FICTION · ARCHAEOLOGISTS
Roy Lewis
Also known as: John Royston Lewis
> Roy Lewis was a prominent English crime writer who wrote a total of 68 novels. He is not to be confused with another English novelist with the same name who lived and wrote between 1913 and 1996. Roy Lewis was born in 1933 and passed in 2019. >His real name was John Royston Lewis, and he lived and wrote in Northern England, where many of his novels are set. Roy Lewis was trained as a teacher and throughout his life, he held many educational positions, such as college principal and school inspector. Even though he wrote a number of non-fiction books, the author is most famous for his more than fifty crime novels. >In a relatively short period of time, Lewis managed to win the attention of a large readership by creating and developing a number of iconic characters. Inspector Crow of Scotland Yard, police officer Eric Ward, and archaeologist Arnold Landon are his most memorable creations in the crime genre. Lewis, widely recognised for his firm grasp on character, is also remembered for his realistic accounts of the Welsh and English lifestyles. His novels are a picturesque depiction of the English countryside towards the second half of the 20th century. From
Most acclaimed
Dead Ringer
Brandon Ringer has a dead man's face. His grandfather, silver-screen heartthrob James Ringer, died tragically at twenty-one, and Brandon looks exactly like him. But that's where the resemblance ends. Brandon is unknown, unemployed, and up to his ears in back taxes after inheriting his grandparents' Hollywood mansion. He refuses to sell it-it's his last connection to his grandmother-so to raise the cash he needs, he joins a celebrity look-alike escort agency. Percy Charles is chronically ill, isolated, and lonely. His only company is his meddlesome caregiver and his collection of James Ringer memorabilia. When he finds "Jim Ringer" on Hollywood Doubles' website, he books an appointment, hoping to meet someone who shares his passion for his idol. Brandon? Not that person. But despite their differences, they connect, and Percy's fanboy love for James shows Brandon a side of his grandfather he never knew. Soon they want time together off the clock, but Percy is losing his battle for independence, and Brandon feels trapped in James's long shadow. Their struggle to love each other is the stuff of classic Hollywood. Too bad Brandon knows how those stories end.
Headhunter
When Lilah Kemp, a schizophrenic, unemployed librarian and sometime spiritualist, accidently frees the evil Kurtz from the pages of Heart of Darkness, she searches desperately for a Marlow to help her return him before it is too late.
Design for murder
When Eric Ward and Sharon Owen defend suspected serial killer Raymond Conroy, they win an acquittal on a technicality, thus incurring the wrath of CI Charlie Spate. Ward has no desire to act further for Conroy when the man decides to remain in the northeast. Instead, he concentrates on issues arising from Sharon's family trust although he is continually harassed by a journalist who seeks to interview Conroy. When Conroy disappears and the Zodiac Killer strikes again, Ward finds himself involved once more alongside CI Spate, who is under pressure for his apparent incompetence in tracking Conroy.