Ash Island

Detective Sergeant Harry Belltree, back on the job after a near-fatal confrontation with corrupt colleagues, has become a departmental embarrassment. The solution is a posting away from Sydney and a quiet life in Newcastle.

Or maybe not so quiet. A body's been found buried just offshore on Ash Island; there may be more. There's also Harry's unfinished business. The car crash that killed his parents and blinded his wife happened not far from Newcastle. And Harry knows it was no accident.

The other unfinished business is Jenny's longed-for pregnancy. Which means that now the stakes are higher than ever.

Barry Maitland was born in Scotland, studied architecture at Cambridge University and went on to work as an architect and urban design expert. In 1984 he moved to Australia to head the architecture school at the University of Newcastle in New South Wales. In 1994 The Marx Sisters, the first in his Brock and Kolla crime series, was published. Barry now writes fiction full time. He is published throughout the English-speaking world and in translation in a number of other countries, including Germany, Italy, France and Japan. He lives in the Hunter Valley.

'This is crime fiction at its very best with a local twist.' Newcastle Herald

'A well-constructed and enjoyable mystery that moves at brisk pace. The characterisations are convincing and Maitland, who lives in the Hunter Valley, invests the book with a good sense of place and a nice social conscience.' Beaudesert Times

'Maitland does not flinch from a brutal denouement...Prepare for a long and gripping haul.' Age/Sydney Morning Herald

'Ash Island is a tense, plot-driven and absorbing novel that features a strong main character. It's a skilful police procedural in which alarming risks are taken and thrilling developments will unnerve readers.' Good Reading