[D.I. Angel Mystery 06] • Sham

Detective Inspector Michael Angel is investigating two gruesome and bewildering murder cases in the South Yorkshire town of Bromersley.

One of the cases involves a disturbing and staged routine that results in a death at a highly respected country club.

Matters are complicated by the fact that perfectly reputable witnesses cannot agree on the straightforward matter of identifying the killer; the investigations appear farcical and doomed.

The Detective Inspector is faced with multiple dead ends, station politics and a terrifying local crime family who seem to be a law unto themselves and will stop at nothing to protect their own.

With the appointment of the new, ambitious and aggressive Superintendent Strawbridge, Angel is deeply troubled and has only his instinct to rely on.

To his dismay, authorised criminals are authorised to carry guns and the lines of professionalism and protection become blurred.

Witness intimidation leads to another body washing up in the river, sadly to the surprise of no one.

It seems that a stroke of luck is the only hope left.

Angel’s increasingly lucid sleep is constantly disturbed by phone calls at his home in the night as his loving wife Mary fears for his safety while he is forced to lie to her.

Relying on information from potentially crooked informers, his world becomes murky and increasingly dangerous.

Risking his own life and withholding lines of enquiry from his cagey superior, everything is at stake for the Inspector as he seeks justice.

While a friend becomes caught up in an alarming scam he has to knowingly persevere and prays that the next knock on his door is not news of another fatality in the terrifying sequence of events he is unravelling.

But with gangsters having scores to settle, crooked police and mentally unstable young men preying on glamorous girls in the town, can Angel work it all out in time and walk away unscathed?

'Sham' is the sixth book in the Inspector Angel Mystery series.

Praise for Roger Silverwood:

`Silverwood combines a classic mystery plot with well-developed characters.' -Publishers Weekly

‘… solid plotting, unpretentious writing, thoroughly reliable entertainment. '-Morning Star

‘a cast of characters you really want to populate with familiar faces of actors you see each week on TV — great fun. Angel is terrific.'-Books Monthly

Roger Silverwood lives on the outskirts of Barnsley. After National Service he entered the toy trade where he became a sales director. Aged 50 he went into business with his wife as an antique dealer specializing in Victorian jewellery until he retired in 1997 to write full time. Sham is part of Silverwood's highly successful Inspector Angel series.