When a bomb rips through Manchester's Piccadilly railway station during rush hour, DCI Sara Hoyland narrowly escapes with her life but soon comes to realise that all is not as it would first appear. The city is plunged into crisis and the usual scapegoats are wheeled out in the media and extremism seems to be taking hold on all sides. Yet just as moderate elements such as local MP Craig Sutherland seem to be calming the situation, terrorists strike again leaving a member of Sara's team fighting for his life. Establishment fingers are pointed at the usual suspects but are they really the perpetrators? Is there a more sinister force at work hiding behind the cover of democracy? And why is MP Craig Sutherland receiving anonymous death threats and why has a respected political journalist gone missing leaving only his dead girlfriend in his apartment?

Jeff Barton returns from his holiday to see his late wife’s relatives in China in a relaxed and refreshed mood but that’s soon put to the test. He’s used to being under pressure to find answers but this is different. He begins to feel there’s a force within the force that doesn’t want him and his team to make any progress. But he’s a police officer. He solves crimes. He doesn’t let anyone deter him from his task no matter who they are and the more he pulls at the thread of information that comes his way the more he believes that the murders are a warning. But from who and for what? Why did sixteen year old Sheridan Taylor go off that night? What does it have to do with her school teacher and why can’t Jeff have any extra resources for his investigation?

An attempt is made on the life of a prominent Jewish academic critical of Israeli policy on the Palestinians. DCI Sara Hoyland and her team investigate but their progress is abruptly interfered with by the bombing of Manchester’s Piccadilly station that leaves scores of people dead and in which Sara herself narrowly escapes with her life. Her sister-in-law isn’t so lucky and is killed in the attack. This makes it personal for Sara. She wants those responsible and she wants them badly. Meanwhile a political journalist based in Manchester returns from the US and disappears leaving his dead girlfriend in his flat, the front doors of Jewish homes in north Manchester are being daubed with paint, and a supposedly model British citizen turned extremist who was shot dead by security forces is named as the terrorist bomber. But after a confrontation with his wife Sara is convinced her husband wasn’t responsible for turning Manchester into a city of fear where everyone is afraid of strangers and there’s mounting community tension against the Muslim population. But who was? A local MP , Craig Sutherland, is doing his best to maintain harmony but he doesn’t know that someone close is working against him. When the terrorists strike again Sara almost loses one of her officers and this makes her even more determined not to accept what her instincts tell her is not true. She carries on digging and no matter the political consequences of exposing the truth, including the part played by a former foreign secretary who is now disgraced and a right-wing US senator intent on becoming President, Sara uncovers a murky world of political intrigue and drama that will provide absolution for some and exposure for others. They say that your best friend becomes your worst enemy when they turn against you. But it’s when they turn against you with a smile on their face that they are at their most deadly. But exposing who planted the bombs and killed her sister-in-law is the only thing that matters to Sara even though it could have implications for both her career and her personal life.

Paul Foster is a social worker trying to make a difference. But what links him to an aristocratic Nazi sympathiser accused of harbouring a war criminal? And what has happened to his soldier boyfriend Jake over in Afghanistan? In this, the first DCI Sara Hoyland mystery, the intrepid detective with a murky past enters a long-forgotten world of political intrigue. Long-held grudges and several families' secrets re-surface to further muddy the waters in this controversial thriller.              

A former IRA terrorist is murdered in the Manchester flat he’s lived in since he was released from prison. The next day the son of one of his victims is also murdered and it looks like he was expecting his killer. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world in Melbourne, Australia, a seemingly ordinary suburban housewife with three grown up children is ‘outed’ as a former member of the IRA Army Council who was the sister of the murdered IRA terrorist. But why was she outed? And by who? DSI Jeff Barton has his work cut out when the sectarian troubles of 1970’s Northern Ireland are brought into contemporary Manchester life and old wounds surface that were buried long ago. Jeff and his team battle with special branch over information that could help his investigations and added to that a member of the Victoria state police is sent over to Manchester to assist Jeff’s team. But whilst they provide him with a welcome personal diversion he risks everything in the final denouement to bring the right suspects to justice in an ever complicated investigation.

Detective Superintendent Jeff Barton is back and investigating a series of brutal murders of men who are out on stag nights in the centre of Manchester. But is this the work of a psychopath or, as Jeff comes to expect, an even more chilling story of someone who'll do anything for anyone just to belong? During the course of the investigation, Jeff has to confront an old adversary in the form of one of Manchester's most notorious gangsters. But is this crime boss really associated with the killings or is Jeff only seeing what he wants to? And what connection is there with the murder of a bride on her wedding night in a swanky Manchester hotel?   Jeff and his deputy DI Rebecca Stockton continue to dance around their feelings for each other but they have to put that to one side to find a killer before someone else is found dead the morning after the night before

No Questions Asked picks up where 'Storms' left off in the back garden of Jeff Barton's house where he's hosting a barbecue for neighbours, family and friends. The party is abruptly ended when the body of an eleven-year-old child, the son of one of Jeff's neighbours, is found in the woods nearby. As the covers are lifted on the secrets held by those living around him he wonders if a child killer could be actually living on his street. Whilst he tries to take his relationship with his deputy, DI Rebecca Stockton, to a deeper level the investigation brings him back into confrontation with his old nemesis Bernie Connelly who is one of Manchester's most notorious gangsters and has a personal interest in finding the child killer, leading him to pick off a list of paedophiles who are the prime suspects. Added to everything else is a case of political corruption that may or may not be linked to the murders and this proves to be one of Jeff Barton's most complicated and yet most urgent of cases to solve.

A nice girl from the ‘right’ sort of church going family shouldn’t get pregnant in 1950s England. But when they do it is seen as good form to leave their child in the care of the catholic church who collude with the government and send him off to an uncertain future in Australia. Sixty years later, a nice middle-class couple in Cheshire with two grown-up children and a thriving business try to ignore that their son, a local doctor, is gay. The mother has a close association with the local Catholic Church where she’s housekeeper to old family friend Father Brendan O’Donnell. Meanwhile an inmate at Strangeways prison in Manchester with a strong Australian accent is opening up his soul to a psychologist prior to his release. As she begins to investigate a series of murders, DCI Sara Hoyland quickly becomes aware that a killer is targeting the family and associates of the nice middle class couple in Cheshire. The prejudices of 1950s society have dramatic and tragic consequences for the intrepid detective as she attempts to get to the bottom of a very modern murder mystery.

Members of a notorious gang of teenage boys on an estate in east Manchester are being murdered in a particularly gruesome manner. Is it some kind of vendetta? The list of potential suspects would be long if it was but Detective Superintendent Jeff Barton and his team have to contend with a hostile neighbourhood that won't co-operate with them and the death of an elderly woman on the estate who was prevented from getting to hospital on time. A white girl associated with the gang has gone to ground but why? The body count rises and Jeff is suspicious of certain individuals not directly involved with the estate but who may hold vital information, including his sister who comes back into his life following an incident between her employer and Jeff's nephew.  Difficult and uncomfortable questions about race relations and the nature of sexual abuse can't be ignored as Jeff and his team try to find their way through a case that isn't quite as simple as just murder.

The remains of three bodies are found in an old house close to Manchester University. The house used to be a care home for teenage boys and Detective Superintendent Jeff Barton and his team uncover a horrific period of brutality and abuse that took place there. Their investigations lead to the former manager of the care home and his wife who are traced to a villa in Spain. The secrets and lies of the family are exposed and the line of victims starts very close to home but Jeff, who is a single Dad following the death of his wife and balances a demanding job with the care of his five year-old son Toby, begins to see what nobody else can. A determined and audacious plot by a former resident of the home, a former victim of the abuse, who is now hellbent on revenge. And if he's right then Jeff and his team have to act quickly before justice is taken out of their hands.