Quilty as charged!

I write crime fiction and have thus far been able to publish my work on my own using Amazon and social media marketing.

My next project will be ‘The Leiston Riddle’ – this is the story of Maggie and Jake two teens who become inadvertently involved with a murder investigation headed up by DCI Mike Doggett:-

DCI Mike Doggett is a recently retired police man who is hoping for the quiet life in relaxing rural Sarfolk, he wants as uncomplicated an existence as possible in the company of his biking companion girlfriend Shirley, however criminality seems to follow Mike around like a bad penny. 

When a day trip to Sizewell beach upends a dismembered body amidst the swirling sands of the heritage coast Mike must set aside friends, family and his long planned-for leisure to uncover the horrors that lurk beneath the picture postcard perfection of the rural idyll of his dreams.

In the first instance forensics discover a receipt in the pocket of the corpse that happens to show the  name of the girl Maggie who works in the caff nestled beyond the dunes.

Mike and Shirley are at the beach prior to visiting Terry and Carol their friends from the local sailing club. An almost too perfect sequence of clues leads them back from Sizewell Tea via the Cheverton Woods to the boat clubhouse taking in a local food distribution depot.

Disastrously the receipt taken back to the lab gets mislaid before the requisite tests can give the DNA proof that will link the suspects to the scene of the crime.

Forensics need to know the kind of ink used and if it is the same stuff as the equipment that runs in the beach caff.

It is from a thermal-transfer colour printer, and they are very rare in the United Kingdom

Maggie’s dad, who is a manager at the local supermarket, tried to equip his store with them, but the deal didn’t work out. The firm of suppliers turned up with faulty yoghurt making machines instead that day.

Something had to be done with this consignment.

One pdq was supplied as the manager intended and this somehow found its way to Sizewell Tea (the beachside caff). Making the troublesome till work becomes Maggie’s dad’s retirement project on leaving the local coop supermarket.

The machinery has been missing for a long time and contains information that incriminates the people who supplied the inks – simultaneously there are stolen goods hidden in the till drawers that the self-same manager tries to bury in the woods, afraid he will implicate himself.

However, one yoghurt machine is overlooked and is not returned ending up at the Leiston depot.

It shows information about the original supplier and the network which connects to a renowned local gang.

This mystery should appeal to lovers of The Twyford Code and classic murder mystery as we unravel the chain of events that has led Mike and Shirley to Sizewell beach and the circumstances that meant the dead victim was almost passed off as a popular art installation. 

Was this always the intention of the mischievous local school-refusing teens (Maggie and Jake) or a simple figment of Mike’s whisky sozzled brain seemingly perpetually deprived of his much longed-for retirement? Read and laugh as you wonder if all this could really happen amidst the real-life picturesque Sarfolk surroundings!

Well I hope this gives you a flavour of my writing style and the scope of my next work – there are two other books that have preceded this: ‘The Mystery of Mary Slacker’ and ‘The Sizewell Murders’.