You know things are going badly when you've been stabbed, hospitalized and arrested for a crime that, not only did you not commit, you actively attempted to prevent.Top that off with a pending appearance in court before a judge whose wife you know rather better than he does, and you start to think that visiting an ancient Irish tomb with a gang of ruthless villains sounds like a perfectly reasonable thing to do. All you have to do is to make sure that you don't end up joining the ancient Irish tomb's ancient Irish inhabitants.Nothing's ever that simple, though, is it? Not in my world, anyway. Women have a tendency to confuse matters and when you're dealing with a deranged scarecrow poet and an eastern European hit man whom you know for a fact has never been further east than Billericay in his entire life, things are confusing enough, don't you think?

I don't like to pack too much into an ordinary day and this one had already been pretty eventful - two arguments with women, a fight in a pub, a warning from the Old Bill and a fiasco at auction that lost me an exquisite antique Japanese firefly cage. The trouble was, somebody wanted that little gem even more than I did. It was the key that would unlock a secret they'd to anything to keep under wraps, even murder.If only they could only have gone about their dirty deeds without involving me or my friends, they might have got away with it all, but when the master craftsman bravely trying to teach me the art of gadrooning fell foul of them and paid for it with his life, they had me to deal with . . .

KwayFay was once a ‘Cockraoch Child’, a homeless scavenger on Hong Kong’s waterfronts. Now she lives in a squatter shack on the mountain slopes, and commutes daily to her job as a lowly office clerk. She survives by paying bribes if she has to, and keeping silent when abused. Her only ally is Grandmother’s Ghost.There is a tense, pregnant feel to Hong Kong, for this is the time just before the Handover, when the People’s Republic of China will repossess the Crown Colony. Hongs and Triads – underworld organisations that are above the law – are concerned, since China’s policy is to eliminate criminal cliques.The head of a Triad learns of the impoverished ‘no-family’ girl who talks to ghosts, and wonders if she could hold the answer to the questions of an uncertain future. Except that superstition is also forbidden by the incoming regime: the girl might be the last chance for his Triad’s survival – but believing in her might prove to be its destruction.

Review

Definitely another collector's item from the very talented Mr Gash --Bolton Evening News
An enthralling yarn that walks a perilous line between socio-political reality and a fascinating dream world of the unique heroine's making --Maxim Jakubowski, the Guardian

About the Author

Jonathan Gash is the author of a number of crime novels including the popular Lovejoy series. A qualified doctor, specialising in tropical medicine, he lists his hobbies as antique collecting and his family. Jonathan lives in Essex.

I don't much like working for clients. It means that I have to follow someone else's instructions, and I've never been too good at that. When those instructions came from a spirit guide at a seance, I just had to laugh. Well, you would, wouldn't you?
The rather attractive young woman whose husband the spook had said I should help her to fine took me on a quest that turned into a trail of lucrative antiques deals, spoiled only when the police came plodding in and I found myself up to my neck in forgeries and murders. Situation normal, really.
Then the killer turned his attentions to me, just as the spirit had said he would, and I certainly wasn't laughing an more.

Review

Surely now established as an enduring sleuth (and snogger). The Times

About the Author

Jonathan Gash is the pen name of John Grant, who also wrote under the name of Graham Gaunt. Born in 1933 in Bolton, Lancashire, Grant trained as a doctor and worked as both a GP and a pathologist. He also served in the Royal Army Medical Corps, where he rose to the rank of Major, and was head of bacteriology at the University of London's School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. His first Lovejoy novel, The Judas Pair, won the Crime Writers' Association's prestigious John Creasey award in 1977. Grant lives in Colchester, Essex.