Novels

In 2014, after many years of writing academic books and papers for traditional publishers, I started my career as an independent author now under the imprint Overcliff Books (Overcliff was the name of the street in Gravesend, Kent, where I grew up). The links on this page go to Amazon.com, but my novels are also available from other retailers both in print and electronic format, or through bookshops.

I started with a series of short mystery-cum-romance novels set between England and New Zealand. The interlinked stories of Carmen’s Roses, Blue Moon for Bombers, and The Windflower Vibration are available separately or in a combined volume Three Novellas. From an Amazon review of Carmen’s Roses:

Interwoven tale of love, mystery and more than a touch of the paranormal. Interesting characters too, reminds me of a gothic novel. 

I went on to publish three longer novels, based on manuscripts written while I was working as a doctor in England during the 1980s. Overdose is set in an old mental asylum, Fatal Feverfew in a healing retreat and Unfaithful unto Death in rural general practice. They give a historically accurate, if mildly satirical, picture of medical practice and social attitudes very different from those of today. From an Amazon review of Overdose:

Powerful evocation of psychiatric practice 30-40 years ago, parts of which are truly shocking. Story that carries you along – I did not want to put it down until I knew what had happened. Great read with serious thought-provoking aspects and a character to hate with a clear conscience.

A later novel is called You Yet Shall Die. Set in southeast England during the recent past, the story is about the unravelling of family secrets and the discovery of a long-ago crime.

I loved it! I really liked the characters and the sense of buried secrets gradually coming to light. And the twists were excellent, very clever! 

And the most recent one is Cardamine: A New Zealand Mystery.

Where is the mail order bride?

Summer 2019 in New Zealand. On the last day of a backpacking holiday, Kate loses her bag on a vineyard tour and misses her flight home to England. An eccentric elderly man comes to her rescue and invites her to stay on as his paid companion in his country home, called Cardamine after the flowers around the pond in the garden. The man’s wife is away, said to be back in her home country, but Kate comes to suspect that her absence has a more sinister explanation…