Bookshelf

In 'Last Right', a prodigal son, a vanished wife, and a dying patriarch combine in a tale of betrayal and revenge on the Mexican border.

The youth arrived like a peasant, hitching a ride on the flatbed of a rusty pickup to the end of the driveway—two bales of straw, a goat, and an iPod his travelling companions . . .

'Tell Me' is a poignant tale of the meeting between CSI Grace McColl and a young girl found attacked in a local park. The victim may be reluctant to tell Grace who she is and what happened but the evidence will speak for itself and Grace is a very good listener.

'So, where is she?' CSI Grace McColl ducked under the taped cordon at the edge of the crime scene and showed her ID to the uniformed constable . . .

Retired ‘insurance’ man Tommy Renshaw runs a quiet little bar in Bali, enjoying a dream retirement with girlfriend, Pia. Until an unwelcome visitor arrives to remind him you can never outrun the past—only hope to outlive it . . .

"Last name I woulda picked out for you is somethin' lame as Tommy Renshaw," Manfrotti said, lifting the drink with the fruit and the parasol wedged amid the rapidly melting ice . . .

In 'Across The Broken Line' we follow Charlie Fox through a fragmented timescale of cross and double-cross as she fights to keep her principal alive—whoever that might be.

Shoving a loaded gun into someone's face is never going to make you friends but it certainly works for influencing people . . .

In 'A Bridge Too Far' we meet Charlie Fox before she’s become a professional in the world of close protection. When she agrees to hang out with the local Dangerous Sports Club, she has no idea it will soon live up to its name.

I watched with a kind of horrified fascination as the boy climbed onto the narrow parapet . . .

'Postcards From Another Country' has Charlie Fox guarding the ultra-rich Dempsey family against attempted assassination—no matter where the danger lies.

Somebody once said that the rich are another country—they do things differently there . . .

A finalist for the CWA Short Story Dagger, 'Served Cold' puts another tough woman centre stage—the mysterious Layla, with betrayal in her past and murder in her heart.

Layla's curse, as she saw it, was that she had an utterly fabulous body attached to an instantly forgettable face . . .

'Off Duty' finds Charlie Fox taking time away from close protection after injury. She still finds trouble, even in an out-of-season health spa in the Catskill Mountains.

The guy who'd just tried to kill me didn't look like much . . .

'Truth And Lies' puts all Charlie Fox’s skills and ingenuity to the test as she has to single-handedly extract a news team from a rapidly escalating war zone. At 12,000 words, it is almost a novella.

As long as they didn't strip-search me at the airport . . .