CHANNILLO
Series Description:
1 May 1976. Thirteen-year old Margaret 'Minnie' Hargreaves is murdered, and her body half buried on a building site at the edge of Holme Hill, a village in West Yorkshire where she lived with her parents. David Harrison, a near-neighbour, is convicted of the crime and sentenced to life imprisonment. He dies in prison.
43 years later, Holme Hill becomes the scene of two more murders. The first to die is Rhys Williams, a lonely old widower, who is found sitting on a bench by the village cricket ground. One week later, as the long-redundant Methodist Church is being toured on a final visit prior to the building's conversion to luxury flats, the Holme Hill Historical Society find more than they bargained for: Peter Smith, former choirmaster, face down at the keyboard of the chapel organ. Both corpses have a quotation from the Bible pinned to them, along with four dates - the first two the days on which Williams and Smith were murdered, the last two, dates in the future. Dates on which two more people will be killed, perhaps?
Detective Chief Inspector Donald May is called in to head the investigation. Holme Hill was his boyhood home and the chapel the place where his family worshipped. At first, the murders seem inexplicable: two old men who had lived blameless lives - no reason to kill them; but the same murderer by the looks of it, so they must have something in common. A darker past begins to emerge as May and his team of DS Viv Trubshaw and DC Charlie Riggs investigate. Then a third murder, on the date forecast, again with a quotation from the Bible about the body. May knows when the fourth murder will be committed; but who will the victim be and who is the perpetrator?
The Detective Chief Inspector has seven days to stop a murder and catch the criminal. May will discover much more than he expected when he started on 1 May 2019: the victims and the murderer; his own father; the chapel and the village; his marriage and his love for Detective Sergeant Trubshaw. All in one month; a month of murder.
Category/Genre(s): Mystery/ThrillerUpdated: A Few Times A Week
Status: Completed
Author Bio For David Baker:
Professor David Baker was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, in 1952. After a number of library posts at Nottingham, Leicester and Hull Universities, he became Chief Librarian of the University of East Anglia, Norwich, in 1985. He was promoted to Director of Information Strategy and Services in 1995, and Pro-Vice-Chancellor in 1997. He was Principal and Chief Executive of the University of St Mark and St John, Plymouth 2003-2009 and Deputy Chair of JISC 2007-2012. He has written widely in the field of library and information management with 19 monographs and over 100 articles to his credit.
David’s first love was the church organ, which he began playing from the age of 12. By the time that he was 16, he was an Associate of the Royal College of Organists. He gained his Fellowship the following year. In 1970 he was elected Organ Scholar of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, graduating with a First Class Honours degree in Music three years’ later. He took an MMus degree from King’s College, London in 1974. He has remained active as musician and musicologist, with the first edition of his book The Organ (Shire Publications, 1991) selling over 10,000 copies. A second edition was published in 2003 and a second revised edition in 2010. He has undertaken recital tours to Germany, Italy and Scandinavia and when organist of Wymondham Abbey, Norfolk, performed the entire organ works of J S Bach in 26 recitals. He is a regular writer and reviewer of organ and choral music and recordings and was Deputy Editor and then Editor (until December 2008) of The Organ magazine. He now focuses on teaching the organ and in 2011 he founded the Halifax Organ Academy, which aims to offer high quality tuition and support to organists of all ages and backgrounds within West Yorkshire. He is currently writing a biography of charismatic Victorian musician John Varley Roberts. His interest began when he undertook research for his undergraduate dissertation at Cambridge, his topic being the music of Halifax Parish Church in the 18th and 19th centuries.
David writes fiction for fun, with an interest in detective stories and late Roman Britain. Sometimes he puts the two together. He also tries his hand at poetry from time to time.
Acknowledgements:
Special thanks must go to Dr Lucy Ellis for her help with the illustrations for both of the present series. Due acknowledgement is also made to David James for the photograph of the chapel windows.
Series Description:
1 May 1976. Thirteen-year old Margaret 'Minnie' Hargreaves is murdered, and her body half buried on a building site at the edge of Holme Hill, a village in West Yorkshire where she lived with her parents. David Harrison, a near-neighbour, is convicted of the crime and sentenced to life imprisonment. He dies in prison.
43 years later, Holme Hill becomes the scene of two more murders. The first to die is Rhys Williams, a lonely old widower, who is found sitting on a bench by the village cricket ground. One week later, as the long-redundant Methodist Church is being toured on a final visit prior to the building's conversion to luxury flats, the Holme Hill Historical Society find more than they bargained for: Peter Smith, former choirmaster, face down at the keyboard of the chapel organ. Both corpses have a quotation from the Bible pinned to them, along with four dates - the first two the days on which Williams and Smith were murdered, the last two, dates in the future. Dates on which two more people will be killed, perhaps?
Detective Chief Inspector Donald May is called in to head the investigation. Holme Hill was his boyhood home and the chapel the place where his family worshipped. At first, the murders seem inexplicable: two old men who had lived blameless lives - no reason to kill them; but the same murderer by the looks of it, so they must have something in common. A darker past begins to emerge as May and his team of DS Viv Trubshaw and DC Charlie Riggs investigate. Then a third murder, on the date forecast, again with a quotation from the Bible about the body. May knows when the fourth murder will be committed; but who will the victim be and who is the perpetrator?
The Detective Chief Inspector has seven days to stop a murder and catch the criminal. May will discover much more than he expected when he started on 1 May 2019: the victims and the murderer; his own father; the chapel and the village; his marriage and his love for Detective Sergeant Trubshaw. All in one month; a month of murder.
Category/Genre(s): Mystery/ThrillerUpdated: A Few Times A Week
Status: Completed
Author Bio For David Baker:
Professor David Baker was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, in 1952. After a number of library posts at Nottingham, Leicester and Hull Universities, he became Chief Librarian of the University of East Anglia, Norwich, in 1985. He was promoted to Director of Information Strategy and Services in 1995, and Pro-Vice-Chancellor in 1997. He was Principal and Chief Executive of the University of St Mark and St John, Plymouth 2003-2009 and Deputy Chair of JISC 2007-2012. He has written widely in the field of library and information management with 19 monographs and over 100 articles to his credit.
David’s first love was the church organ, which he began playing from the age of 12. By the time that he was 16, he was an Associate of the Royal College of Organists. He gained his Fellowship the following year. In 1970 he was elected Organ Scholar of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, graduating with a First Class Honours degree in Music three years’ later. He took an MMus degree from King’s College, London in 1974. He has remained active as musician and musicologist, with the first edition of his book The Organ (Shire Publications, 1991) selling over 10,000 copies. A second edition was published in 2003 and a second revised edition in 2010. He has undertaken recital tours to Germany, Italy and Scandinavia and when organist of Wymondham Abbey, Norfolk, performed the entire organ works of J S Bach in 26 recitals. He is a regular writer and reviewer of organ and choral music and recordings and was Deputy Editor and then Editor (until December 2008) of The Organ magazine. He now focuses on teaching the organ and in 2011 he founded the Halifax Organ Academy, which aims to offer high quality tuition and support to organists of all ages and backgrounds within West Yorkshire. He is currently writing a biography of charismatic Victorian musician John Varley Roberts. His interest began when he undertook research for his undergraduate dissertation at Cambridge, his topic being the music of Halifax Parish Church in the 18th and 19th centuries.
David writes fiction for fun, with an interest in detective stories and late Roman Britain. Sometimes he puts the two together. He also tries his hand at poetry from time to time.
Acknowledgements:
Special thanks must go to Dr Lucy Ellis for her help with the illustrations for both of the present series. Due acknowledgement is also made to David James for the photograph of the chapel windows.