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A DEVON MIDWINTER MURDER

WITH THE FESTIVE SEASON FAST APPROACHING, amateur sleuth Juno Browne helps to organise a Christmas Fair to raise funds for her friend's animal sanctuary. The event is a success, but while Santa is handing out presents in the fairy-lit grotto, a murder is being committed in a dark corner of the garden. Juno discovers the body of Bob the Blacksmith, clutching a horseshoe decorated with a sprig of elder.

Suspicion falls on Bob's long-suffering wife, and on Don Drummond, with whom Bob quarrelled violently in the past. From this cloud of suspicion Juno finds links to previous 'accidental' deaths, and must navigate her way between pagan ceremonies and astrological connections that turn up more bodies on a deadly path to the truth.

Published by Allison and Busby NOVEMBER 2023

Previous publications

Dead in Devon

DEAD IN DEVON is a murder mystery set on Dartmoor in the historic moorland town of Ashburton. Domestic Goddess, Juno Browne, ventures into the world of antiques when she begins working for Old Nick, a dealer with a murky past and a shady reputation. She is drawn into the fascinating but risky world of antique fairs and auctions and soon falls foul of one of his more unpleasant customers, the mysterious and menacing Russian, Vlad. But when Nick is brutally murdered it seems that Vlad is not the only with a motive for killing him. Can Nick’s own family be trusted? And what is everyone searching for? When Juno discovers that she has inherited Nick’s run-down antiques and another dealer meets with a nasty end, she finds herself in danger and realises she must find Nick’s killer before she becomes his next victim.

Published by Allison and Busby June 2019

Dead on Dartmoor

DEAD ON DARTMOOR. On the day Juno Browne’s van goes up in flames she meets Jamie Westershall, owner of Moorworthy house, a large family estate on Dartmoor. Invited to sell antiques at the family’s upcoming garden fete she takes along colleagues from her shop, Old Nick’s. When one of her team is found dead in woods it seems he has been the victim of a horrible and bizarre accident. Convinced that he was murdered Juno begins an investigation of her own. She discovers that his is not the only strange death to have occurred on the Moorworthy estate, including the death of an expert researching rare bat colonies in disused mine workings. It soon becomes clear that by asking questions she is putting herself in danger. There is something very wrong at Moorworthy House and the disused mines contain a dark and dangerous secret that she must set out herself to uncover.

Published by Allison and Busby October 2019

From Devon with Death

FROM DEVON WITH DEATH. When Juno Browne finds a life-sized effigy floating in the river Ashburn, a note attached claims it is the work of Cutty Dyer, Ashburton’s mythical blood-drinking demon. But despite Juno’s instinct that this is a sign of trouble ahead, the police dismiss her find as a practical joke. Then the body of a woman is discovered by the river and it becomes clear that the killer has taken on Cutty’s identity. But as suspicion falls on someone close to her, Juno finds herself drawn into solving the mystery, desperate to prove her friend’s innocence. As the rain falls steadily and the level of the River Ashburn continues to rise, Juno must unmask the real identity of Cutty Dyer or risk being swept away by a murderous tide.

Published by Allison and Busby May 2020

The Dartmoor Murders

When Juno Browne buys a wardrobe to stock her fledgling antique shop, she doesn’t expect to find a dead body inside it. And when the man she bought it from, rascally farmer Fred Crick, is found battered to death in his blazing cottage, the hunt for a double murderer is on. Despite the police struggling to find a connection between the two crimes, this time Juno is resolved to ignore her impulse to investigate. Until a stranger arrives who bears an uncanny resemblance to the dead man in the wardrobe. Determined to discover how his brother died and impressed by Juno’s reputation in the local press as Ashburton’s amateur sleuth, Henry Gillow tries to drag her into his quest to solve the mystery, with disastrous results.

Published by Allison and Busby June 2021

A Devon Night's Death

When Juno Browne rents a room above her antique shop to gentlemanly bookbinder, Frank Tinkler, he seems like the answer to a prayer. She desperately needs his rent. But she soon realises that Frank is a more sinister figure than he seems. At a deserted farmhouse she encounters two intruders who have been using the barn to stash drugs. One of the men later falls to his death from a viaduct, and further break-ins at the farmhouse indicate that it was not just drugs the intruders were searching for. Juno recognises one of the intruders as Frank's nephew Scott. Then Scott is also found dead. Can Juno solve the murder and put a stop to whatever Frank is up to? She enlists the help of an old friend to help her try.

Published by Allison and Busby Feb 2022

'A Devon night's Death' is fast-moving and laugh out loud funny. (The Moorlander)

A criminal enterprise that had me grinning with delight. (Michael Jecks, author of The Last Templar series.)

A clever, funny tale. ( Kate Rhodes, author)

DEATH COMES TO DARTMOOR

When Juno Browne returns to the Dartmoor town of Ashburton after a brief holiday, she's relieved to find that no one has been murdered in her absence, but it's not long before a local journalist, Sandy Thomas, is brutally slain. When she finds that one of her friends has caught the killing on camera, Juno is swept up into a fresh murder inquiry. What was Sandy really investigating on the night she was killed? With a spate of dog kidnappings to contend with as well, the Devon countryside has never felt less tranquil...or more dangerous.

Published by Allison and Busby in 2023