Frank Edwards – författare

In Case is a murder story set in north Wales. The narrator is an English lawyer who is invited by the Professor, an old friend, to help launch the law department at a new university being established near Llandudno. He is to be a part-time lecturer for the opening term before returning to his practice in Reading. Whilst at Llandudno he becomes actively involved, not altogether reluctantly, in two murders, one on the train that takes him to Wales and the other of a student of his at the College. During his stay he is introduced to some aspects of Welsh life, and visits a number of famous historical sites and beauty spots from each of which he draws impressions which guide his actions as he informally co-operates with the officer leading the murder investigations. The Case in the title refers to a bag that he always carries with him, containing items vital to him in case of emergency. It plays a part in the events that unfold at the new university.

“Vanity, like murder, will out,” wrote Hannah Cowley over two hundred years ago. In this story of a man’s wish to establish a peaceful and beautiful bird sanctuary, both certainly come out, muddled and mixed as they so often are with the motives of greed, jealousy, revenge and irrational self-justification. What starts as a simple plan ends with death, murders which become the task of Inspector Hole to solve on his own doorstep. The story of the developing private wetlands reserve becomes the backcloth to a range of petty feudings which develop serious consequences. Amidst the mallards and greylags, the Buicks and the pochards, one flight of birds manages to add its voice to the complex series of clues by which the Inspector, aided by his wife the local junior school head, is able to reach the unexpected but successful conclusion to this ‘traditional’ village-based mystery, set on the banks of the River Severn.

When competition at a British dog show turns deadly, it’s up to Inspector Yale to sniff out a killer in this whodunit perfect for Agatha Christie fans.   For professional dog breeders across the United Kingdom, competition is everything. If your prized pooch wins Best in Show, you can fetch a fine price for her pups. Ambrose Graveney has long been a fixture on the qualifying circuit, hoping to make it to the ultimate contest, Crufts. But it becomes painfully clear that Ambrose won’t be moving on this season—or ever again, for that matter—when the old man’s lifeless body suddenly slumps over on the bench where he sits awaiting his entrant’s turn.   Insp. Simon Yale is dispatched to investigate what initially appears to be a natural death. But Yale suspects something more sinister is afoot in this dog-eat-dog world full of desperate hopes and old grudges. At once an intriguing puzzle and a fascinating look inside the world of show dog competitions, Frank Edwards’s A Question of Pedigree will delight mystery lovers and dog fans alike.

Selected for the task of researching a story with political overtones, fasttrack, up-and-coming Inspector Tim Medway has fears for his future promotion, added to when, as a result, he is seconded to a County Force to help investigate a murder that may be linked. His new assignment, along with the local officer in charge of the case, takes him into the world of a Wildlife Safari Park where the victim had been working. As the investigation proceeds, Medway has to balance helping to find the killer with a need to test the death’s relevance to the political aspects, not all of which is he free to reveal to his colleague. The situation develops on two levels. While the locally based Inspector Mills deals with the ‘routine work’, as he calls it, Medway has to handle the high-flying associates of an MEP who are increasingly involved in the unfolding events. As dead-ends are reached in the search for the truth, the policeman finds inspiration from his love of the theatre and, more surprisingly, guidance from some of the animals that inhabit the Park – among them the flamboyant dancing of the East African Crowned Crane.

The Gaysh tells the story of the emergence of an army following early attempts to protect the trade routes in and through Aden. From the first commercial treaty with the Abdali Sultan in 1802, various efforts were made to avoid looting, leading to the annexing of Aden Port by the East India Company in 1839. It was not until the Turks threatened to invade in the First World War that a regular army unit was formed. The 1st Yemen Infantry did not see action, and there was a move, on financial grounds, to disband it in 1928. Because a need remained, the decision was taken to replace its policing role by airpower, supported by a small force of levies to defend the bases, including a camel corps.The book takes that story on, chronologically, through the Aden Protectorate Levies' growing strength and its relationship with the British Government and its policies. It includes its part in the Silver Jubilee celebration parade in 1935, pre-1939 military operations, its role in WWII, its involvement in the evacuation of the Jews following the Arab/Jewish riots in Crater in 1947, and on to the creation of the Federation and the withdrawal of the British Army in 1967.