‘Jack-Knifed’ is the first book in the DCI Martin Phelps series. We find Martin and his diverse team based in a modern, vibrant city that is the home of Dr Who and Torchwood – yes, it’s the City of Cardiff, the Capital of Wales and the Land of Song and rugby. Although the team is housed in a Victorian building, built at the height of Cardiff’s time as a world class coal exporting port, the set-up is bang up to date, boasting every modern facility for crime prevention and detection. It’s the team that counts and in ‘Jack-Knifed’ we see the DCI, with his sidekick DS Matt Pryor, solve the brutal murder of Mark, a young gay man in his own home, but not without the help of the eccentric pathologist, Professor Brian Moore and the amazing attention to detail of the Head of SOCO, Alex Griffiths. The four men form a formidable team and as the series develops we get to know more about their lives and relationships. From his prison cell Jack’s father encourages his son to undertake revenge killings for other inmates and Jack uses a set of his beloved knives to settle an old family score for his girl-friend, but her addiction to heroin gets in the way of their plans for a life together. DCI Phelps is already struggling to find the killer of a have-a-go hero, at the time that Mark is butchered and no one suspects the link that ties together seven killings between Cardiff and Bristol.
Writing fiction is something new for me as for most of my working life I was a nurse and started my career as a student nurse in Poole, Dorset in the early sixties. The swinging sixties were just that and I made the most of them, alongside training to be a Registered Nurse and a Midwife. As that decade came to an end I met John, who was to become the father of our three children and grandfather to five oh-so-different granddaughters. Extended maternity leave did not exist when I had my children and so working around school hours I learned a variety of new skills – from setting up and running a family business to supporting my husband in the tourist industry. These activities enabled me to develop a good head for business and when I returned to the NHS in the late 70’s I had some skills that fitted with the way the NHS was moving. Within ten years I was the Director of Midwifery Services in Cardiff and a couple of years later became the Director of Nursing and Quality at Llandough Hospital. This was a time of considerable change as hospitals prepared for Trust status and my business skills really helped when I was transferred to the University Hospital of Wales as the Director of Nursing and Quality. During my period in the NHS I did some work as a surveyor with The Kings Fund Organisation and was seconded to the Cabinet Officer as a Charter Mark Assessor. It was hard work, but stimulating and as a result of these experiences I went to places like Saudi Arabia, New York and Czechoslovakia to talk about organisational audit and patient focused care. I continued to move to various Trust Board positions until I retired from the NHS in 1999 and then worked in the Nursing Home and Private Health Sector offering Staff Development and Business Consultancy Services. At the start of the new millennium I was contacted by a local company that was involved with the recruitment of temporary staff and they wanted to set up a Nursing Agency. In a poacher turned gamekeeper moment and as Director of the newly formed MPS Healthcare Ltd I was given a free hand to develop the company and within a few years it thrived to the point of being sold for £1.6million. Still a developing and a very successful company, it is now managed by my daughter who is taking it to new and exciting levels. I am immensely proud of my Welsh heritage, I love where I live and I will try to develop a passion for all things Welsh in my readers. The covers for all my books are pictures I have taken myself and there are lots more on my website. I hope you enjoy spending time with DCI Martin Phelps and his team, in and around Cardiff Bay and I would love to hear from you, so if you want to contact me my email address is wonnyleaxyz5@btinternet.com