Showing results by author "Roy Lewis" in All Categories

Colin Bannock is hiding quite the secret. By day, he’s a smooth-talking lawyer. After hours, he is someone else entirely. He corners Arnold Landon, wanting him to join his society of history fanatics. Appalled, Arnold declines outright. He’s never been a joiner and, besides, he has enough on his plate already. He is hunting for a lost and ancient treasure. And he knows the hiding place is close. Then Bannock’s body washes up on the banks of the River Tyne, battered and bloated beyond recognition. Was he also chasing the mythic treasure?

Arnold Landon can’t help but feel drawn to Oldham Manor, an atmospheric medieval house in the middle of nowhere. When he is invited to catalogue the library there, he jumps at the chance. The place is a maze of musty old papers and books. And that’s not all. Late one night, he stumbles on a secret passage, twisting deep under the ground. Where will it take him? And why was it walled up? When a stranger turns up dead in a ditch, Landon begins to realize that someone is watching his every move. And they have a plan to ensure the past stays buried for good.

A haughty professor comes calling on Arnold Landon for research assistance. But he’s overlooked an important fact. Landon already has a job at the council—along with a raft of superiors who’d rather he focused on the dispute at hand. Namely, who is the rightful owner of the Kilgour Estates? And the opulent manor house in the grounds? Dashing rake Patrick Yates insists it’s all his. But a black sheep in the family returns to claim otherwise. Who is telling the truth?

Arnold Landon steps out with his lady friend, hunting for relics on the deserted dig site where he works. Before long, they stumble on something under a bridge. The mangled remains of Arnold’s fellow historian. His chest gapes open, his insides arranged in a pair of bloody wings. Arnold’s no expert, but he knows a blood eagle when he sees one—the handiwork of a berserker warrior. Mad with blood lust and out for vengeance.

From the moment Karen Stannard comes striding in the door, Arnold Landon knows his workplace will never be the same. Now, he is saddled with a project he never wanted: the Ridgeway Viking Trust. Its shady leaders tell him there’s treasure buried in the rolling Northumberland Hills—they just need one more payout to reach it. But is there more to the Trust than meets the eye? Muck-raking journalist Alan Crickley seems to think so. He’s got the scent of corruption and he’s on the trail... Until the day he drives his car into a ditch, a stone’s throw from the dig.

Sam Turiff is a loan shark preying on the most vulnerable people in Newcastle. Detective Eric Ward’s investigation runs into a brick wall trying to bring down the callous criminal. No one will give evidence against him. They are frightened what he’ll do to them. Then Kate Geraghty is kidnapped. She is the granddaughter of local tycoon Liam Geraghty, and there’s a link to the loan shark. But who carried out the kidnapping and why? The case soon turns into a murder investigation, and Ward finds himself up against a Northern crime empire.

Eric Ward agrees to represent the interests of a local environmental campaign. Then an explosion at the industrial-waste plant leaves his client dead. Joe Paulson wasn’t exactly a criminal. But his after-hours activities—gathering the secrets of everyone from politicians to high-flying businessmen—created a long list of enemies. But who feared the nightwalker enough to kill him? And could Ward be next? When an old favor is called in, Ward may have no choice but to put his own life in danger.

Eric’s wife, Anne, has followed the advice of handsome lawyer Mark Fenham and invested a small fortune in a merchant bank also involved in underwriting marine insurance. Now her company must pay out a vast insurance claim for the Sea Dawn, a ship sunk in Spanish waters. Eric Ward smells fraud. His wife could lose everything. And then, one by one, people connected to the Sea Dawn start to die. The murderous trail takes Ward to sunny Spain—where he comes face-to-face with his arch enemy. Will Ward uncover the truth about the sinking of the Sea Dawn?

Charlie Rutland, a womanizing journalist, is found brutally murdered. He worked for a muck-raking gossip magazine and therefore had many enemies. Detective Crow is assigned to Yorkshire where he must eliminate a long list of suspects. And where does the German businessman Conrad Gunther fit in? Mysterious lights at Lockyer Tarn, a homeless man hiding out on the Yorkshire Dales, a stolen Volvo, and a former Gestapo officer are all seemingly linked in some manner. And then the British spy services get involved....

An influential shipping firm, Goldwaters, pays Eric Ward a large retainer to work for them, much to his surprise. Then one of the Goldwaters fleet, the Sierra Nova, is “arrested” and is unable to leave port. The reason? A crew member, Edwards, has been caught in possession of drugs and is accused of smuggling—but now he’s been removed from the ship, why can’t the voyage go ahead? Then Edwards is murdered on his way to the courtroom. Ward soon finds himself sinking into the dangerous world of international conspiracy and modern-day piracy.

Crime was the last thing Durham solicitor Frank Hales had ever expected to be embroiled in, yet from the moment he got the news that his senior partner had vanished after milking a trust fund, he was plunged into an unfamiliar world. He found his missing partner dead in a secret love¬nest, and there were indications that the prostitute he had been associating with may have been murdered too. In an effort to save his firm, his career and his marriage, Frank engaged a private eye, but his troubles did not diminish and he realised he was being framed ...

Farmer Paddy Fenton faces financial ruin as a result of foot and mouth disease among his flock. Then he gets an offer that he can’t refuse: ready cash to rent one of his outbuildings. He doesn’t enquire too closely as to what is happening there until a police raid uncovers a sinister operation. Eric Ward agrees to represent Fenton and soon finds himself in a bitter turf war. The criminal network stretches far beyond the local Northumberland countryside.

Eric Ward has a new client: Dieter Barschell. He’s an ex-professional footballer charged with dealing drugs at a Newcastle racecourse. Eric secures bail for his client. He also precipitates a murder investigation. While defending Barschell, Eric antagonizes one of the prosecution witnesses, DCI Charlie Spate. Can the two men work together to try to resolve this mess?

A dangerous killer with a penchant for the Zodiac symbols is abducting, torturing, and murdering women. Eric Ward and Sharon Owen are in court defending the man accused of these crimes, and due to a technicality, the suspect walks free. But is he really guilty? Meanwhile, DCI Charlie Spate is tracking the alleged Zodiac Killer but loses his trail. Eric receives an urgent call asking him to go to a remote Northumberland farmhouse to meet the man who walked free, but when he arrives, it’s carnage.

Eric Ward thinks he is happily married—until he discovers that his wife, Anne, has been spending rather too much time with a business associate. Suspicious and angry, Ward finds comfort in the arms of a beautiful stranger. But when his new lover is found dead, he must do everything he can to avoid becoming the focus of a murder inquiry that could wreck his future. As police pressure looms, Ward makes his own inquiries. Increasingly desperate to find the girl’s killer, he begins to learn more about a shady Tyneside world of drugs, dodgy property deals, and illicit nightclubs.

Eric Ward is still uneasy on the board of merchant bankers Martin & Channing. Their defense against a hostile takeover is pushing the limits of the law. But Eric soon has problems nearer home: his wife’s colleague is charged with the murder of his fiancée in his London flat. He asks Eric to represent him. Eric discovers some very interesting facts about the dead woman. Then Eric is called back to London to deal with the takeover gone wrong.

Eileen O’Hara isn’t used to hearing “no”. She’s the stunning chairman of Broadlands construction. But now she is facing a management takeover, with rivals bidding for control of her company. Both are crooked with old scores to settle. Who will she choose? She calls on lawyer and financier Eric Ward for advice. Eric’s head is turned, much to his wife’s chagrin. His conscience tells him he can’t walk away—whatever the implications for his marriage. Aided by Anne, he begins digging into the murky pasts of both bidders.

Spain. An ex-con breaks into a villa by the sea to steal something very precious from a safe. He will not leave without hurting someone. England. Tycoon Simon Chan asks Eric Ward to find a missing businessman. And Ward is also involved in a case involving his arch-enemy, the shady lawyer Charles Davison. Then a body washes up on a Spanish beach … Eric Ward will face the fight of his life against a professional killer inside and outside the courtroom.

When wealthy Colonel Delamere dies after a botched burglary, it’s up to Eric Ward to manage his estate—and catch the killers. But the Colonel’s will contains perplexing instructions for the disposal of an ancient Egyptian statuette, first discovered by Howard Carter in the Valley of the Kings in 1922. The artefact was supposed to be handed to the Foreign Office—but it was stolen by the burglars. The allegedly cursed statuette could change the course of the entire Middle East.

Charlie Rutland specialized in scandal hunting. As a journalist at a smart magazine, his job was to search out anything that could be turned into a good smear story. Then, while carrying out some 'investigations' in Yorkshire, his career came to an abrupt and violent end. Inspector Crow, skeletal as ever, arrives from Scotland Yard to find a formidable task awaiting him.