Murder Room
36 total works
John Raven - the ex-cop with a taste for exotic adventures and voluptuous adventurers - is unexpectedly thrust into the thick of the action.
His Andalusian holiday turns out to be no picnic when he finds himself at the crossroads of the snow-white heroin trail and the blood-red trail of international murder . . .
'A swift, stylish novel' Publishers Weekly
Zaleski is a middle-aged philanderer determined to retrieve the Virgin's Dowry, a jeweled monstrance worth £500,000, which has reappeared for display in an art gallery in Conduit Street in London.
This ageing Polish patriot carries out the crime but in doing so becomes the target for Detective Inspector John Raven of the CID - one of the most ruthless and capable policemen on the force.
'Perfectly fascinating and perfectly written' Chicago Sun Times
Scott Hamilton is a professional thief, one who would never turn down an opportunity to steal something really worthwhile - in this case, a priceless collection of Ming Dynasty jade statuettes, whose owner is a man with a private army; a man rich enough to be above the law.
Hamilton's accomplices are the charming and tough Gunilla von Mayenfels, who is a girl with an interest in jade, and the odious and unreliable Kosky. And the result of their attempt combines triumph and disaster in equal measure.
Terminally ill Polish refugee Henryk Lamprecht, a decoder for British Security, has a score to settle with the Russian who killed his wife and daughter. As he is close to death, he has no time to lose when an opportunity he has been waiting for turns up.
But now, through a chance meeting with his old friend Zaleski, ex-cop John Raven is involved, and so is Lamprecht's English sweetheart. And so the game of cat-and-mouse begins . . .
'Donald MacKenzie is a born storyteller' Guardian
Ex-cop and investigator John Raven becomes involved with a killing carried out in England but arranged by US Intelligence services with the connivance of their English equivalents. And it just so happens that it is a friend of Raven who is manoeuvred by these faceless government agents into carrying out the murder.
When Raven starts asking questions about why his friend has been led into this mess, he discovers that to question such forces is a very dangerous occupation . . .
When a bent London policeman carries out two ruthless murders, it is with the goal of making himself rich through the sale of stolen diamonds. And to cover his tracks he sets up an ingenious labyrinth of false covers and alibis.
But when ex-cop John Raven is brought into the case by accident, it becomes a whodunit with Raven as detective in an exhilarating race against time.
Beware of the Genial Stranger.
Confidence tricksters are operating throughout Europe! Be on your guard against the man wanting to reward you for returning his dropped wallet. Before parting with money to strangers on any pretext check with your banker or with the local police
Thus read the warning posters...
It was a dazzling two-man jewel robbery that went like clockwork, but when Arran and his confederate, Bain, fall out the plot takes a sinister turn. Bain learns that Arran has left with the take, and without his wife, Caroline, for Gibraltar.
With Caroline as bait, and a false passport, Bain follows Arran - but his single-minded desire for retribution is weakened by his attraction to Caroline, which, for the first time, threatens his criminal existence. And Bain can secure revenge only at the expense of his freedom . . .
When John Raven is somehow connected to the case of a criminal abortion that ended in death he finds himself embroiled with his old nemesis, former Chief Superintendent Drake of Scotland Yard. But what Drake doesn't realise is the death is only incidental to the plan for a million-dollar heist.
Soon Raven is involved in rescuing a damsel in distress, saving his own skin, preventing a bank robbery and foiling the relentless machinations of his old enemy.
'Expertly plotted' Publishers Weekly
'The action is violent and intricately plotted, but it is completely convincing' Spectator
John Raven - the ex-cop with a taste for exotic adventures and voluptuous adventurers - is unexpectedly thrust into the thick of the action.
His Andalusian holiday turns out to be no picnic when he finds himself at the crossroads of the snow-white heroin trail and the blood-red trail of international murder . . .
'A swift, stylish novel' Publishers Weekly
Defrauding an insurance company is not an unusual crime, but the way Stephen Venner planned to do it was not only unusual but macabre. But then Stephen Venner was a totally selfish and amoral man, and with the push of blackmail behind him, and the strength of his wife to support him, there was little he would stop at.
Ross MacLaren didn't know that, and allowed himself to be lured to Portugal where he, Stephen and the beautiful but repressed Emma play out the last tense act of at least one of their three lives.
London's favourite anti-establishment sleuth, John Raven, visits his photographer-girlfriend Kirstie in Paris. Kirstie, it seems, has inadvertently photographed three men involved in a high-class, multi-million-dollar forgery - the mastermind, financier Kent Tyler, sometime actor Rod De Wayne, and forgery expert Paolo Scotti.
The threesome tries to retrieve the incriminating film, which sets Raven on their trail. And by the time Raven and Kirstie track down the villains, ringleader Tyler is set on eliminating his co-conspirators . . .
'Starts off fast and keeps speeding up' Los Angeles Times
Kit Hendry has several criminal convictions, but now he is given the choice of a twelve-year sentence or a government mission to trace the security leakage from a Dusseldorf installation. Kit can crack safes - he can also speak German.
Under the vigilant surveillance of Gaunt and also of Bernadette, with whom he is infatuated, he crosses the channel and is exposed to a smallpox victim, but the film he secures becomes the final double take . . .
The ad in the Daily Telegraph read: 'Wanted: a man of resource and courage to act as companion'.
Ex-con Macbeth Bain must stay on the right side of the law, and this job seems like the perfect opportunity for him to prove that he can. A woman needs protection from a jealous husband - the only thing is, this husband has been dead for seven months. His phone calls, however, continue unabated, or so the widow maintains. Crazy? Bain doesn't think so. But it's not until his third day on the job that the real trouble starts. And when the noose begins to tighten, Bain knows he must break out soon or it will be too late.
When Kirstie Macfarlane's younger brother is framed for stealing a Van Eyck portrait, she puts the case in the able hands of ex-Scotland Yard Inspector John Raven.
Seduced away from his quiet life on the Thames, Raven dives back into the seamy London underworld filled with police corruption and high-handed swindles. Kirstie and Raven soon realise they have more than one opponent and their lives are perilously on the line.
'Donald MacKenzie is a born storyteller' Guardian