Paperback now available from the publishers https://pegasuspublishers.com/books/all/just-wheatley_ 

online retailers including Amazon or from your favourite bookshop.

Novice Detective Constable Wheatley finds himself all at sea in Victorian Brighton when a routine missing persons case becomes a murder enquiry. Given an unsupportive boss who wants him to close out the case as fast as possible due to its connections to a baronet (who seems more than a little shady), a pawnbroker eager to charge him interest on any case-related items, and less-than-forthcoming servants, does Wheatley even stand a chance?

But with the support of his colleague Detective Edwards and the assistance of hard-drinking pathologist Dr Barbara Buchanan, Wheatley starts to find his way. When a new body is found, and evidence accumulates, leading him to a surprising conclusion regarding the identity of the murderer, Wheatley may have to make a hard choice—what is justice, and what does the pursuit of it demand? This case might make him a better detective, but will the experience make him a better person? 

Detective I.M. Wheatley (or is it M.I.?) has become so popular since his cameo appearance in ‘a YOUNG MURDER’ that I have written some fictional adventures of the young detective in Brighton in the 1890s.

“…just Wheatley” finds the young detective out of his depth when a simple missing person case becomes a complex murder inquiry…

Detective Wheatley, the force’s most recent and youngest member is called into action when a young woman whose uncle has influential connections in the local constabulary goes missing in Victorian Brighton. He soon finds that a simple missing person case turns rapidly into a complicated murder enquiry which will see him journeying outside the bounds of Brighton, treading on powerful toes in the process. Struggling with his belief in the absolute binary of right and wrong and with his inexperience of dealings with the opposite sex, Wheatley finds his moral compass shaken by his liaisons with Mille, a saucy lady’s maid, and his sympathy for a murderer. Aided by the stolid Detective Edwards and Dr Barbara Buchanan, the hard drinking pathologist and performer of necroscopies, the bodies multiply and a history of debauchery and abuse is revealed. Following an attempt on his life, Wheatley succeeds by wading through conflicting reports and deliberate red herrings to finally solve the case, though not in the way he was expecting.

Wheatley is a complicated, lonely young man, brought up alternately Catholic and Jewish by now deceased parents with conflicting religious beliefs. His strong moral code engendered by his upbringing is constantly challenged as he explores both the methodology of detective work and the realities of society. As he progresses through this and subsequent cases, he will become a better detective. But will he be a better person?

Following his success in “…just Wheatley” our detective finds himself a pawn in the Inspector of Detectives’ plan to ingratiate himself with the new Chief Constable in a new adventure provisionally entitled “Wheatley over a barrel”.

You can get a flavour from the excerpt posted in Wanna Read? with a scene between our detective and pathologist Dr Barbara Buchanan…

           

(C) Barry Silsby 2020 –