THE LIVES AND DEATHS OF MAX de PAULEY
THERE’S A BODY IN MAX DE PAULEY’S GRAVE …
BUT IT’S NOT HIS
Max de Pauley is dead, seventeen days shy of his eightieth birthday. He is survived by his lifelong partner, Martha Sunday, also nearly eighty. They were bound together, not by a mutual love and compassion, but by events of nearly sixty years ago which meant they could never leave one another. Now, all Martha wants to do is have him buried, along with his guilty secret. But there’s a problem.
Charlie Fox is dead, floating face-down in Max’s water-filled grave. Just a few short days ago, he’d been on top of the world, believing all his dreams were about to be fulfilled and he’d finally be somebody. No longer merely Pandora Fox, a drag queen eking out an existence in a sleazy Bottomless Brunch, but a man of substance, a property owner. But now, here he is in a sodden gown with the six-inch heels of his Louboutins pointing towards the rain-soaked sky.
The police investigation into Charlie Fox’s death leads to Martha’s door. Forced to think on her feet, she struggles to keep a grip on reality as she weaves a web of lies. Can she hold her nerve or will she crumble in the face of seemingly insurmountable pressure?
ASHES ON THE TONGUE (BOOK ONE)
FAMILIES STEEPED IN CRUELTY AND BETRAYAL
A COUNTRY TORN BY SECTARIANISM
In 1950s Northern Ireland, two families are connected by a history steeped in secrecy, violence and betrayal. Ruby and Victor Crozier are Protestants, with one daughter, Fen, still at home. When Victor forces Fen out of school and into work in a linen mill, she begins to learn about the darkness in her family’s history.
Rose and Dermot Quinn are Roman Catholics and parents of fifteen children. Their eldest son, John Joe, has just come home from England where he works and sends home much needed money.
When Fen and John Joe unwittingly witness an atrocity, they are drawn into a web of danger emanating not only from within their own homes but also from the violent campaign for a unified Ireland. In fear of reprisals, they each make decisions which will have far-reaching consequences and change their young lives forever.
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THE STAIN OF SILENCE
(ASHES N THE TONGUE, BOOK TWO)
Fleeing from the wrath of her Protestant father and the B Special Chief Constable, Fen Crozier finds sanctuary in the clergy house of St. Barnabas’ Roman Catholic Church. Sickened by the bigotry she has left behind, she is drawn to the ideal of a united Ireland only to realise she lacks commitment to the cause.
When she inadvertently places herself in danger from ruthless IRA sympathisers, she once again runs from the violence that seems to follow her. Caught between the two factions and with no one to turn to, Fen is forced to take charge of her own destiny.
Struggling to find her place in life, she becomes more deeply embroiled into the sectarian struggle and makes a terrible decision which could destroy her and her family.
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BURDON OF FREEDOM
(ASHES N THE TONGUE, BOOK THREE)
Fen Crozier is living in Belfast, homeless and a fugitive from justice. On the last day of 1957, her father, Victor, is hanged for the murders of a Catholic priest and an Orangewoman. Fen herself is not completely free from guilt in the murderous rampage that tore her life apart in the last year.
She risks arrest by visiting the Crumlin Road Gaol on the morning of Victor’s hanging. There, she is approached by Geordie Maguire, who claims to be her half brother and tells her she also has a grandfather, Alfred Crozier.
Drawn into the troubled dynamics of this new branch of her family, Fen agrees to return to Greycastle at the behest of Alfred. There, she is forced to flee from the hostility and threats of her one-time neighbours, exposing her to danger from both the officers of the RUC and old enemies from the IRA.
Not knowing who to trust and growing ever more isolated, Fen must find enough inner strength to escape a situation that threatens not only her fragile state of mind but her very life.
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CIRCLES OF CONFUSION (BOOK ONE)
Jilly Graham knows what it is to be used and abused. She also knows how to get what she wants. Poised to achieve a First Class Honours degree, it seems the world is at her feet and she has buried the memory of what she did to pay for her education.
Tina Lloyd has been a prostitute since she was fourteen years old and craves a normal family life, although in her heart she knows she is only one of the women her husband, Noel, controls. Their son, Leon, hates both his parents and is tormented at school because of Tina’s profession.
When Jilly is attacked by an unknown person and Tina’s pimp brutalises her, the three of them form an uneasy alliance and set out to exact revenge. Their plan goes horribly wrong and they thrown together as fugitives. Living together in close confinement, none of them trusting the others, this fragile group opens up to one another and brutally honest truths emerge.
Just when they think they have earned a new life, a violent action rips their fragile world apart.
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FOREVER NIGHT
(CIRCLES OF CONFUSION, BOOK TWO)
)Ten years ago, Jilly, Tina and Leon committed a terrible crime.
They were never brought to justice. Now it’s payback time.
Jilly Graham has buried the terrible events of the past at the back of her mind. She doesn’t feel guilt or remorse because she doesn’t allow herself to think about the night someone died because of her desire for revenge.
Nothing stays hidden forever, though, and when Leon arrives at her door, seeking help to find his mother, Tina, who has been missing for many years, she’s plunged back into a world of betrayal, lies and fear and forced to confront her own culpability in past events.
With old memories awakened and not knowing who she can trust, Jilly searches for Tina, hoping to reunite all three of them and lay past sins to rest. But nothing can prepare her for the explosive revelation that lies ahead and the danger it brings with it.
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ALBERT’S GARDEN
A BINKY EARLE COSY MYSTERY
NOT EVERYTHING IN THE GARDEN IS LOVELY!
Binky Earle has lived all her life in Lesser Puddlestone a quiet village where the local police sergeant is rarely bothered by anything other than loud music or a case of dustbins not being put away quickly enough.
The highlight of her week is the meeting of the Lesser Puddlestone Knitting Circle, of which she is President.
When a body turns up on the village green one Sunday morning, Binky is horrified to learn that the ladies of her knitting circle are under suspicion. She sets out to prove their innocence, accompanied only by the faithful Phoebe-cat.
As she delves deeper into village life, she discovers dark secrets and hidden wrong-doing. No longer knowing if she can trust her ladies or her own conclusions, can Binky solve the murder and exonerate the ladies of the knitting circle?
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JJ Grafton 