Read an extract of Inspector Andy Horton in A Killing Coast

A Killing Coast, like all the Inspector Andy Horton crime novels, is set against the atmospheric backdrop of the sea in the Solent on the South Coast of England, in the waterfront city of Portsmouth and the surrounding towns, and the stunning coastal locations of the Isle of Wight.

It's April and Andy Horton finds himself engaged in a new complex murder investigation.  See where A Killing Coast is set and read some extracts.

A Killing Coast

When a body is found floating in the sea off Portsmouth harbour, Detective Inspector Horton initially judges it to be an accidental death. Soon though, to his dismay, he discovers he’s got it very wrong.

Horton wonders if he’s allowed his ongoing investigation into the disappearance of his mother over thirty years ago to cloud his judgement, that and his unexpected reunion with a former girlfriend Avril Russell, who has arrived in Oyster Quays on a super yacht with her wealthy husband.


‘Not much call for hiring super yacht crew on my little boat,’ Horton said,
She laughed. ‘Pity you’re a copper. You’d make a great skipper.’
‘Wrong kind of boat, Avril. I like ones that have a bit of cloth on a pole.’
‘Oh, the complicated, energetic kind,’ she teased.
He nodded. Even if Glenn’s boat was a sailing yacht, Horton knew that being so close to Avril and seeing her with Glenn would be enough to drive him nuts.


Horton's investigations take him to Ventnor on the Isle of Wight...

An hour later Horton was pulling up outside a tall Victorian white washed house perched high above the small seaside town of Ventnor, nestling under the downs. On the staggered terraces beneath it, leading down into the small bay, Horton could see the lights of the houses in the gathering dusk and beyond them the great black expanse of the English Channel, with a faint light out to sea of a container ship. He climbed the steps to the front door wondering if Mr Hazeleton had his eyes peeled to his giant telescope.


And to the secluded bays on the Isle of Wight...

The sound of the engine trying to start again ripped through the air, slicing into Horton’s thoughts. He had only minutes to reach the RIB before the murderer disappeared into the fog. Sprinting towards where he hoped the cliff was, his mind teemed with thoughts. There was only one person it could be trying to start the boat’s engine. With relief he hit the cliff top and scrambled down to the shore. The killer froze.

Reviews for A Killing Coast

'Meticulous police work leads Horton to a particularly callous and ruthless killer as well as theft and blackmail…includes a few unexpected twists.” Publishers Weekly

'Multilayered, twisted, and complex...a surprising conclusion and a satisfying read.' Booklist

'If you like police procedurals with a twist, plenty of red herrings, and a strong sense of location, you'll like these.' Mysteries in Paradise (Australia)

Available in paperback, as an e book on Amazon Kindle and on Kobo, in Large Print and as an unabridged audio book