The Neal James Website

"Full Marks" will be the sixth of the 'books' which I hope, eventually, will be published through Pneuma Springs. It is a long way down the queue right now, and some of the 'cases' have already appeared as short stories in their own right.

Nevertheless, I think it is fitting to Dennis that he have a volume all to himself. He and I have come a long way together over the past two or three years, and it is almost as if he is my alter ego. The summaries below are not necessarily in the correct chronological order, but serve to indicate what the completed work, once properly linked together, may look like. For now, it lacks three or four 'cases' to make it complete, and I intend to start working on those sometime after Christmas.

***************************************** 

The Marks Trilogy

I

A Secret Life

The murder of 88 year-old Thomas Weston in his dirty, dingy home raised more than a few questions for Dennis Marks. Why did witnesses suddenly 'clam up', and who were the mysterious strangers asking odd questions? Where had all the evidence disppeared to, and what was in the manilla file given to the "suit"?

II

Identifying Marks

Promotion had been handed to Marks on a silver platter, and he now occupied the rank of Inspector. Had he really been warned off any further investigation into Thomas Weston's death, and what other agendas were working away in the background?

III

Footsteps in the Darkness

Stepping into the murky shadows of the security forces had never been on Marks' job description, but there he most surely now was. The uneasy relationship with the man calling himself Michael Roberts was about to put both his career and his life on the line.

***************************************** 

Marks on the Wall

Samuel North was as guilty as hell. Dennis Marks was certain of it, and also knew exactly where he had murdered his wife, Susan. Proving it was quite another matter, and if it had not been for the eagle eye of DS Peter Spencer, North may just have got clean away with it.

***************************************** 

Bodies of Evidence

A test, in nine chapters, of all of Marks' skill as a detective in a case with so many hidden secrets. Why were so many witnesses to the murder of Miles Thomas unwilling or unable to come forward and tell what they knew? What had the young man involved himself in, that would cost him his life?

***************************************** 

Stick

Called to the body impaled on the synagogue railings, Marks is curious at the presence of the old jew who sits puffing away at his pipe. He is even more perplexed when the same man turns up a few days later at a similar crime scene. By the time of the third murder, and with the three victims now linked, he is sure that Solomon Goldblum is somehow involved. Powers beyond those of forensic science, and the skills of pathologist George Groves, lie at the heart of a mystery going back beyond the start of WWII.

***************************************** 

Wishful Thinking

Maude Collins was dead. There wasn't a mark on the body, but the look on her face told everything. Abject terror stared out at Dennis Marks from the now lifeless eyes - she had been scared to death, but by whom? Or what? Marcus Toonan was a thug; a thug whose hand had been removed at the wrist by a force which had left him a gibbering wreck. Dave Barrett was just an ordinary guy who ended up realising that you didn't always get what you'd wished for. Marks thought he'd seen everything after the Goldblum case - how wrong that turned out to be.