Tim Vicary
Tim Vicary is a university teacher at the Norwegian Study Centre at the University of York, England. He has recently published the kindle editions of three crime/legal thrillers about a tough British barrister called Sarah Newby.
He has also published kindle editions of three historical novels, two of which, 'Cat and Mouse' and 'The Blood Upon the Rose' are set in the same historical period as the British TV series Downton Abbey. The third, 'The Monmouth Summer' is set during a Protestant rebellion in seventeenth century England.
Tim Vicary has also published several children's books, and about twenty graded readers for foreign learners of English, which are published by Oxford University Press in the Oxford Bookworms series. In 2010 and 2011 two of these books, 'Titanic' and 'The Everest Story', each won the Language Learner Literature Award in their respective categories from the Extensive Reading Foundation. A new book in this series, 'Dinosaurs', is due to be published in February 2011.
Tim lives in the English countryside, near York. When he's not writing he likes horse-riding, cycling, and swimming. He is married and has two daughters and two grandchildren.
TimVicary.com Twitter Facebook
He has also published kindle editions of three historical novels, two of which, 'Cat and Mouse' and 'The Blood Upon the Rose' are set in the same historical period as the British TV series Downton Abbey. The third, 'The Monmouth Summer' is set during a Protestant rebellion in seventeenth century England.
Tim Vicary has also published several children's books, and about twenty graded readers for foreign learners of English, which are published by Oxford University Press in the Oxford Bookworms series. In 2010 and 2011 two of these books, 'Titanic' and 'The Everest Story', each won the Language Learner Literature Award in their respective categories from the Extensive Reading Foundation. A new book in this series, 'Dinosaurs', is due to be published in February 2011.
Tim lives in the English countryside, near York. When he's not writing he likes horse-riding, cycling, and swimming. He is married and has two daughters and two grandchildren.
TimVicary.com Twitter Facebook
A Game of Proof
crime fiction/ legal thriller
Sarah Newby became pregnant in the back of a Ford Cortina at the age of 15. She left school to bring up her son as a single parent on one of the worst council estates in Leeds. From this disastrous beginning she has worked her way up, by sheer strength of character, to begin a career as a criminal barrister.
But just as her career is beginning to take off, her own son, Simon, is arrested and charged with a series of brutal rapes and murders. The evidence against him is so strong that his QC advises a guilty plea, but Simon swears he is innocent and begs his mother to take on his defence. There is no law against a mother representing her own son, so Sarah agrees. The only other obvious suspect in the murders, however, is a man who has already been acquitted once - with Sarah acting as his defence lawyer ...
Has Sarah, in her single-minded determination to create a career for herself, neglected her son so much that she no longer knows him? He has often lied to her in the past, so why should she believe him this time? And what should she do when she herself uncovers evidence that seems to suggest his guilt? What is most important to Sarah - the truth, her hard-won career, or her love for her son?
Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk
Sarah Newby became pregnant in the back of a Ford Cortina at the age of 15. She left school to bring up her son as a single parent on one of the worst council estates in Leeds. From this disastrous beginning she has worked her way up, by sheer strength of character, to begin a career as a criminal barrister.
But just as her career is beginning to take off, her own son, Simon, is arrested and charged with a series of brutal rapes and murders. The evidence against him is so strong that his QC advises a guilty plea, but Simon swears he is innocent and begs his mother to take on his defence. There is no law against a mother representing her own son, so Sarah agrees. The only other obvious suspect in the murders, however, is a man who has already been acquitted once - with Sarah acting as his defence lawyer ...
Has Sarah, in her single-minded determination to create a career for herself, neglected her son so much that she no longer knows him? He has often lied to her in the past, so why should she believe him this time? And what should she do when she herself uncovers evidence that seems to suggest his guilt? What is most important to Sarah - the truth, her hard-won career, or her love for her son?
Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk
A Fatal Verdict
crime fiction/ legal thriller
Imagine how you'd feel if your own child was murdered, and the police and the courts let the killer go free. What would you do? What could you do? Would you dare?
A university student, Shelley Walters, is found dead in the bath in her boyfriend's flat. At first this looks like suicide, but then her boyfriend, David Kidd, is charged with her murder. When he is acquitted, her furious parents say there is no justice in court, and threaten revenge. Soon afterwards, David is discovered dead in his car. The police charge Shelley's mother, Kathryn, with his murder, and Sarah Newby is confronted with one of her toughest defence cases yet. Although Sarah is convinced her client is innocent, she cannot understand why Kathryn is so listless and reluctant to give evidence on her own behalf, or indeed why she chose Sarah to represent her in the first place ...
Like the first Sarah Newby book, this story combines the excitement of a fast-moving detective drama with the challenge of the moral choices confronting the characters.
Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk
Imagine how you'd feel if your own child was murdered, and the police and the courts let the killer go free. What would you do? What could you do? Would you dare?
A university student, Shelley Walters, is found dead in the bath in her boyfriend's flat. At first this looks like suicide, but then her boyfriend, David Kidd, is charged with her murder. When he is acquitted, her furious parents say there is no justice in court, and threaten revenge. Soon afterwards, David is discovered dead in his car. The police charge Shelley's mother, Kathryn, with his murder, and Sarah Newby is confronted with one of her toughest defence cases yet. Although Sarah is convinced her client is innocent, she cannot understand why Kathryn is so listless and reluctant to give evidence on her own behalf, or indeed why she chose Sarah to represent her in the first place ...
Like the first Sarah Newby book, this story combines the excitement of a fast-moving detective drama with the challenge of the moral choices confronting the characters.
Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk
Bold Counsel
crime fiction/legal thriller
When Sarah Newby presents her first case in the Court of Criminal Appeal, it seems her career is looking up.
But at the same time her marriage hits the rocks, and to the despair of her former admirer Detective Inspector Terry Bateson, Sarah embarks on an affair with a handsome property developer, Michael Parker. All goes well at first, but then a body is discovered in one of Michael's cottages. As Terry Bateson investigates, his suspicions fall upon Michael. But is Terry just jealous, or is Sarah's new lover really a murderer?
Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk
When Sarah Newby presents her first case in the Court of Criminal Appeal, it seems her career is looking up.
But at the same time her marriage hits the rocks, and to the despair of her former admirer Detective Inspector Terry Bateson, Sarah embarks on an affair with a handsome property developer, Michael Parker. All goes well at first, but then a body is discovered in one of Michael's cottages. As Terry Bateson investigates, his suspicions fall upon Michael. But is Terry just jealous, or is Sarah's new lover really a murderer?
Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk
Cat and Mouse
historical fiction/historical thriller
Set in Ireland and London in 1914, Cat and Mouse is the story of two sisters fighting for their ideals in the turbulent months before the outbreak of war.
When Sarah Becket, a militant suffragette and ally of Mrs Pankhurst, discovers that her own husband, a respected LIberal MP is involved in a scandalous prostitution racket, she is devastated. Still weak from imprisonment herself, she takes a knife from her kitchen and goes out into London's West End, determined to protest for women's rights in the most dramatic way she can.
Across the Irish sea, her younger sister, Deborah Cavendish, is lonely and unloved. When her husband returns home to join the Ulster Volunteers, she faces an agonizing dilemma - the choice between James Rankin, the trade union leader who she thinks can give her the love her husband has denied her, and the respect of her beloved son. When she goes to her sister's aid, the two women find themselves embroiled a struggle to expose male corruption and prevent civil war in Ireland.
Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk
Set in Ireland and London in 1914, Cat and Mouse is the story of two sisters fighting for their ideals in the turbulent months before the outbreak of war.
When Sarah Becket, a militant suffragette and ally of Mrs Pankhurst, discovers that her own husband, a respected LIberal MP is involved in a scandalous prostitution racket, she is devastated. Still weak from imprisonment herself, she takes a knife from her kitchen and goes out into London's West End, determined to protest for women's rights in the most dramatic way she can.
Across the Irish sea, her younger sister, Deborah Cavendish, is lonely and unloved. When her husband returns home to join the Ulster Volunteers, she faces an agonizing dilemma - the choice between James Rankin, the trade union leader who she thinks can give her the love her husband has denied her, and the respect of her beloved son. When she goes to her sister's aid, the two women find themselves embroiled a struggle to expose male corruption and prevent civil war in Ireland.
Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk
The Blood Upon the Rose
historical fiction/historical thriller
Ireland in1919 is seething with violence, tension and divided loyalties, as are the characters in this story.
Catherine O'Connell-Gort, young, beautiful and headstrong, is a glittering symbol of British rule and oppression, and yet by inclination she is a potential traitor to her class. A medical student in Dublin, she is sympathetic to Sinn Fein, and determined to use her inheritance - the family estate in Galway - to help Irish independence. Unknown to her father, a colonel in British military intelligence, she is in love with a young Irish volunteer, Sean Brennan, who is being hunted by the police for terrorism and murder.
But when the IRA narrowly fail to kill the Viceroy, Lord French, in his car outside Phoenix Park, the British government decides to meet terror with terror. Catherine's father recruits Major Andrew Butler, a hero of Paschendaele and the Somme, as an agent to assassinate the IRA leader Michael Collins, and Catherine and Sean find themselves caught up in an intricate network of conflicting ideals, in which each must choose where their loyalties really lie.
Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk
Ireland in1919 is seething with violence, tension and divided loyalties, as are the characters in this story.
Catherine O'Connell-Gort, young, beautiful and headstrong, is a glittering symbol of British rule and oppression, and yet by inclination she is a potential traitor to her class. A medical student in Dublin, she is sympathetic to Sinn Fein, and determined to use her inheritance - the family estate in Galway - to help Irish independence. Unknown to her father, a colonel in British military intelligence, she is in love with a young Irish volunteer, Sean Brennan, who is being hunted by the police for terrorism and murder.
But when the IRA narrowly fail to kill the Viceroy, Lord French, in his car outside Phoenix Park, the British government decides to meet terror with terror. Catherine's father recruits Major Andrew Butler, a hero of Paschendaele and the Somme, as an agent to assassinate the IRA leader Michael Collins, and Catherine and Sean find themselves caught up in an intricate network of conflicting ideals, in which each must choose where their loyalties really lie.
Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk
The Monmouth Summer
Historical Fiction
1685. King Charles II dies unexpectedly, and is succeeded by his brother James II, the first Catholic monarch since Bloody Mary. English Protestants feel threatened, and King Charles’s illegitimate son, the handsome young duke of Monmouth, rises against his uncle in armed rebellion.
The rebellion turns young Ann Carter’s world upside down. Eighteen years old, she is betrothed to Tom Goodchild, a Protestant shoemaker; but secretly loves Robert Pole, an officer in King James’s army, who offers to take her to London as his mistress. Ann knows it is her duty to marry Tom, but does not love him; so when he marches away with the rebels, she imagines him being killed – which would set her free. But she knows such thoughts are wicked; her father is a rebel soldier too, like all the men of her village. So who should she pray for, when musket balls start to fly? What matters most – love or loyalty?
If God could see into my heart, she wonders, what would He tell me to do?
Her father, Adam, is a brave man tormented by fear. He has two fears: first, that he may be a coward, and run from the enemy; and second, that he is not one of God’s Elect, and will go to Hell when he dies. But like all the men of Colyton, ‘England’s most rebellious town’, he marches to war, risking his life for what he believes.
When England’s most notorious judge, Judge Jeffreys, is sent to punish the rebels, Ann and her father are faced with the hardest choices of all.
Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk
1685. King Charles II dies unexpectedly, and is succeeded by his brother James II, the first Catholic monarch since Bloody Mary. English Protestants feel threatened, and King Charles’s illegitimate son, the handsome young duke of Monmouth, rises against his uncle in armed rebellion.
The rebellion turns young Ann Carter’s world upside down. Eighteen years old, she is betrothed to Tom Goodchild, a Protestant shoemaker; but secretly loves Robert Pole, an officer in King James’s army, who offers to take her to London as his mistress. Ann knows it is her duty to marry Tom, but does not love him; so when he marches away with the rebels, she imagines him being killed – which would set her free. But she knows such thoughts are wicked; her father is a rebel soldier too, like all the men of her village. So who should she pray for, when musket balls start to fly? What matters most – love or loyalty?
If God could see into my heart, she wonders, what would He tell me to do?
Her father, Adam, is a brave man tormented by fear. He has two fears: first, that he may be a coward, and run from the enemy; and second, that he is not one of God’s Elect, and will go to Hell when he dies. But like all the men of Colyton, ‘England’s most rebellious town’, he marches to war, risking his life for what he believes.
When England’s most notorious judge, Judge Jeffreys, is sent to punish the rebels, Ann and her father are faced with the hardest choices of all.
Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk
