A Naomi Blake Mystery

8 primary works • 9 total works

Killing a Stranger

by Jane A. Adams

Published 2 February 2006

A teenage boy is found drowned in a canal, just hours after telling his mother that he has killed a man. Rob Beresford was a schoolfriend of Patrick's; in their shock and grief, Patrick and his mates turn for help to Naomi. The dead man is identified as Adam Hensel: in his mid-forties, from the other side of town. There seems to have been no link between the two, and Rob was a model student, who had never been in trouble with the police. His mother, Clara, is devastated, adamant that Rob could not have killed anyone - despite evidence to the contrary - and his friends rally around her. Naomi is drawn into the case, by her friendship with Patrick, and because the detective handling it is her boyfriend, Alec. Then a surprising alliance is formed, between Clara and Ernst Hensel, father of the dead man. It becomes clear to Naomi that there is a complex, tragic story behind the bald facts of the case, one that has its roots in the past...

Legacy of Lies

by Jane A. Adams

Published 2 March 2007

Naomi and her detective boyfriend, Alec Friedman, travel to the Fenland home of Alec's beloved Uncle Rupert, for his funeral. Rupert, who ran an antiques business and wrote books on local history, was something of a maverick - and the black sheep of the Friedman family, for reasons Alec has never understood. At the funeral, Rupert's business partner, Marcus Prescott, speaks of the violence of his friend's death. As he talks to Naomi and Alec, it becomes clear that there were some suspicious circumstances, and that the ostensible cause of death - a heart-attack - may not hold true. Reluctantly, Alec agrees to make some inquiries. Then, Naomi is accosted by an aggressive stranger in Rupert's old home - a man claiming that Rupert owed him money - and it becomes clear that Rupert may have had some secrets in his past...

Blood Ties

by Jane A. Adams

Published 5 October 2010

This title offers a Naomi Blake mystery. When Alec and Naomi take a much-needed Winter holiday in Somerset, they encounter local eccentric Eddy Thame, a historian and metal detectorist obsessed with the Monmouth rebellion of 1685 and the alleged Kirkwood treasure. A few days after their arrival, Eddy is found dead. Reluctantly, Alec and Naomi become involved, but they soon realise that Eddy seems very different to the rather dotty individual they encountered in the local pub...

Secrets

by Jane A. Adams

Published 1 January 2013

When a man breaks into Mollie Chambers' house she tells the police that she has never seen him before. Ex-DI Alec Friedman, her honorary nephew, isn't so sure. Mollie has lived an eventful life, as the wife of a diplomat, and he knows she is still haunted by the horrors of more than one war. Alec and his blind wife, Naomi, want to help, but prickly Mollie is a private person, and he and Naomi have their own pressing issues: now that Alec has resigned from the police, what should he do next? And where should they make their home? But while Alec has quit the force, the force hasn't quit him -- his former colleague, DI Barnes, wants to bring him in on the case unofficially, and Alec finds it hard to say no. But just what is it that Mollie has got herself in to? Alec and Naomi only find out just what murky waters they're wading in when it's much too late.

Gregory's Game

by Jane A. Adams

Published 28 February 2014

Sometimes, just surviving is not enough. You have to know what to do with yourself once the crisis is over.

Ex-DI Alec Friedman is recovering from the car crash that almost killed him. Now back at home, with his wife Naomi, he feels as though he has lost something of himself. He may be alive, but he is hollowed out and empty. Another man standing at the same crossroads is Gregory. Soldier, mercenary, hired killer, Gregory is contemplating retirement and struggling to find meaning in the idea.

Then a brutal murder, followed by the kidnap of a mother and child, drags Alec, Naomi and Gregory back into the game. Why was Anthony Palmer tortured and killed and what sort of kidnappers send no ransom demand and make no contact with the family of the victim? Whoever they are, they killed Palmer, and now the race is on to find Katherine and her baby before they too end up dead . . .

Paying the Ferryman

by Jane A. Adams

Published 29 August 2014

The murder of a family forces former policewoman Naomi Blake to face her past

Victor Griffin seemed to be one of the good guys, but that didn't stop someone coming to his home and killing him and his wife. The last act of Vic's life was to try and save his children: fifteen-month-old Jack, and his beloved stepdaughter, Sarah.
But why were Vic and his wife shot dead? Why is there no record of them before they came to live in Ferrymouth three years ago? The one clue to their past is a business card, wedged between the pages of an almost empty address book. A card with Naomi's name on it.

Naomi and Alec find themselves drawn back to face events that happened when Naomi was still a serving police officer - just before the accident that blinded her - and which have now led to murder.

Paying the Ferryman

by Jane A. Adams

Published 1 December 2014

The murder of a family forces former policewoman Naomi Blake to face her past Victor Griffin seemed to be one of the good guys, but that didn't stop someone coming to his home and killing him and his wife. The last act of Vic's life was to try and save his children: fifteen-month-old Jack, and his beloved stepdaughter, Sarah. But why were Vic and his wife shot dead? Why is there no record of them before they came to live in Ferrymouth three years ago? The one clue to their past is a business card, wedged between the pages of an almost empty address book. A card with Naomi's name on it. Naomi and Alec find themselves drawn back to face events that happened when Naomi was still a serving police officer - just before the accident that blinded her - and which have now led to murder.

A Murderous Mind

by Jane A. Adams

Published 30 November 2015

The murder of a student re-opens a series of cold cases in this intriguing mystery.

A young student is found brutally murdered in her room, killed while her flatmates slept nearby. The police soon recognize that this is frighteningly similar to a crime committed fifteen years before. A crime investigated by the now discredited Detective Inspector Joe Jackson, but never solved.

Other deaths, linked to the same modus operandi and stretching back more than twenty years, have also remained unsolved. No link has been found between the victims - but it seems Joe Jackson had a perpetrator in mind. He had however been unable to prove his guilt. Can the new investigation trust the judgement of a man who was himself a killer? Or did that give Naomi Blake's one-time friend and mentor an insight his colleagues did not have?

Fakes and Lies

by Jane A. Adams

Published 31 January 2018

A daughter seeks Naomi Blake's help in proving her artist father was murdered.

When artist and sometime forger Freddie Jones is found dead of an apparent heart attack, no one is surprised. Freddie drank heavily and was a lifelong smoker. The only dissenting voice comes from Freddie's daughter, Bee. Before he died, her father confided that he was afraid of something - and she is convinced he was murdered.

Unable to interest the police, Bee takes her suspicions to her father's old friend, Bob Taylor, who in turn seeks the advice of ex-police officer Naomi Blake. When a prominent gallery owner is murdered and a portfolio of Freddie's drawings is stolen, it would appear to confirm Bee's suspicions. What dangerous games had Freddie Jones been playing? And is Bee herself in danger?