Charles Rozel

Dead Guy Charles Rozel

A crime thriller featuring British detective, Inspector Robert Peel of the Quaystone Cops and Sarah Wilde, a glamorous lawyer from London, hunting a serial killer in an English coastal town.

One should not speak ill of the dead.

But what if the dead speak ill of the living?

The voice of the deceased clerk to the Quaystone Magistrates calls from his coffin: "I was murdered by a magistrate".

There are 5 magistrates in the Quaystone court, one of whom, a fishmonger, is found dead shortly after the funeral, having been locked in a cold store in circumstances which could be murder.

The remaining magistrates; Lady Swaffham, the lady of the manor; Colonel Havelock, a retired special forces officer; Malpass, an undertaker, and Dr Ripon, a GP, become the murder suspects.

Inspector Robert Peel, of the Quaystone Cops, investigates. He deduces that a person, known as 'the Scarecrow', is playing practical jokes and identifies that person as the local newspaper reporter.

But the newspaper reporter is murdered.

Peel hates his job, but the murders force him to be a detective, and outwit his arch enemy, Detective Inspector Wheeler, alias 'the weasel'.

Peel has numerous girlfriends, but nobody to love.

Until, that is, he meets Sarah Wilde, a glamorous lawyer from London brought in as a temporary replacement for the dead magistrates' clerk.

A Special Forces unit, led by the dashing Captain Sutherland, arrives in Quaystone to track down Fox, an ex-special forces soldier who is now a poacher, and who MI5 deem a threat to national security.

Peel and Sutherland become rivals for Sarah's affections.

Sarah's life is threatened and there is a real body on a Guy Fawkes bonfire before Peel unmasks the killer with Sarah's help.