Mike Ripley

Mike Ripley is the author of the award-winning ‘Angel’ series of comedy thrillers.  He has won the Crime Writers Association 'Last Laugh Award' twice, first in 1989 with Angel Touch and then again in 1991 for Angels in Arms. Mike was also a scriptwriter for the BBC comedy-drama series Lovejoy (1986–94), which starred Ian McShane as a lovable rogue antique dealer.

For ten years Mike served as crime fiction critic for the Daily Telegraph and on the Birmingham Post for a further eight, reviewing in all over 950 crime novels..

In 2003 he suffered a stroke, and wrote an account of his recovery, Surviving a Stroke, which was published in 2006.

Currently he writes the "Getting Away With Murder" column for the online publication Shots. He is also the series editor at Ostara Publishing, which specialises in reprinting classic mysteries and thrillers.

Today I have the opportunity of putting to him some questions.

Q Mike, you have written fifteen novels featuring Fitzroy Maclean Angel. Can you tell us about the origins of Angel?  Is he based on an amalgam of people, or pure imagination?

A All fiction writers tend to be something of a Frankenstein, creating their characters out of bits of real people. Roy Angel was inspired by one particular friend from university days, but with certain traits removed and others added from other people. There may even be a little bit of me in there, though I’m not admitting to it.

Q After eleven books in the ‘Angel’ series, in 2002 you published Double Take , a stand-alone about how to get away with robbing Heathrow Airport – a kind of Italian Job for the 21st century. What prompted this? An experience at Heathrow?
A Double Take started life as a film script which was entered for a competition and was my attempt to try and bring the Ealing Comedies of the 1950s up to date. It didn’t win anything and never got optioned so I did a ‘novelisation’ which the Do Not Press published alongside the script. The script took me three days to write. Perhaps I should have taken longer…

Q After 20 years working in London you moved to East Anglia and became an archaeologist. I notice that in Angel Underground (2002) Angel infiltrates a dig in Suffolk, so is this something that you have always wanted to do?
A I’ve actually lived in East Anglia (never in London) for over 40 years and becoming a Field Archaeologist at the age of 46 was, I suppose, my mid-life crisis. I read history at university and have been a crime writer and reviewer of crime fiction, so I suppose you could say I’ve always been paid to speak ill of the dead! It was rather cool being the only crime writer who really did find bodies on a regular basis; though they were usually 1,500 years old.  My experiences on dig sites led to both Angel Underground and then my first historical novel: Boudica and the Lost Roman.

Q You wrote two further non-series books in 2005 and 2007, set in AD 60 and AD 1066 respectively.  Does this mean no more ‘Angel’ books or are you just having a break from Angel?
A I followed Boudica  (Roman Britain) with The Legend of Hereward  (East Anglia at the time of the Norman Conquest) because I saw them as two parts of a trilogy looking at ‘Great British Losers’. Both were heroic figures but neither won their particular corner. The third in the series was always planned to be ‘King’ Arthur who probably existed as 5^th century Christian warlord fighting a series of civil wars, but eventually losing out to the pagan ‘Anglo-Saxons’. As I started to do the research, I moved the story back to incorporate the arrival of the Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Friesians so that you had the invading ‘English’ fighting with the Romano-Britons as to who would rule Britannia in the power vacuum left by the retreat of the Roman Empire. The result was a bloodthirsty saga spanning the years 450 – 520 AD called First Kings which, hopefully, will find a publisher this year. The ‘Angel’ series came to a full stop (or at least a semi-colon) with Angels Unaware, the fifteenth in the series, which was published in 2008, twenty years to the day after the first one appeared. I think I tied up all the loose ends, but I didn’t kill him off, so Fitzroy Maclean Angel may yet appear again: older but probably not much wiser.

Q  In 2003 you suffered a stroke and out of this experience came Surviving a Stroke, an account of your recovery. I understand this helped you regained the use of your left hand, as you used a mechanical typewriter. Which came first, the desire to tell the story of your experience or the physical need to become active? Was one a by-product of the other?
A Initially, my brilliant idea to use a manual typewriter to get my left hand and arm working again was so that I could go back on the computer and finish the book (Boudica) I had been working on when I had my stroke. Once that was done, I set about recounting my stroke experience really with a view to helping the partners, carers and families of stroke survivors, which I have done as a volunteer with the charities the Stroke Association and the Blood Pressure Association.

Q Currently you write a regular column ‘Getting Away With Murder’ for Shots, an  online publication I greatly enjoy, may I say.  You write for The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Times and the Birmingham Post among others. Additionally you lecture on crime-writing at the University of Cambridge, so I hesitate to ask do you have a regular working day? 
A  Not any more. Of course, for over 20 years I was a commuter to a day-job in an office in London and in fact wrote the first Angel book on the train. For many years I would write only on Sundays, though naturally I’d be thinking up plotlines and noting down bits of dialogue (and jokes) constantly. These days, the working day is governed by what comes in by email or by mail – I get sent around 300 crime novels a year to review and edit and publish between 12 and 16 titles – but I try and do some ‘personal’ writing every day, even if it’s only something scurrilous for my Getting Away With Murder column, to which I contribute about 60,000 words a year.

Q Is it true that comedy doesn’t translate?’

A Probably; and of course comedy dates. I have been very disappointed never to have been seriously published in America because American editors didn’t seem to ‘get it’ – even though all the American readers I’ve met did. On the other hand I have been translated into German, Spanish, Thai and, most successfully, Japanese though never into any Scandinavian language, which confirms my suspicions about Nordic crime writing…

Q Do you still do scriptwriting?

A   Given half a chance I would, but television production is so fragmented these days, I think you have to work very hard to maintain a network of contacts and then just hope you are in the right place at the right time. It’s a young man’s (or woman’s) game – and so it should be.

Q I am very interested in the reprinting of some of the wonderful books now out of print . Pleased to hear that you are the series editor at Ostara Publishing, which specialises in reprinting classic mysteries and thrillers.  How did that come about?
A I was very excited when I was asked by Ostara to create their Top Notch Thrillers imprint in 2009. The idea was to rescue some of the unjustly forgotten Great British thrillers of the Sixties and Seventies; thrillers I grew up with but which have been out of print for far too long. We’ve republished 28 titles so far, with four more coming in 2013 and I am really proud of the fact that we have got authors such as Geoffrey Household, Francis Clifford, Alan Williams and Berkely Mather back in print and in front of a new readership. Last year the owner of Ostara, Andrew Cocks (a near neighbour whom I first met 35 years ago when we both worked at Essex University) asked me if I could establish another imprint, Ostara Crime, which revived more recent British crime fiction from the 1980s and 90s.  Whereas the majority of Top Notch Thriller authors have all been male, our first four Ostara Crime authors are all female.   In our first six months, we’ve reissued three titles each from Christine Green, Denise Danks and Janet Neel (Baroness Cohen) with three from, Lesley Grant-Adamson coming out in the next couple of months. The Ostara philosophy is simple: we don’t do complete backlists, we select authors and specific titles which show all the different styles of crime fiction and we produce (we think) a high quality trade paperback as well as an eBook version. 

Q Equally, I am passionate about new writers. There is some marvellous talent emerging today. You are co-editor of the three Fresh Blood anthologies promoting new British crime writing. Can you tell us something about that? 

A   I used to be very passionate about new writers and felt so strongly that the John Creasey Award for new writers was being down-graded (in the 1990s) that I resigned from the Crime Writers Association. The first Fresh Blood anthology was a response to the fact that the Creasey Award was not made for two years because, presumably, there were no interesting new writers around. We found people like Christopher Brookmyre, Charlie Higson, Stella Duffy, Ken Bruen oh, and somebody called Lee Child – I wonder whatever happened to him?

Q  Are you working on a new book, and if so is it a stand-alone or an Angel?

A  I’ve got two completed novels being considered by publishers at the moment, though neither are ‘Angels’. I am currently working on a non-fiction social history of the Golden Age of British Thrillers from 1953-1987.

Thanks, Mike, for a most interesting chat.

Angel Series

Just Another Angel (1988)                             Angel Touch (1989)

    Angel Hunt (1990)                                          Angels in Arms (1991)

          Angel City (1994)                                           Angel Confidential (1995)

     Family Of Angels (1996)                                That Angel Look (1997)

Bootlegged Angel (1999) Lights, Camera, Angel (2001)

Angel Underground (2002) Angel on the Inside (2003)

Angel In The House (2005) Angel's Share (2006)

Angels Unaware (2008)

Non-series Novels

Double Take (2002) Boudica and the Lost Roman (2005)

The Legend of Hereward the Wake (2007)

Non Fiction

      Surviving a Stroke (2006)

www.shotsmag.co.uk

‘The Intercept’ by Dick Wolf

Published by Little Brown,
January 1^st 2013.
ISBN: 978-0-7515-5114-3

Yes, it’s by Dick Wolf, yes, it’s the name you see on your TV screens after you have sat for an hour enthralled by an hour of Law and Order, and yes, this is better than good!

When five passengers and a stewardess foil the hijacking of a commercial plane on route to New York, ‘The Six’ become instant celebrities, hailed as heroes for their bravery.  But NYPD investigator Jeremy Fisk suspects that there is more to come.

The story trails Bassam Shah as he drives from Denver to New York, a small cog in potentially devastating wheel of misfortune. We also follow the lives of  the ‘Six’ initially thrilled to be hailed as heroes, they don’t enjoy having their liberty restricted. They have great TV interviews, and plenty of media attention, but the downside of being famous, is that they don’t seem to be able to go home!

Jeremy Fisk knows that the enemy is out there, and he is getting closer, but from which direction is he coming and where will he strike.

As we learn about the lives of these ordinary people thrust into the limelight, by their brave actions, we also learn about the lives of those who work tirelessly behind the series to keep everyone safe, and the misplaced dedication fired by religious zeal of those bent on destruction.

A quite brilliant piece of writing, as the suspense rises to an unbelievable level.  I was totally absorbed, and although I suspected that there would be twists and turns, I was unprepared for the direction from whence the final twist came. Don’t miss this great book!

------

Reviewer: Lizzie Hayes

Dick Wolf  Richard Anthony "Dick" Wolf (born December 20, 1946) is an American producer, specializing in crime dramas such as Miami Vice and the Law & Order franchise. Wolf attended the University of Pennsylvania. After graduation, he launched a successful career in advertising; he wrote and produced over 100 TV commercials and penned the slogans "You can't beat Crest for fighting cavities" and "I'm Cheryl, Fly Me" for National Airlines.

Throughout his career he has won several awards including an Emmy Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

He started his television career in 1985, when he joined NBC's Hill Street Blues team as an executive script consultant and stayed through the show's final season, earning Emmy and Writer's Guild nominations. In 1988, Wolf formed his own television production company, Wolf Films, which produces Law & Order and its many spinoffs. Wolf has also produced films such as School Ties, No Man’s Land and Twin Towers

‘Light Shining on the Forest’ by Paul Torday

Published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson,
3 January 2013.
ISBN: 978-0-297-867470

No-one knows exactly how many children in the United Kingdom go missing but experts have said that a child goes missing every 5 minutes. Nearly all of these return home or are otherwise accounted for. But not all.

In this novel three children go missing from much the same area. The first is 10-year-old Leo Constantine from a village near Kielder Forest in north-east England, once an area of desolate moorland, now  a huge patchwork of conifer plantations, where Leo’s father Georgie Nixon is a forestry worker. Several months later two young girls disappear: Becky Thomas, 9, neglected, alcoholic mother, father dead in Iraq; Karin Gilbey, also 9, much loved daughter of prosperous middle-class parents.

When Leo disappears, such efforts as the authorities are inclined to make are ineffective so his mother Mary seeks the help of Norman Stokoe, recently-appointed Children’s Czar for the North-East. He, if anyone, should be able to assist. But Norman, mentally and emotionally inert, does not want to get involved. At the same time Willie Craig is pursuing the story of Becky Thomas: as a reporter on a local paper he is fed up with covering shop openings and planning committee meetings and desperately wants a big story to enable him to break into the big time. Are the two disappearances linked? And if Willie could do a hatchet job on Norman and his apparent lack of interest so much the better.

Norman, however, has been intrigued by photographs showing marks on Leo’s forehead, hands and feet. They stir memories from his Catholic schooldays. And when another little girl disappears Norman stirs himself to search on the internet for child-abductors: all the known ones are accounted for apart from one. Information about that one should also be available but is not. Is there an Establishment/Government cover-up? At this stage Pippa, Norman’s PA, is drawn into the action; unlike Norman and Willie her main concern is for the children themselves and her moral passion drives all three, along with Leo’s stepfather, to the final extraordinary outcome in Kielder Forest.

I thought this book was remarkable and so well-written it was a pleasure to read. I am normally allergic to any mention of the paranormal in crime fiction; vampires, ghosts and zombies have no place in the genre. But the other-worldly aspects of this book are so well-handled that they do not jar, nor, for non-believers, is an excessive leap of faith required; a considerable degree ambivalence is maintained throughout.

-----

Reviewer: Radmila May

Other books by Paul Torday: Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce, The Girl on the Landing, The Hopeless Life of Charlie Summers, More than You Can Say, Breakfast at the Deja Vu (ebook), The Legacy of Hartlepool Hall, Theo (ebook).

 

Paul Torday was born in 1946 and read English Literature at Pembroke College, Oxford. He spent the next 30 years working in engineering and in industry, after which he scaled back his business responsibilities to fulfil a long-harboured ambition - to write. He burst on to the literary scene in 2006 with his first novel, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, an immediate bestseller that has been sold in 19 countries. He is married with two sons by a previous marriage and has two stepsons and lives close to the River North Tyne.

‘No Bells’, by F M Meredith

Published by Oak Tree Press, 2012. ISBN: 978-1-61009-086-5

Gordon Butler of the Rocky Bluff Police Department has found love with Benay Weiss.  So when Benay telephones him hysterical with the news that her best friend Geri Rowe has disappeared Gordon swings into action.

But nothing is as it seems, and when a body is found, soon Gordon is struggling with the evidence pointing to his beloved Benay as the prime suspect.

Cleverly plotted, as the story twists and turns I kept having to revise my own assessment as to whodunit.  For Gordon, as he learns that there are things about Benay he didn’t know, he tries desperately to hang on to his belief in her innocence.

With some great characters and a tightly woven story that keeps you guessing to the end, this is not to be missed.

-----

Reviewer: Lizzie Hayes

Marilyn Meredith, aka F. M. Meredith, is the author of over 30 published books. Writing has been a part of her life since she was 10 years old. She married the cute sailor she met on a blind date and they raised five children and now have 18 grandchildren and 12 great-grands. Doing things with family is one of her favorite pasttimes.  She's had many jobs through the years: telephone operator, day care and nursery school teacher, teacher in a pre-school for developmentally disabled children, owner-operator of a licensed care home for developmentally disabled adults, and administrator and teacher for CEU classes for Administrators of licensed facilities. She's also taught many writing classes, been an instructor at writers' conferences, appeared at mystery conventions, libraries and service and social groups. She's the Program Chair for the Public Safety Writers Association's annual conference, the editor of the PSWA newsletter and also the newsletter editor for the California Residential Services Association.
She's a member of three chapters of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of American, PSWA and Epicauthors. Reading mysteries, going to movies and playing wild games with my great and grandkids are what she likes to do for fun.

‘Hunted’ by Emlyn Rees.

Published by Constable and Robinson, 2012.
ISBN:  978-1-84901-884-5

This is an excellent thriller set in modern-day London with the action moving back and forth from various well-known parts of the capital.  When Russian agent, Colonel Zykov, picks up an attractive Scottish girl in a bar and takes her back to his luxury penthouse for sex, he discovers she is really a Russian-born agent. Aided by two brutal henchmen, he is beaten and tortured and fears his life is in danger. 

On the other side of London, Daniel Shanklin and his current girlfriend return to his canal boat after a night out; she believes he is employed by a security firm to protect VIP businessmen but, in truth, he is a British ex-army agent working for military intelligence. His wife and son have been killed in the course of his work, but he still has a young daughter whom he is determined to protect at all costs.

When he finds he has been cleverly set up for the brutal murder of the Russian colonel, he turns for help from The Kid - his hi-tech support friend whom he trusts implicitly. There follows a fast-moving and exciting series of events as he struggles to escape the police and to  discover who has set him up for this brutal crime and why. The plot become more complex as he runs from the police, copes with threats to himself and his young daughter and meets with violence and finally a cruel betrayal. Daniel is a convincing character, so are the frightening and ruthless villains in a book which has many surprising twists and turns. This is a fast-moving, exciting novel written in a terse, convincing style. A must for those who enjoy a good thriller.

Highly recommended.  

------

Reviewer: Edna Jones

Emlyn Rees spent his early twenties traveling around Asia and pouring drinks in London for the likes of Sylvester Stallone and Princess Anne. He published his first crime novel aged twenty-five, his second a year later, and then co-wrote seven comedies with Josie Lloyd, including the Number One Sunday Times bestseller Come Together. Emlyn is the editor of Angry Robot's new crime fiction imprint, Exhibit A. For all enquires about this, please go and visit the brilliant angryrobot.com. Emlyn is currently working on the sequel, to Hunted, entitled Wanted.


Edna Jones has been writing novels, articles, book reviews and short stories for some years. Using the pseudonym Clare Dawson for crime novels and short stories, a few other pseudonyms had been used for romantic fiction etc. Born in the West Midlands she has had a variety of jobs, is now retired and lives in Cambridgeshire. Has had two crime novels published (one as an e-book) and several short stories in various anthologies and magazines here and abroad. Single. As well as reading, enjoys outdoor life, travel, and crosswords.  

‘Stop Dead’ by Leigh Russell

Published by No Exit Press, 
May 2013.
ISBN: 978-1-84243-858-9

This the fifth in a very popular police procedural series, set in London and featuring DI Geraldine Steel. The first of the series was nominated for a highly prestigious CWA New Blood Dagger

When a rich businessman is found murdered the police immediately suspect his wife and the young  lover who she had been preparing to elope with, believing they would have all his money, however when the will is read nothing is as straight forward as it might appear. The victim had quite a few well-kept secrets, giving more than just his young and beautiful wife a reason to want him dead. Then forensic evidence also points the police in another direction. Someone else closely connected with victim is found murdered shortly afterwards and DI Steel needs to find this killer before they strike again. A lot of people have motive for both killings it seems. And- the body count rises.

This is a well written, a well-researched, and a well-constructed whodunit.   I have read all in this series. Each one is richer in police procedural and forensics making the pieces in the jig-saw harder to fit and the story intriguing. DI Geraldine Steel is a multi-layered character, an adopted child spilling into an insecure adulthood.  Russell isn’t afraid to show her vulnerability in a personal life and then the tough-nosed cop when working. One suspects a lonely and unfulfilled personal life, and an understandable ambitious professional one. A character with a lot more to tell, and one we will be happy to journey with for many books to come. Highly recommended.

-----

Reviewer: Linda Regan

Leigh Russell is the author of four books Cut Short, Road Closed, Dead End, and this latest book Death Bed, published May 2012. Cut Short (2009) was shortlisted for the CWA New Blood Dagger Award for Best First Novel. Leigh studied at the University of Kent gaining a Masters degree in English and American literature. A secondary school teacher, specializing in supporting pupils with Specific Learning Difficulties as well as teaching English, Leigh Russell is married with two daughters and lives in Middlesex.

.

Linda Regan is the author of six police procedural crime novels. She is also an actress. She holds a Masters degree in critical writing and journalism, and writes a regular column, including book reviews, for three magazines. She also presents the book-club spot on BBC Radio Kent. She is an avid reader, and welcomes the chance to read new writers

‘Wine of Violence’ by Priscilla Royal

Published by Head of Zeus,
26^th November 2012.
ISBN: 978-1-781850008

Following the death of prioress Felicia in the summer of 1270, twenty-one-year-old Eleanor of Wynethorpe is appointed prioress by King Henry III. A political move that pleased the family, but not the monk and nuns of Tyndal Priory, which belongs to the Order of Fontevraud, where monks and nuns live and work in close proximity.

Within a day of her arrival Eleanor is apprehensively aware that she has usurped the order’s elected choice, Sister Ruth. Then the one person who had welcomed her, and who she had seen as a support is found dead in the cloister gardens.  As a replacement Brother Thomas is brought in to act as crowner.  Brother Thomas has a secret that has changed his life and left him in mortal fear of discovery.

So the young inexperienced Eleanor has to tread a careful path attempting to gain the respect of her resentful flock, and unmask a violent killer, whilst trying not to totally alienate Prior Theobald who had incorrectly assumed headship of Tyndal Priory whilst prioress Felicia was alive.  But another death brings great pressure to bear on the new prioress.

I absolutely loved this book, and I didn’t expect to, as I am not a huge fan of historical crime. But I have just become a huge fan of medieval mysteries.  I was totally drawn into both the time and the characters. This has to be attributed to the writing.  I was gripped from the beginning.   I found the foreword in the book very useful as it enabled me to enjoy the story without struggling with some of the terms which I would possible have done without the foreword.

For a book collector of fifty years I must pay tribute to the publishers Head of Zeus.  The book itself as an object is a joy. Beautifully presented it is a book to keep and cherish. 

-------

Reviewer: Lizzie Hayes

Priscilla Royal was born in Seattle, and grew up in British Columbia. She has a degree in world literature from San Francisco State University, where she discovered the beauty of medieval literature. She is a theater fan as well as reader of history, mysteries, and fiction of lesser violence. Until 2000, she worked for the Federal government in a variety of positions, all of which provided a wonderful education in the complexity of human experience and motivation She lives in Northern California and belongs to the California Writers Club and Sisters in Crime.

‘Rocastle’s Vengeance’ by James Morley

Published by Behams Books, 2006.
ISBN: 0-9548880-1-4

Captain Peter Wilson is a Captain with no ship, being unemployed following a disagreement with his former employer. Now he has taken on the position of Harbour Master in small-yacht Marina in the village of Duddlestone on the South Coast.

His first encounter with his new employer, United Marinas does not fill him with confidence. He is particularly unimpressed by the company’s main investor Doctor Paul Hooder, who owns the site. When he later meets attractive Laura Tapstall, Paul Hooder’s business manager, he begins to learn that all is definitely not going to be plain sailing.  For the Duddlestone community have secrets that go back fifty years -  dark unresolved secrets that Peter Wilson discovers have links to his own family about which he had no knowledge.

A fast-paced thriller, this is a real page turner, as Peter tries to understand just what actually happened fifty years ago to instil such silence and fear amongst the inhabitants, and what part his own family played in the events.  As in many small villages, everyone in Duddlestone is related, which makes it impossible to get anyone to open up. There are twists upon twists, and it kept me guessing right to the end, and the final unexpected twist.

I love a good mystery, and I heartily recommend this book as one of the best I have read in a long time.

-----

Reviewer: Lizzie Hayes

James Morley sis a local author, writing books under the name Benham's Sea Mysteries. Retired from an agricultural background Jim has been writing books since 2005. He is well known in the local area for his novels, short stories and publicity writing.

for pleasure.

‘Loose Ends’ by Susan Moody

Published by Severn House,
June 2012. 
ISBN: 978-0-7278-8227-1

Since Kate’s father, stepmother and eight-year-old sister were killed in a mysterious car accident in South America, when Kate was nineteen, Kate has been drifting. Although she was a passenger in the car, she has no recollection of what actually happened.

This is the story of a number of people who appear initially to be unconnected.  There is Kate unsettled and in need of a ‘proper job, who is currently a waitress following her divorce living with her brother Magnus. There is retired Dora Harding who on her early morning dog walking routine encounters something surprising. There’s Janine, formerly ’plain Jane’ who has been determined to ’make something of herself’; And Jefferson,  who wanted to be a detective, but ended up with a high-powered job at a merchant bank in London.

The unwanted attentions of a customer in the bar where Kate works spark off a chain of events that bring these unconnected characters together and eventually lead back to the accident in Ecuador ten years previously.

Cleverly plotted and with marvellous characterisation, Susan Moody is a gifted story-teller, as she draws the reader into the lives of each of the characters.  And then skilfully pulls the threads together, but slowly, so that as the truth began to emerge, I was turning the pages faster, eager to learn what happened on that fateful day.

Compelling reading.

-------

Reviewer: Lizzie Hayes

Susan Moody was born in Oxford is the principal nom de plume  of Susan Elizabeth Donaldson, née Horwood, a British novelist best known for her suspense novels. She is a former Chairman of the Crime Writer's Association, served as World President of the International Association of Crime Writers, and was elected to the prestigious Detection Club. Susan Moody has given numerous courses on writing crime fiction and continues to teach creative writing in England, France, Australia, the USA and Denmark.  In addition to her many stand alone books, Susan has written two series, on featuring PI Penny Wanawake (seven books) and a series of six books featuring bridge player Cassie Swan.