#1 – Rope Enough
#2 – Making a Killing
#3 – Joint Enterprise
#4 – A Dog’s Life
#5 – Particular Stupidities
#6 – Unhappy Families
#7 – A White-Knuckle Christmas
Three Short Blasts is a collection of three original stories that are not to be found anywhere else. There is one story in each of the three series that I write: The Romney and Marsh Files, Acer Sansom and Booker & Cash.
Click on a book cover to go to Amazon UK. Read the reviews and purchase it.
Links to Amazon US below.
Rope Enough
Making a Killing
Joint Enterprise
A Dog’s Life
Particular Stupidities
Unhappy Families
A White-Knuckle Christmas
Three Short Blasts
Rope Enough #1
Newly promoted Detective Sergeant Joy Marsh is shipped out to Dover on the Kent coast to work under Detective Inspector Romney, a copper with a reputation as a cantankerous man but good at his job.
On her first night as his sergeant, a brutal crime in the town starts a chain of events that will test the grit, the resolve and the detective in both of them.
***
Making a Killing #2
It’s a hot, dry summer on the Kent coast, and the heat is getting to people.
A nasty death on the thirteenth green of the local golf course sets in train a series of events that puts a spike in the town’s seasonal crime statistics. The members of Dover CID are at full stretch and each other’s throats as the dead bodies start piling up.
Is it the weather? Or is someone just out to make a killing?
***
Joint Enterprise #3
When a film company comes to town, history rears its ugly head and Detective Inspector Romney makes himself a powerful enemy. But he’s not the only member of CID who needs to watch their back.
There are scores old and new to settle on the Kent coast. As tempers flare and temperatures rise, good reason and common sense give way to dark and deadly deeds.
The third Romney and Marsh File builds to an explosive climax.
***
A Dog’s Life #4
Contrary to vicious Internet rumours, Detective Inspector Romney is not dead. He returns to lead his team of Dover detectives in the hunt for a killer. He’s also looking for answers to more personal mysteries.
Broken homes, broken dreams and broken bodies are just some of the cheerier aspects of the Romney & Marsh File that goes to show sometimes it’s a dog’s life.
***
Particular Stupidities #5
A rotting corpse is discovered in one of Kent’s old coal mining communities. In their search to uncover the identities of the victim and those responsible for the death and concealment of the body, Detective Inspector Romney and his team must confront and deal with issues of prejudice, bias, loyalty and betrayal (and that’s just amongst themselves).
The fifth Romney and Marsh File sees Dover CID taken to the outskirts of their jurisdiction, the edge of reason and the brink of self-destruction.
***
Unhappy Families #6
Dover CID is enjoying a period of relative calm.
That is until DI Tom Romney gets linked with a disturbing find in a dead man’s flat; DS Joy Marsh gets involved with things that go bump in the night; DC Peter Grimes gets friendly with a ride-along author; DC Derek Spicer gets drunk and Superintendent Vine gets taken in by a ruse.
Can the members of Dover CID come through their individual trials unscathed or is it the end of the line for someone?
***
A White-Knuckle Christmas #7
A particularly nasty series of crimes is casting a pall over the members of CID and an unusually white Dover in the run up to Christmas on the south coast of England.
The festive period is further marred by the report of a pair of suspicious sudden deaths on the frozen outskirts of the town.
Detective Inspector Romney and his loyal team are dealing with evil on all fronts and against a ticking calendar.
***
Oliver Tidy 
Why have I only recently found your wonderful books, they are fast paced, well written, believable, funny and take in all aspects of daily life without the unnecessary detail that some others choose to pad out their stories with which do noting to add to the plot.
Well done for creating utterly believable characters in real life settings. I really do look forward to reading more of Booker & Cash and Romney and Marsh so please do not hang up your pen just yet! I am just about to start the Acer Sansome books, though if they are anything like as well written as Romney it shouldn’t take me long.
I am sure that writing is not necessarily a speedy process but anything you write with these characters will be eagerly devoured by all and sundry. Well done
Keith, many thanks for taking the time and trouble to comment, and so positively, on the books. Much appreciated. I had such a lot of fun writing those series. Taking a break from it all at present, but I do intend to bounce back in the not too distant future.
Best wishes
Oh dear I saw the emails on my phone and my heart started racing Oliver is mailing about a new Romney and Marsh I thought .
I was delighted
then I came down to earth with a bump
No, just a comment from some lucky reader who recently discovered Oliver and still has books left to read
So I calm down then I read the devastating news that Oliver is ‘ taking a break ‘
How on earth will I cope?
I’ve been reading a lot of other police procedure books and some of them have been good but I really miss the guys at Dover CID
Hi Oliver
Do you think you will write another R&M? Would be great if you did, my wife and mine favourite books.
Hi Nigel,
Many thanks for you question. My answer: I honestly don’t know. The R&M Files were very much of a time and place. And one of those is far away in years and the other further away in miles. But never say never. I did start R&M8 but life got in the way. Perhaps I’ll go back to it. Or perhaps it might be best to leave well alone. Decisions for the future.
Good to know that you and your wife have enjoyed them so far. Thank you.
Best wishes
Hi Oliver
I hope you are well and staying safe
Are you writing anymore in the Booker and Cash or Romney and Marsh series?
I have really enjoyed reading them and living on the edge of the marsh has made them even more enjoyable for me.
Kind regards
Tig
Hi Tig,
Many thanks for your message and your kind words for the books.
I am back to writing. I’ve recently finished a one-off book and am currently engaged in picking R&M#8, which I began a while ago and had to put on hold. It’s going well. Naturally, when it’s ready for self-publication I’ll make an announcement here.
Best wishes.
Hi Oliver
My heart is actually racing I’m so excited
This is the best news ever !!!
I’m in the group who have been shielding for the last 7 weeks and I am getting through books at a rate as I am a fast reader
I think I might go and revisit Dover CID
I need to wait a while though as I reckon once I get started 1-7 won’t take much over a week and I suspect it’ll take you a bit longer to finish writing no 8
I’m really pleased you are getting back into the writing and hope you and yours are all keeping well
Best wishes
Hi Denise,
Good to hear from you.
I’m sorry to learn you are in a high risk category. This must be a particularly worrying time for you. I hope you have some good people supporting you.
Thank you for your positive thoughts regarding the potential return of R&M. I started #8 several months ago and then got distracted. I’ve been slowly feeling my way back into the narrative and the characters over the last few weeks. At times the writing has felt like the good old days when the words flowed out of me like a broken tap. A long way to go yet, however. Naturally, I’ll announce any significant news with a blog post and a newsletter.
I wish you all the very best, and good hunting with new reads.
Thank you for your reply
Glad to hear you’re continuing to write. I look forward to reading your new work
Regards
Tig
My pleasure, and thank you.
I have immensely enjoyed the first two Romney and Marsh books. In the second book, Making a Killing, however, I came across one very troubling passage on suicide:
“What a fucking mess. I hate suicides. Selfish bastards. What about the people they leave behind? And who is it has to tell their nearest and dearest what they didn’t have the guts to tell them themselves? Us. Right, come on. Nothing more for us here. Let’s go and tell the widow that life with her just wasn’t interesting enough for him.”
This is wrong on multiple levels. First, he is jumping to the conclusion that it is suicide, not murder. A theme of this book is that Romney is supposed to be keeping an open mind, because he screwed up by jumping to an incorrect conclusion in the first book. Second, he is giving voice to a categorical statement, which are almost always WRONG. He is lumping all suicides (and attempted suicides) together. But a sizable percentage of suicides (and attempted suicides) are committed by people who are crushingly mentally ill. These are people who live with debilitating, excruciating pain. An astonishing percentage of those with bi-polar disorder, fort example, attempt or commit suicide to get away from the monster in their heads. It’s a major feature of the disorder. By lumping all suicides together with this ignorant, insensitive statement, the author has done a great disservice to those who are mentally ill. “Those left behind,” by the way, if they know the suicide well, tend to understand all too well. They may be sad and in pain themselves, but they understand why it happened and don’t hold it against the dead person or the person surviving from the attempt. I hope this is the only lapse I come across, because otherwise the books are excellent.
Hello justhyper,
Many thanks for taking the time and trouble to get in touch. It’s always good to hear from readers who have feedback for me.
I appreciate your comments on the passage in MAK. Romney’s reaction to the death of the character is typical of him. He is often insensitive. He can be crass and rude and offensive. He is not particularly interested in other people’s feelings and emotions. He is often bullish and brutal with words and actions. Walking on egg shells does not interest him. He is opinionated, and his opinions do not often demonstrate great empathy for others. He is not very politically correct and he does not seem to care too much what other people think of him or his views. He has some bad qualities too.
His world view can sometimes lead him to be blinkered to the bigger picture of a police investigation, as in this case. He is not a ‘modern’ policeman and he is a long way from perfect. These attributes can create problems for him in his personal and professional lives.
Romney has been called old school, old fashioned and more recently a service dinosaur. I feel he did not take it as the insult it was intended to be.
For the record, Romney’s attitudes do not reflect the author’s in all things. Further for the record, I knew a long-serving policeman once who expressed a similar attitude to Romney regarding suicides that cropped up in his job. Talking to him I got the distinct impression his view was not isolated. I’m not condoning it by the way, just relating something.
Reading your comment, I like to think that if Joy Marsh was as familiar with Romney then as she is now, she might well have taken him to task regarding what he said, using similar points of reasoning and argument to your own.
If you do continue with the series, you might find that she is often the ying to Romney’s yang and that she comes to be a positive influence on the old grouch.
Thanks again, for your comment.
Best wishes.