Showing results by narrator "Charles Fox" in All Categories

Snoozing on the train ride into Dundee, a horrified scream tears both Albert and Rex from their dreams and back to reality …… where they discover a woman has just witnessed a murder. It would be easy to dismiss her claim; she saw something in the window of a house as the train went by, but when there are dangerous men waiting for her at Dundee station, Albert has to accept she might be onto something.

Arriving in the famous English seaside resort, Albert plans only to reminisce about a childhood holiday more than seventy years in the past. While there he will eat the town's most famous creation - the sugary treat known as rock. But when he walks into a shop being shaken down by heavies enforcing a protection racket, all thoughts of relaxation go out the window.

When the world ends, it doesn’t do so with one single scream. It fractures. And the dead rise faster than anyone can run. This box set collects the first four novels of Echoes of Decay, a relentless, character-driven zombie apocalypse saga set in a collapsing United Kingdom, where survival is measured not just by bullets and barricades, but by loyalty, sacrifice, and the choices that refuse to stay buried.

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.

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?

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.

The team has grown to three, but the workload isn’t getting any smaller. With reports of Hell’s Angel's werewolves, dead relatives returning to haunt their loved ones, unspeakable aberrations hiding in the shadows, and the unwanted attention of a macabre serial killer, the team at Blue Moon Investigations is in even more trouble than usual.

Melton Mowbray is world famous for its pork pies, but beneath the façade lies an undercurrent of lies and deceit, and Albert Smith just saw something that made him curious. The operation hiding in plain sight is worth a lot of money. The kind of money people will kill to protect and now they need to make him vanish. Quietly. Permanently. Good luck with that. Albert spent decades taking down criminals and his mind is as sharp as it ever was. Get ready for pandemonium.

A shadowy master criminal has been kidnapping experts from the food industry and stealing both food and equipment. The crimes are so unrelated no one in the world had noticed the connections. No one except Albert Smith, that is. He’s got almost nothing to go on, but with every place he visits, he gets just a little closer to the truth. He’s not working alone though, his faithful sidekick, Rex Harrison the former police dog is right there with him. Can the two of them pull off the impossible and find the man Albert chose to dub ‘the Gastrothief’?

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.

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?

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.

Here, for the first time, is a complete and chronological account: everything from levitating the dog and navigating by smell to meeting his wife Tamsin through the Lonely Hearts column of Time Out and attempting to run away to sea and raise a family on a 27 foot boat.

In the brooding, dark landscape of England, with its rolling hills and forgotten castles, the dark breeds evil in every shadow. Well, almost every shadow. Some of them have stupid in them instead.

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.

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?

Every journey might start with a single step, but where does it end? Albert Smith and his faithful dog, Rex Harrison, have been on the road for far longer than they ever expected, but they can’t go home yet. Not until they solve one final case. Following a near-invisible breadcrumb trail of clues to find a character they know only as ‘The Gastrothief’, the man and dog duo find themselves in a remote village on the Welsh coast. Miles from home and without a friend in sight, do they really stand a chance against this invisible enemy and his merciless agents? Of course they don’t.

When retired cop, Albert, arrives in Stilton for a festival, he has cheese on his mind, but that’s not what he gets …… arriving the morning after the factory and warehouse have been raided, all the stilton is gone, and the security guard, Dave, who bravely fought to stop the thieves, needs someone’s help to save the day. With sidekick Rex Harrison, the failed police dog, at his side, our aging but sprightly hero will put his ear to the ground and his mind to work as he unravels the clues to this mystery.

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.

Jonny Cardew is bored. He’s worked hard all his life at a financially rewarding but dull job when all he ever wanted to do was to solve murders. Now he has time on his hands, but is it too late to be a detective? A chance meeting over breakfast with three quirky characters and a dog in need of rehoming could change his life.