Jayne Alexander Mysteries

MURDER MOST BRITISH

In my police procedurals, I add a dash of the scientific, a pinch of desperate suspects, then roll in a quirky detective and a sprinkling of humor.

Murder, betrayal, and deceit abound in West Wyckham, making it the perfect location for my crime stories. I tucked my fictitious town into the brooding rural landscape of Lincolnshire, where Romans, Vikings, and the plague left their mark. Just below the surface, tongues wag, and secrets fester in the local churchyard. A peek behind closed doors will find ordinary people doing extraordinary things to ensure their skeletons remain buried.

Grab your flashlight, then follow me past the undertakers into cobbled back streets where witches once plied their trade and eerie sightings still abound. Wander a little further, and more than one mystery surrounds the abandoned airfields of the Second World War.

Solving the crimes is DETECTIVE CONSTABLE JAYNE ALEXANDER. She has just transferred back to her hometown of West Wyckham from the London Fraud Squad.

Jayne is not interested in upward mobility in the police force, only solving the disappearance of her friend Kimberly Edwards fifteen years ago. Making headway with the cold case is hampered by a lack of evidence and a darker force. Woven into the fabric of Jayne’s psyche are two alternate personalities. Each has a unique skill set that helps her solve complex cases, but calling on them comes at a price. Like a pair of squabbling siblings, they are vying for control. Of course, it doesn’t help that Jayne plays Russian roulette with her psych medication, allowing them to break through and push her behavior to the brink of self-sabotage.

The only sane person in the mix is Police Constable Beverly Hassam. Keeping Jayne on the straight and narrow is no mean feat for a girl with the strong moral compass of her Coptic Egyptian heritage. Beverly is determined to quell the deranged agnostic personalities of her brilliant but very flawed friend.

Survivor’s guilt drove Jayne back home, but digging up the past can have dangerous consequences. Fortunately, she has a talent for getting out of trouble, a penchant for solving puzzles, and a taste for murder, solving it, that is.