I LOVE THE SOUND OF BREAKING GLASS

ISBN: 1-899344-16-0

DI Christy Kennedy investigates murder in the music business.
Peter O’Browne, managing director of Camden Town Records, is missing. Is his disappearance connected with a mysterious fire that ravages his north London home? And just who was using his credit card in darkest Dorset?
Although up to his neck in other cases — including a sex murder and a particularly viscous attack on an old woman — Detective Inspector Christy Kennedy and his team investigate, plumbing the hidden depths of London’s music industry, turning up chart-rigging scams, blackmail and worse.
I Love The Sound of Breaking Glass is a detective story with a difference. Part whodunnit, part howdunnit and part love story, it features a unique method of murder, a plot with more twists and turns than the road from Kingsmarkham to St Mary Mead, and characters that practically explode off the page.

LAST BOAT TO CAMDEN TOWN

ISBN: 1-899344-29-2 (Hardback)
ISBN: 1-899344-30-6 (Paperback)

The second enthralling Detective Inspector Christy Kennedy mystery
Last Boat to Camden Town takes us back six months before the action in I Love The Sound of Breaking Glass and tells how Kennedy met friend and confidante, local journalist, ann rea. Naturally enough it was a murder that brought them together – or was it?
The body of Dr Edmund Godfrey Berry is discovered at the bottom of the Regent’s Canal, in the heart of Kennedy’s “patch” of Camden Town, north London. Did Dr Berry jump, or was he pushed? And does his death have anything to do with the demise of teacher and former patient, Suzanne Collins? It soon transpires that beneath the surface of comfortable respectability, there lurks a secret more terrible than even Kennedy could imagine.

FOUNTAIN OF SORROW

ISBN: 1-899344-38-1 (Hardback)
ISBN: 1-899344-39-X (Paperback)

In this third Detective Inspector Christy Kennedy Mystery, the Camden Town detective and his team are racing against the clock to discover the truth about two bizarre and savage killings.
First the mutilated corpse of ‘Flute’ Burton is discovered beside an ornate fountain in Camden Town, his throat seemingly ripped out by a savage animal. Then, two days later, the bludgeoned body of estate agent John B Stone is found nearby. Is there a connection between the two deaths?
It doesn’t help when Kennedy’s romantic partner ann rea leaves London to go and visit an old friend by the sea-side. But soon she is unwittingly providing answers to some very disturbing questions…
This third Kennedy mystery pits the Camden Town detective against his most devious adversary to date and reacquaints him with the wheeler-dealings of the music industry. And it doesn’t take long before the sparks really start to fly…

THE BALLAD OF SEAN & WILKO

ISBN: 1 899 344 58 6 (Hardback)
ISBN: 1 899 344 57 8 (Paperback)

Take two musicians: …Sean Green, a gifted Irish songwriter and talented musician, but with a voice that makes Tiny Tim sound like Otis Redding …and Wilko Robertson, about as soulful a singer as a Scotsman can be. They worked together in Circles, a band in the 1970s, but fame elluded them. Back together for a gig at Dingwalls Dancehall in Camden Town, this is meant to be the start of a successful come-back tour. But after taking a break from the show, Wilko is found dead in his locked dressing room. Then another body shows up – in another room that’s locked from the inside. Pretty soon Camden Town’s very own Detective Inspector Christy Kennedy is faced with two locked room mysteries and a host of suspects. And when he’s elbow deep in bodies, Kennedy’s partner, ann rea (always lower case), springs a few surprises of her own.

THE HISSING OF THE SILENT LONELY ROOM

ISBN: 1 899 344 70 (Hardback)
ISBN 1 899 344 71 3 (Paperback)

When a woman’s crumpled body is discovered in a gas-filled flat in the Primrose Hill area of north London, it looks like just another suicide. But Detective Inspector Christy Kennedy isn’t so sure, especially when the dead woman is revealed as famous American singer-songwriter, Esther Bluewood.
Kennedy and his regular team of DS James Irvine and DC Anne Coles piece together the life and loves of Esther Bluewood and discover levels of greed, love, jealousy and intrigue that surprise even them. Then, just as the truth looks like emerging, one of the ‘suspects’ is murdered in a bizarre fashion…
To make matters worse, Kennedy discovers that his own estranged girlfriend, ann rea – always lower-case "a" and "r" – was a confidante of Esther Bluewood and his investigation leads him reluctantly to her door.
In this fifth Christy Kennedy mystery, the Camden Town detective finds himself investigating a case heavy with sudden death and intrigue, that comes with more twists and turns than the road from Kingsmarkham to St Mary Mead. Part whodunnit, part howdunnit, part love story, it again features a unique method of murder that has become Paul Charles’ trademark, as well as characters that practically leap off the page.

THE JUSTICE FACTORY

ISBN: 1 904 316 32 8 (Hardback)
ISBN: 1 904 316 33 6 (Paperback)

The seventh Detective Inspector Christy Kennedy mystery.While attending a funeral in a rain-drenched churchyard, Detective Inspector Christy Kennedy is as surprised as anyone by what’s found in the recently-dug grave. His subsequent investigation uncovers a labyrinth of secrets, lies and deceit. All members of Kennedy’s team – especially Detective Sergeant James Irvine – find themselves personally involved and vulnerable. And is WDC Anne Coles paying as much attention to solving the case as Kennedy’s estranged lover ann rea would like?
In this, his seventh and best yet Christy Kennedy mystery, Paul Charles combines his trademark ‘unique method of murder’ with a complex story centred around a totally believable series of characters, and a twist that takes even Kennedy by surprise.

PLAYING LIVE

ISBN: 0 711 998 35 3 (Paperback - published by Omnibus Press.

This is about the contemporary rock circuit and it takes you to the inside of this lucrative and popular circuit and describes in detail how artists get started on the road. It covers everything the artist needs to know to function professionally right from the stage of putting their band together to finding agents, managers, lawyers, accountants, promoters and road crews. The members of this vital back-up team will be discussed at length; what each does for the act and exactly what they charge for their services. With actual sample expenses sheets, Playing Live will show where the moneycomes from and where exactly it goes. Everything from the highs and the lows of life on the road; the art of doing the deal and the root of the audience will be investigated. It also goes into detail about all the by-products of playing live (as a career) - that's everything from songwriting through to radio, television, films, recordings, merchandising, sponsorship, acting and of course politics.