Haggard Hawk

By Douglas Watkinson

A whodunnit in the classic style, a British ex-cop solving a double murder in the English countryside.

Nathan Hawk is a witty and volcanic English ex-copper with a sharp wit and an even sharper temper. Some say a dangerous one. It's certainly the reason he was sacked from the police force. He picked a fight with a fellow officer - and won.

And just as he’s about to go mad with boredom in his enforced retirement one of his neighbours does him the courtesy of being murdered. The local police warn him against interfering in their inquiry, but he can’t help himself and pretty soon he’s back where he belongs – catching a killer.

As he goes to work he's being watched, not just by the police or the man he's hunting, but by someone who'd like to hire his services. He's a barrister whose daughter has been missing for a while. Is she dead or alive? The story of what's happened to her is told in the next book in the series - Easy Prey. It isn't long before others come to him with their problems...

Just a few things more. Hawk's wife died a few years ago and, in his slightly old-fashioned way, he's reluctant to consider a new romance. Until he meets the elegant, sophisticated Doctor Laura Peterson. Will his grown up children approve of her? They're scattered all over the world, of course, but sometimes it feels as if they're just in the next room. Occasionally he wishes they were - most times he's glad they aren't.

Haggard Hawk is written by Douglas Watkinson, one of original writers of Midsomer Murders, a television series which has been seen worldwide by one billion people.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Douglas Watkinson
• Release date: Aug 10, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370139774

Douglas Watkinson

I’m the author of The Nathan Hawk Murder Mysteries, each one a murder story told by the man hunting the killer. Hawk is a witty, belligerent, but finally charming English ex-copper who makes out that he doesn’t like being asked for help. It’s a lie. There’s nothing he’d rather be doing than solving a crime which has baffled the competition.I’ve also written hundreds of television scripts, everything from Z Cars to Midsomer Murders (or Inspector Barnaby as it’s known in some parts the world). There’s a list of some of the series I’ve contributed to on my Other Writing page. In at least half of them someone gets murdered!I started off as an actor and my first plays were produced while I was a student at East 15 Acting School. To pay the bills I also wrote the backs of album sleeves for Decca Records.It took a year after leaving drama school to get my first television play produced, a two hander called Click but from that moment on I was never out of work. I look back now and think how lucky I was...I had my first stage play performed at The Mercury Theatre in Colchester when I was 25 and went on to write several more, the last being The Wall, which caused some controversy on the London fringe.I’m married with four allegedly grown up children. Two of them are actors, one is a news reporter for Central Television News and the fourth is the director of an events company. The hero of my books also has four children and – surprise, surprise – they remind me of my own.I live in an English village with my wife and two German Shepherds. Like all writers worth their salt I work in a shed in the garden.