Casey Jones

 
A teaser!
 
I was ten minutes late getting to the coffee shop. It was quiet, an hour or so before people left their office and even then the majority of the workers would be going to the pub instead. I asked the barista for a double espresso. He took a paper cup and asked me my name. I looked around and I was still the only person there. I shook my head to see if I would come round in a dystopian nightmare. I told him my name was Mississippi to see how he could cope with that. Petty, I know, but small pleasures can make for a great day. And it could have been Massachusetts.
 
Casey Jones and the Prodigal Son – With fifteen years’ service in the Metropolitan police, Casey quits before she is fired for insolence and bending the rules. She starts a private detective agency. Her first real case – to say she is unbusy is an understatement – is to track down a missing fifteen-year-old who suddenly disappears, taking virtually nothing with him. After being missing for five weeks, the police are winding their search. It’s up to Casey to find him. She fears that by now the boy will be plying his trade in the back streets of London. If she is to get the boy off his pimp, she must ask permission from Marcuse, the head of the Italian mafia that controls the east of London. Complications arise, leading to a deadly finale at an isolated villa in Tuscany.
 
Casey Jones and the Ghost of a Chance – The granddaughter of Marcuse is kidnapped and held to ransom for a hundred thousand pounds – cash only, no police to be involved. The money is not important, the girl’s safety is. Casey is given the task of hunting for her with five days as her deadline. And then the heat is turned up. The wife of the boss of the South London crime lord is kidnapped. Same ransom demands. It looks like someone is trying to take over the east and the south of London. To take over one is audacious, two? Madness.