Book 4

The Devil's Moon

by Peter Guttridge

Published 1 January 2013
Something strange is in the Brighton air. Everywhere newly-promoted Sarah Gilchrist looks, unsettling things are happening. A Wicker Man is burned on the beach at dawn with a body inside; a painting titled The Devil's Altar is stolen from the Brighton Museum; a vicar who casts out demons goes missing; and a rare medieval manuscript of the occult Key of Solomon is stolen from the Jubilee Library.

Then Gilchrist's flatmate, Kate Simpson, discovers that acts of sacrilege and grave robbing have been routinely taking place in Brighton and the surrounding villages. And ex-Chief Constable Bob Watts is puzzling over inscriptions in his late father's books. Specifically, books by occult writers Dennis Wheatley, Colin Pearson - and the feared Aleister Crowley, cremated in Brighton in 1947.

Old Religion and New Age collide and the body count mounts as the Devil's Moon slowly rises .

Swimming with the Dead

by Peter Guttridge

Published 30 April 2019

A body found stabbed repeatedly outside the local lido leads DI Sarah Gilchrist and DS Bellamy Heap into an intriguing new case.

With an art deco lido under threat of closure by a ruthless property developer, the Save Salthaven Lido campaigners are fighting a desperate battle to keep it open. When the lead campaigner is discovered dead, suspicion falls on the developers.

No sooner have DI Sarah Gilchrist and DS Bellamy Heap begun to investigate that there is a second death during a pre-qualifying event in Brighton Bay for potential Cross-Channel swimmers. This time it's a local millionaire businesswoman with radical plans to reorganise the family business.

When another endurance swimmer dies during an event with links to the property developer, Gilchrist and Heap flounder. Are all the deaths connected to the Salthaven development? Is someone targeting open-water swimmers? Gilchrist and Heap race to uncover the truth before more victims come to the surface.


The Lady of the Lake

by Peter Guttridge

Published 29 November 2019

DI Sarah Gilchrist and DS Bellamy Heap are called in when the body of a man is found floating in a lake belonging to a reclusive ex-Hollywood actress.

When Major Richard Rabbitt, owner of a large estate in Sussex, is found floating in a lake belonging to Nimue Grace, a charismatic former Hollywood actress, DI Sarah Gilchrist and DS Bellamy Heap are called in to investigate - and quickly discover Rabbitt was a notoriously difficult man to deal with.

Rabbitt was hated by his estranged wife, had several rivalries with residents of the area, and was involved in a number of deals with other shady businessmen . . . such as Said Farzi, a 'criminal' according to many, and the corrupt politician William Simpson - the father of Heap's girlfriend.

With numerous suspects and many refusing to cooperate, Gilchrist and Heap must stay on their toes to unravel all the connections. Who stood to gain the most from Rabbitt's demise, and who can be trusted?


Butcher's Wood

by Peter Guttridge

Published 29 April 2021

A bloody death of an actress during a theatre show has DI Gilchrist and DS Heap investigate . . . but was it a bizarre accident or a deliberate attack?

During a theatre performance Detective Inspector Sarah Gilchrist is reluctantly attending, blood begins soaking through a curtain startling one actor into falling to his death from the stage. The source of the blood: Elvira Wright, the lead actress, has been bludgeoned by a lead weight used for opening the curtain.

Meanwhile former Hollywood actress Nimue Grace is attracting attention from a notorious gangster. When she stumbles across something horrific in the aptly named Butcher's Wood, she interprets it as a vicious message left for her.

As Gilchrist and Detective Sergeant Bellamy Heap investigate, they find themselves running in circles. All the actors were disgruntled with the director of the play, Cat Pinter, and the way it was produced, but why would any of them target Elvira? And what is the meaning of the horrible discovery in Butcher's Wood?