The Eric Ward Mysteries

Eric Ward thinks there is something odd about Arthur Egan’s life and death. But Ward is a former police inspector and trained to be suspicious. Egan left a large sum. But Ward makes no progress tracing the dead man’s offspring. A photograph of an unknown tombstone is his only clue. He discovers Egan served a term for manslaughter and that the evidence against him may have been planted. Why had he accepted his fate so meekly?

Jack Saxby is trying to keep the farm he thought he’d been given by his mother. His vindictive father wants to take it away, and Jack’s two brothers also have their own agenda. Then there’s a suspicious death, and the family’s dark secrets come to light. Can Eric Ward, representing Jack, find out who’s really guilty? Eric is facing a risky eye operation and he’s still resisting a serious relationship with young heiress Anne Morcombe. Can he solve the case and save his reputation?

Former police officer-turned-solicitor Eric Ward is recovering from a serious eye operation when the offer comes in. Come down to London. Help Philip Scarn, a successful entrepreneur, break into the North East. Get paid handsomely doing it. On the journey, Ward is nearly killed. At the other end of a phone call, a shadowy voice warns this is just the beginning. Then a young woman is murdered.

A thriving law practice and a happy marriage are almost enough to convince solicitor Eric Ward he has overcome his painful past and started a new life. All it takes is the wrong client for it all to unravel. An investigative journalist beaten to a pulp. A crooked Newcastle businessman living the high life in France. A woman from a half-forgotten past. Former police officer-turned-solicitor Eric Ward represents Eddie Stevens, an investigative reporter on the trail of a hot story.

Sam Turiff is a loan shark preying on the most vulnerable people in Newcastle. Detective Eric Ward’s investigation runs into a brick wall trying to bring down the callous criminal. No one will give evidence against him. They are frightened what he’ll do to them. Then Kate Geraghty is kidnapped. She is the granddaughter of local tycoon Liam Geraghty, and there’s a link to the loan shark. But who carried out the kidnapping and why? The case soon turns into a murder investigation, and Ward finds himself up against a Northern crime empire.

Eric’s wife, Anne, has followed the advice of handsome lawyer Mark Fenham and invested a small fortune in a merchant bank also involved in underwriting marine insurance. Now her company must pay out a vast insurance claim for the Sea Dawn, a ship sunk in Spanish waters. Eric Ward smells fraud. His wife could lose everything. And then, one by one, people connected to the Sea Dawn start to die. The murderous trail takes Ward to sunny Spain—where he comes face-to-face with his arch enemy. Will Ward uncover the truth about the sinking of the Sea Dawn?

Eric Ward is still uneasy on the board of merchant bankers Martin & Channing. Their defense against a hostile takeover is pushing the limits of the law. But Eric soon has problems nearer home: his wife’s colleague is charged with the murder of his fiancée in his London flat. He asks Eric to represent him. Eric discovers some very interesting facts about the dead woman. Then Eric is called back to London to deal with the takeover gone wrong.

Eileen O’Hara isn’t used to hearing “no”. She’s the stunning chairman of Broadlands construction. But now she is facing a management takeover, with rivals bidding for control of her company. Both are crooked with old scores to settle. Who will she choose? She calls on lawyer and financier Eric Ward for advice. Eric’s head is turned, much to his wife’s chagrin. His conscience tells him he can’t walk away—whatever the implications for his marriage. Aided by Anne, he begins digging into the murky pasts of both bidders.

Spain. An ex-con breaks into a villa by the sea to steal something very precious from a safe. He will not leave without hurting someone. England. Tycoon Simon Chan asks Eric Ward to find a missing businessman. And Ward is also involved in a case involving his arch-enemy, the shady lawyer Charles Davison. Then a body washes up on a Spanish beach … Eric Ward will face the fight of his life against a professional killer inside and outside the courtroom.

Eric Ward thinks he is happily married—until he discovers that his wife, Anne, has been spending rather too much time with a business associate. Suspicious and angry, Ward finds comfort in the arms of a beautiful stranger. But when his new lover is found dead, he must do everything he can to avoid becoming the focus of a murder inquiry that could wreck his future. As police pressure looms, Ward makes his own inquiries. Increasingly desperate to find the girl’s killer, he begins to learn more about a shady Tyneside world of drugs, dodgy property deals, and illicit nightclubs.

Eric Ward agrees to represent the interests of a local environmental campaign. Then an explosion at the industrial-waste plant leaves his client dead. Joe Paulson wasn’t exactly a criminal. But his after-hours activities—gathering the secrets of everyone from politicians to high-flying businessmen—created a long list of enemies. But who feared the nightwalker enough to kill him? And could Ward be next? When an old favor is called in, Ward may have no choice but to put his own life in danger.

An influential shipping firm, Goldwaters, pays Eric Ward a large retainer to work for them, much to his surprise. Then one of the Goldwaters fleet, the Sierra Nova, is “arrested” and is unable to leave port. The reason? A crew member, Edwards, has been caught in possession of drugs and is accused of smuggling—but now he’s been removed from the ship, why can’t the voyage go ahead? Then Edwards is murdered on his way to the courtroom. Ward soon finds himself sinking into the dangerous world of international conspiracy and modern-day piracy.

When wealthy Colonel Delamere dies after a botched burglary, it’s up to Eric Ward to manage his estate—and catch the killers. But the Colonel’s will contains perplexing instructions for the disposal of an ancient Egyptian statuette, first discovered by Howard Carter in the Valley of the Kings in 1922. The artefact was supposed to be handed to the Foreign Office—but it was stolen by the burglars. The allegedly cursed statuette could change the course of the entire Middle East.

Farmer Paddy Fenton faces financial ruin as a result of foot and mouth disease among his flock. Then he gets an offer that he can’t refuse: ready cash to rent one of his outbuildings. He doesn’t enquire too closely as to what is happening there until a police raid uncovers a sinister operation. Eric Ward agrees to represent Fenton and soon finds himself in a bitter turf war. The criminal network stretches far beyond the local Northumberland countryside.

A counter-terrorist organization stops the murder of a French politician in the Pyrenees. The would-be assassin is killed at the scene. He has a disturbing tattoo on his arm. Eric Ward meets Ben Shaw at a bankers’ dinner. Ben hires him to look into his old rival and Eric’s ex-wife’s probable new lover, Jason Sullivan. Jason’s disappeared and so has the money for a project he was working on.

Eric Ward has a new client: Dieter Barschell. He’s an ex-professional footballer charged with dealing drugs at a Newcastle racecourse. Eric secures bail for his client. He also precipitates a murder investigation. While defending Barschell, Eric antagonizes one of the prosecution witnesses, DCI Charlie Spate. Can the two men work together to try to resolve this mess?

A dangerous killer with a penchant for the Zodiac symbols is abducting, torturing, and murdering women. Eric Ward and Sharon Owen are in court defending the man accused of these crimes, and due to a technicality, the suspect walks free. But is he really guilty? Meanwhile, DCI Charlie Spate is tracking the alleged Zodiac Killer but loses his trail. Eric receives an urgent call asking him to go to a remote Northumberland farmhouse to meet the man who walked free, but when he arrives, it’s carnage.