Books
The Genesis of DI Mariner
“Mariner is a cop’s cop and the kind of detective I would want looking for me if I disappeared.”
So went one of my first reviews, and one that brought me some satisfaction. This was exactly the kind of character I’d hoped Mariner would be. Not that I’d planned it that way; instead he emerged gradually from the pages of the early books and he continues to develop. That the series is set in England’s second city was more of a fait accompli. I moved to the city to take up my first teaching post with some reluctance. To me at that time, Birmingham meant Spaghetti Junction, the concrete Bull Ring and IRA bombings. I soon learned the folly of those misconceptions as I discovered the many parks and green spaces, the canals and the vibrant mix of communities that make up the city. For a number of years, a peripatetic job took me into households in every corner of the city, so it was no surprise that these were the streets Mariner and his team would police. While many locations referred to in the books are real, there are also those that are entirely the figment of my imagination.
Left: Deadly Lies is the book in which Mariner first appears.
Publishing History
I moved publishers and the DI Mariner mysteries are being republished by Joffe Books with new titles and redesigned covers. There is some confusion out there on the internet as on Amazon and other sites you will find references to the old titles published by Piatkus/Severn House. Rest assured that you are not missing any stories – the books in this section are all the latest versions.
Joffe Books
My current publishers Joffe Books are one of the UK’s leading independent publishers. Best-selling fiction. Original voices, hard to put down stories.
A New Standalone Thriller
On 19th December 2019 The Truth About Murder was published. It’s a standalone thriller featuring two new characters in a new and entirely fictional setting.