The Grey House Family - DB Bell

DB Bell was born in the North East, but he lived and worked in the south of England during the 1980s. He returned to the North late in that decade, and soon met his partner, with whom he has a grown up son. Having read many crime novels, usually with misogynistic male sleuths, or female sleuths that were in some way damaged, he wanted to write a book that contained strong women, and featuring men who are rather less so! His experiences of working in schools led to the ideas for his first novel, which was written some time after his 65th birthday. The earliest member of the 'Inspector Roberts Investigates' trilogy is called 'The Grey House Family', and is the story of a family from 1969. When it becomes clear that they have vanished, PC Dan Temple is charged with investigating their house to try to find clues as to their whereabouts, but this preliminary study of an empty house is only the beginning of many adventures for him. Love and sadness follows him as he ends up traveling across Europe. DB's second novel, 'Death in the Barn', is set in 2022 and is also an Inspector Roberts investigation. It is a story of two peoples' adventures while investigating a large scale industrial fraud. These take them to Canada, where Janice Roberts is now a detective inspector, and where death and unexpected romance causes them quite a few problems. 'Badminton Coaching and Murder at Basingrove School' is the story of a 16 year old boy, who doesn't realise that he is becoming attractive to women until he meets his badminton coach and her daughter. Unfortunately, the love affair that follows seems to lead a disappearance at his school, and his coach decides to solve the mystery herself. Her adventures uncover some weird and sordid members of her community, and they lead to a series of events that have some unfortunate consequences.

GENRE: Cosy crime romance

Blurb:

The Old Grey House is investigated by PC Temple - the family have disappeared. He is left afraid after that, but the family are soon located. He must travel hundreds of mile to interview them, but romance blossoms, and many new experiences, some of the terrible and terrifying, then happen. Will he survive these, and will his new love blossom? Many set out to foil that romance.