A Hazel Best & Gabriel Ash Mystery
5 total works
A case of mistaken identity spells trouble for Gabriel Ash and Hazel Best in this intriguing mystery.
A kidnap attempt outside the school gates in broad daylight convinces Gabriel Ash that his renegade wife is trying to steal their sons from him. Only the intervention of his friend Constable Hazel Best kept them safe. It's a simple if alarming explanation, but is it the truth? Hazel uncovers disturbing information about another crime, the repercussions of which are still threatening innocent lives seventeen years later.
Once again Hazel finds herself at loggerheads with her superiors. Did they really conspire to protect a murderer? And this time she isn't getting the support she needs from Ash. She'd thought they were kindred spirits: now she's not sure what his motives are.
One thing is certain: with her life in imminent danger, Hazel's going to need friends like never before .
When Gabriel Ash comes across a terrified young woman fleeing a brutal attacker, he and Hazel Best are drawn into a complex and baffling investigation.
Rachel Somers, running . . . Something appalling happened in the wood. When Gabriel Ash and his dog come to her aid, she thinks she's safe. But this is Norbold, where things aren't always as they seem.
Detective Chief Inspector Gorman thinks this is his worst nightmare: a predatory paedophile who's prepared to kill rather than be taken. Constable Hazel Best thinks she's helping both the Somers family and her friend Ash, but her tendency to follow her heart rather than her orders is about to get her into trouble again. And the people of Norbold have noticed that descriptions of the attacker, sketchy as they are, fit Ash better than they fit anyone else.
With panic stalking the town, DCI Gorman needs to make an arrest before more young girls are attacked, before someone else dies, before the vigilantes who burned Ash's shop decide to burn him too. But the parameters keep shifting, and almost none of the facts he's relying on will turn out to be true. The solution to the mystery is more shocking, and more tragic, than even these three could have imagined.
Police Constable Hazel Best's latest assignment takes an unexpected turn in the compelling new Gabriel Ash mystery.
Returning to work after an extended leave of absence, PC Hazel Best's first task is to shadow TV historian Oliver Ford, who has arrived in Norbold to open a new museum. What should have been a routine assignment takes a decidedly dramatic turn however when Hazel saves Ford from a murderous attack that would appear to be an act of jihad. But why would someone fly thousands of miles to firebomb an obscure little museum in a quiet English village? Hazel can't help thinking there's more to this case than meets the eye.
Meanwhile, Hazel's friend Gabriel Ash and her lodger Saturday are growing increasingly uneasy at Hazel's developing relationship with Oliver Ford. Though neither of them can guess the real danger that Hazel - and not only Hazel - faces, nor the direction from which it comes.
Constable Hazel Best attracts a sinister new admirer in this absorbing police procedural.
When does a secret admirer become a stalker? When chocolates on the doorstep give way to the sound of an intruder on the stairs? When the victim's friends are waylaid in the dark and beaten bloody? When she receives photographs memorializing these events? Or when people start dying?
For Constable Hazel Best, the pivot point is the attack on her friend Gabriel Ash. That's when she focuses all her ingenuity on finding the man responsible. Her police colleagues would be more help if they weren't already occupied with two murders - but assistance does arrive from an unexpected source.
In the end, though, Hazel must deal with the stalker alone. And more than her own life will depend on the outcome .
A brutal attack on a family friend leads to something darker and deeper for DC Hazel Best and Gabriel Ash.
No one ever said: "See Norbold and die." So why would a man from DC Hazel Best's past cross England in order to get himself beaten senseless in this uninspiring Midlands town? Everyone assumes he was looking for Hazel. She can't think why he would; and when David Sperrin wakes up, he can't think why he would either. Amnesia - or something to hide?
Flashbacks as Sperrin's battered brain recovers only make the case more troubling. His sharpest memory is of a girl dying in his arms. But who, and how? And why is there no body, no witnesses, no missing persons report?
Struggling to make sense of the situation, Hazel turns to her close friend Gabriel Ash for help. But Ash has problems of his own: one of his own ghosts has returned to haunt him. And the stakes are so high there's no one, not even Hazel, he can confide in . . .