The story behind the Art Marvik Mystery Thrillers

The Art Marvik mysteries (5) have more of a thriller style to them than my DI Andy Horton Solent Murder Mysteries, which are often to referred to as Police Procedurals, and my 1950s set Inspector Ryga Mysteries which are historical mysteries.

In the Marvik mystery thrillers, Art Marvik is joined by his former Royal Marine Commando colleague, intelligence specialist, Shaun Strathen.  Both have been injured in combat and have been invalided out of the marines. Marvik suffered a traumatic brain injury which has left him with occasional severe headaches and scars on the right hand side of his face, while Strathen lost his left leg above the knee.

Marvik's background in the elite squad of the Royal Marines, Special Boat Services, has provided him with numerous specialist skills on the sea and along the coast, which he puts to good use in all the novels.  He's trained in surveillance, reconnaissance, parachuting, and survival skills as is Strathen.

Marvik has a photographic memory, is open, honest, fit and tough but with that edge of vulnerability about him. He's finding it hard to adjust to civilian life.  His secret fears are failure, being incapacitated and relying on others.  His first job outside the marines as a private maritime security operative went very wrong when the luxury motor cruiser he was detailed to protect was attacked by pirates in the Indian Ocean. Marvik ends up with a bullet in his shoulder and the boat’s owner dead. He’d failed on his first mission in civilian life, and DEADLY WAVES (1) opens with him reeling from it.

In DEADLY WAVES he's engaged to work undercover for the UK's Police National Intelligence Marine Squad reporting to Detective Chief Superintendent Crowder. During this and his subsequent missions for the sqaud he is aided by Strathen, an expert in intelligence gathering, monitoring and analysing.

The settings of the novels vary and they see Marvik travelling along the coast of England in his powerful motor cruiser.

In DEADLY WAVES (1) he is in Southampton and along the coast into East Sussex in Littlehampton, and Brighton and across the Solent on the Isle of Wight where he rents a remote cottage but is hardly ever in it. The murder of a young woman, a father grieving for the son he never knew, a missing research scientist and a family torn apart by shame for fifteen long years are Marvik's first assignment for Crowder's squad.  He joins forces with Strathen, who seems to have adjusted to civilian life a little better than Marvik. Strathen has set himself up as a specialist intelligence security consultant working for private clients and the squad.

In DANGEROUS CARGO (2) Marvik is on the Dorset coast for an investigation that takes him to the seaside towns of Swanage and Poole. It also takes him (on his powerful motor cruiser) to the Hampshire waterfront town of Southampton and the Solent in the hunt for a killer. He's detailed by Crowder to attend the funeral of Bradley Pulford, a man whose body was found washed up on a beach on the Isle of Wight in January only he’d been officially declared dead fifty-five years earlier.  So who is the impostor and why assume the name of a dead man?  What’s more why did he suddenly show up in the Dorset coastal town of Swanage in 1989, hook up with a local fishing family, the Killbecks, and then after fathering a child with Stacey Killbeck disappear in 1990?  The Killbecks claim they know little about him.  Is that natural reticence or do they have something to hide?  Marvik’s job is to find out and in so doing to put his life on the line and exposure a deadly secret that spans the decades. 

LOST VOYAGE (3) finds Marvik on the trail of an assassin at Beachy Head, Cuckmere Haven and the Birling Gap in East Sussex. He's barely recovered from his second mission when he is surprised to receive a phone call from a woman he helped on his first mission, Helen Shannon, and a summons to meet her at Eastbourne marina on the south coast of England in the middle of the night.  When a body is discovered in her flat Marvik is convinced she is being framed for murder but why and by whom?  Before he’s even began to fathom the answers he’s detailed by Crowder to investigate the disappearance of a salvage vessel, the Mary Jo, which went missing in the North Atlantic in 2003. As Marvik begins to delve into the past it rapidly becomes very clear that all those connected with the tragedy of the Mary Jo have something to hide.  As the deaths mount, Marvik finds himself under pressure to keep not only Helen safe but others from a ruthless assassin who will stop at nothing in order to protect the secret of the Mary Jo’s last voyage from ever being exposed. 
 

And in FATAL DEPTHS (4) things are about to get a lot more personal for Marvik.  His parents were killed when he was seventeen, while on a diving exploration off the Straits of Malacca. His Finnish mother, Dr Ericka Marvik, was a Marine Archaeologist and his British father, Professor Dan Coulter, a renowned Oceanography specialist. Soon after their deaths, Marvik joined the marines. He shut out their deaths until a computer disk contaiing the key to the mystery goes missing from his safe deposit box. Behind their murders lies deception, lies and secrets and the shadowy world of the intelligence services.  In this thriller Marvik, on his fast motor cruiser, travels to Portland Island Dorset, Arundel  and Newhaven in Sussex.

In Lethal Storm (5) Marvik is used to high-stakes operations. But  nothing has prepared him for what awaits in the coastal town of Ballycotton, Ireland . . .

Marvik receives a disturbing call from the Garda. His friend and former comrade, Shaun Strathen, is missing. His yacht’s been found drifting in Ballyandreen Bay. But there’s no sign of Strathen. A cryptic note is discovered onboard: Art, sorry it’s come to this. Look after things for me. Per Mare, Per Terram. Marvik wastes no time. He heads straight for Ireland, determined to find his friend. His search leads him to a cottage by the sea. A decomposing body is discovered inside. It’s not Strathen.If the body isn’t his comrade’s, then who is it? And where the hell is Strathen?

As Marvik digs deeper, the truth begins to unravel, but so do the dangers. Can Marvik survive this lethal storm long enough to expose a network of criminal masterminds, and save his friend?

What readers say...

"This is an excellent and multi-layered thriller! A truly gripping read, I absolutely can't wait for the next instalment!" D. E Taylor

"Fabulous story, ticked all the boxes for me: a 5+ star rating. Highly recommended reading!" S. Vdplaats

"A difficult to put down, fast paced thriller full of twists and turns, that will have you riveted until the very last page." S. Winsor

"This fast moving highly relevant thriller is truly unputdownable." Jan 

"What I loved most is the emotional undertow: this isn’t just a hunt for the truth, it’s a reckoning. Marvik pushes through grief, grit, and gut instinct, and the novel never loses its pulse or focus for a second. Rowson’s pacing is a masterclass—brisk, brutal, and beautifully controlled." Claire Reviews

" I really enjoyed this, the writing was brilliant, fast paced but the attention to detail was incredible, the descriptions of things from sights to sounds and even smells were so accurate that I found myself recoiling from my kindle at times..

"The clues were left open ended until the mystery was solved to allow us as the reader to come up with our own conclusions and then have them blown out of the water… obviously." 

"I have absolutely devoured the Marvik series they are fantastic. Lots of depth to the plots, fast moving making you wonder what direction it's heading next."