Archive | Uncategorized RSS feed for this section

Black Nothing – Sequel to Subject To Status.

10 Jun

E-Format – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007Q92ESY

Paperback –https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1790741319

Synopsis – Black Nothing.(Sequel to ‘Subject to Status’ Kindle ref B004JHYMOU) A murder at sea. A witness no one believes. A man trapped in a conspiracy that could destroy him. 1966, South China Sea. A Royal Navy sailor vanishes during the night watch. Officially, it’s ruled an accident. But one man swears he saw the truth — and it was murder. Decades later, that buried secret resurfaces when Thomas “Taffy” Underhill, a homeless drunk and former sailor, blurts out his story to the police. His testimony drags Leonard Joel, a quiet Welsh farmer with a hidden past in the Navy, into a nightmare of wrongful imprisonment, government cover-ups, and MI5 manipulation. Behind the prison walls, Joel struggles to survive while shadowy forces pull him deeper into a web of espionage, Cold War secrets, and covert missions stretching from Britain to Vietnam and Nepal. Caught between his love for Janey, the only woman who believes in him, and the ruthless demands of intelligence handlers, Joel must face the question: how far will a man go when his freedom, his family, and his very identity are on the line? Black Nothing 3 is a gritty British crime thriller that blends murder mystery, police procedural detail, and Cold War espionage into a tense, unflinching story of loyalty, betrayal, and survival. Fans of John le Carré, Ian Rankin, and Mick Herron will feel right at home.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Subject To Status – Royal Navy coming of age novel.

31 May

E-Format – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004JHYMOU

Paperback – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1790739144

A fictional novel set against the juxtaposed backgrounds of life on the lower deck of British aircraft carrier in the 1960’s and the emerging new age eco minded pot smoking hippy culture. The galvanizing catalyst is the UK defense establishment. At that time, ruthlessly creating people with no recorded identity to carry out their bidding. Deliberately targeting the vulnerable vacuum of the ‘flower power’ era. Ambitious ruthless patriotic ‘Civil Servants’ eagerly exceed the boundaries of state involvement. Using the police and the Criminal Justice System as a tool of coercion they create expendable people. Persons with no recorded identity who could be threatened and forced to carry out illegal government tasks under the shadow of their own unnoticed disappearance should they refuse. Leonard Flower Welham a young sailor drawn by the glamour and adventure of the Fleet Air Arm. Roaring powerful dangerous flying machines. Alien and foreign places and cultures. Grey unstoppable warships that policed the world’s oceans and offered a safe home. A voyage of discovery as he changed from a boy to a man. In the mid sixties he is drafted to join HMS Bulwark. The ship is undergoing a refit in Plymouth dockyard. He is confronted with its sheer magnitude and majestic presence. Climbing aboard up the steep gangway he enters a special world of smells, sensations, sights, sounds and the beginning of the trip of his life. Joel. Born in a damp Yurt in a green wet valley in Mid-Wales to a thin depressed hippy eternally searching for her own happiness. Her low self esteem restricting her to abusive relationships leading to her coerced insemination and a boy child. He was to grow to be the only thing of true value in her life. Joel spends his happy free childhood unfettered by the expectations of school and conventional society. Accepting his alternative life as nothing unusual he is taught by his own curiosity and associations with people who knew the answers to his questions and who could teach him what he needed to know. The lives of the two young men come together. Life becomes familiar and normal. Friendships develop, fun is shared and enjoyed. The eastern world is paraded before them to be dipped into and experienced whilst having the safety of a floating ‘England’ to run back to. All this time Joel cannot escape the lurking incredible officialdom. Their awful instruction and the dislike for himself and his own weak compliance.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Smoke From The Barrel – a novel by John Arthur Cooper

12 May

God it was boring! He was a cream man, in a cream and grey office, if he stood against the wall he was invisible. ‘I’m the invisible man, incredible how you can, see right through me!’ But there were no Freddie Mercury frantic drums for Reg Moorcroft. Coffee four times a day, that was it. A piece of cake if it was someone’s birthday!

God it was exciting, dark hard blue metal, beautiful old chequered wood, powerful, life changing! But changes meant risk, excitement meant danger, the power of life and death came in a package labelled ‘fear.’ Still it was better than washing the car and cutting the lawn.
It wasn’t supposed to be like that. He had to make amends, he couldn’t continue his life in front of a computer even if he did some good, he just felt like an on/off switch that could read. Get out now Reg, change your life, ‘Got to leave you all behind and face the truth!’

Available on Amazon Kindle Paperback –https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B096LPRZJ4

E-Format – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B096QZ25W3

The Story Book – A collection of short stories by John Arthur Cooper

2 May

The Story Book – The Magic Phone. Stan and ‘Arry’ have a chance to talk about their mistakes in life, set records straight and say ‘Sorry’. What could possibly go wrong? The Contest. Brass Bands and a peaceful domestic life with Isabella just don’t go together. Tim is unambitious in a macho world and just wants a quiet life. But what about Jenny? The Great Pretender. This can’t be true! Or can it? The creation of a world acclaimed classic by the biggest band of the seventies or a nightmare? Waiting. What do men think about when women are shopping? TRANZYSN. ‘A change is gonna come but still everything remains the same.’ All Rudyard Millard’s problems can be solved by money. Well not actually ‘money’ folk stopped using that a long time ago. The Gun. Reg Moorcroft is safe and reliable. His world is one of Magnolia Emulsion and grey gloss paint. Familiar holidays to France, mowing the lawn and washing the garage door. And then–.

Available on Amazon Kindle – Paperback –https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1696527155

E-Format – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07YKLS5RB

Counting On It. – A Novel by John Arthur Cooper

26 Apr

If someone sneezes, will it change the world? Maybe, possibly, perhaps. Are there no rules if you’re rich? What’s ‘The Law’? They’re just some rules made by some men. Vodka, champagne, Paracetamol, tramadol, Benzo’s, Amphets anything to make it be quiet. Anything, it doesn’t matter what it is. Mother will give it to me, she always does. Grissholme De Montry Burlingham. lockers, Eton, Cambridge, then what? Somewhere safe for his brilliant mind.

Available on Amazon Kindle – Paperback –https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1660284279

E-Format –https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B083TJNR52

The High Life – A Novel by John Arthur Cooper.

23 Apr

They were the business! The best! The Boys! Brendon and Niall were Hereford Drug Squad, they always won. For one of them it didn’t matter what he did. He searched for elusive failure, wanted punishment, deserved and needed condemnation. For the other, breaking the rules was OK as long as you enjoyed it, didn’t get caught, and didn’t hurt anybody. Bermuda, marriage, trains, Thailand, Hong Kong, New York, divorce, death, several deaths, Ecuador, Guatemala, Love, Drugs, Love, Memories, Love and two dogs. Did I mention Love! Oh! And money.

Available on Amazon Kindle – Paperback –https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0D6GM8Z3W

E-Format – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0D6FTK72Q

The Great Escape. – A Novel by John Arthur Cooper

19 Apr

Terry was bigger, fitter, harder, stronger than all those around him, why should he stay locked up?Richard was a mild murderer, he had a strategy for prison. Keep quiet, don’t rock the boat, smile and do as you were told and you’d be out on your first parole board. For both of them time inside was time wasted. Irreplaceable and valuable . Terry had a plan, Richard was his cell mate, Terry’s plan needed two people. Richard was the man. But what about love? Happy Christmas!

Available on Amazon Kindle – Paperback –https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08B2V6Y8F

E-Format – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08B14ZTN9

The Great Pretender – A Novella by John Arthur Cooper.

16 Apr

February in Wales just has to be bleak and wet, so what do you do after work? Who’s the group, who’s the singer? What’s the song? Of course it’s fiction. Or is it? Can you love a cat that much? When it’s cocaine and ‘Stoli’ between meals what’s real?

Available on amazon Kindle – Paperback –https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1093361751

E-Format –https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07QFXR7GW

Only the Lonely – A Novel By John Arthur Cooper

12 Apr

Life was simple, if somewhat solitary for Tom. It consisted of his work at the V&A and Mom and Dad. They didn’t really like him living and working in London, they didn’t really like it when he passed the eleven plus and went to the Grammar. They didn’t understand what a ‘first’ from Oxford meant, but he went back home as much as possible. Of course they died, but not really, they’d just moved on to a better place he could still chat to them.

Isobelle an intern at work was lovely, full of life and fun but very young, then there was Barbara, not a pin up girl but what a mind! What a voice! Also an intern from the Ashmolean they were close, he’d even been to her parents for Sunday lunch. Mom liked the sound of Barbara.

Tom’s boss was the world renowned Professor Andrew Hogartty. He’d do anything Andrew asked him to do including spending some years in Baghdad cataloguing all the recovered artefacts stolen during the two wars. Andrew really wanted to get his hands on ‘The Mask of Warka’ but at the moment it was missing.

Monique was French, she worked for the Louvre and was his work partner at the National Museum of Iraq. Mom wasn’t keen on foreigners.

Zerzura the white city in a lost oasis inhabited by fair skinned people with straight swords and guarded by black giants was a myth. Or was it?

Available on Amazon Kindle – Paperback –https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CN4RYR42

E-format –https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CN45Z4HY

Chrysanthemum Ben. A Novel By – John Arthur Cooper.

8 Apr

When you’re the cousin of the Emperor of Japan. A Royal Prince of the Chrysanthemum Throne, no one looks into your eyes. No one smiles at your face. When your word kills thousands of people. It is a lonely place. Japan, China, The Philippines, South east Asia in the thirties and forties. All for gold, nothing else. The red and gold Chrysanthemum emblem on his chest marked him as the relative of a living God. But Prince Takeda was a man. he needed love, companionship and friendship as much as the naive innocent farm boy that brought his water and everything else. When you try to save thousands of lives and fail. When the flower dies and you become mortal. When you love but cannot have—. Did I mention love?

Available on Amazon Kindle – Paperback –https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1091103585

E-Formathttps://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07PXL4K4F

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →