenda is one of the contestants. Here is Joe with Sheila and Brenda, discussing the forthcoming series.

“It’s reality TV, Joe,” she explained for the umpteenth time. “You put eight people in a house, all of different ages and generations, and see how they get on twenty-four hours a day, for seven days. There are cameras all over the house… except for the lavatory and one other room.”

“It’s invasion of privacy TV, if you want my opinion,” he responded. “And didn’t that other one go on for weeks, and weeks, and weeks?”

“Yes. And at the end of every week, one of their housemates was evicted. I-Spy isn’t as grand as that, but it’s different because of the age gap of the Housies. At fifty-five, I’m the eldest, and I think the youngest is a girl of about twenty-three. We’re from all walks of life, too. There’s an actress amongst us.” Brenda sipped her tea. “And an estate agent, and a nurse.”

“And a woman who makes meat pies for truckers. You.” Joe put down his pen. “No offence, Brenda, but I know what you’re like with men. Do you suddenly want to become the star of the modern equivalent to a what-the-butler-saw machine?”

The I-Spy Murders is available for download from

Amazon (Kindle)

Smashwords (All formats)

Crooked Cat Books (MOBI, EPUB, PDF)

And in paperback from:

Amazon