A Mersey Maiden

Introduction

IntroductionWelcome to A Mersey Maiden, the third book in the Mersey Mystery series, following on from the success of A Mersey Killing and All Saints, Murder on the Mersey.

Once again Detective Inspector Andy Ross, Sergeant Izzie Drake and the rest of the Merseyside Police's Murder investigation team find themselves enmeshed in a complex and at times perplexing mystery.

When an American post-graduate student at Liverpool University is found murdered with his girlfriend sleeping by his side, it begins a case that takes Ross and his team back in time to the dark days of World War Two. A British Corvette and a German U-Boat are somehow inexplicably related to the murder of young Aaron Decker, who has quickly established himself as a star cricketer for the university team.

What links the talented young sportsman to the shipwrecks that lie deep beneath the waves of the English Channel? Very soon, Ross and Drake find themselves travelling to Falmouth in Cornwall where they link up with Detective Inspector Brian Jones and Detective Sergeant Carole St. Clair of the Devon and Cornwall Constabulary to investigate the sprawling international conglomerate, the Aegis Institute and its offshoot, Aegis Oceanographic.

Secrets abound and when a dead frogman is discovered, shackled to an undersea wreck, the case soon escalates to an international level. The Royal Navy becomes involved in investigating the wreckage and the web of secrets and intrigue takes the investigators back in time to the German submarine base at Kiel, in 1945, during the final days of Hitler's Third Reich. Aided by a respected German military historian, Ross begins to piece together an intricate jigsaw puzzle of fact and rumour, slowly unravelling the mystery that has brought the past very much into the present.

Unfortunately for Ross and Drake, the body count begins to mount as more facts from the past come to light. With their new Detective Chief Inspector, Oscar Agostini behind them, they formulate a daring plan to bring the perpetrators to justice. The plan revolves around a 'bent' detective and a hired killer.

Please read on to see how things pan out in this, the most thrilling yet in the Mersey Mystery series.

Author's note: For those not familiar with the very British game of cricket, it may be worth noting that an 'over' is a passage of play consisting of six 'balls' bowled by the bowler to the batsman. If the bowler succeeds in completing an over without the batsman scoring a single run, this is known as a 'maiden over' and may give you a hint to the play on words in the title of A Mersey Maiden.