Stuart David Williams
Personal Information
Description
Stuart David Williams (1926-2003) was a Welsh author of crime fiction novels under the name David Williams. His series included the Mark Treasure and the Inspector Parry series. Born in Bridgend, Glamorgan, on 8 June 1926, Williams studied at Hereford Cathedral School and St. John’s College, Oxford. In the middle of university, he went off to serve as an officer with the Royal Navy during World War II. Williams would go on to as a medical copywriter until a stroke caused him to become a crime writer instead. He had already started writing crime fiction in his spare time. David Williams’ first novel was Unholy Writ, which was published in 1976. He wrote a total of 23 novels, with the last one being the 2003 novel Practise to Deceive. In 1951 he married Brenda Holmes with whom he had one son and one daughter. He died at Virginia Water, Surrey, on 26 September 2003.
Books
Treasure By Degrees
Mark Treasure mysteries #2 University College, Itchendever, is short of funds - and up for grabs. The rival parties in the proposed takeover seem to be the American Funny Farms Foundation, run by the widow of a board-games mogul, and a calculating Arab prince. Banker sleuth Mark Treasure tries his hardest to adjudicate, but instead finds a baffling murder on his hands. And this isn't a mere case of finding the culprit - there are other knotty problems with a bearing on the case. Who sent the gory sheep's head to the eccentric American millionairess? Was the celebrated Dr Goldstein, senior tutor and TV personality, behind the bomb scare? And why have the Arabs kidnapped an English Literature lecturer?
Unholy writ
Mark Treasure #1 An old aristocrat has second thoughts about selling the family mansion to a reactionary group and calls in his friend, London financier Mark Treasure, to stop the sale. From there we encounter murder, treachery, romance, and a valuable Shakespearean manuscript.