Mick Chandra

Determined to rebuild her life following a suicide attempt, beautiful young American concert pianist Jessica Beaumont retreats to a 17th century cottage near the village of Kenwick, in rural England. She is embroiled in the murder investigation of a secretive neighbor who was hacked to death in his manor house with his own kitchen cleaver. She soon becomes romantically entangled with one of the murder suspects, a handsome wealthy landowner. Hungry for love, she flings herself full-tilt into an affair with him. Then, on a rainy evening, Detective Inspector Michael "Mick" Chandra of New Scotland Yard shows up at the door of her rented cottage, informing her that he has been assigned to reopen the case. Against the backdrop of a violent murder evolves a passionate love story. When Jess herself finds the critical clue to the killing, she is threatened to become the next victim.

Detective Inspector, Mick Chandra of New Scotland Yard, struggles to link the murder of the young wife of a popular British Member of Parliament to the seemingly random death by drowning in a north London canal of 8-year-old Josie Stephens. The forensic pathologist discovers that Josie was abused before she was murdered. Mick is informed by a Quaker Friend who knew Phoebe that she, too, may have been physically abused. Mick realizes he is getting close to the fire when his live-in love, American expatriate and renowned England-based concert pianist, Jessica Beaumont, is suddenly harrassed. During a concert, someone even takes a shot at her. Seconded to the Yard's Pedophile Unit, Mick and his partner, Sergeant Elizabeth Chang, receive help in breaking the case. The Unit's chief informs Mick that a notorious pedophile ring is working out of north London, headed by someone who calls himself The Erlking. Day by day, more children are reported missing in north London. How is this linked to Phoebe's death? What is the connection between Phoebe and Josie? As Mick struggles to expose the identity of The Erlking, help arrives from a most unexpected source.

The garotted corpse of a notorious antiquities thief and forger is discovered in an excavation pit at an archeological site near Colchester, on England's east coast. Despite being on parental leave to care for his four-month-old daughter, Detective Inspector Michael "Mick" Chandra is put in charge of the case, his family leave suspended by New Scotland Yard's commissioner. The victim is identified as Stanislaw Janus, a former curator of pre-Roman British artifacts at the British Museum, who turned to crime by fencing his forgeries on the international antiquities black market. Prior to the murder, Janus had engineered the theft of the priceless Ravenhoe Cauldron from the Colchester Museum,. The nearly 2, 000-year-old solid gold vessel had been unearthed by archeologists in the very pit where Janus' corpse was later dumped. Mick must find Janus' murderer as well as locate the missing cauldron, but his task will not be easy. Interpol reveals that Janus assumed multiple identities and remained out of reach of law enforcement agencies. Nathaniel Wyatt, his former colleague at the British Museum, descricribes Janus as the "Steppenwolf" -- charming one minute, vicious the next. Mick calls upon he Yard's Arts and Antiquities Unit for help in this complex case. As it turns out, he will need all the help he can get, as the case becomes increasingly fraught with danger and risk. A diverse cast of characters illuminates and obscures Stanislaw Janus' past: Dr. Cassandra Palmer, Chief Curator of the Colchester Museum, who had known Janus for more than a decade; Dr. Gil Matcalf, director of the archeological dig, who openly disdains Janus; Alissa Woo, Metcalf's beautiful graduate assistant, who originally discovered the caludron at the Colchester sitre; Nathaniel Wyatt, Janus' former collesgue; and Anderson Peale III, noted wealthy collector of Celtic artifacts, who may not be as reputable as he seems. Familiar faces from the two previous Mick Chandra books return as well: Jessica Beaumont, the American-born pianist who is now Mick's wife; Mick's friend and chief informant, Jamie Geller; and Mick's no-nonsense partner, Sergeant Elizabeth Chang. The plot of The Ravenhoe Cauldron takes many u-turns and detours, often landing Mick and Elizabeth back to square one and exposing them to danger. And what is the meaning of the mysterious rust-encrusted key sent through Mick's home mail slot bearing a note that reads: "The key to the Ravenhoe Cauldron?"

Who would want to murder Jo Eccleston – and why? Over the past few years, the celebrated BBC newscaster had acquired a fiercely loyal following with her on-site reports from Iraq and Afghanistan. She was fearless, brainy, beautiful, and in real life had abandoned many lovers in her wake. Brad Moody, chief constable of the Thames Police Force, hears of Jo's death on a television broadcast as he is having breakfast in a little café located in his home base of Gap, a village of ideal beauty an hour west of London. As chance would have it, Gap, Jo's childhood home, was where they met, fell in love, and parted when Jo threw Brad over to marry Sir Reeve Winfield, a wealthy businessman of questionable integrity. Brad needs a trusted friend to confide in – Chief Detective Inspector Mick Chandra of Scotland Yard, where the two had met as neophyte cops. Catching up in a local pub in Gap, Brad confesses to Mick that Jo was pregnant at the time she left him. Whose baby it was he could only guess since Jo was a "good time, love 'em and leave 'em" kind of woman. So begins the convoluted case of Jo's murder. Mick, along with his brilliant partner, Detective Inspector Elizabeth Chang, are assigned the case that grows more arcane and complicated even as the two police officers struggle to solve it. While still in Gap, Brad insists that Mick meet Jo's mother, the redoubtable Louise Eccleston, at the local family estate, Hedgerow Manor. Louise proves to be both proud and appalled by her late newscaster daughter: proud of her fame, appalled by her indiscriminant private life. "Why couldn't she have turned out to be a good girl as I did?" Louise laments. As the two detectives delve into the case, they discover that Jo had also indulged in long-term affairs with two additional prominent men: Jon Townsend, a former member of the England's Lib Dem party, who plans for form his own populist party that he is convinced will become a major "player" in the House of Commons. In addition to Townsend is the popular TV heart throb actor, Nigel Roxbury, who freely admits to Elizabeth that he passionately loved Jo despite the fact that he is married. As for Winfield, he dismisses Jo as a pesky bump in his journey to finding a more compliant, younger woman, while Townsend hotly denies having had an affair with Jo at all. Three former lovers, three possible suspects – four counting Brad Moody. Yet the key to the real Jo lies with a small child locked away in a facility outside of London that treats autistic children -- eight-year-old Tamara, who informs Elizabeth and Mick that "she doesn't come here to see me anymore." Who is she? The story revolves around a lively cast of characters including Mick's brilliant American-born concert-pianist wife Jessica Beaumont; his best friend and occasional undercover aide, Jamie Geller, another American ex-pat; and Jo's hitherto unknown half-sister, Leah, who in the end comes to Tamara's rescue. And what is the Mouldwarp Prophecy? You'll have to read to book to understand this monster's chilling tale.

"The most puzzling aspect of Rosalinda Evelyn's suicide was that she shot herself with a in the head with a Magnum 8mm automatic just five hours after having won the Critics' Choice award for beat actress." In his most bizarre case, Anglo Indian Scotland Yard Chief Inspector Mick Chandra and his partner, Hong Kong-born Elizabeth Change, face the challenge of exposing a sex and suicide cult, the Oracle of Baal, which persuades its clients that death is the way to ultimate is the way to ultimate transformation and eternal truth. But before these vulnerable believers kill themselves, they are coerced into signing over their financial assets to the Oracle's leaders. The story is carried by a diverse cast of characters: Dr. Solomon Deal, a professor at the University of London who is an expert on cults and cult mentality; Madame Angeline Love, the cult leader, who insists that Baal is only a self- help group; Spender Arlen, Love's assistant and much-younger love interest; Susan Evelyn, Rosalinda's daughter, who provides valuable information to Mick about her mother. Finally, Prunella Hamley, who was brutalized by Baal when she attempted to leave the cult. It is Pru who fingers Love and Arlen, bringing them to justice.