James Andrew AUTHOR

of contemporary Tartan Noir set in the Highlands

Jason has put his past life behind him and is living and working in Nairn, way up in the Scottish Highlands, when he becomes fascinated by a group of his peers who party at the seafront. Isla, a bolshy and attractive member of the circle, sees that they are the object of Jason’s attention, and invites him to join them later that evening. It will be a decision Jason will come to regret when, after the drunken bash in a luxury house, Isla’s husband ends up dead in the private pool. The police pronounce murder, and the once happy and care-free crowd turn on one another. But newcomer, Jason, with his past coming out into the open, will be at the centre of it all. Yet who was the killer? And who will go down for the crime?

After a devastating house fire, a blame game starts to tear a family apart…

When Alex Ross receives a phone call telling him that his house is on fire, he immediately drives home from work at full pelt. Noticeably distressed that his wife, Heather, may have been caught inside, his fears are apparently allayed when she soon joins him at the scene and explains that she had been visiting a friend. Police quickly determine the fire was no accident and the ensuing investigation begins to focus on the couple themselves. Detective Inspector Black is determined to find out the truth and if that means revealing family secrets, financial woes, and infidelities, so be it. Was Alex Ross trying to top off his wife? Was it a local arsonist known to the police? Was it Heather herself? As the suspicion mounts and tensions become ever more fraught, the family’s stories intersect and forge towards a jaw-droopingly dramatic conclusion.

Also – AUTHOR of Historical Crime Mysteries set just after World War 1.

I became interested in the period just after the Great War when doing research in newspaper archives. There was a fascination with crime in newspapers of the period and I read about various murders that were much covered then and these gave me the inspiration for the first novel – The Body Under The Sands. In this novel two young men return from the hell of fighting in the trenches and try to find some peace during their first summer home. They spend their time looking for work, drinking in pubs and chatting up young women. Then one day they are accused of the murder of a young woman on the beach. How are they going to get out of this? That other similar murders take place on the Ridges just outside Birtleby deepens the mystery.

The first novel, in what comprises a trilogy, introduces us to Inspector Blades of North Yorkshire Constabulary, and we meet him again in the second novel Death Waits For No Lady. He develops as a detective considerably in this novel. Miss Evelyn Wright, a wealthy, middle-aged spinster, is found murdered in her front parlour one morning by her maid. Since the death of her father, Evelyn has been revelling in her new found freedom on holidays away from Birtleby where she has met a succession of young men all interested not in her but in the money she possesses. Which one of these exceptionally sinister young lotharios did it? It takes all of Blades’ detective abilities to unravel the misleading clues left behind and unveil the murderer. At the end of this book a murder is committed similar in fashion to the murders in the first book. Has the Ridges murderer returned?

In the third book, The Riddle of the Dunes we find out. People become convinced the murderer is a ‘yellow belly’, a conscientious objector but is that because of a bias against COs? Blades finds the concept curious that someone who objected to having to kill people during a war might be a murderer but everything must be considered. Many people’s personalities were damaged in that war. He supposes that could happen to a CO too. And why is there such a similarity with the Ridges murders of the first book? A man was hanged for the first two killings which did not explain who murdered the third in that series of deaths. A hanged man can’t go on committing murders. Did they hang the wrong man? Is there a maniac out there resuming his killing spree?

The fourth book in the Inspector Blades series is a stand-alone murder mystery called The Suitcase Murderer. When a shop worker is reported missing, the circumstances lead Inspector Blades to launch a murder investigation. A man with ‘strange eyes’, struggling with two suitcases, is seen leaving the building where the young woman, Emma Simpson, lived. There is a stain on the drawing room floor. It could be spilled wine, but Inspector Blades fears the worst. The woman’s ex-lover is brought in for questioning. He is certainly suspicious. And he has a motive. But solving a crime is never that easy.Indeed, why did Emma’s employer pack up and leave the town? And why does a local newspaper reporter seem to be one step ahead of the police? Where is he getting his information from, and did he play a part in the crime?The police will have to put the jigsaw together. Crucial will be finding the body. But they are missing certain other pieces – clues that only a wily and motivated detective will be able to discover.

These have all been published by The Book Folks and are available to buy on Kindle from Amazon.

They can also be accessed through Kindle Unlimited.

Paperbacks can be purchased through the Amazon website.

The first two novels are also available as audiobooks from Amazon Audible.

CONTACT by email at jandrew035@outlook.com.