Simon Mason – författare

At the Wildlife Park, Will tells his family everything he knows about the big, fierce animals. Lucy is only interested in the small, furry animals. When Lucy bumps into a really big, fierce animal, some interesting facts tumble into Will's mind...

Book four of the DI Ryan Wilkins Mysteries, A Voice in the Night, is available to pre-order nowSHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA GOLD DAGGER 2023''[A] terrific crime novel'' Mick Herron''As great a contribution to the noble British genre of detective fiction as any writer for decades'' Stephen FryRyan Wilkins grew up on a trailer park, a member of what many people would call the criminal classes. As a young Detective Inspector, he''s lost none of his disgust with privileged elites - or his objectionable manners. But he notices things; they stick to his eyes. His professional partner, DI Ray Wilkins, of affluent Nigerian-London heritage, is an impeccably groomed, smooth-talking graduate of Balliol College, Oxford. You wouldn''t think they would get on. They don''t. But when a young woman is found strangled at Barnabas Hall, they''re forced to. Rich Oxford is not Ryan''s natural habitat. St Barnabas''s irascible Provost does not appreciate his forceful line of questioning. But what was the dead woman doing in the Provost''s study? Is it just a coincidence that on the night of her murder the college was entertaining Sheik al-Medina, a Gulf state ruler linked to human-rights abuses in his own country and acts of atrocity in others? As tensions rise, things aren''t going well. Ray is in despair. Ryan is in disciplinary measures. But their investigation gradually disentangles the links between a Syrian refugee lawyer now working in the college kitchens, a priceless copy of the Koran in the college collection and the identity of the dead woman. A Killing in November introduces an unlikely duo from different sides of the tracks in Oxford in a deftly plotted murder story full of dangerous turns, troubled pasts and unconventional detective work.What readers are saying about the DI RYAN WILKINS MYSTERIES5* ''Original and very entertaining'' 5* ''I couldn''t put this book down'' 5* ''Excellent - kept me hooked until the last page'' 5* ''A terrific new series''

''Move over Morse. Simon Mason Oxford crime novel breathes fresh life into the police procedural'' Val McDermid''As great a contribution to the noble British genre of detective fiction as any writer for decades'' Stephen FryA DI RYAN WILKINS MYSTERYA SHOCKING DISAPPEARANCEA four-year-old girl goes missing in plain sight outside her nursery in Oxford, a middle-class, affluent area,her mother only a stones-throw away.A TRIGGERING RESPONSERyan Wilkins, one of the youngest ever Detective Inspectors in the Thames Valley force, dishonourably discharged three months ago, watches his former partner DI Ray Wilkins deliver a press conference, confirming a lead.A DARK WEBRay begins to delve deeper, unearthing an underground network of criminal forces in the local area. But while Ray''s investigation stalls Ryan brings his unique talents to unofficial and quite illegal inquiries which will bring him into a confrontation with the very officials who have thrown him out of the force.Praise for the DI Ryan Wilkins Mysteries''Mason has reformulated Inspector Morse for the 2020s'' The Times''Start now and avoid the rush'' Guardian

''Simon Mason has created crime fiction''s most entertaining double act in decades'' Mick Herron''As great a contribution to the noble British genre of detective fiction as any writer for decades'' Stephen FryOxford. A city of lost things - and buried crimes. At three o''clock in the morning, Emergency Services receives a call. ''This is Zara Fanshawe. Always lost and never found.'' An hour later, the wayward celebrity''s Rolls Royce Phantom is found abandoned in dingy Becket Street. The paparazzi go wild. For some reason, news of Zara''s disappearance prompts homeless woman Lena Wójcik to search the camps, nervously, for the bad-tempered vagrant known as ''Waitrose'', a familiar sight in Oxford pushing his trolley of possessions. But he''s nowhere to be found either. Who will lead the investigation and cope with the media frenzy? Suave, prize-winning, Oxford-educated DI Ray Wilkins is passed over in favour of his partner, gobby, trailer-park educated DI Ryan Wilkins (no relation). You wouldn''t think Ray would be happy. He isn''t. You wouldn''t think Ryan would be any good at national press presentations. He isn''t. And when legendary cop Chester Lynch takes a shine to Ray - and takes against Ryan - things are only going to get even messier.What readers are saying about Lost and Never Found 5* An engaging detective double act5* Best in the series so far5* Set in present day Oxford, it is Morse times two

DEEP DECEPTION. TWISTED FATE.''As great a contribution to the noble British genre of detective fiction as any writer for decades'' Stephen FryThames Valley has a new Superintendent - DCS Wainwright - young, charismatic and ruthless, charged with pushing through big reforms. Her in-tray is full of problems - and at the top of the pile is the problem of Wilkins and Wilkins.Trailer park boy DI Ryan Wilkins, interesting looking in baggy trackies and over-large lime-green puffa. In his personnel file is a handwritten note scribbled by the outgoing Super: ''Do not, repeat not, give him responsibility.'' And posh boy DI Ray Wilkins, improbably handsome in navy blazer and tan chinos: ''Thinks too highly of himself. More experience needed at the wet end.'' Their previous investigations - though somehow successful - were models of disorder and dysfunction. The new Super needs to take action.There''s been a shocking murder in the heart of Oxford, the stabbing of a security guard during an attempted armed robbery. Meanwhile, an elderly professor of linguistics goes missing from his home in cosy Iffley Village.The high-profile murder investigation can be safely handled by reliable detective DI Hare. The entry-level enquiry into the wandering academic can be given to the problem duo, with instructions to keep it simple. But when the body of the professor is found, still dressed in his pyjamas and dripping wet, spreadeagled on a hotel lawn miles from home, things get a little unexpected for the Wilkinses. Will Ray keep on top of the brief? Will Ryan keep it together?PRAISE FOR SIMON MASON ''Terrific'' Mick Herron''This moody, atmospheric novel is full of surprises'' Sunday Times (Crime Book of the Month)''[W]ell plotted and very funny'' Sun''This has a TV series written all over it'' Daily Mail

A Guardian best crime and thriller book of 2024''Excellently lean and tense crime novel with a touch of the nouveau roman about it'' Ian Rankin''Mason has been mainlining Simenon for a while, and it shows'' Mick Herron''The very definition of unputdownable'' David Peace''It''s like the provincial British version of Maigret'' Clare ChambersThe people I work with call me ''Finder''. I''m a specialist, a finder of missing people.July 2015, Sevenoaks. 12-year-old schoolgirl Alice Johnson went missing while doing her paper round, her bag found discarded on the pavement. At 08.00, she was spotted standing in heavy rain at the side of the busy by-pass. At 11.00, she was seen talking to the driver of a black car in Tonbridge. After that, nothing. Alice was never found.Nine years later the body of another schoolgirl, Joleen Price, is pulled from a nearby lake and a local man named Vince Burns detained. Convinced that Burns is guilty in both cases, SIO Dave Armstrong calls in the Finder to investigate the earlier disappearance.Interviewing those who thought they knew her, the Finder gradually reveals a hidden Alice, a girl of surprising contradictions. Seeking answers from her divorced parents - an over-protective mother, a negligent father - the Finder is forced to consider violently opposing narratives. Was the timid 12-year-old a victim of the predator Burns, as he himself hints? Or was she carrying out a plan of her own?The Case of the Lonely Accountant, book two in the Finder Mysteries, is OUT NOW!

''Mason has been mainlining Simenon for a while, and it shows'' Mick Herron''The very definition of unputdownable'' David Peace''It''s like the provincial British version of Maigret'' Clare Chambers

Bournemouth 2008, the height of the financial crash. Don Bayliss, a timid and well-mannered accountant, vanishes after leaving his office before a scheduled meeting. His wife is both perplexed and distraught. His clothes are found discarded at the mouth of Poole Harbour.After seven years of searching with no firm leads, the investigation is closed, and Don is presumed dead.Until, sorting through his possessions, his wife finds a garish business card of one Dwight Fricker and decides it must be of some importance. Now more than eight years after his disappearance Dorset Police call in the Finder and the cold case is reopened.The Finder begins with the last sightings of Don on the day he went missing, hearing how he seemed in a hurry, somewhat distracted? He unearths a string of overlooked clues that lead him to face the unlikely friendships that Don had made, the somewhat overbearing nature of Mrs Bayliss, the secrets that haunted him in his home life and the mistakes that led to him being investigated at work.

The Case of the Lonely Accountant is a dark and rich mystery that centres upon one lonely man and reveals the distance between those who are missing and those who are lost.

''The very definition of unputdownable'' David Peace''Mason packs more into 200 pages than many writers do at twice the length'' Sunday TimesIn the first months of 2020 there was a spate of murders of Black sex workers in northern cities. One of them was Ella Bailey, last seen talking to a punter in an alley in Sheffield city centre, and although no trace of her was ever found, the punter, Michael Godley, soon confessed to all three murders.Five years later, as another sex worker is murdered in the same district, the bag Ella had been carrying with her reappears, hanging on the door handles of a café, and a local vagrant claims to have seen Ella sitting on a bench in a churchyard near the site of the murder. South Yorkshire Police call in the Finder.So begins a search that takes him back to the strange days of the pandemic, to talk to those who knew Ella best, such as her wayward girlfriend ''Loz'', abusive boyfriend Caine Poynton-Smith and respectable foster-parents still struggling to come to terms with Ella''s life. How did their intelligent, strong-willed daughter - bright student and national schoolgirl athletics champion - end up in that alley?As fear grips the city, our Finder must court danger to discover the truth.