"An absolute feast for noir and paranormal thriller fans alike. Highly recommended."~~ bestthrillers.comJohn "Slim" Hardy, heavy drinker and disgraced soldier turned bumbling private detective, is hired to investigate Ted Douglas, an investment banker who slips out of work every Friday to visit a desolate cove on the Lancashire coast. There, he walks to the shore, opens an old book, and begins to read aloud.His wife thinks ...

A buried clock holds the key to a decades-old mystery.On holiday to escape the nightmares of his last case, disgraced soldier turned private detective John “Slim” Hardy comes upon something buried in the peat on Bodmin Moor.Unfinished and water-damaged but still ticking, the old clock provides a vital clue to an unsolved missing-persons case.As Slim begins to ask questions of the tiny Cornish village of Penleven, he is drawn into a world of lies, ru...

THE FIRST THREE SLIM HARDY MYSTERIES COLLECTED TOGETHER FOR THE FIRST TIME."An absolute feast for noir and paranormal thriller fans alike. Highly recommended." ~~ bestthrillers.comTHE MAN BY THE SEAJohn "Slim" Hardy, heavy drinker and disgraced soldier turned bumbling private detective, is hired to investigate Ted Douglas, an investment banker who slips out of work every Friday to visit a desolate cove on the Lancashire coast. There, he walks to the shore, opens an o...

Having fallen on hard times, disgraced soldier turned private investigator John “Slim” Hardy is hired by rich and enigmatic land owner Oliver Ozgood to uncover the identity of a mysterious blackmailer.The man is demanding a fortune in exchange for his silence. He claims to be Dennis Sharp, a former employee of Ozgood, and threatens to reveal secrets that will soil Ozgood’s family name and send the patriarch to prison.There’s only one problem.Dennis Sharp is dead, ki...

“I was only gone a half hour. When I came back, he was gone.”Puppeteer Bob Harker has wandered the grey sands of Weston-Super-Mare for as long as anyone can remember, peddling his own brand of Punch’n’Judy to tourists and locals alike. Now, according to Reggie Bowles, his best friend, Bob Harker is dead.The only problem is that Bob’s body has disappeared.Convinced by Reggie to investigate both Bob’s death and subsequent disappearance, private invest...

The second collection of Jack Benton’s thrilling Slim Hardy Mysteries, including books 4-6 in the series: Slow Train, The Angler’s Tale and Eight Days.Slow TrainOn the evening of Saturday, January 15th, 1977, a local commuter train is delayed at a small village station by a freak blizzard. Young nurse Jennifer Evans, keen to get back to her family, plans to walk the last couple of miles to her home in a neighbouring village. She phones her ...

On the evening of Saturday, January 15th, 1977, a local commuter train is delayed at a small village station by a freak blizzard. Young nurse Jennifer Evans, keen to get back to her family, plans to walk the last couple of miles to her home in a neighbouring village. She phones her daughter to confirm that she’s on her way, but she never arrives home.In the ensuing police investigation, no trace of Jennifer Evans is ever found. The only evidence is a photograph taken by a fellow pa...

THE NEW SLIM HARDY MYSTERYOne autumn night in 1992, young trapeze artist Maria’s circus career is cut short by a career-ending fall. Later investigation reveals sabotage, but by then the ramshackle Southern Cross Circus has folded, and it’s garrulous ring master and owner fled to Spain.And the prime suspect in the possible crime, Maria’s boyfriend, has disappeared without trace, never to be seen again.After a chance encounter with Maria decades afterwards, pr...

THE NEW JOHN "SLIM" HARDY MYSTERY - RELEASED FEBRUARY 15th 2024When her mentally disabled son develops a strange obsession, Audrey Johnson contacts private investigator John “Slim” Hardy for help.Andy Johnson has been making teddy bears and leaving them on the memorial of a nine-year-old girl who drowned on Dartmoor more than forty years ago. When nothing will put him off his bizarre tribute to a child who died before he was even born, Slim moves to the pea...

THE NEW SLIM HARDY MYSTERYRELEASED SEPTEMBER 10th 2020Attempting to forget his problems with the bottle, former soldier turned private detective John “Slim” Hardy joins what ought to be a peaceful fishing package holiday in Dartmouth, South Devon.But when a violent tragedy affects one of the other tour guests, Slim finds himself on the trail of a potential killer.Set in the beautiful surrounds of the River Dart estuary and Agatha Christie’s Greenway, The Ang...

Fire. A child's cry. Silence.On a cold night four years ago, Erika's life came crashing down. Haunted by the tragic events of that night, Erika drinks to forget, stumbling through life forever on the verge of disaster.But when she meets Patrick, a struggling British teacher, she begins to reexamine her memory of that terrible night, and finds that the version of events she has always believed might not be the truth after all.There is a secret to be ...

Three stunning John "Slim" Hardy mysteries from Jack Benton, collected together for the first time.When the Wind BlowsTraumatised by a recent case, private investigator John “Slim” Hardy tries to create a new life for himself on the remote Cornish coast. However, when he is recognised by a local woman, he is unable to resist the draw of a dark mystery which has left a long shadow over the village.Fourteen years earlier, a local man, Richard Maynard,...