Inspector Winwood Mysteries

When Brian Bennett, Group Commissioning Editor of the Rutherford Echo invites DCI Steve Winwood as his 'plus one' to the VIP opening of the Shed Community Theatre Steve fears the worst. He is not wrong. But it is Brian who finds a dead body in the gents toilet apparently having slipped or been deliberately pushed, and cracked his skull on the urinal. The body is identified by two of his university colleagues Professor Daish-Cook and Professor Rufus Cornwallis as Lucien Wadsworth, an English lecturer at Rutherford University, commonly known as Mungo Jerry. From then on Steve finds himself drawn deeper into an imaginary 'what-if' literary mystery and the world of theatre with which he has a deep mistrust. Wadsworth had discovered a seventeenth century manuscript about a year earlier now believed to be a lost work of the sixteenth century dramatist Christopher Marlowe who was believed to have been killed about thirty years earlier than the manuscript is dated. What if the manuscript is genuine, what if it really is the work of Marlowe and did he really escape England and prosecution in 1593? What if he really had written this undiscovered work on the life and persecution of the astronomer Galileo Galilei whilst in exile and how did it get to England? These questions surround Steve's investigations that take in the Redbourne Brewery, the Rutherford International Newspaper Group, their PR company and the University all of which are more concerned with The Shed rather than a four hundred year old manuscript that has surfaced in a small, English market town. On the other hand they are all aware of its existence. Things get muddled when it is revealed that Wadsworth has worked in several universities under different names and given other untraceable academics as references for jobs. His real identity remains a mystery. What concerns Steve is how the manuscript came to be found in a modern university. His investigations are inconclusive as to whether Wadsworth's death was accidental or murder and if the latter, why? Steve needs the help of his own personal network such as the vicar and the local antiquarian bookshop owner and certainly his Sergeant Miles Davis to understand the secrets behind the wall of silence being put up by all those involved in The Shed project. Daish-Cook and Cornwallis admit that both Wadsworth and themselves have been the targets of low level on-line threats to destroy or dismiss the now named Marlowe Papers. It takes some inspired detective work by Davis to point the finger at a hitherto unknown participant in this literary puzzle.

DI Steve Winwood's quiet Saturday morning is ruined when one of the guests is found murdered during a Murder Mystery Weekend at the Fleetwood Arms Hotel. The first thing Winwood discovers is that many of the guests are members of the Rutherford Operatic And Dramatic Society (ROADS) and they all have solid alibis for the time of death. They were asleep. The deceased Martin Protheroe had switched rooms with Alan Stirling a member of ROADS. The group used this and similar events in other hotels to indulge in swinging weekends. Winwood sends DC Emma Porter undercover and she auditions for the chorus in ROADS' upcoming production of South Pacific. She goes to the Fleetwood Arms Hotel's Treasure Island themed dinner as the guest of Alan Stirling and finds herself sat on the same table where another actor suffers a fatal anaphylactic shock. Winwood continues to dig deeper into the lives and loves of ROADS and the secret life of Martin Protheroe. In a classic Agatha Christie style dnouement he gathers all the cast back at the Fleetwood Arms Hotel to uncover the culprit behind both murders.Warning: Adult humour and mild sexual content throughout

On his return from holiday DCI Steve Winwood finds he has three recent murders on his doorstep. The only connection is the method of the killings; a heavy blow to the head and then a sharp blade through the heart. Then there is the problem of his nemesis, Chief Superintendent Diane Bliss who has little time for his attitude towards modern policing. He is called to see Chief Constable Mchael Chapman who wants him to investigate a fraud. The only clue he is given is a short riddle: 'If you want to know the secret of the golden river, look no further than Aberto Pereira'. Steve argues that this is a case for the Fraud Squad but Chapman insists inferring that those caught up in a financial scam are high ranking police officers as well as politicians and footballers. But why is this all centred on a sleepy town like Rutherford. Because says Chapman Steve knows Rutherford better than anyone else. It takes old fashioned police work and the skills of his Sergeant Miles Davis with spreadsheets and financial products to solve the murders and the fraud which become intrinsically wound together. A short story that brings Winwood to contemplate retirement. Again. John Barber was born in London at the height of the UK Post War baby boom. The Education Act of 1944 saw great changes in the way the nation was taught; the main one being that all children stayed at school until the age of 15 (later increased to 16). For the first time working class children were able to reach higher levels of academic study and the opportunity to gain further educational qualifications at University.This explosion in education brought forth a new aspirational middle class; others remained true to their working class roots. The author belongs somewhere between the two. Many of the author's main characters have their genesis in this educational revolution. Their dialogue though idiosyncratic can normally be understood but like all working class speech it is liberally sprinkled with strange boyhood phrases and a passing nod to cockney rhyming slang.John Barber's novels are set in fictional English towns where sexual intrigue and political in-fighting is rife beneath a pleasant, small town veneer of respectability.They fall within the cozy, traditional British detective sections of mystery fiction.He has been writing professionally since 1996 when he began to contribute articles to magazines on social and local history. His first published book in 2002 was a non-fiction work entitled The Camden Town Murder which investigated a famous murder mystery of 1907 and names the killer. This is still available in softback and as an ebook, although not available from SmashwordsJohn Barber had careers in Advertising, International Banking and the Wine Industry before becoming Town Centre Manager in his home town of Hertford. He is now retired and lives with his wife and two cats on an island in the middle of Hertford and spends his time between local community projects and writing further novels.

Ben Davies a director of Rutherford Corinthian Football Club is found in the ground floor supporters bar with his throat cut. The other ten directors had already gathered for an Emergency General Meeting in the first floor boardroom.Detective Chief Inspector Steve Winwood discovers that the founder of Rutherford Corinthian Football Club was considered insane. He had established a Trust to pay for the running costs of the Club and wrote the rule book by which the club was to be operated. Some rules were quite bizarre although true to the Corinthinian ideal such as the goalkeeper standing aside for penalty kicks.As he digs deeper into the rules of the club suspicion falls on the directors who are likely to make a substantial financial killing if the Fotball Club and the ground is sold. Peter Redbourne Managing Director of Redbourne Brewery who sponsors the Club is never far from suspicion either.Ben Davies past is shrouded in secrecy but as Winwood uncovers his ties to Rutherford and the financial world in which he works and from tha the reason for his killingA conspiracy amongst the directors slowly unwinds until the solution to Davies' murder is found amidst the very eccentric and unique way that the Trust was set up.This can be read as a sequel to Murder at the Fleetwood but the book begins with a very brief recap of the events at the Murder Mystery Weekend, the previous book in the series.

The body of a suspect in a murder enquiry is uncovered during work to the town fountain. He was Ray Radford, killed thirty years previously and thought to have killed his partner John Kennedy. A manhunt at the time involving DCI Winwood who had only recently been appointed as a detective failed to find Radford or identify any suspects. The case had led to accusations of corruption in both the police force and local Council.Now that a body had been uncovered the case has to be re-opened and the question answered: if Radford killed Kennedy who killed Radford? The town's workforce had lived in fear of Radford and even thirty years later few want to discuss the past.Winwood has to interview people still alive who remember the case despite the hurt it causes. Winwood fears that his career and that of his superiors could be ended by the failures of the past and his inability to solve then now.The investigation is aided by the fact that there is no public identification of Radford as the body in the fountain. The press are more interested in the discovery of a bag of bones in a utility trench which are identified as being those of a soldier in the English Civil War.Winwood draws on the help of Christine Grey, Leader of the Council and Alan Stirling, Sergeant Emma Porter's partner. They are able to access Council records and local tradespeople willing to talk. The trail leads to a suspect by means of advances in modern forensics to establish soil samples that marry up Radford and the Civil War soldier.This is a much abridged edition of the first version published in April 2016.