Showing results by narrator "Judy Ford" in All Categories

A second marriage after the first ended in tragedy is bound to have its challenges. In the case of DI Peter Johns, his new wife, "Our Bernie", is very different from Angie, the love of his life. This short story plots the path of their friendship from first encounters to final commitment.

You would think that the easiest crimes to solve would be the ones where you have several eyewitnesses who saw what happened and are willing to tell the police about it. However, as DI Peter Johns discovers in this short story, witnesses don't always always remember what they saw - and sometimes they even remember things that they did not see!

Detective Sergeant Peter Johns is resentful of the young PC who catches the attention of his friend and boss, DI Richard Paige. Richard encourages his new protégé to apply for promotion and Peter fears that he is being left behind. They go their separate ways, but then fate throws them together again. Peter now has the upper hand. How will he treat his erstwhile rival?

What could be more pleasant than a short break on the Algarve with a group of friends? But, when the wheelchair on which he depends is damaged in flight, DCI Jonah Porter wishes that he had never come. Relationships are stretched to breaking point as his frustrations mount. Then a guest falls from the balcony of a neighboring apartment and foul play is suspected. With a puzzling case to solve, Jonah is back in his element.

Three young mothers take their infants to an Oxford park, but only two of the babies return home. When six-week-old Abigail goes missing from her pram, the race is on to find her before she comes to harm. Who would want to steal a baby girl? And why? Are other children in danger? Is Abigail's distraught mother as innocent as she appears? DCI Jonah Porter has a tough assignment to find little Abigail and reassure Oxford mothers that their families are safe.

When the bursar of Lichfield College is found strangled in an Oxford hotel, detective chief inspector Jonah Porter rapidly concludes that the killer is one of the nine college staff attending a meeting there, but who is the most likely suspect? Is it mathematics fellow, Tom Carrington, who found the body? Or was it the Master, who was the last to see him alive? Was the bursar blackmailing one of his colleagues? Or could it be a crime of passion committed by his former mistress?

Peter Johns is just a green young police constable walking his beat in a suburb of Oxford, but when a child goes missing, he becomes involved in a criminal investigation that radically changes the course of his life.

When newly-qualified nurse Susan Parry is found dead in her bed in the nurses' home, her colleagues call the police to investigate and Detective Constable Peter Johns finds himself involved in a murder enquiry for the first time in his career. It is not just his career, however, which is dramatically affected by the events that follow.

DI Peter Johns was brought up in a children's home. He never expected to know his parents and never wanted to. He is unsure how to react when his mother makes contact with him and asks to meet. Follow his thoughts and feelings as he faces this unexpected development in his life.

Honoring the unique role that grandparents play, this delightfully heartwarming and down-to-earth book offers more than sixty inspiring suggestions for how you can actively participate in your grandchildren's lives, whether they live down the block or across the country.

A serial killer appears to be targeting female students, strangling them and then discarding their bodies alongside the trash. Women in Liverpool's multi-ethnic student community fear for their lives as the police race to catch the perpetrator and prevent more deaths. But what is the murderer's motive—pure misogyny, or something more complicated? What do the chess pieces left lying next to the victims' bodies mean? Does the principal suspects interest in computer gaming have a bearing on the case?

Following the sudden disappearance of his wife, a police investigation soon starts to focus on eminent surgeon Leonard Martineau. Were they the devoted couple that they appeared to his colleagues? Or was one of her friends right to suggest that she was afraid of him? Is the next-door neighbour imagining things when she reports having seen him digging a grave in his back garden? Is her sister’s antipathy towards Leonard justified? Or is she just resentful and jealous of her sister’s marriage?