Archives: Books

Me Too

  • Publication date: 20/04/2017
  • Paperback ISBN: 1911440497
  • eBook ISBN: 9781911440635
  • Audiobook ISBN: 9781788420433
The Bandy Papers 5

Me Too

Donald Jack, Robin Gabrielli (narrator)

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Despite designing his own amphibious aircraft, the Gander – a machine almost as alarming looking as its horse-faced maker – ex-WWI ace Bartholomew Bandy is failing to make a fortune in his hometown of Gallop.

The only work he finds is flying bootleg liquor into the USA. In desperation (what else?) he stands as a local MP and in desperation (why else?) they vote him in. But after spilling the beans on a bunch of government members indulging in Prohibition corruption, Bart’s soon cordially hated by everyone up to the Prime Minister – can he really be naïve enough to believe party propaganda that the people must be told the truth?

So Bart’s goose – or gander – is cooked, and the resulting mess can be summed up as whisky galore!

With the blackest of black comedy and seat-of-the pants escapades, Donald Jack’s series about a young pilot is uniquely funny and compelling.

What people are saying about The Bandy Papers:

“Reading can lead to involuntary bursts of loud laughter.”

“Very descriptive, full of air combats and written with a fine eye for period detail . . . there is quite simply no finer book of its kind. Highly recommended.”

“It is clear that Bandy likely should’ve been killed several times, but very likely the Grim Reaper was laughing too hard to hold his scythe straight . . .”

Hysterically funny! . . . each book is another installment in the continuing saga of a Canadian and his adventures in war, the world, and women.”

“I have yet to find another author with the wit and humor of Donald Jack.”

Editorial reviews:

I enjoyed every word . . . terrifically funny.”  P.G. Wodehouse

“Jack does more than play it for laughs . . . The mingling of humor and horror is like a clown tap-dancing on a coffin, but Jack is skillful enough to get away with it.” Time Magazine

“Funny. Very. Donald Jack has as light a touch with this fragile art as his hero has on throttle of a Sopwith Camel. Excessive corn is avoided in favour of wit and a delight in life.” New York Times

“Bartholomew Bandy is the most remarkable hero (or anti-hero) since Harold Lloyd impersonated the Freshman.” Chicago Tribune

To know Bandy is to love him . . . you tend to gallop through and come hurtling out at the end panting for more.” The Sunday Sun

“For those to whom Bandy is a newcomer, what a treat is in store.” Toronto Star

Other books in the series

The Flaxborough Crab

  • Publication date: 03/05/2018
  • Paperback ISBN: 9781788420907
  • eBook ISBN: 9781788420211
A Flaxborough Mystery 6

The Flaxborough Crab

Colin Watson

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An elderly sex-pest is at large in DI Purbright’s home town.

Leaping out from behind bushes at unsuspecting females, making lewd suggestions and, when challenged, scuttling away with odd off-balance leaps, he soon earns the nickname of the ‘Flaxborough crab’. No one can identify him, and it turns out that quite a few older gentlemen have begun exhibiting over-familiar behavior around the opposite sex.

Suave Dr Meadow knows more than he is letting on, yet how can Purbright, aided once again by the fragrant but dodgy Miss Lucy Teatime, get him to talk? Events take a darker turn before the ill-assorted pair succeed in catching their crab.

Witty and a little wicked, Colin Watson’s tales offer a mordantly entertaining cast of characters and laugh-out-loud wordplay.

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The Naked Nuns

  • Publication date: 31/05/2018
  • Paperback ISBN: 9781788420921
  • eBook ISBN: 9781788420235
A Flaxborough Mystery 8

The Naked Nuns

Colin Watson

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Flaxborough has its share of fat-cat businessmen—‘wheels’ (in US gangster parlance)…

Like the brash Councillor Henry Crispin and snobbish Arnold Hatch, proprietor of the Floradora Country Club. Their bitter rivalry is well known, so when Crispin’s luxury river cruiser, the Lively Lady, is ruthlessly sunk, shortly after Hatch’s night-time shenanigans had been lit up for the world to see, no one expects the feud to die away peacefully.

But there is a death, a far from peaceful one, and DI Purbright and Sergeant Love have information that it might be linked with the arrival in town of a certain Sicilian-American gentleman.

Witty and a little wicked, Colin Watson’s tales offer a mordantly entertaining cast of characters and laugh-out-loud wordplay.

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Pel and the Picture of Innocence

  • Publication date: 09/09/2021
  • Paperback ISBN: 1788423666
  • eBook ISBN: 9781788423656
An Inspector Pel Mystery 13

Pel and the Picture of Innocence

Mark Hebden

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An extravagant, big time gangland criminal is ambushed and assassinated; the only witness a ten-year-old-boy.

Chief Inspector Pel is called in to investigate the killing, which spirals into an international investigation when a respected spinster is bludgeoned to death and some curious links begin to clink into place.

Moody, sharp-tongued and worrying constantly about his health, Inspector Pel ensures that no case goes unsolved, in these mordantly witty French mysteries.

 

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Pel and The Sepulchre Job

  • Publication date: 30/12/2021
  • Paperback ISBN: 1788423747
  • eBook ISBN: 9781788423731
An Inspector Pel Mystery 17

Pel and The Sepulchre Job

Mark Hebden

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A dead man is found floating in a canal, his wallet revealing a strange symbolic drawing; and a hostage drama unfolds at the Banque Credit Rural, where not only millions in currency and jewellery are at stake but also lives. On the other side of town, a stunning art student switches masterpieces for copies.

Somehow, the crimes fit like pieces of a jigsaw. Chief Inspector Pel is faced with a challenge of a lifetime – and responds with true Gallic guile.

Moody, sharp-tongued and worrying constantly about his health, Inspector Pel ensures that no case goes unsolved, in these mordantly witty French mysteries.

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The Prize Racket

  • Publication date: 28/01/2022
  • Paperback ISBN: 1788423992
  • eBook ISBN: 9781788424004
The Stockwell Park Orchestra Series 4

The Prize Racket

Isabel Rogers

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After a brief and disastrous Resident Poet episode, Stockwell Park Orchestra is invited to take part in a TV competition for classical music. For a £50,000 prize some competitors are tempted to stretch the genre to ‘crossover’ and beyond.

Can a full concert orchestra compete with jazz bands, horn quartets, harp ensembles, and Mrs Ford-Hughes singing in Portuguese with nine cellos? Or will the competition be derailed by the poet’s return, this time sporting live Ambient Sounds? The TV producers aren’t worried: they know a good fight means great ratings.

What was supposed to be a quirky diversion threatens to take over the orchestra’s rehearsals for their own concert, but discovering a voting scam means they must fix things in the TV studio first. 

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Mermaid Confidential

  • Publication date: 24/02/2022
  • Paperback ISBN: 1788424018
  • eBook ISBN: 9781788424028
A Serge Storms Adventure 24

Mermaid Confidential

Tim Dorsey

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If you like your humour dark and twisty, then you’ll love Tim Dorsey’s outrageous Serge Storms series of crime novels.

In this latest crime caper, Serge Storms and his permanently baked sidekick, Coleman, decide to pump the brakes and live on island time.

After years of manic road tripping across their beloved Sunshine State, the irrepressible anti-heroes drop anchor in the Florida Keys. They settle down in Pelican Bay, a thriving condo complex with scenic views and friendly neighbours. But the community is at war with investors who are buying up units and leasing them to young vacationers who party at all hours. With their little slice of heaven on the line, Serge takes it upon himself to convince the tourists to move on and quickly becomes a local favourite.

Meanwhile, the island chain’s long and rich smuggling heritage is causing mayhem—a gang war erupts when a local drug lord passes the family business to his young, enterprising son, and the sun-loving residents are suddenly dodging bullets.

Luckily, Florida’s most lovable serial killer is there to help!

 

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Pel and the Party Spirit

  • Publication date: 07/10/2021
  • Paperback ISBN: 1788423682
  • eBook ISBN: 9781788423670
An Inspector Pel Mystery 14

Pel and the Party Spirit

Mark Hebden

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Brigade Criminelle is mobilised when a fatal stabbing, an anticipated delivery of lethal drugs from Marseilles, and the discovery of a thirty-year-old corpse in an ancient turreted tower in the town of Puyceldome coincide with a frantic search for two murderous hitchhikers – all on Chief Inspector Pel’s patch.

As folk-dancers, stilt-walkers, fire-eaters, and jugglers lurch through a night of carnival, Pel stalks his prey.

Moody, sharp-tongued and worrying constantly about his health, Inspector Pel ensures that no case goes unsolved, in these mordantly witty French mysteries.

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Tropical Issue

  • Publication date: 13/04/2023
  • Paperback ISBN: 1788424093
  • eBook ISBN: 9781788424103
A Dolly Mystery 1

Tropical Issue

Dorothy Dunnett

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Rita, a small, tough Scottish make-up artist, is on Madeira investigating who killed Kim-Jim, an American make-up supremo. Also anchored off the island is Dolly, the yacht of Johnson Johnson with whom Rita teams up to get to the bottom of this foul deed.

Rita’s fighting spirits are aroused despite the danger. She is not one for quitting, even when she learns she is caught up in an international drug-smuggling ring.

But she also discovers that dealing with the maddeningly enigmatic Johnson Johnson is, by no stretch of the imagination, plain sailing.

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Rum Affair

  • Publication date: 11/05/2023
  • Paperback ISBN: 1788424115
  • eBook ISBN: 9781788424127
A Dolly Mystery 2

Rum Affair

Dorothy Dunnett

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Tina Rossi, the world’s leading coloratura soprano, has travelled to Edinburgh, ostensibly to sing in the Festival,  in reality to meet her lover, top scientist Kenneth Holmes. But instead of finding Kenneth at their rendezvous, she discovers an unknown corpse.

Enter Johnson Johnson, a famous but enigmatic portrait painter whose yacht Dolly is about to sail in a race to the Hebrides where Holmes was conducting his top-secret research.

Soon Tina and Johnson are sailing the high seas  to investigate Holmes’ disappearance, but as Dolly nears Rum, the race has become one for life rather than prize money…

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