Novels
Strider Begins: Road to Nowhere was my third Detective Constable Dominic Strider, of Chester CID, crime novel. It was published in April 2022 and is available on Amazon.
To promote it, I created these two short videos – which are available on my YouTube channel and across my social media.
Follow the manic journey of the brave but reckless DC Strider as he dispatches the bomb found outside Chester Cathedral, thus saving innocent lives and preventing mass property damage in the historic city.
And find out where the murder victims were found in Handbridge, Chester, as DC Strider hunts their killer (or killers) – and solves a decades old mystery into the bargain.
Follow more of DC Dominic Strider’s adventures: he’s Chester’s best detective!
DC Dominic Strider’s debut novel, No More Lonely Nights, was launched in (appropriately enough) the crypt of a bookstore in Bridge Street, Chester, in the early 2000s. The follow-up The Long and Winding Road was released a few years later.
No More Lonely Nights
A crime-wave threatens to engulf the quiet city of Chester, forcing Detective Constable Dominic Strider to single-handedly deal with a rape, armed robbery, arson, burglary and malicious letters sent to the local MP, whose implication in a high-class prostitute’s death prompts a cover-up!
Reeling under the strain of a broken marriage, and with threats of dismissal, a vicious murderer on the loose and attempts on his life, what better time for Strider to fall in love?
Follow DC Strider’s adventures over a manic weekend in the long hot summer in Chester, meet a bunch of iconic and recurring characters for the first time, and see how the love of a good woman, visiting American journalist Kate Laughton, will turn DC Strider’s life around for the better. He might start the novel off lonely and damaged, but he ends it on a high!
The Long and Winding Road
Despite suffering a life-threatening illness after rescuing a young girl from the River Dee, Detective Constable Dominic Strider of Chester CID still gets tangled-up in the hunt for a serial killer stalking students in the medieval city.
In a direct contrast of the fast-paced first novel, which had DC Strider at the heart of the investigation, here he is on the fringes of the mystery till nearly the end.
He also finds time to clash with a nasty new police chief, uncovers an international sex slave scandal, probes a spate of mysterious disappearances (with an unique pay-off in the final chapters), and – after making a new best friend – learns some valuable life lessons and makes a most tragic discovery.
It seems Strider’s convalescence in the run-up to Christmas is anything but relaxed!
Strider Begins: Road to Nowhere
Like Batman Begins, Strider Begins is an origin story. We flash back to Strider’s last day in uniform, just before joining Chester CID. He’s excited about working with long-time friend, DI George ‘Slapper’ McKedrick. Strider sees himself as a knight protectorate of Chester. He’s also incredibly reckless, throwing himself into danger to save others.
The murder of a local journalist, a series of bank robberies and a drug dealing kingpin appearing in court will push both his and Slapper’s friendship and detective skills to the limit. The discovery of a second dead body, an old lady who seems to have died from natural causes, takes their case in an unexpected direction.
But with his marriage collapsing and his private life in turmoil, for all that DC Strider has achieved and all the cases he has solved, what has he accomplished? He’s trodden the road to nowhere!
My Amazon author’s page
All of DC Dominic Strider’s crime novels are available on Amazon in paperback and on Kindle. See my Amazon author’s page at the link below.
COMING SOON!!!!
New novel: Strider and the Deadly Diva
This is my fourth Detective Constable Dominic Strider crime novel, set as before in the historic city of Chester. Unlike the former three novels (all conventional murder mysteries), this new book is more like an episode of Columbo, insomuch that I’m telling you upfront who the killer is. The drama and tension are in how Strider works out her guilt and brings her to justice.
Opening with an incredibly tense action scene set at Chester Races, we follow DC Strider and his detective partner DI George ‘Slapper’ McKedrick as they investigate a missing verger from Chester Cathedral. The pair stumble into an elaborate plot to steal antiques from Cheshire’s religious venues, tackle mass murder and mayhem across the city, and Strider comes face-to-face with his most vicious enemy yet, the titular diva, world-famous opera singer Amaryllis Carabelle.
We also learn more about the sinister shadowy organisation Crosshair 99, which first reared its ugly head in ‘Strider Begins’, which will stop at nothing to kill Strider. We will hear more from them in future novels……
Lonely Nights Productions 