Old Moorhen's Shredded Sporran

Frazer, Andrea

Literature & Fiction

Magna Large Print Books

A village detective series with a delightful slice of humor. In the village of Castle Farthing a mean-spirited, spiteful, curmudgeonly old man is found drugged and strangled in the kitchen of his cottage, with no obvious clues to the perpetrator of the crime. DI Falconer and Acting DS Carmichael are summoned from the police headquarters in the nearby town of Market Darley and begin to uncover a web of grudges against the old man and a sea of familial connections between those who knew him. As the heat of July continues relentlessly, tempers flare, disturbing the usual rural calm of the village, and the normally imperturbable Harry Falconer. Faced with a crime with no obvious prime suspect and the idiosyncrasies of his new partner,Carmichael, he feels that he is gradually losing his grip on the case as the body count rises. Undecided whether he has one or two murderers to bring to justice, only a moment of serendipity will show him how events actually unfolded, and allow him to close his File on Castle Farthing, still smarting from the hideous twist with which events finally came to a head.

Death of an Old Git: The Falconer Files - File 1

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

A village detective series with a delightful slice of humor. The villagers of Stoney Cross were bustling about like hyperactive ants. In gardens, houses, and the village hall, figures flitted to and fro making last- minute preparations for their 'Great Event'. After four months of furious debate and power-struggling organisation, the first Stoney Cross Arts Festival was to commence on Saturday 5th September and last for two whole days. Posters were everywhere, promoting this rare rural treat, but a last-minute suggestion to enlist the aid of a local radio broadcaster to advertise, then review their efforts, added an extra frisson of excitement. The delight of some of those involved, however, soon turned to dismay when the broadcaster, Marcus Willoughby, actually moved into a house in Stoney Cross the day before the Festival, turning out to be someone from their past: someone whom they had hoped never to clap eyes on again, and who had greeted them with recogntion in his eyes. To those he had never met before, he proved to be a smarmy, spiteful bigot who proceeded to take great delight in verbally shredding their artistic efforts. When he was found dead at his desk, only a week after moving into his new home, his demise actually having been broadcast during his pre-recorded programme on Radio Carsfold, there were no crocodile tears shed. He had finally been 'choked off' in mid-flow. His arrival in the village had obviously caused a few guilty hearts to beat faster, and precipitated a few hasty confessions of dark deeds thought buried in the past. Into this welter of emotions was dispatched DI Harry Falconer, his trusty (?) acting detective sergeant, 'Davey' Carmichael, riding shotgun, as they entered 'bandit' country once more.

Choked Off: The Falconer Files - File 2

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Mystery

A village detective series with a delightful slice of humor. In the quiet village of Steynham St Michael there is an anonymous letter writer at work, jabbing and stabbing at the past's Achilles' heels of many of the upright citizens living there. After one resident is driven to extreme measures to escape exposure, another is driven to murder. In the village cards club, which meets once a week, tongues begin to wag, not only about the identities of the murderer and the poison pen letter-writer, but also about who exactly has received a letter. There are also changes afoot at Market Darley Police Headquarters, as the national economy dictates that it accepts the straitened circumstances planned for it, and complies with recommendations for change. And before any of this even happens, Harry Falconer drifts up from unconsciousness to find himself in complete darkness and barely able to move, the only sound being that of someone moaning in pain.

Inkier than the Sword: The Falconer Files - File 3

A Lady Amanda Golightly Murder Mystery From the author of The Falconer Files - a new series featuring an outrageously ill-assorted pair of amateur sleuths. An outpouring of English upper class eccentricities with the odd murder thrown in. Lady Amanda Golightly of Belchester Towers was not a horsey sort of country-woman. Neither was she tall, slender, or young. She was in complete contrast to the stereotypical idea of one of her breeding, being short, portly, and embarrassingly forthright. If she didn't call a spade a shovel, it was only because she was calling it 'trumps'! On a visit to a local nursing home, where she has heard that an old business partner of her father's is residing, she discovers, not just a long-lost friend, Hugo Cholmondley-Crichton-Crump, but stumbles upon murder, as well. After tunnelling her way through the necessary paperwork to 'spring' Hugo, she installs him in the more civilised surroundings of Belchester Towers, where he can lead a more dignified and comfortable life. Between doctor's and hospital appointments, the pair turn to sleuthing, after Lady Amanda reports her appalling discovery to the local police inspector, and is incensed when he treats her as a silly old biddy with an over-active imagination. Her outrage prompts her to teach this impertinent young whipper-snapper a lesson, and she and Hugo (Zimmer frame in tow) embark upon their first investigation, only for murder to become a distressingly frequent occurrence, and the person they are pursuing, eventually threatens their own lives!

Strangeways to Oldham: The Belchester Chronicles - 1

Humor & Satire

An account of the hilarious mix-ups and misadventures that occur when a family abandons its everyday life and, metaphorically, jumps off the edge of a cliff into the unknown of a completely different life-style. Andrea and Ian Outen are townies, but have always dreamed of a life in the country. Winter evenings, since their marriage, have been spent dreaming of a rural life, away from the traffic, and hustle and bustle of their everyday lives in the town. Many years into their marriage, and now with four children, they find themselves, once more, sitting in front of their hissing gas fire and dreaming of a real fire of tangy apple logs. Once more, they commence their trawl through the pages of property papers, and this time they actually decide to view a few places in the countryside, just for the hell of it. Expecting this to be an expansion of the usual pipe-dream, Andrea sets off on their trip, expecting to find nothing to match up to her dream of rural paradise, and is completely bowled over, when they find exactly the right place, at almost the right price. This wasn't supposed to happen, was it? What would happen to all their lovely pipe-dreams? But the pace of events overwhelms her and, before she can catch her breath, they are en-route for, not just a new home, but a new way of life as well. This book chronicles the tale of their first year as 'turnips'; the highs and lows of a more self-sufficient life, and the profound changes this makes to them. Chickens and giddy goats make their appearance, as does a hunt for the local ghost; and life, in general, becomes much more interesting and unexpected.

A Fresh of Breath Air: Rural Pursuits - The first move

A village detective series with a delightful slice of humor.  The last three Musical Directors of 'The Dalziels' had left them high and dry, by moving to France. Their next one was to make the'ultimate move', by getting himself murdered!  The village band in Swinbury Abbot has jogged along quite happily for nigh on a decade, at the moment temporarily without a Musical Director. Band practices are free and easy affairs, the actual playing not commencing until after a rather lavish meal with wine, to be followed by more wine, and then maybe running through a piece or two, just for form's sake. Until, one evening, the vicar turns up with a new resident of Swinbury Abbot, whom he thinks is perfectly qualified and experienced enough to take charge of the preparations for a charity concert, in a couple of months' time, to mark the band's 10th anniversary, all monies being split between the Church Restoration Fund and a local charity.  However, the newcomer's ideas of what a band practice consists of are completely at odds with the current mode of practice, and he sets out to rectify this. His clashes with the various band members cause enormous resentment and dislike, and, in one of them, a hatred strong enough to provoke murder!  Into this welter of negative emotions, Detective Inspector Falconer and Detective Sergeant Carmichael of the Market Darley CID arrive, determined to get to the bottom of things and bring the killer to justice, whilst dealing with their own domestic and personal problems.  But the mayhem doesn't stop there, and is to pose them many a problem, and yet another corpse, before they are able to close the case.

Music To Die For: The Falconer Files - File 6

A village detective series with a delightful slice of humor. In the village of Steynham St Michael, the old Strict and Particular Chapel is, at last, undergoing renovation, to the delight of the local inhabitants, who believe it will prove useful as a tourist attraction for the village. The renovations, however, have been dogged by the sightings of mysterious hooded figures, and tributes of flowers, left here and there on the site. The newly painted interior is then found defaced by a mysterious message in red paint, and this last prompts a call to the police. DI Falconer and DS Carmichael of the Market Darley CID make an initial visit, and believe that the unexplained events at the Chapel may be the work of a small cult, believed to originate from the college in Market Darley. When a new DC, on secondment, arrives, Falconer immediately sends him undercover as a student, spending his own time trying to lay his hands on a local drug dealer. Then, a body is found on the stone altar table in the Chapel, and events begin to spiral out of control.

Strict and Peculiar: The Falconer Files - File 7

White Christmas with a Wobbly Knee: The Belchester Chronicles - 2

The first volume of Brief Cases comprises short stories 1 to 5. Love Me To Death: On Christmas Day DI Falconer and DS Carmichael are summoned to a block of apartments in Market Darley, to investigate the unexplained death of a young woman whose fiance was due to move in with her on New Year's Day. At first, her death seems a complete mystery, then, something that Dr Christmas discovers on the internet indicates that her death could just have been a tragic accident, or was it? A Sidecar Named Expire: A young man and his girlfriend decide to celebrate their first St Valentine's Day together, with a cosy evening of cocktails at her house. But as the evening progresses, events don't go quite as Malcolm Standing planned. The next morning, DI Falconer and DS Carmichael are called in to try to sort out what really happened. Battered to Death: DI Falconer and DS Carmichael are both enjoying a well-earned rest day, when they are summoned to a most distressing incident that has occurred at a chip shop on the parade of shops in Upper Darley. It was obviously murder, but was it something to do with the robust behavior of some of the more aggressive customers from the night before or was it closer to home? Toxic Gossip: DI Falconer becomes involved in a gossip-fueled hate crime, only to find himself questioning his own judgement when it comes to protecting Miriam Darling from her anonymous persecutors. Driven To It: Abigail Wentworth is looking forward to her reunion lunch with Alison Fairweather. They were old school-friends who met twice a year, usually for Alison to dish the dirt on the others with whom they had been particular friends when they were younger and Abigail, to gloat over what she considered their inferior circumstances, in comparison to her own respectable existence. Then, during lunch itself, she recognizes a face from the past and, from that moment onward, her life skids completely out of control.

The Falconer Files - Brief Cases 1 to 5

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