Showing results by narrator "Charles Fox" in All Categories

When COVID-19 struck the UK, the government advised the over-70s to "shield" while the country went into lockdown. One old man went sailing instead. Single-handed and self-isolated, retired journalist John Passmore used the pandemic to achieve an ambition that had eluded him for 60 years. For 3,629 miles, he disappeared into a world of perfect solitude, adventure, and adversity, arriving back 42 days later, short of water and with shredded sails, to find himself celebrated on national radio as the embodiment of everybody’s lockdown dream. This is his story.

All five Ian Skair novels in one volume. Meet Ian Skair—private investigator, dog lover, and the most determined sleuth the Scottish banks of the River Tay have ever seen. With his loyal canine companion Lottie by his side, Ian has an uncanny knack for seeing through the fog of the most puzzling crimes. Whether it's a missing heirloom, strange happenings in a country house, protecting an opera singer from murder or delving into the world of stolen artworks, nothing escapes his sharp mind and relentless curiosity.

World famous concert pianist Felix Lansman has a collection of postcards sent to him anonymously. He is sure they are from the love of his life, Jamie McLeash. But Jamie disappeared six years ago - the night Felix’s father was murdered. Police failed to make any arrests and the case was closed. Was Jamie a suspect and if so, why is he sending the postcards? Felix wants Ian to find out.

On a culinary tour of the British Isles, retired Detective Superintendent Albert Smith and snarky former police dog Rex Harrison find something quite unexpected waiting for them at their B&B... it’s the almost-dead body of their landlady.

A simple case of a missing sister. Or is it? When Ian Skair is invited to an ancient castle perched on a rocky promontory of the Angus coast, he expects to find a routine missing person case. Little does he know, the Laird of Drumlychtoun and his family have more secrets and black sheep than Ian could have ever anticipated. As Ian uncovers secrets and intrigues, thefts and legends, he finds himself and the family in a dangerous situation. Can he reunite the laird with his sister and discover the truth behind her disappearance? Or will the family's secrets be too much for them to handle?

An innocent walk through the woods turns sinister when Albert and Rex hear a cry for help. A desperate woman is trapped the wrong side of a high fence...and she is being pursued.

There might be no such thing as werewolves, vampires or ghosts but apparently, evil Klowns are real. Tempest Michaels is once again investigating ridiculous cases that are clearly not even slightly paranormal in nature. However, his daily menu of fun is interrupted by a plague of men dressed in garish outfits. They wear twisted clown make-up as they terrorise the Kent towns and villages with ever escalating and more frequent attacks.

For Felicity Philips, wedding planner to the rich and famous, this is her dream job, but convinced someone is out to wreck the whole thing, her attention is on keeping everyone alive. There is security in place, hundreds of cops and bodyguards assigned to the royal family, but do any of them know the threat is coming from multiple angles?

Baking. It can get a guy killed. When the chef tipped to win this year’s annual Eton Mess competition falls to his death in mysterious circumstances, Albert races to investigate — surely this is the work of the Gastrothief again. However, Albert barely makes it out of the train station before his detective’s brain sees something most other people would never spot – a crime is about to take place and there’s no way he can ignore it. Instantly shackled with a new problem, Albert attempts to solve both cases simultaneously, but is he up to the task?

Nothing fazes the sexy Russian. But how will he cope, when he finds out the tragedy that's befallen his comrade, the only man he calls Brother? When Rytsar can find no escape, he turns to Faelan to watch over Brie. The Russian should be dead, but his loyalties run as deep as his kinky passions and there is a promise Rytsar must keep.

Baking. It can get a guy killed. And this time it does. A murder staged to look like a suicide fools everyone except Albert Smith. He knows better. In Lyme Regis with his faithful dog, the victim invited him to visit the seaside resort. Now he’s dead and Albert wants to know why. But when the trail of clues leads Albert into a darkened courtyard, Rex finds himself left to investigate alone and all too soon a second body is discovered. Is there a killer out there? Or are the suicides just poorly timed?

Albert and Rex are going to the palace. It’s the day the Kings' birthday honour list recipients get their knighthoods, but like everywhere else they go, there is trouble to be found. With his three children and youngest granddaughter, Apple-Blossom, in tow, Albert is a little embarrassed by the lavishness of the affair. Yet all that is forgotten when he spots a man he knows. A man guilty of murder. A man who can only be at the palace for one thing.

In the final thrilling installment of The Time Bubble series, the team faces their greatest peril yet. It’s been over half a century since teenagers Josh and Charlie first discovered the time portal in the tunnel that launched a lifetime of adventures. Now retired, and living in his new country pad with his wife, Alice, Josh is forced to face the reality of the impending mortality of the ageing team, as the first of them passes on, unexpectedly. With his time travel and mind-transference technology, he stresses to the surviving members of the team that none of them needs to die.

Following a trail of clues to a sleepy seaside village in the southwest corner of England, retired police detective, Albert Smith, aims to prove his theory of a master criminal by catching the ‘Gastrothief’s’ agents red-handed. With trusted former police dog, Rex Harrison at his side, the crime-busting duo know precisely who and what to look for. However, beneath the narrow streets of the picturesque resort a far more sinister plot is being hatched and if Albert were to look over his shoulder, he might notice a set of eyes lurking in his shadow.

She is going to be murdered on stage every night. All Ian has to do is make sure she is safe off stage. No one would want to murder the leading lady, would they? Don’t be too sure. After a few days at the Dundas Farm opera camp, Ian is beginning to think that everyone the diva meets would be more than pleased to see the back of her. Two weeks listening to music on a Scottish alpaca farm is twisting and turning in a distinctly sinister direction. And if she continues to treat him like a servant, refusing to tell him anything about her fears, how on earth is Ian going to prevent a tragedy?

On the southeast coast of England, three wines growers have just gone missing and a fourth was found dead at the scene. Could this be the work of the master criminal Albert Smith has been chasing all over the country? You'd better believe it. Rushing back to his home county, Albert hopes to pick up the trail once more. With trusted former police dog, Rex Harrison, at his side, the duo begins to snoop …… but they have no idea the perpetrators are still there. Worse yet, the criminals know who Albert is and they’re not about to let him spoil their plans again.

Gold coins from a centuries-old sunken treasure ship have been found on the beach in Cawsand. This would be no cause for Tempest Michaels to take notice, but a man murdered by the ghost of a dead pirate come to claim back the gold? That ticks all his boxes.

An early morning dog walk along the river ends with a shocking discovery. When the body of a man is fished out the River Thames near Windsor, it looks like a straightforward accidental death from drowning following an excess of alcohol. The only problem is that this man died eighteen months ago in a train crash. Was the first death just a case of mistaken identity or was it more complex than that? The Breakfast Club Detectives set out to discover where the victim spent the last year and a half and why his nearest and dearest thought he had died.

Enter the strange, whispering world of Algernon Blackwood, one of the most influential masters of supernatural and cosmic horror. The Collected Short Stories of Algernon Blackwood brings together some of his most enduring and unsettling works—stories where nature itself becomes conscious, hostile, and profoundly unknowable.

Tempest Michaels is back! His office burned down, his love life is a joke and he's convinced he's getting fat. It's the perfect time for a new case then! The client is the son of a man who was killed in a freak accident — struck by lightning. That doesn't sound very paranormal until you learn that he was inside his house when it happened and his heart exploded from his chest. There are eldritch runes drawn on the victim’s house and his wife, together with several of her friends, has been seen colluding with a mysterious old crone.