The Pemberton Books

Look out for a new addition to the Pemberton series, Murder under the Midnight Sun, to be published by Constable in September 2008.

Meanwhile, Death of a Princess has been reissued in a new Pollinger in Print large print edition; Visit Amazon UK for more information about this edition, and to read an extract from the book.

The series of books featuring Detective Superintendent Mark Pemberton are primarily crime novels and are currently seen as Nicholas Rhea's major contribution to the crime genre. Rhea uses a mixture of entertaining story-telling and police procedure based on personal experience. As with most of his books, this series does not make a significant feature of in-depth characterisation, and it does not have any pretensions to do so: these books are for readers with a desire to be held in suspense, to think about the clues, and who appreciate the meticulous depiction of police procedure.

"The Pemberton series depicts the work of a serious-minded career detective who always manages to be given the most difficult murders to investigate. Detective Superintendent Mark Pemberton is a stickler for detail, a smartly dressed man whose wife died unexpectedly and who has now to face his career without her - which means he tends to absorb himself in his work. The first two titles in this series (False Alibi and Grave Secrets) were written as Peter N. Walker and originally published under that name by Constable, but my publishers felt Nicholas Rhea might be a better name for subsequent titles. Of the series, I particularly enjoyed writing Family Ties (1994) perhaps due to the research involved."

"The Pemberton series is distinctive and deserves to be better known"

Martin Edwards, Crime Time

Dead Ends

Dead Ends, the latest in the popular Pemberton series was published by Constable on 13th November 2003.

The disappearance of a smart young criminal, Darren Mallory, is cause for some concern but his family, all seasoned villains, refuse to cooperate with the police. Despite the relatives' unwillingness to help with his investigation, Detective Superintendent Mark Pemberton pushes ahead and launches an official search for the missing man.

But it's as if Mallory has vanished off the face of the earth. The meagre information they do manage to find suggests his abduction was orchestrated by a team of fake police officers, and the faint trail leads Pemberton on into the murky world of drugs, and one particular drug baron. But when all leads to that individual mysteriously come to an end, Pemberton really starts to lose his bearings on the case. So is the drugs baron just another red herring, concocted to throw him further off the scent?

Nicholas Rhea comments:

"I have always been intrigued by the way criminals refuse to co-operate with the police and I wondered how they might react if one of their own went missing in mysterious circumstances. How does one persuade someone brought up in a criminal fraternity that the police can be on their side?

This Pemberton book is such a story..."

Order Dead Ends from Amazon in hardback (or from your local bookshop quoting the ISBN: 978-0-7505-2208-3); or order the ISIS audio CD from the Talking Book Shop (ISBN: 978-1-85903-772-0).

The splendidly macabre image on the right shows the cover of the Magna large print edition of Dead Ends published in the US and Canada.

Earlier Pemberton novels

False Alibi was the first of Peter N. Walker (Nicholas Rhea)'s novels about DS Mark Pemberton:

"The plan is that we will stage a fake murder investigation..."

The top secret directive to Detective Superintendent Mark Pemberton, quick-tempered high-flier in a northern county's CID, came from the Chief Constable himself. The idea was to get local villains on the run, obtain their admissions and confessions, clear up lots of minor crimes, secure a wealth of valuable information about the criminal world and, primarily, to flush out any threat of violence during the forthcoming visit by the Prime Minister.

An anonymous, naked female corpse - her remains bequeathed for the benefit of the nation - is planted by the police in Green Lane. But at almost the same time, the body of a popular, good-time barmaid is discovered in the Blue Beck with a massive shotgun wound.

Mark Pemberton now has more on his plate than he or his Chief Constable bargained for. And the townspeople are terrified: Is this the work of a maniac, a rapist, a sex-killer? And is there a link between the slaying of the two women? Besides a handful of murder suspects and a major drugs dealer behind bars on a different rap, the threat of an IRA mainland bombing blitz also keeps Pemberton and his Detective Constable lover, Amanda, at fever pitch. And hours before the PM's visit, Amanda disappears...

False Alibi was also published in a large print edition.

Grave Secrets, Peter N. Walker (Nicholas Rhea)'s second Pemberton novel, was published in 1992.

Louisa Mary Potter, the century's most notorious child killer, has been granted parole after twenty-five years. A convert to Catholicism and considered to be a reformed character, this living argument for the retention of the death penalty is in urgent need of protection. Someone wants to kill Potter when she is released, someone who knows that she is about to leave prison. In charge of her safety is Detective Superintendent Mark Pemberton. A widower workaholic, revolted by his new assignment, he is nevertheless determined both to protect Potter and also to return her to gaol by re-opening the case of three missing girls she supposedly murdered, but whose bodies have never been found.

During enquiries into the past activities of Britain's most evil woman, Pemberton discovers that Potter's Irish boyfriend, Joseph Patrick Balleen, has vanished and that a hidden fortune awaits her release. So where is Baleen now? Is he waiting to gain revenge and at the same time acquire that fortune? And what is the secret held by a quiet nun, the only survivor of a schoolgirl society called the Secret Seven? The other six were all murdered by Louisa Mary Potter.

This is a police thriller of extraordinary compulsion on a subject not so deeply buried in the public's consciousness.

Also available as an audiobook.

In Family Ties, published in 1994 in hardback by Constable, and in a large print version by Magna Large Print., Detective Superintendent Mark Pemberton is part of a team whose task it is to guard the American Vice-President during a private visit to Britain. The outspoken Republican, Caleb Hodgson Hartley, believes he has Yorkshire ancestors but the English Hartleys claim no knowledge of their eminent namesake.

To satisfy his own curiosity, Pemberton examines the family's history. He finds the grave of Private James Reuben Hartley, a soldier who died during the first World War, but Pemberton discovers he was not killed in battle. He was murdered in 1916 while on leave and his killer was never found. Old records and surviving local memories combined with all the techniques of a modern murder enquiry enable Pemberton to re-open the investigation. He learns that the dead soldier's brother, Luke, emigrated within days of the killing, so was Luke the founder of the American family of Hartleys?

Some ugly family truths are revealed as Pemberton senses a scandal involving a top American politician.

Suspect was published in 1995 in hardback by Constable. A large print edition is also available from Magna Large Print.

The chances of discovering the frenzied killer of Muriel Brown were remote by any standard. The twenty-seven year old had been raped and murdered in her own car. Fifteen years ago. Detective Superintendent Mark Pemberton's ambition was to solve that case before he retired; it was the only undetected murder on the books. But his determination suffered a setback when his special team of three detectives was replaced by one sick officer, Inspector Vic Hadley.

According to specialists, Hadley, on sick leave due to stress, needed some undemanding work to aid rehabilitation. The Muriel Brown case seemed ideal. But Hadley had shot and killed a man during an armed raid - there were allegations that Hadley had murdered him and that there had been a cover-up. Even the robbers claimed the dead man had not been with them but Hadley maintained he shot an armed robber to save a detective's life. The accusations and doubts had driven Hadley to his sick bed with stress.

As Hadley began his new duties, Pemberton needed to satisfy himself of Hadley's innocence. While investigating Hadley in the past, further deaths occurred; new evidence emerged about Hadley's actions at the shooting and forced Pemberton to re-evaluate his personal and professional attitude to colleagues and his law enforcement role. Pemberton is forced into an armed and dramatic conclusion.

"If a police officer has to shoot someone in self-defence, or to prevent a serious crime, he is always open to the criticism that he committed murder. To have to shoot someone in such circumstances is a dreadful experience for a police officer, and it was that knowledge that prompted me to write Suspect. But Detective Superintendent Pemberton had to decide for himself whether the killing of an armed raider was really murder by a police officer...

Special offer: Order an autographed copy of Suspect from the author.

Confession

"Suppose a man confessed to murder but no unsolved murder was known to the police? That thought inspired me to write this book, with a dying man confessing to a Catholic priest that he had committed murder.

Detective Superintendent Pemberton overhears part of that confession but the priest cannot divulge what he heard. Pemberton, therefore, must carry out an investigation in reverse - to try and find a murder victim!

I had great fun with this one..."

Detective Superintendent Mark Pemberton is first on the scene when a young man loses control of his bright red sports car and crashes into a ditch. As Pemberton and his fellow passengers reach the wreck of the car the driver is still alive - just. And when the injured man sees that Mark Pemberton is accompanied by a priest he becomes extremely agitated. With his dying breath, the driver confesses to a murder.

Pemberton is baffled. The priest, Father Flynn, is bound by the secrets of the confessional so cannot reveal more, but Pemberton cannot ignore the fact that he has heard a wholly voluntary admission of murder - a freely made statement of the finest kind, a firm admission of guilt. But to which murder was the dead man referring? No suspicious deaths have been reported recently. Among the unsolved cases on the police books are the murders of several prostitutes, the work of the so-called "sandal strangler" who always takes away the shoes of the dead women. Could the car crash victim be a serial killer?

Pemberton and his colleagues find themselves in the strange position of working backwards from the killer to the crime and must use all their investigative powers to get to the strange and chilling truth.

"This latest novel illustrates Rhea's particular strengths. It is a book about a serial killer, and gives an unusual and intriguing spin to a well-worn theme...

Although there are a number of twists in the story, its main interest lies in the careful depiction of police procedure rather than in the whodunit element. Pemberton is an appealing character, although on this occasion there is not so much focus on his personal life as in some of the earlier books in the series. The care with which the police investigate suspicious circumstances is a key theme: Rhea once held a public relations role within the North Yorkshire force and he presents the work of Pemberton and his colleagues in a wholly positive manner.

At present, he seems destined to be identified with the Constable books, but the Pemberton series is distinctive and deserves to be better known."

Martin Edwards, Crime Time, 1 November 1997.

Confession was first published in September 1997. It is available:

• as a Constable hardback
• as an audiobook
• and in a large print edition.

Death of a Princess

As Detective Superintendent Mark Pemberton investigates the death of a woman nicknamed The Princess, he finds himself asking the same question time and time again. Accident or murder?

The last of the wealthy Milverdale family, The Princess has been found shot in the grounds of her estate. Was the bullet that killed her a stray from a local poacher's gun? Or did someone deliberately set out to shoot her dead? Pemberton soon begins to suspect murder as he uncovers unsavoury rumours which suggest there are many who would wish The Princess harm - and the dissolution of the Milverdale Estate means tenants are entitled to buy their properties, revealing yet more suspects.

Nonetheless, Pemberton becomes convinced that the key to her death is a deep family secret. Could there be an heir? And would an heir do anything to gain his inheritance - such as making The Princess's death look like a tragic accident?

Order Death of a Princess from Amazon:

• in the original Constable hardback
• in the Magna Large Print edition
• on StorySound cassettes
• or in the new Pollinger in Print Large Print edition

In The Sniper, published by Constable in July 2001, DS Mark Pemberton arrives in the small Yorkshire village of Robersthorpe to investigate the death of an elderly, church-going man - but when he sees the crime scene, he can think of only one word - execution. Kenneth Flint, a harmless old man, was shot in the chest, and the gunman left no trace behind him. As Pemberton and his team begin to dig, Flint's unsavoury character comes to the surface. The villagers kept their children away from him, so it looks as if this a revenge killing. Then two similar murders occur in different parts of the country and it seems certain the killer is on a mission. With no forensic evidence to work with it's like looking for a needle in a haystack - until something as small as an orange pip proves the sniper's undoing.

The Sniper is also available in a large print edition.