Peter Maxwell Series by M. J. Trow
Peter Maxwell #1
Maxwell’s House
M. J. Trow
Peter Maxwell is on holiday when the dreadful thing happens – one of his Sixth Form, one of Maxwell’s Own, is found dead in a derelict house in Leighford. The kids don’t call him ‘Mad Max’ for nothing – he doesn’t just get mad, he gets even, and he needs justice for Jenny. The police of course have their own investigations to carry out, but they don’t do so quickly enough to prevent another murder – another pupil from Leighford High School; did the boy know too much? With characters that leap off the page, the Maxwell series has something for everyone. Anyone who went to school, teaches in one, or has happily escaped from the chalk face will love the series, with humour and sadness intermingled with a plot packed with twists and turns. ‘Clever and convincing with an excellent finale.’ Bolton Evening News
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Peter Maxwell #2
Maxwell’s Flame
M. J. Trow
Peter Maxwell may be a dinosaur to his colleagues and a crazy enigma to his students – although most of them think an enigma is one of those mad Australian hedgehogs that lay eggs. But even he was young once and he is thrilled and slightly disturbed to meet his first serious love from his Cambridge days when he is forced to attend a training course. True love never did run smooth, and this time is no exception. With delegates to the conference centre spread all over three counties, working out who hated who and why is no easy task, and without his usual links with the Leighford Police to call on, Maxwell is stumped, but not for long! With characters that leap off the page, the Maxwell series has something for everyone. Anyone who went to school, teaches in one, or has happily escaped from the chalk face will love the series, with humour and sadness intermingled with a plot packed with twists and turns. ‘Maxwell’s Flame manages to be funny, tragic and puzzling, which isn’t an easy trick to pull off.’Manchester Evening News
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Peter Maxwell #3
Maxwell’s Movie
M. J. Trow
Ask any teacher what they dread most and they will say, to a man – or woman: ‘school trips’. Unusually, Peter Maxwell is looking forward to this one, and with good reason – it is to his spiritual home, the Museum of the Moving Image. Sadly, the flu virus is no respecter of persons and so he must stay behind in Leighford, laid horribly low. When the coach comes back, minus two, the hunt is on, and soon a body is found. With a missing student still to find, as well as a murderer to bring to book, Maxwell shakes off his shivers and is on the case; and it isn’t just the flu that has him hot and bothered, as his relationship with DC Jacquie Carpenter starts to simmer. With characters that leap off the page, the Maxwell series has something for everyone. Anyone who went to school, teaches in one, or has happily escaped from the chalk face will love the series, with humour and sadness intermingled with a plot packed with twists and turns. “An engaging crime tale, featuring schoolmaster-detective ‘Mad Max’ Maxwell, who is in top form as he helps the police to investigate the disappearance of a fellow teacher. A character to savour.” Northern Echo
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Peter Maxwell #4
Maxwell's War
M. J. Trow
Peter Maxwell is delighted when an old college friend asks him to be the historical adviser on a film being made on the coast near Leighford. Dreams of becoming the next Spielberg soon founder when he discovers that the world of film is pretty much the same as the world of education – full of incompetents and backstabbers. Even so, it is out in the open air with no heavy lifting, so he sets to with his usual enthusiasm.Unfortunately, shooting becomes all too literal when the director takes a musket ball to the head. With one of his students implicated, another off on a jealous rant, and almost everyone out to get everyone else, Maxwell finds telling the truth from fiction to be more difficult than even he could have imagined. With characters that leap off the page, the Maxwell series has something for everyone. Anyone who went to school, teaches in one, or has happily escaped from the chalk face will love the series, with humour and sadness intermingled with a plot packed with twists and turns.‘A lot of witty dialogue, especially wonderful for film buffs, accompanies an all-too-plausible plot with much adventure and more physical action than usual for the genre of mysteries.’The Baldwin LedgerReview'An impressive mix of humour, sadness and suspense, this is gripping to the very end' -- Mail on Sunday, on MAXWELL'S MOVIE '[Trow] is a consummate plotter, not afraid to tread new ground, and his Maxwell stories exude compassion and wit in equal measure' -- Yorkshire Post on MAXWELL'S MOVIE 'A good, hard-to-solve mystery' -- Sunday Telegraph on MAXWELL'S HOUSE 'Cleverly conceived and amusingly executed, this is sterling new Trow' -- The Sunday Times on MAXWELL'S HOUSE. About the AuthorM J Trow is a crime writer, historian and biographer who for many years doubled as a history teacher. Now retired, he is the author of three successful crime fiction series – Lestrade, Maxwell and Kit Marlowe, the latest written in collaboration with his wife. He lives in the Isle of Wight, and as well as writing lectures on cruise ships has appeared many times on television in historical and crime documentaries.
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Peter Maxwell #5
Maxwell’s Curse
M. J. Trow
Maxwell’s Millennium is not quite like other people’s – for a start, it is a year later. After much quibbling with the maths department, everyone calls it an honourable draw and he celebrates as only he can: with his cat, his model soldiers, and his Southern Comfort. A knock on the door could be Jacquie Carpenter, released from night shift earlier than expected, but instead of a warm girl Maxwell opens his door to find a very cold old lady, dead, and naked to the frosty sky. As a historian, Maxwell always keeps an open mind, but it needs to be even more open than usual as he faces satanic abuse allegations, rituals, and the classic witch’s cottage in the woods. The Devil is loose in Leighford – or at least, someone is trying to make it look as though he is. The answer, though more prosaic, is still enough to chill Maxwell’s spine. ‘Trow’s teacher with a taste for history and Southern Comfort cries out for TV treatment. Trow’s touch has never been surer. Refreshing as ever, the characters simply leap off the page.’ Yorkshire Evening Post
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Peter Maxwell #6
Maxwell’s Ride
M. J. Trow
Peter Maxwell can handle kids by the tens and dozens, but two nieces give him a little more pause. Thank goodness for Sylvia Matthews, who can always be relied upon to sweep up any waif, stray or relation into her welcoming arms. On a trip to a theme park, Maxwell’s ride on the log flume is a little more white-knuckle than he was expecting when a stray bullet whips past him and his charges before killing the accountant in the car behind. Who was that gunman on the grassy knoll? Deirdre Lessing has Maxwell foisted on her for a charity meeting and is none too happy – it seems unlikely, but could she have put a hit out, enraged beyond sanity at last by his failure to conform to her wishes? Unlikely indeed, but when the first victim is followed by more, and then Maxwell’s niece Tiffany disappears, it is a case of no more Mr Nice Guy – Mad Max is on the warpath. With Jacquie Carpenter by his side, and Henry Hall an exasperated step behind, Maxwell gets to the bottom of the case and finds that evil and greed can lurk in very unexpected places. ‘The most sardonic wit in current crime fiction... one reads Trow for the brilliance of his writing.’ Birmingham Post
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Peter Maxwell #7
Maxwell’s Reunion
M. J. Trow
Unbelievable as it seems to all the Old Boys, Maxwell’s school is about to be turned into a conference centre – Halliards is to be no more. Some of his schoolfellows can’t let the moment pass and so they gather together, the Year of Mind Your Own Business to say goodbye for ever. But some of the goodbyes are more permanent than others, particularly when one of their number is found hanging from the bell rope in the abandoned buildings. The years since A-Levels have gathered a lot of baggage for them all and wives, lovers, secret lives are all exposed to the bright light of the police when the investigation gets underway. Luvvie actors, cult members, barristers and teachers they all may be, but Old Hallardians never die... except that they do, one by one, until Maxwell is fighting for his life. Can even Jacquie save him this time? ‘Maxwell... is a splendidly original spin on that old English favourite, the amateur detective.’ Sunday Mercury
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Peter Maxwell #8
Maxwell’s Match
M. J. Trow
James ‘Legs’ Diamond has come up with another off-the-wall idea, and Peter Maxwell is in his sights. Diamond needs someone to take part in an exchange with a teacher from the private sector, and although Maxwell went to just such a school, he is not keen to take part in the experiment. For once, however, his wiles fail him, and he finds himself ensconced under the eaves in a guest room at Grimond’s school in the next county. It is only a day or so before tragedy strikes, as a teacher from the same house – Tennyson – plunges from the roof, literally above Maxwell’s head. Maxwell is plunged into an atmosphere of distrust and secrecy, where the pupils seem to hold the key. Henry Hall is full of secrets too – why are he and Jacquie on secondment, and what is it that they’re not telling? Has Maxwell met his match on the playing fields of Grimond’s? ‘It’s a good, hard to solve mystery.’ The Observer
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Peter Maxwell #15
Maxwell's Retirement
M. J. Trow
Peter 'Mad Max' Maxwell, the 'dinosaur' Head of Sixth Form at Leighford High, just cannot get to grips with technology, and doesn't see the need to know how to send a text or an email when a simple note or phone call will suffice. However, it soon becomes vital that he learns when some of his female pupils begin to receive strange and threatening messages, with the anonymous sender claiming to know intimate details about the girls' personal lives. Max starts to receive messages too, and then two of the girls go missing. When a body is found it seems that the prank has taken a sinister turn, and Mad Max may well be the next target. Is the chance of him reaching retirement looking more unlikely by the day?
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Peter Maxwell #18
Maxwell's Return
M. J. Trow
MAXWELL’S BACK, AS MURDER COMES TO SLEEPY LEIGHFORD. Are the two things connected? Well, yes and no. Teenage girls are being picked up on the seafront and two of them are found dead. DI Jacquie Carpenter-Maxwell has barely set foot on her old patch before she is up to her jet-lagged neck in somebody else’s tragedy. The prime suspect is Bernard Ryan, Deputy Head at Leighford High, and Mad Max is soon riding to the rescue on White Surrey. But can he pedal fast enough before another girl meets the wrong man, at the wrong time, in the wrong place? The eighteenth in the Peter Maxwell series, after the family sabbatical in LA, shows that the old sleuthing skills are still there with a vengeance and that the Maxwells are one of the most formidable crime-fighting duos in modern crime fiction. Praise for Lestrade and the Kiss of Horus: ‘A wildly entertaining narrative that takes in such diverse historical events as riots in Cairo and, most aptly, Bolton Wanderers’ Cup Final appearance at Wembley. M J Trow proves emphatically that crime and comedy can mix.’ Val McDermid
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