The Blackberry Way Murder

By Stephen E Pennykid

Why would Chief Inspector Robert Casey suddenly announce his retirement? He had constantly told his colleagues that too much experience was being wasted in the pursuit of budget cuts. What two events separated by almost thirty years had caused him to arrive at his decision?

• Language: English
• Publisher: S & S P Publishing
• Release date: Nov 8, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301363919

Stephen E Pennykid

Born in 1952, Steve Pennykid grew up on a Leicester council estate built to accommodate new families after the war and the baby boom of the 50's and 60's. Steve was an only child and although he had plenty of friends with whom to play football on the green outside his home, he had time on his hands to develop his love of the written word, and as a child always had something to read whether it be a football annual at Christmas, a thrilling children's story or a Look and Learn comic. Writing though did not come until much later. Steve took early retirement in 2005, which gave him a few years to achieve a number of goals he set himself to do before he was 60. One of these was to write a short story and try to get it published. This was a big ask as he had never written anything before. However, it was achieved in 2010 when a local story-writing competition gave him the opportunity. By then he had written one story – The News from Spain. He began to amend this story to suit the framework required for the competition but it soon became a completely different tale – Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. These are both gentle romances but Steve's writing has now become more eclectic with a number of other tales including two detective stories, from his Chief Inspector Robert Casey series, two children's short stories and a non-fiction title under his belt. Steve also loves music and you will undoubtedly notice a common theme in many of his stories of titles and chapters containing the names of songs, particularly those from the 60's. His passion for music of this era encouraged him to write his own personal favourite, the non-fiction "MisHits of the Sixties". Steve lives in Loughborough and is married with two sons, a daughter-in-law and two delightful granddaughters.

Book preview

THE BLACKBERRY WAY MURDER

Stephen E Pennykid

Copyright 2012 by Stephen E Pennykid

Smashwords Edition

THE BLACKBERRY WAY MURDER

Chief Inspector Robert Casey considered his reflection in the mirror as he dressed for his retirement party. On the outside nothing had altered. However, everything had changed. It had been a major surprise when, on the Thursday morning of 3rd June 2010, he had announced his plan to retire. His colleagues knew that he didn’t see the sense in his knowledge and experience being lost because of impending budget cuts. His age and the fact that he had completed over 30 years’ service shouldn’t have been a factor. He wouldn’t tell them why he had changed his mind. How