Search and Destroy

Published 25th September

Bowsie and Wowsie love the good things in life, especially good food. Political journalist Jane Bonnd isn’t so bad either. She’s silly enough to think she’s the owner and they’re the pets, when it’s so obviously the other way round.

Lucky for her she’s got them to watch her back when events catch up with her. Which they do when she tangles with a bunch of crazy populist guys running MEGA (Making England Great Again), who are determined to redraw the world map.

Not to say the dogs know everything, mind. Getting the hots for a top spy does make for tricky times. Even they don’t know how that’s going to work out, any more than she does, as it happens…

ISBN: 9781852002244

Size: 212x135mm 

Binding: Paperback 

Length: 233pp

Nobody's Perfect (First in the Alan Clarke crime series)

When superstar of stage and screen Eleanor Harrison is clubbed to death, the whole of Britain reacts to the tragedy.

It is a puzzling case for DCI Alan Clarke as, along with his working partner WPC Sarah Stevens, he sets out to find a reason why anyone would want to murder such a well-loved celebrity.

The detectives discover secrets about Eleanor’s personal life that differ from the public’s perception of her perfect character, and it becomes clear that there are a number of suspects. These range from Eleanor’s own sister Isabel to obsessive fan Peter Grant; with Eleanor’s housekeeper, ex-husband and counsellor all also in the frame.

Just when Alan Clarke considers the case might never be closed, events become personal. His girlfriend Zoe and a woman police constable go missing, and the hunt for a psychopathic killer becomes a race against time.

ISBN: 9781852001988

Size: 217x140mm

Binding: Hardback

Length: 200pp

Murder At Canterbury Cathedral (Fifth in the Alan Clarke crime series)

On Christmas Eve, a body is found lying in the snow outside the gates of Canterbury Cathedral. At first, it appears to be a tragic accident, but when forensic evidence reveals a fatal blow to the back of the head, the truth emerges: Jon West has been murdered – and DCI Alan Clarke has a crime to solve during the festive period.

The son of prominent MP Charles West, Jon was notorious for his reckless partying and serial womanising – and often saved from scandal by his responsible twin brother, Isaac. Nevertheless, Jon’s charm left a trail of damaged relationships and bitter enemies. He had affairs with sisters Eve and Lucy, the latter now married to Isaac, placing both women—and Isaac himself—under suspicion. Eve’s volatile boyfriend Mark, who openly threatened Jon shortly before his death, quickly joins the growing list of suspects.

As Alan and his team dig deeper, they uncover more unsettling connections. A troubled taxi driver, Dan Williams, seems unnervingly invested in the case; and when Alan discovers that Dan’s daughter died five years earlier, with her body found close to where Jon was killed, the investigation takes a darker turn. And then Jon’s closest friend Jack also has a motive, having been twice betrayed by Jon stealing his girlfriends.

Alan must unravel the truth from the lies beneath the snow to find out who was out to commit murder on that cold December night.

ISBN: 9781852002220

Size: 217x140mm

Binding: Hardback

Length: TBC

There seems to be a mystery about what happened to Uncle Freddy in the desert during the Second World War. Did it happen? How did it happen? And what were the connections with Stuttgart which came to a sudden halt in the Great War? There is certainly a Lonie in the family, named after a German friend of Uncle Freddy’s grandmother – and dachshunds, too.

The story behind these questions is told through memories delving back to the latter part of the 19th century. Memories which stem from, and return to, the gathering following Uncle Freddy’s funeral, in the room where his young eyes, captured in a photograph, seem to look out and reach through time into the present.

In the short story Grove Mansions, the author remembers her time living in a flat within a grand old house approaching the end of its days. Her life and the tenants within the house, including the ever-present Mr Barker, the caretaker, are recalled with a perception that leaves a lasting impression.

ISBN: 9781852002213

Size: 217x140mm 

Binding: paperback 

Length: 120pp

From the far west of Cornwall comes the story of Joel Andrewartha, the legendary Cornish wrestler born in 1781. His father, Richard, is a tin-miner/farmer, although his mother came from a more affluent background.

We follow the Andrewartha family as they struggle to make a living from their farm at Kenneggy, their hopes and fortunes tied to the land, mines and sea of Mount’s Bay, and as Joel finds love and solace with his childhood sweetheart, Caroline.

Richard Nettell beautifully captures the real people and places of this far-flung corner of late 18th- and early 19th-century Cornwall, writing about his own distant relatives and showing his impressive knowledge of West Country customs, speech and folklore, including that of mining, farming and wrecking.

This is truly a rediscovered gem of a story by an excellent writer, first published just before the outbreak of the Second World War and out of print ever since.

ISBN: 9781852002206

Size: 217x140mm

Binding: hardback

Length: 220

Prime Position: A Novel on the Cornish Housing Crisis

Winner of the Holyer an Gof Publishers’ Awards 2026 - Literary Fiction

This is a story of relationships and life in the Cornish village of Porthallett, set on the south coast of Cornwall, where photographer Kenwyn Tabb finds he is the latest to be evicted to make way for yet another luxurious second home, as the scourge of second and holiday home ownership continues throughout the county.

Kenwyn is a member of a half-hearted group of Cornish patriots calling themselves ‘c4c’, and he becomes further enraged when he discovers his close friend Jackie’s parents are to be thrown off their mobile home retirement site based on the all-dominant Penquiddick Estate land.

The debt-ridden Penquiddick Estate has recently been inherited by the reluctant James Crago, who would really prefer to work on his sculptures than deal with the estate’s financial decline. He finds solace in giving the management job to Mark Shipwright, an estate agent with a taste for profit over people.

When James decides to scrap the traditional village show at Penquiddick for an upmarket literary festival, it is the final straw for locals, and ‘c4c’ decide to sabotage the festival. But as the locals unite to protest at the destruction of their community, the demonstration takes an unexpected turn, spiralling disastrously out of control and risking consequences none of them could have foreseen.

ISBN: 9781852002190

Size: 217x140mm

Binding: hardback

Length: 254

Murder at the Broadstairs' Funfair (Fourth in the Alan Clarke crime series)

DCI Alan Clarke, now settled in Beltinge with his wife Zoe and their young son, is given the urgent case to solve the high-profile murder of well-known author Stephen Wards’ wife Chloe. Her strangulated lifeless body has been found on a public bench on the Broadstairs’ promenade next to the Bank Holiday Funfair.

A tangled web of suspects emerges, ranging from Chloe’s famous husband, his best friend Richard, their nanny Kaye and a local boy with a huge crush on Chloe named Sam. There is also Vince, a gypsy from the funfair.

At home, Zoe has recently given birth to their baby daughter and is suffering from post natal depression, so Alan enlists the help of Monique, a French au pair. Unfortunately it becomes clear that Monique has her own psychological problems which could endanger their children.

As pressure to solve the murder case builds, Alan finds himself torn between his home life and work; not realising that the two are already more deeply and dangerously entangled than he ever thought possible.

ISBN: 9781852002152

Size: 217x140mm

Binding: Hardback

Length: 209pp

It’s hard to solve a mystery when you can’t even remember there’s a mystery to solve…

Suffering from partial amnesia, and unable to recall the events surrounding the accident that caused this state, twenty-one year old Dipali Kaur is placed under the care of Dr Thorn, a genial therapist who unfortunately has his own mental health problems.

Who did Dipali inadvertently save from plunging to their death? Does a six-year-old boy on a red tricycle really have any answers? And just who is the alluringly mysterious young man she meets on a visit to a WWI battlefield in France?

Throughout her witty, entertaining and occasionally poignant narration, Dipali highlights the fact that nothing in her life is as straightforward as it may seem, but her thoughts about everything and everyone are affirming and uplifting.

ISBN: 9781852002138

Size: 217x140mm

Binding: hardback

Length: 225pp

It is 1961, and Ellen is pregnant at the tender age of seventeen. Her boyfriend has moved on to another girl, and her mother is dominated by her father who she knows will be ruthless if he were to find out about her pregnancy.

On one day that changes her life forever, Ellen hitch-hikes to Herne Bay in the hope of starting a new life with her baby, but ends up being forced to have baby Grace adopted; an act which will haunt her and affect her mental health for the rest of her life.

The lives of both Grace and Ellen continue apart. Grace is in a loving home, supported by parents who embrace her even more when they learn she has autism, a condition by which Grace refuses to be defined; but she does have a continued curiosity about her birth mother.

Meanwhile, Ellen’s life takes unexpected turns, but the day she gave up her baby remains etched in her memory. The weight of her decision haunts her.

The years pass by but fate has one last surprise in store, another single day in Ellen’s life that holds the potential to rewrite their destinies.

ISBN: 9781852002121

Size: 217x140mm

Binding: Hardback

Length: 215pp

*Paperback published on 4th September

Murder at Westgate Bay (Third in the Alan Clarke crime series)

Now permanently relocated to the Kent coast after the successful outcomes of his two previous murder cases, DCI Alan Clarke is just settling in to his new environment, together with his wife and baby son, when he is called to solve the cold-blooded and premeditated murder of Dr Ian Jones at Westgate Bay.

The doctor had been sedated and poisoned, dying in agony. DCI Clarke soon has a list of suspects, ranging from the doctor’s estranged wife and her lover, his gambling brother, his housekeeper and her sister. Added to these, Doctor Jones’s love child Holly comes into the frame. . . and then there is a second murder by poison.

Whilst the similarity of the two murders seems more than coincidence, DCI Alan Clarke cannot work out a connection, until a single piece of apparently innocuous evidence comes to light. But is it too late to prevent further murder and loss of life?

Size: 217x140mm

Binding: Paperback (ISBN 9781852002237) and Hardback (ISBN 9781852002091)

Length: 224pp

A Twist of Fate - The new Sanders & Wade Murder Case

When Cornish based DI Cassie Wade is called out to a violent murder scene in Penzance, her past collides with the present as her old school friend, Suzi, becomes the prime suspect.

Cassie refuses to accept her friend is responsible and her attitude leaves DCI Peter Sanders with no choice but to exclude her from the investigation. He is relieved when she travels back to her native Liverpool to give evidence on one of her former cases.

On her return, Cassie has to investigate the rape of a teenage girl which unexpectedly becomes a hunt for a violent murderer. A flash of inspiration provides Cassie with, not one, but two suspects whose identities are inextricably linked.

Now dealing with two murder cases and feeling pressure between work and family, Peter reluctantly decides he needs Cassie on board to find her old school friend, who, it is feared, may be in danger herself.

A surprising twist of fate sends Cassie back to her childhood home in Liverpool, revisiting past events which could finally explain present happenings three hundred miles away in her new home county of Cornwall.

ISBN: 9781852002084

Size: 217x140mm

Binding: hardback

Length: 210pp aprox

Perfectly Evil (Second in the Alan Clarke crime series)

DCI Alan Clarke returns in this new detective murder/mystery story set in Carol M. Creasey’s home area of Bishopstone and Reculver in Kent. Alan Clarke first appeared in the story Nobody’s Perfect, and has now been sent to solve the murder of a teenage girl found on a beach near Herne Bay. Coincidentally, another young girl at the scene of the crime is Dee, daughter of mentally unstable Sadie Morton Brown, a character from Carol’s Evil Woman novels and, along with her half-brother Billy, she becomes a possible suspect in this new murder case.

Together with his police partner Wendy Stuart, Alan is thrust into a world of teenage angst within which he needs to solve who killed Janet. Her body was found on the beach not far from Dee, and Billy was her boyfriend yet seems indifferent to her death. Beth is Dee’s closest friend, but appears to be hiding a huge secret, while Jenny only reignites her friendship with Dee just after Janet is killed. . .

The mystery deepens when a menacing leather-clad figure on a motorbike crosses the Fairy Bridge at Bishopstone Glen and forces Dee to tumble down towards the ravine. Then Dee disappears and Alan realises she is in great danger. Is her disappearance linked to the murder? And can he save Dee before it’s too late?

ISBN: 9781852002015

Size: 217x140mm

Binding: Hardback

Length: 208pp

We follow Emily, Sylvia, Paul and Gavin’s lives from 1990s carefree children through to the years of 2020-21 and the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Emily and Gavin become teenage lovers, but Gavin goes off to university to study law, giving a jealous Sylvia the opportunity to get close to him. His work takes them to the USA. Meanwhile, Emily and Paul get married.

The years pass through to 2019, when a disillusioned Sylvia returns to Britain and subsequently wreaks havoc against Emily’s happy but childless marriage. This culminates in Sylvia having a terrible breakdown, and Emily suspecting that Sylvia is carrying Paul’s baby.

Gavin also returns to Britain to visit his parents, but realises immediately on seeing Emily that he is still in love with his childhood sweetheart, who turns to him when her marriage is in turmoil. 

Due to the tragedy of the Covid-19 pandemic and severe lockdown restrictions, Emily cannot leave Paul, despite the fact that her friend might be having his baby, and Gavin cannot return to the USA to avoid his feelings for Emily. 

With their lives in turmoil, and a final twist of fate to thwart Emily, what will become of their relationships set against the course of the pandemic?

ISBN: 9781852002046

Size: 217x140mm

Binding: Hardback

Length: 208pp

Vengeance Visits Cornwall (A Sanders and Wade Trilogy) 

These are three intriguing murder detective stories from the rugged coast and landscape of West Cornwall.

In The Moving Finger the newly reinstated DI Peter Sanders is under pressure to prove himself following his suspension by Devon and Cornwall Police. Sandra Parks is in a coma after being brutally attacked and DI Sanders and his team must find the person responsible. Their first inclinations are dashed when Sandra’s work colleague is murdered and there are two other apparently unconnected killings. Peter needs to solve this case for the sake of his reputation.

Dust to Dust brings a complex murder investigation from the wild Cornish coast, where the body of a young girl is discovered in a mine shaft. Now promoted to DCI, Sanders finds himself assimilating into his team the feisty ex-Liverpool detective Cassandra Wade, who is unhappy with her posting to ‘sleepy Cornwall’. However, her expertise in drug crime and child exploitation soon come to the fore and she becomes immersed in the case.

The finale of this trilogy, Snow Upon the Desert, finds DI Cassandra Wade at Cornwall’s Minack Theatre when a murder is committed on stage during the performance. As she was at the scene and witnessed the crime, identifying the murderer should be easy, but not in the world of acting and special effects, where Cassandra struggles to differentiate reality from illusion. Her boss DCI Sanders returns from his honeymoon to find the case in disarray and his DI blind to what’s in front of her.

ISBN: 9781852002008

Size: 217x140mm 

Binding: hardback 

Length: 325pp aprox

It’s the ‘best day ever’ for 11 year-old Tommy Wagstaff when his Da presents him with a feisty bundle of energy and fur in the shape of a small puppy, which the boy affectionately names ‘Our Patch’.

‘Our Patch’ turns out to be no ordinary dog. From day one the little Bedlington Terrier knows his ‘rightful’ place as ‘top dog’ among all the other animals in the village.

Set in a Yorkshire mining community named Hillthorpe just before the First World War, the book tells the tales (tails) of Patch’s many adventures and escapades with his ‘young master Tommy’.

Join Patch in his spats with his arch enemy Archie, a pampered ‘working’ cocker spaniel, and his feline nemesis Genghis – a half Mongolian wildcat, who terrorises his fellow creatures in the village. These two despicable creatures soon learn that ‘nobody gets the better of a Bedlington’ and there’s only one top dog (or cat) in Hillthorpe!

Sometimes hilarious but also quite profound, these stories of ‘Our Patch’ will appeal to all ages.

ISBN: 9781852001957

Size: 212x135m

Binding: Paperback 

Length: 210pp

Through the Granite Mirror: An epic story of a Cornish farming family

Standback only came for a funeral, and the ferrets. Fifteen years ago he’d turned his back on Cornwall. He’d stopped belonging after the sale of Trevarnon Farm. Curiosity leads him back to Trevarnon where his brother Eddie is repairing a Cornish hedge, a hedge originally built by Grandad. 

Standback can’t resist the stones. As the brothers work from opposite sides of the hedge in the traditional manner, the ever-present voice of Grandad echoing in their memories, we live through the changing face of rural West Penwith from the end of World War II into the 21st century.

This story of two brothers is also a story of the granite land itself . . . the soil, the cliffs and in particular the Cornish hedges, home to so many species of plants, mammals, insects, and secrets.

ISBN: 9781852001964

Size: 212x135m

Binding: paperback 

Length: 137pp

In this extremely original and creative story we share the present world of successful author Myra Vilas, a beautiful and confident woman with a baby daughter, but a dreadful secret, as she becomes inextricably linked with her latest novel; an account of a dystopian future set in the 24th century.Readers are quickly enticed from the present time into the future as the chapters of Myra’s manuscript are unveiled and her words unfold a disturbing story that keeps us guessing.

Meanwhile the narrative of Myra’s own life is revealed and we become aware that she is dealing with loss and post-natal depression, unable to open to anyone but her closest friend, despite her outward assertiveness.

As her manuscript evolves we find that the fictional future Myra is creating contains an enigmatic portrayal of characters from her actual world, with names being anagrams or puns of their real-world counterparts, but their stories darkly different.

A Parallel Life becomes a broodingly and deeply psychological account of a woman who is beset with a traumatic and emotional past that culminates in the most extreme despair life can offer.

ISBN: 9781852001940

Size: 217x140mm 

Binding: hardback 

Length: 200pp

With his knowledgeable and humorous approach in telling these stories from a westcountry council chamber, Ted Sherrell provides a wry insight into the workings of local government and what it is that councillors actually do – or perhaps that should read ‘don’t do’.

At the meetings councillors are faced with the most unlikely proposals and subject matter. They could be dealing with trees that are in the way or dropping their fruits on people, or dogs that leave their droppings in public places, or unreachable flagpoles, decrepit bridges or even the need to set up committees under government policy that never actually do anything!

The problem with all the discussions and decisions is that each of the councillors have their own strong individual personalities and quirks, and these can quickly make them appear either outrageous or extremely inflexible. Whilst democracy is obviously essential, there are other considerations – can they afford the proposal, which proposal will close the meeting quickest to allow them to go home, and will the outcome affect their chances of re-election?

When we consider that many of those who eventually reach the hallowed halls of Westminster start out as elected councillors, it is perhaps not surprising that the one true principle that can be seen running through our democratic system, just as occurs in this book, is that of procrastination – and perhaps it’s just as well!

ISBN: 9781852001919 

Size: 217x140mm 

Binding: hardback 

Length: 204pp

Tragically orphaned at the age of eight, twins Rachel and Diana share identical looks but not personality. 

As they grow up and become more independent, the studious and quiet natured Rachel is alarmed when dramatic and attention seeking Diana meets travelling gypsy Jake at a fair, but it is she, Rachel, that unexpectedly falls madly in love with strikingly handsome Neil Morris, whilst Diana has a feeling of foreboding about the relationship and does not like or trust Neil. 

Diana’s flatmate, Clare, has recently had a miscarriage and is desperate to replace her loss, and when Diana finds she is herself pregnant after being raped, she agrees that Clare can adopt her unwanted baby. However, when her daughter is born there is an immediate bond and Diana decides to keep baby Ella, much to the dismay of Clare. 

Events take a very dark turn when baby Ella is stolen from the hospital, with the last sighting being that of a nurse taking her out of the maternity ward. . . 

Whilst Diana immediately assumes Clare has taken the baby, it soon becomes apparent that her twin Rachel has vanished without trace and the baby’s father, who now has a new partner called Anna, also seems a possible line of enquiry for the police. 

As time passes, Diana is left devastated at the abduction of her baby and she desperately misses her twin sister to confide in. She is surprised when her first love Jake turns up as one of the detectives and wonders what the future will hold – will she ever find out what happened, in that one terrible moment, to baby Ella?

ISBN: 9781852001865 

Size: 217x140mm

Binding: Hardback

Length: 221pp