Stuart Pawson

‘Martin Edwards demonstrates that he has a ventriloquist’s gift for other people’s voices….Murder Squad is a genuine attempt to demonstrate the diversity and quality of what is being produced by authors who are shelved under crime…This book is a celebration. So sit yourself down with a glass or a steaming mug of what you fancy, and indulge yourself. Or else.’ From the Foreword by Val McDermid Ann Cleeves’ The Plater was short-listed for a CWA Dagger

Murder Squad, a group of award-winning crime and mystery writers, celebrate their twenty-first birthday with a bang in this criminally good collection of short stories. A dawn swim turns deadly in a brand-new short story starring DCI Vera Stanhope . . . Two bored cell-mates play a game with chilling results . . . A hen night in an isolated cottage brings new meaning to 'I will survive' . . . A train traveller teaches a valuable lesson in reading labels . . . A day at the seaside turns stormy for a woman who doesn't care for foreigners . . . A wealthy retiree makes a new friend who connects her to the Other Side . . . and much much more. Short, sharp and packed with twists, these 21 unputdownable tales showcase Murder Squad's range and talent throughout the years. So why not treat yourself to a slice of murderously moreish fiction, and join us in wishing the squad 'Many Deadly Returns'. With stories by Ann Cleeves, Martin Edwards, Kate Ellis, Margaret Murphy, Chris Simms and Cath Staincliffe, as well as John Baker, Chaz Brenchley and Stuart Pawson.

Detective Inspector Charlie Priest believes in doing things by the book. It’s just that, in the heat of the chase, he sometimes turns over two page at once. His unorthodox but Priest does get results. When he’s not putting crooks behind bars, he’s watching out for his team of young constables, only too aware that for them, as much as for him, the knockabout humour of the cop-shop is in stark contrast to the dangers they face on the beat. Sheep stealing and shoplifting are everyday crimes in Heckley, but there are local villains with bigger fish to fry. When Charlie suspects a now-respected businessman, with a background in extortion and GBH, of involvement in international art fraud, he’s taking on an enemy with friends in high places. But Charlie can be persistent to the point of recklessness - and, once he’s realised that there’s a link to the lethal doctored heroin that’s striking down the local kids, no threat will stop him.

DI Charlie Priest is in for a surprise at the monthly superintendents' meeting. DCS Colin Swainby stands to make a personal statement - he is to resign, quietly and without fuss, because certain allegations have been made against him involving a mysterious beautiful woman. When an attractive woman is snapped into a passionate clinch with MP Edward Gross on the roomy backseat of his Rover, he too opts for a quiet exit, but his has a far more permenant outcome.

Detective Inspector Charlie Priest's day hasn't got off to a good start. Late for work for the first time in twenty years, thanks to a sloe gin hangover, he's faced with the rather grisly evidence of a crime in the local park before a call comes in to say that one of his new constables has discovered a body. Hartley Goodrich has been found dead in his armchair, right beside the flowerpot that caused the gaping gash in his head. There's little doubt that this was murder, and when Charlie discovers that Hartley's financial advice had lost his clients a small fortune, there's no shortage of murder suspects either. But is the case all it seems? The enquiry re-opens an investigation involving diamonds, drugs and stolen gold bullion . . . and plenty of danger to boot.

Best Eaten Cold and Other Stories showcases a group of highly regarded, award-winning crime writers who all share a special passion for crime, which is reflected in this superb volume. Funny and sad, atmospheric and dark, ingenious and frightening, each of the thirteen stories in this collection will thrill lovers of crime fiction.

"D.I. Charlie Priest of the East Pennine force is officially on sick leave, but this brief break from work comes to an abrupt end when Mrs Norris's chauffeur is found dead from unnatural causes - namely a blast to the head from a Kalashnikov. Her husband, an American tobacco tycoon, is distinctly unfazed. Meanwhile, big-time drug smugglers on the Hull to Rotterdam run demand his attention. When Charlie discovers the connection between his previous inquiry and the drug smugglers he realises that he's on very dangerous territory indeed"--P. of cover.

There's nothing Detective Inspector Charlie Priest hates more than a case involving children. When Georgina, the eight-year-old daughter of local businessman Miles Dewhurst, goes missing, Charlie and his colleagues soon start to fear the worst. And Charlie's suspicions are focused on Dewhurst -- is his performance as desolate parent a little too pat? Meanwhile, these are dangerous times for clergymen. Three have died suddenly, and a picture of a Destroying Angel mushroom has been left beside the body of the most recent victim. It seems that something more than coincidence links the deaths -- but why would a serial killer focus on men of the cloth? As he races against time to find Georgina, and happens upon the first real clue in the hunt for the Mushroom Man, Charlie Priest has another preoccupation -- his tentative pursuit of bishop's widow Annabelle. And Charlie's courtship is about to take a dramatic turn -- for he is more deeply embroiled in one of the cases than he realises...

Ghislaine Curzon, girlfriend of one of the royal princes, is in Heckley to open the Curzon Centre, but the opening ceremony reveals that the commemorative plaque has been defaced by an obscene word in foot high red letters. The chief constable insists on DI Charlie Priest taking the case, but Charlie would rather be investigating a series of burglaries committed with the aid of a pit bull terrier. When the mayor of Heckley, driving force behind the Curzon Centre, is found with a single shot through the head, the subsequent investigation finds Charlie among a rich cornucopia of East Yorkshire characters.

When salesman Tony Silkstone confesses to murder, the top brass of the Heckley police are keen to convict and close the lurid case. But Detective Inspector Charlie Priest is not convinced that things are as simple as they seem. A hitman coming to town and a juvenile car thief wreaking havoc complicate matters for Charlie. As links between his case and another murder emerge, Charlie pursues the trail and finds himself faced with questions about his own friends and his feelings towards them.

It's too good to last. The biggest case on DI Charlie Priest's books is a petty thief pinching underwear from the washing-lines of unsuspecting housewives, and his love-life is looking up too, in the form of local schoolteacher Rosie Barraclough. Then someone starts tampering with food in the local supermarket and two people are hospitalised. Charlie must act fast to halt a media frenzy and prevent a murder. Things get worse, as intelligence reaches him that an organised dog-fighting ring has set up operations nearby - and it seems that Rosie is hiding something from him...

Charlie Priest was a newly promoted sergeant on the Leeds force when he was called to the scene of a tragic fire, deliberately set. Now a DI in nearby Heckley, Charlie jumps on the chance to re-open the investigation when a message left by a suicide suggests a new lead. The cat is well and truly amongst the pigeons for those who thought, after two decades, they were safe from justice. By a combination of luck, detective work and, Charlie would say, soaring flights of the investigative imagination, he is soon closing in on the perpetrators. But a cornered villain with nothing to lose can be dangerous for a copper who'll take every kind of risk in the hunt for justice.

Shooting Elvis is a fresh, hip, nerve-racking thriller that reads like a cross between Pulp Fiction and Thelma & Louis. It's the story of small-town girl Mary Alice Baker - a.k.a. Nina Zero - who, lured by a little extra cash, is conned into delivering a package for her handsome, Harley-riding boyfriend, Wrex. After accidentally blowing up LAX, Mary says good-bye to her good-girl life and hits the road, proving the first rule of survival in L.A.: Where there's gas in the tank, there's hope. Wanted by the FBI as a psycho terrorist and hunted by two sadistic thugs who witnessed the explosion, Mary dyes her hair, pierces her nose, and changes her name. She goes to ground in the loft of a sexy, mercenary painter and a filmmaking Hollywood wannabe, knowing that it's only a matter of time before one of them sells her out for a whiff of that drug called fame. As she wises up, Nina takes on her pursuers in a gutsy succession of bone-chilling confrontations and rockets to tabloid fame as the new darling of the shock-hungry media.

When Dr. Clive Jordan’s dazzling career is brought to an abrupt end by a bullet, his colleagues are devastated – especially the female ones. If the doctor hadn’t been discreet DI Charlie Priest would suspect a jealous husband. But it’s not going to be that simple. And Charlie has another case on his hands that he’d give his eye teeth to solve. Janet Saunders’ description of her attacker makes him easy to find, but his story doesn’t quite gel with hers. She couldn’t get enough of him, he says; she’s only complaining because he dumped her. Charlie knows for certain there’s a killer on the loose – and almost certainly a rapist as well. The chances of bagging either of them seem slim, but Charlie’s a lot tougher and smarter than his affable manner indicates, and that’s bad news for the villains on his patch.

The story of the romance between a Navajo boy and girl.