Heir to Murder by Tony Bassett
When a neighbour from hell comes to a sticky end, a plucky cop refuses to accept the obvious.
Miles Kenworth loves to play his rock music at a deafening volume. The other residents of his apartment block are not so keen.
One day, after hearing a commotion, Miles’ next-door neighbour discovers his body lying in a pool of blood.
Standing next to the corpse is Jake, the man who lives upstairs.
It should be an open and shut case for DS Sunita Roy. But with Jake vehemently protesting his innocence, she decides to dig deeper.
Most of the residents wanted Miles shut up for good. But was it really Jake who flipped, or was he just in the wrong place at the wrong time?
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About the author
Tony is a former Fleet Street journalist. SEAT 97 is his fifth novel to be published by The Book Folks, an independent London publisher specialising in crime fiction.
The previous four books were all part of Tony’s Midlands series which feature Detective Chief Inspector Gavin Roscoe, an experienced detective and family man, and his sergeant, law graduate and resourceful problem-solver Sunita Roy.
The most recent book in this series, Out For Revenge (Book 4), was published in October 2022. It concerns notorious gangland boss Tadeusz Filipowski - a man with numerous enemies who plans to expand his Midlands drug empire on his release from jail.
Among his detractors is a corrupt detective who has in the past helped the drug baron keep one step ahead of the law.
When Filipowski is found dead, it presents DS Sunita Roy from Heart of England Police with a tough case to crack. For so many had a grudge against the dead man that she is overwhelmed by suspects.
She could normally count on the full support of her boss, DCI Gavin Roscoe, in her investigation into the criminal life of Filipowski.
But he has been tasked with an equally crucial investigation – gathering enough evidence against the corrupt detective to bring him to justice.
Eventually, it becomes clear the two inquiries are inextricably linked.
But, as the two detectives pursue events, they realise someone has been plotting a brutal revenge. A revenge that threatens to put the lives of one of the detectives in great peril.
The previous novel, Murder Of A Doctor (Book 3), was released in May 2022. It was the third mystery tale in the series.
This book concerns a well-respected family doctor who sets off on a morning run and is later discovered dead in woods near his home in Warwickshire. Ambitious young detective DS Roy is determined to solve the case.. But the only clues are an expensive necklace and a bus ticket, and there are many suspects..
Murder On Oxford Lane (Book 1) and The Crossbow Stalker (Book 2) were published in the spring of 2022.
Murder On Oxford Lane is about the disappearance of a property tycoon from a sleepy Warwickshire village.
Middle-aged DCI Roscoe and his sergeant, DS Roy, are confronted by suspicious deaths as they struggle to uncover what has happened to the businessman.
The Crossbow Stalker concerns a man being targeted in a hate campaign who begs police for help. Then he is shot dead with a crossbow bolt and a handkerchief embroidered with the letter C found stuffed in his mouth. The detectives face an uphill battle to catch the killer.
Tony is currently working on a fifth book in the Midlands series which concerns a man from a wealthy family found dead in his flat after a row with neighbours over his loud music.
Tony decided to set this string of novels in Warwickshire and Worcestershire after spending many happy years working as a newspaper reporter in Worcester.
He first developed a love of writing at the age of nine when he and a friend produced a magazine called the Globe at their junior school in Sevenoaks, Kent. When he reached his teenage years, growing up in Tunbridge Wells, his local vicar staged one of his plays, about Naboth's Vineyard.
At Hull University, Tony was named student journalist of the year in 1971 in a competition run by Time-Life magazine and went onto become a national newspaper journalist, mainly working for the Sunday People in both its newsroom and investigations department.
His very first book to be published, the crime novel Smile Of The Stowaway, was released in December 2018. It concerns a Kent couple who harbour a stowaway and then battle to clear his name when he is charged with murder.
Then, in March 2020, the spy novel The Lazarus Charter, was released. It involves foreign agents operating in the UK. The book has kindly been endorsed by Marina Litvinenko, widow of the murdered Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko, and by Stan and Caroline Sturgess, parents of the innocent mother-of-three poisoned with novichok in Salisbury in 2018.
Tony, who has written several other novels which are as yetunpublished, has five grown-up children. He is a Life Member of the National Union of Journalists. He lives in South-East London with his partner Lin.
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An extract from HEIR TO MURDER by Tony Bassett (Chapter Twelve). Detective Sergeant Sunita Roy and Detective Constable Brett Dawson have visited Green Meadow Riding School in order to interview stable girl Ursula Grey, the former girlfriend of murdered viscount’s son Miles Kenworth.
'What was Mr Kenworth like as a person?' asked Dawson.
She looked at the ground as though an answer might have been written on the red quarry tiles.
Then, seconds later, as she raised her eyes again, they could see tears were beginning to form.
'He was educated, kind, funny, affectionate,' she said in a voice barely above a whisper. 'He could also be rebellious, stubborn, a real maverick. But I loved him. I'd still been hoping to make things up with him - despite the cruel things he'd said. Now it's all too late.'
Sunita nodded sympathetically. 'Miles was thirty-five. I was wondering if he'd ever been married?'
'Yes, briefly, when he was nineteen. Miles met a girl who was the same age at college and they got hitched, but they were too young. It only lasted a year and they got divorced.'
'What interests me,' said Dawson, 'is he had skills as an electrician. Bit strange, coming from his background, I'd have thought.'
'Miles was a complex character,' she replied. 'He was fascinated by electrics at school and was shown how to wire a plug and run cables by a handyman at the hall. After that, he went on a college course.’
‘By the way,' said Dawson, 'can we ask where you were on Friday evening?'
'I went shopping in Queensbridge, watched a bit of television and then had an early night.'
Sunita stroked her chin. 'Do you have any thoughts on who might have wanted to murder Miles?' she asked.
'No. He was the sweetest guy.'
'Sorry to ask you this,' Sunita continued. 'But do you know whether, among his tools, Miles owned an axe?'
'I wondered about that terrible weapon when I read about the murder in the press and saw it on television,' she said. 'I never saw him with an axe. But that doesn't mean he didn't own one. He might have had one without my knowledge. He had a lot of tools for his work and I never really saw any of them.'
Dawson interrupted to say, 'Miss Grey, were you ever with Mr Kenworth in his flat when he was playing music on his sound system?'
'No, he was generally on his own. I know he was music mad, but we didn't really share the same tastes. He was more into heavy metal.'
'Were you aware he wasn't popular in Waverley Court because he insisted on playing his music at a high volume?' Sunita asked.
'I told him countless times to keep it down. But, as I just said, he was stubborn and what Miles wanted to do, Miles did.'
'We understand he worked for Talent Master Entertainment Agency. Is that right?'
'Yes. At one time, he was with High End Events in London,' said Miss Grey. 'He'd always been involved in lighting and sound, but he was gradually moving more into talent and events management. He joined Talent Master a couple of years back.'
'Would you know their address?' the sergeant asked.
'Yes. I'll write it down for you.'
'You don't know where he might have kept his mobile phone, do you? It's just that it wasn't in the flat or in his car outside.'
'Maybe he'd lost it. He'd lost two before.'
'Did Miles have a lot of friends?' asked Dawson.
'Not really. He spent most of his time with me over the past two years - horse riding, going to occasional concerts, going out for food. We spent a bit of time at my place in Glebe Gardens. He didn't really have time for friends, apart from Terry and John, whom he worked with.'
Sunita looked at her with a solemn expression. 'We're really trying to work out how a man with no enemies ended up suffering such a tragic death,' she said.
'I'm as perplexed as anyone,' said Miss Grey. 'None of it makes any sense. I've been going through what happened in my head time after time. I keep coming back to the same question: Who on earth would want to murder him?'
