Showing results by author "Mark Dawson" in All Categories

In the rain-soaked Pacific Northwest, John Milton is drawn into a desperate fight against a pharmaceutical giant when a painkiller addiction drives an ordinary man to rob banks—and exposes a company willing to destroy lives for profit.

John Milton was just passing through. But when a chance glimpse of an old friend drags him off course, he finds himself in Clearwater Springs—a forgotten town poisoned by corporate greed and held hostage by fear. Caterina Moreno was supposed to disappear. Years ago, Milton risked everything to help her escape Mexico and a cartel death sentence. Now she’s resurfaced under a new name, fighting a different kind of war. She’s taking on the powerful fracking company that’s been making people sick and silencing anyone who dares speak out.

When a prominent landowner goes missing, private investigator Atticus Priest is drawn into a web of secrets that stretch from the rolling fields of Wiltshire to the darkest corners of the past. The ancient estate of Brookmere—seat of the once-mighty Ainsley family—is crumbling, its future threatened by inheritance disputes, hidden debts, and buried scandal.

When John Milton stumbles into a small town plagued by scams, secrets, and a brutal criminal family, he plans to keep his head down. But after a deadly ambush leaves him tied up and dragged into the Appalachians, Milton finds himself face-to-face with an ancient tree—and a noose meant for his neck.

Belfast-born Jimmy Walker is a career criminal, desperate to leave the world of organised crime behind. He’s made just enough money to think about going straight. He wants to be a family man. He wants to stay alive for his wife and son. He wants to be the man they deserve. He reluctantly agrees to one final job with the intention that it will be his last. Little does Jimmy know that he’s been set-up. The sins of his past are about to catch up with him.

An assassin haunted by his past. Two young refugees out of their depth and in need of his special talents. John Milton is no stranger to the world's seedy underbelly. But when the former British secret service agent comes up against a ruthless human trafficking ring, he'll have to fight harder than ever to conquer the evil in his path. After Milton meets a refugee who lost a sister to people smugglers, he travels through war-torn Libya and the murkiest parts of Italy and France to get the girl back.

On Christmas Eve, DCI Mackenzie Jones is called to a shooting at a remote farmhouse. Ralph Mallender believes his father lies dead inside. When three more bodies are discovered, it's clear a festive family gathering has turned into a gruesome tragedy. At first it seems like an open and shut case: a murder suicide committed by Ralph's volatile brother Cameron. Then new evidence makes Mack suspect the man who reported the crime is in fact the perpetrator. But Mack isn't the only one with a stake in the case.

When Group Fifteen assassin Charlie Cooper is ordered to eliminate a rogue Chinese scientist, he’s thrust into a deadly game that stretches from the backstreets of London to the glittering towers of Singapore. The target, Dr. Zhang, holds the key to a breakthrough in genetic engineering that could change the balance of global power. But Cooper isn’t the only one hunting him. Also in pursuit is Vanessa, a former agent and Cooper’s old flame, now working for a ruthless biotech corporation willing to kill for Zhang’s research.

Private investigator Atticus Priest is employed by a disgruntled ex-husband to dig up dirt on his estranged wife. But when she goes missing after swimming in the River Avon, Atticus uncovers a conspiracy between five lifelong friends that goes back years. The friends did something when they were younger that they're not proud of. It's something that would land them in a world of trouble if it ever came to light. Something they've been trying to bury ever since. But Atticus finds one secret and then the next.

Bryan Duffy is Witness X - a government agent implicated in a national scandal and banished to Spain until the agenda can be moved on. But when North Korean hit men attack a seeming innocent on the streets of London, Duffy is called back to the fold. He is tasked with finding the woman's assailants and bringing them to justice. Why has the woman been attacked? Duffy investigates and finds himself sucked into a whirlwind of action and mayhem that is particularly well suited to his special set of skills....

When Milton is arrested following a brawl in a Texas bar, the last person he expected to bail him out was a glamorous operative from the Russian Secret Service. The Russians blackmail Milton into finding his predecessor. But she's a ghost, like him, and just as dangerous. Milton finds himself in deep trouble, playing the Russians against the British in a desperate race against time with the life of his oldest friend on the line.

But when a video is sent to the local newspaper showing the deceased man engaging in a compromising act with a minor, Atticus realizes that there's much more to this case than he initially thought. Is it blackmail? Suicide? Or murder? Two more bodies are found and two more videos are sent to the press. Atticus and his former colleague, detective chief inspector Mackenzie Jones, race against time to identify the culprit before he can strike again.

John Milton travels to Bali in search of a new identity, but he can't even manage the flight without finding someone who needs his help. A beautiful woman falls ill and confesses that she has swallowed packages of cocaine in order to smuggle it across the border. She has been forced to work as a mule by a Yakuza gang in Tokyo who are holding her child to guarantee her compliance. Milton decides that's unacceptable and promises to lend her his help.

Bjorn Thorsson joined the Special Air Service to forget the horrors of his childhood. He killed for Queen and country, and he was good at it. He quits the army and settles down, looking for a quieter life. When his beautiful sister, Gudrun, finds herself in trouble with the owner of a hedge fund, Bjorn promises to get her out of danger. But there’s another factor in play. Group 15, a clandestine government agency, has plans for the financier, and Bjorn is in their way. Bjorn must outwit the Group in the streets of London and in the Highlands of Scotland if he is to protect his sister and survive.

A dog walker finds a human bone on lonely Salisbury Plain. DCI Mackenzie Jones investigates the grisly discovery but cannot explain how it ended up there. She contacts disgraced ex-detective Atticus Priest and the two of them trace the bone to a graveyard in the nearby village of Imber. But the village was abandoned after it was purchased by the Ministry of Defence to train the army, so why have bodies been buried in the graveyard since the church was closed?

John Milton's life is about to change. The former government assassin follows a lead to Manila that he hopes will transform everything. But things don't go to plan. He never expected to wake up in an unfamiliar hotel room beside a dead body. And, unfortunately for him, Milton doesn't remember a thing about the night before.... Thrown into a gruesome Filipino prison, he puts together the clues of his betrayal. With no allies and even less hope, Milton must use his wits to escape and take revenge....

Mark Dawson's Group Fifteen Files. Quick, lightning-paced, action.

They call him 'Scorpion'. No-one knows his real name, and the only people who have seen his face are dead. He works for the highest bidder, and he's never missed a target.

The assassin appears in London with the name of an investigative reporter on his list. But has Scorpion met his match? The reporter has a protector - John Milton. And Milton might be the only man in the world more dangerous than him.

John Milton has started to hope that he might have a future. He has a job driving a taxi around the streets of San Francisco. He has his anonymity and his solitude. Being invisible has become a comfortable habit. He doesn’t want to be found. But when a girl he drives to a party goes missing, Milton is worried. Especially when two dead bodies are discovered and the police start treating him as their prime suspect. Milton is a fugitive from the British Secret Service and a man in his position needs extra attention like he needs a hole in the head.

Meet John Milton. He considers himself an artisan. A craftsman. His trade is murder. Milton is the man the government sends after you when everything else has failed. Ruthless. Brilliant. Anonymous. Lethal. You wouldn't pick him out of a crowd but you wouldn't want to be on his list. In this second dip into his case files (see 1000 Yards for a further novella), Milton is sent to Italy to investigate the death of a colleague from Group 15.

An Underground carriage in London is destroyed by a suicide bomber. The injured and the dead litter the platform. But as a crowd forms at street level, Michael Pope knows that this is only the beginning. Pope, head of top-secret Group Fifteen, is tasked with finding the perpetrators of this atrocity and bringing them to justice, any way he can. He knows that the answers to many of his questions will lie at the end of the money trail, but he also knows that whoever funded and organised the attack will kill again for their freedom.