Meredith & Hodge Novels

On the surface, John Meredith appears to have it all. He’s blessed with good looks and a successful police career, and he’s never short of female attention. But is everything as it seems? What lies beneath the smooth, confident exterior? Is he a man who has simply plastered over the cracks of a dysfunctional childhood, betrayals, and heartbreak? Can he allow anyone close or will they see the joins and the damaged person that he really is?

Detective Patsy Hodge has left her old life behind to start a new job with Bristol CID. She attends a suspicious death with her new boss: straight-talking, no nonsense Detective Inspector John Meredith. Within days the body count begins to rise, as victims, old and new, are discovered to have died by lethal injection. Assisted suicide or euthanasia? Meredith calls it murder.

A self-confessed murderer has kidnapped one of Meredith’s officers. They want Meredith to prove an apparent suicide was, in fact, murder. He’s working against the clock, as the kidnapped officer has been locked away with limited food and water. Hodge is searching for the ex-husband of a prison inmate. She needs to establish he’s still alive, or her client could be charged with his murder.

Meredith's team are horrified when the daughter of one of their own is taken from the park by a stranger. Her disappearance is only the beginning of a series of abductions of young girls in the area. To catch the abductor, the team must first work out what motivates him, but time is running out, and he might just slip their net. Hodge begins to question her new career as a private investigator. But a seemingly mundane case soon finds Patsy, herself, being interrogated and hand-picked for a very different assignment.

Meredith finds himself stuck between the Russian Mafia and the Secret Intelligence Service. But whose side has he chosen? His team are investigating a series of horrific murders involving the Russians, and are beginning to question where his loyalties lie. Even Patsy Hodge has her doubts. Hodge is working on an assignment that appears to be safe and boring. When she discovers there is a connection to the Russians, her relationship with Meredith places her in danger. Has Meredith overplayed his hand? The secrets and lies are mounting up and not everyone will get out alive.

DCI John Meredith has one day left in the job when his friend Ben Jacobs is arrested for murder. According to the numerous witnesses in the nightclub where Jacobs works, Jacobs stabbed Aiden O’Brien in a motiveless attack. Meredith believes all is not as it seems and is determined to prove his friend’s innocence, even if it means letting down Patsy Hodge, allowing the secret intelligence service to call the shots, and ignoring his increasing ill-health.

Meredith and Hodge are stranded up a mountain with two dead bodies and a murderer on the loose, Christmas is put on hold until they can catch the killer. John Meredith has been coerced into joining a group of friends, in a castle on top of a mountain, for the Christmas holiday. His irritation at being dragged away from home soon dissipates, as he relaxes in the picturesque surroundings, enjoying the company of good friends. Even the sudden snowstorm is accepted without complaint; it will be a white Christmas. But then Patsy Hodge discovers a dead body in the salt box.

Meredith is impatient to get back to work following his illness, but has a few matters to sort out, and a wedding to attend before that happens. The wedding is ruined when Meredith is arrested and his half brother turns up with a body in the boot of his car. The investigation reveals that Patsy and Amanda are being stalked and are in the sights of a sadistic killer. It seems an old adversary is trying to ruin Meredith’s life before he wipes out everyone Meredith cares about.

In 2012, Mike and Christine Hawker disappeared. Vanished without a trace. Christine while making breakfast for the children, Mike, less than two hours later. They were never seen again. Described by all who knew them as the perfect family, the Hawkers were devoted to each other and had no known personal or financial issues. So why disappear? Mike Hawker’s body is discovered twelve years later, and DCI Meredith’s cold case review team take on the case.

In October 2015, young police officer Corina Jones drowned in Bristol’s floating harbour. Was it an accident or foul play? There are no witnesses, and injuries to her body are inconclusive. When the senior investigating officer dies in a freak accident, the case is shelved and an inquest records an open verdict. Ten years later, the Chief Constable receives a series of anonymous letters, and Meredith’s cold case review team reopens the case. The letters say to look close to home, which, if true, given Corina’s circumstances, means a serving police officer could be responsible.