Now available from Griffin Books in Penarth!
After eleven books of detective short stories featuring Detective Inspector John Pratt and his alter ego, Juan Pirat, it seemed time for a change.
A publisher suggested that I should write about a detective who works in a real rather than a fictitious location, perhaps somewhere local, somewhere I know well.
So, this book contains twenty cases about a private investigator, Merlin Protheroe … and the setting is Penarth, where I live.
Readers from the area should find plenty of places they recognise in the stories.
The cover features a photograph of Penarth Pier, to some extent because I have been upset a few times by finding crime novels with a similar picture on the cover, only to find that the books are about a detective in England! At least the photograph is honest this time!
The book is now out on Amazon in paperback
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CW114YCZ
and Kindle
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CVXP3PGJ
I have now published my eleventh collection of puzzling detective short stories, ‘Inspector Pratt Goes Up to Eleven.’
It is out on Amazon in paperback
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CDDNM1TM
and Kindle
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CDCM3HWG
The twenty stories include an apparent murder by a herd of cows, a dead Father Christmas, a burnt-out body in a van, and some mysteriously vanishing bodies.
My tenth collection of puzzling detective short stories, ‘Inspector Pratt at Number Ten,’ is now out on Amazon in paperback
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BQK6PMXW
and Kindle
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BQJS4YTH
This time, Detective Inspector John Pratt gets star billing in the title of the book! But the content and style are just the same as in the previous Pirat books.
The twenty-plus stories include an apparent demonstration of time travel, a man vanishing in a house surrounded by police, the mystery of a ghostly hairy hand, and an autobiography in which the author confesses to murder.
I have been much delayed in publishing this book, trying to sort out publishers, but this is finally out, just in time for Christmas … although not early enough for me to splash out all my royalties on Christmas presents!
But I have had such a long wait to publish this, I already have over half the stories for the next book ready for proofreading, so that book may be out sooner than one expects!
So, here is my tenth collection, out now!
My ninth collection of puzzling detective short stories, imaginatively titled ‘Inspector Pirat’s Ninth,’ is now out on Amazon in paperback
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09HNRDQ1B
and Kindle
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09JN6GJ2R
The twenty stories include the murder of a masked singer on a television show, a death on a canal barge, and a witch who seems to turn children into pumpkins. They include my usual occasional references to other detective writers’ books …
So, here it is!
O.K., I know I only published a book the previous month, and I don’t want it to seem that I’m churning these books out, but it has nothing to do with the Coronavirus and lockdown. In fact, I have been writing it for many years.
This book has been on my mind for decades, and to some extent reflects my own feelings. I originally thought of it for television, especially as it’s quite episodic, but it’s finally emerged as a book.
I hate these self-penned blurbs that say things like “This book will change your life,” or “The funniest book you will read this year, or indeed any year.” I shall just say that it’s meant to be funny …
It’s the story of someone who doesn’t want to just drift idly though life as others seem happy to, without achieving anything memorable. He wants to secure a place in history, as have Brunel, Dickens, Elgar and Shakespeare.
To become immortal …
It is now available on Amazon in paperback (@£4.00)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08WSC59LK
and Kindle (@ £1.77)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08WPZPS9K
My eighth collection of puzzling detective short stories, ‘Inspector Pirat’s Pieces of Eight,’ is now out on Amazon in paperback
My latest Inspector Pirat book, ‘Inspector Pirat’s Seventh Heaven,’ is now out on Amazon in paperback
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1671837037
and Kindle
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B088HHZY25
This is the seventh collection of puzzling detective short stories featuring Inspector Pirat (as anglicised as Detective Inspector John Pratt).
Cases include an actress being blown up in her own trailer (whilst afloat!), a murder at a health spa, and a mysterious death during a reality television show.
My latest – the sixth! – Inspector Pirat book, ‘The Scrapbook of Inspector Pirat,’ is now out on Amazon in paperback
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1099153611
and Kindle
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07STHZD8M
Free book!
A series of hopefully-humorous notes that could be described as a short book or a long pamphlet, this book suggests what one might do when one retires and finds it’s not a new life, just a not-going-to-work life, with lots of time to do all those things you always wanted to do but without the money to do it with.
And it’s supposed to be funny, not helpful!
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/934785
A series of (fictional) short stories about the pioneers in the development of time travel, from the earliest groundbreaking, but ultimately unsuccessful, attempts, through to today, when anybody, whether legitimately or otherwise, can travel through time, to the past or to the future, as often as they want
Paperback :- https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/179310204X
Kindle :- https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07MQQCRWX
My fifth collection of Inspector Pirat stories is now available.
The books are available on Amazon :
Paperback (£5.99) :- https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1724393782
Kindle (£1.99) :- https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07HHG8LM5
There has lately been a lot of interest on various websites (especially Facebook’s ‘Cardiff Now and Then’ and ‘Llanishen and Rhiwbina Past and Present’) about what used to be (and to some extent still is) Llanishen village … and also in our coach company, as so many folk have fond memories of the coach tours we ran. It saddens me that so many of the older members of the village have now passed on without committing their memories of village life to print.
So I thought it timely to bring out a small book about my memories of living in Llanishen village from the 1950s to the 1980s, and of running the coaches from there.
‘Memoirs of a Coach-Operating Man’ is available on Amazon for £3.99 (paperback) and £1.49 (kindle).
Paperback :
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1985262738
Kindle :-
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B079VKWNYM
Rob’s fourth Inspector Pirat book is available on Amazon for £6.99 (paperback) and £1.99 (kindle)
Paperback :
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1974281523
Kindle :-
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0765CJRN3
“A Taste of Inspector Pirat” is a free sampler.
It contains three stories that have been previously published, and one not yet published. So, if you bought the other books, there’s still one story you haven’t read … and it’s free!
It’s available on Smashwords for download only, but to a number of different formats including Kindle and PDF.
Kindle / PDF, et cetera :
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/734198
Rob’s third Inspector Pirat book is available on Amazon for £6.99 (paperback) and £1.99 (kindle)
Paperback :
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1540693996
Kindle :
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06X6JLXMQ
Rob’s second book is available on Amazon for £6.99 (paperback) and £1.99 (kindle)
Paperback :
Kindle :
Rob’s first book is available on Amazon for £6.99 (paperback) and £1.99 (kindle)
Paperback :
Kindle :
Rob’s first book for children is available on Amazon for £4.80 (paperback) and £1.99 (kindle)
Paperback :
Kindle :