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"We may have been celebrating Mother’s Day since the 1600s with chocolates and flowers being the much-favoured gifts, but this year why not give mum what she really wants – some precious time to unwind and a treat or two to really spoil her,'' suggests Sally Airey.
...Anyone who’s ever fancied the idea of taking part in a challenging cycle ride through stunning countryside or around a beautiful country estate could be in for a treat with one of the new series of National Trust challenge rides, also known as sportives,'' says Louise Green.
... 'Was it the hammer?' I asked, so she didn't get stuck in another memory again.
She nodded...
Joe Hussy hears the explanation of Striker's death,
Colin Dunne's story moves towards its conclusion.
Who killed Striker?
Colin Dunne's thriller moves to a conclusion as questions are asked and answered.
To read the story from the beginning please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/ratcatcher/
...I knew he would come. Even when he couldn't find his mate who was locked in the boot of my car, he'd still come. There was a job to be done.
Even though I was expecting him, it still came as a shock.
There was a sudden rapid burst of rifle fire and the tall cylindrical chimney on top of the cabin pinged and panged as the bullets hit it until it tottered, and then fell over...
Joe Hussey comes to the defense of Tiger, his old mate in undercover combat.
Colin Dunne's brilliant thriller moves towards it conclusion with a fusilade of bullets.
...Clever boy. He'd worked his way down the field instead of using the road. What worried me was that there was only one man. Or seemed to be. I could only see one pair of green-striped trainer shoes from where I lay under my car.
They walked around the back of the car. Then they stopped. He'd be looking at the odd arrangement I'd made with my jacket over the steering wheel. It didn't look like a person. It didn't look like anything. It just looked odd, and I knew he'd have to investigate it...
Tension goes up another notch in Colin Dunne's brilliant thriller.
To read earlier chapters click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/ratcatcher/
...'Are you certain?' Colonel Danby said. 'Ah, I see. Kentish's friends from over the water will be calling to see him. What happens then?'
'Kentish will pay them in kind,' I said....
Colin Dunne continues his thrilling tale of undercover work.
...'Yes. When Crocker asked Sullivan what he meant, he laughed and said something about a couple of old squirrels. Does that mean anything to you?'...
And undercover man Joe Hussy seems to get the message.
Colin Dunne continues his intriguing thriller. To read earlier chapters please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/ratcatcher/
At last Joe Hussy discovers who killed Striker.
Colin Dunne continues his must-read thriller. For earlier chapters please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/ratcatcher/
...'What was wrong with his shirt?'
'Who? That man? Oh, he only had a dirty oily mark down the left side,' she said. Then, with a coy grin, she added, 'About where a lady would have her bra.'
Or where a gentleman would carry a gun...
Undercoverman Joe Hussy realises that he has good reason to be extra-wary.
Colin Dunne continues his thrilling tale. To read earlier chapters please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/ratcatcher/
Pieces start to fall into place in the intricate puzzle of ratcatcher Joe Hussy's recent life.
Colin Dunne's thrilling novel moves towards a dramatic climax.
To read earlier episodes please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/ratcatcher/
...'Let me tell you something else, Mr Hussy, although you'll take me for an old fairground trickster, I suppose. You have a surprise visit coming from overseas. Isn't that what the fortune-tellers say? I do apologise for keeping you out of your bed. Goodbye. We shan't be meeting again now. You have some troubled spirits around you, Mr Hussy. Very troubled indeed.'...
Agent Joe Hussy receives some surprise information and then a warning from Kentish.
Colin Dunne continues his high-octgane thriller.
...'Talking of judies, that one of yours is a five-star job all right. I was trying to think what it was about her, then it suddenly struck me. It's the way she walks around. She treads on the earth as though it's something a servant threw down to save her shoes. Know what I mean?'...
Joe Hussy and his former mucker Tiger have a serious chat about girls and guns.
Colin Dunne continues his five-star thriller. To read earlier chapters please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/ratcatcher/
...'Is this crystal?' The glass was still in my hand.
'It is, as a matter of fact. Rather nice, isn't it?'
I held, looked at it, and then flung it the length of the room as hard as I could. It shattered explosively against the stone fireplace...
Joe Hussy has an unsatisfactory encounter with Walsh.
Colin Dunne continues his tale of intrigue and murder in a small provincial town. To read earlier chapters please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/ratcatcher/
Hussy plays a "loaded'' game of billiards with police chief Brassington.
Colin Dunne continues his superlative thriller. To read earlier chapters please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/ratcatcher/
...'It's all part of the same thing, Joe. Men like you, you get sex and power all mixed up. Let me go first, please. I hate airport farewells, they're so corny.'...
The beautiful Victoria walks out on Joe Hussy the undercover tough guy.
Colin Dunne contues his well-told tale of investigation and intrigue. To read earlier chapters please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/ratcatcher/
...Without protest, she watched me open the filing cabinet and finger my way through the files, looking for the ones I wanted. Then I picked up my photographs and left.
If they were upset to see me go, they forgot to mention it...
Hussy uncovers a cartload of nasty secrets on his visit to Hamburg.
To read earlier chapters of Colin Dunne's high-tension novel please click on
http://www.openwriting.com/archives/ratcatcher/
At last, with the aid of a gun, Jim Hussey begins to learn who killed who.
To read earlier chapters of Colin Dunne's thrilling novel please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/ratcatcher/
Hussy and Victoria pay an enlightening visit to a German printing works.
To read earlier chapters of Colin Dunne's brilliant novel please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/ratcatcher/
...I stepped through the front door. An old woman sitting behind a card table took the money off me, counted it out aloud, and then signalled me past. I went through another curtain and found myself in a medieval torture chamber. It was incredible. The walls were hung with chains — leg irons, shackles, modern handcuffs even. There was a stocks. There were leather straps hanging from the ceiling. And all along one wall, in a rack, stood two or three dozen whips...
Jim Hussy goes to hamburg to take a few relevant pictures.
To read earlier chapters of Colin Dunne's thriller please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/ratcatcher/
...I looked in the mirror. A green Mini I'd noticed there earlier had gone. Now there was only a rusty Escort on the other side of the road. Which just shows how silly it is to be so suspicious.
But on the way back to the flat, for a bit of fun, I pretended to lose my way round the big roundabout at Swiss Cottage and went round twice. Rather quickly...
Colin Dunne continues his high-tension thriller. To read earlier chapters please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/ratcatcher/
...He gave me a look that said you needn't think you're the first man who's ever spent the night here.
I gave him a look that said you needn't think you're the first cat I've ever kicked, and he left, tail high...
Agent Joe Hussy is allowed into Victoria's plush London flat to experience the "Ow'' factor.
Colin Dunne continues his tense, humour-ladened thriller.
...'No, Hussy. There's a lot of things I'd like to charge you with. Meddling's the main one, I think. Yes, you're a meddler. A mucky little boy who can't keep his sticky interfering fingers out of other people's business. The shame of it is that meddling isn't a crime. Because look what you've done. Just look. Yes, Hussy, I'd love to charge you, and I'd love to take you along to the station and question you myself. I do so enjoy witty company.'...
Uncercover agent Hussy has another confrontation with Brassington, the bullying detective in the latest chapter of Colin Dunne's novel.
...'Mr Hussy, Mr Hussy,' he shouted, and I realised it was Jack Pickles. 'Mr Hussy!' He rocked to a halt in front of us, gasping, and with his fists clenched.
'What's the problem, Jack?'
'It's Mr Hands,' he panted, and then I could see that his face was awash with tears...
Colin Dunne's continues his exciting tale set in a far-from-friendly small town.
To read earlier chapters please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/ratcatcher/
Victoria succeeds in surprising Jim Hussy yet again.
Colin Dunne continues his high-tension unmissable thriller. To read earlier chapters please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/ratcatcher/
...She helped me struggle to sit up. I was right about the daylight — it rammed rivets into my eyes. I groaned. Then I saw myself in the dressing-table mirror.
With a huge bandage wrapped around the top of my head, I looked like the Light Brigade on their way home...
High-risk Hussy hears how he was rescued from a tricky situation.
Colin Dunne continues his high-tension thriller. To read ealier chapters please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/ratcatcher/
...As I headed for Spanner, I kept my hands down by my side, and walked with my feet well out.
For a second, I thought he was going to let me down. But they can never resist a clear target, these boys. He jumped forward and swung his foot up at my groin. He'd maybe done it half-a-dozen times to drunks in bus queues. I'd practised it a thousand times with sober men wearing heavy boots...
Violence erupts in the latest chapter of Colin Dunne's taut thriller.
...I was watching the mating ritual of giant insects. That was the first thought. The second - the truth - was worse...
Undercover agent Jim Hussy finds himself in a situation which can only be resolved with a gunshot.
To read earlier chapters of Colin Dunne's intriguing novel please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/ratcatcher/
"Striker did not rape anyone because he was with another lady at the time, both at the field and here in town. And he didn't commit suicide because he hadn't raped anyone, and also because he was busy making long-term plans like buying expensive blazers and getting married. What do you think now, Joe Hussy? Have I convinced you?'
Joe is impressed with even moe than the results of his new investigative partner's labours.
Colin Dunne continues his must-read crime thriller.
...In Chicago they called them gangsters, in Italy it's the Mafia, and here it's the bloody badminton club or the Christian Men's Society. And that's where Striker went wrong.'...
Jim Hussy, continuing his investigation of the death of Striker, learns the harsh facts of small-town life.
To read earlier chapters of Colin Dunne's outstanding novel please visit http://www.openwriting.com/archives/ratcatcher/
...'If we go on like this,' I said, 'we're going to end up playing the meths-drinkers' game.'
'What's that?' she asked.
'One of us leaves the room and the other one has to guess who it is that's gone out.'...
Jim Hussy is manoeuvred into a corner by the beautiful Miss Finch.
Colin Dunne continues his gripping tale.
Jim Hussy meets his match in the sharp-tongued Miss Victoria Finch, the proprietress of a small but fashionable drinking club in Fulham.
Colin Dunne continues his intriguing tale. To read earlier chapters please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/ratcatcher/
...'Mr Hussy?'
'That's me.'
'I have something for you,' she said, and reached out with a child-sized hand to stroke the side of my face. I stood as still as a tickled trout.
'What?' I croaked.
'This,' she said.
Before I knew it, she'd pulled back her soft feminine little hand and given me a hell of a smack across the head...
Undercover man Jim Hussy finds he has an awful lot of explaining to do.
Colin Dunne continues his intriguing novel.
Undercover man Jim Hussy visits Blackwell Hall, there to receive a most unexpected jpb offer.
Colin Dunne continues his intriguing tale set in a northern market town. To read earlier chapters of this novel please visit http://www.openwriting.com/archives/ratcatcher/
...I was just coming out of the kiosk, and the rumpus was coming from the main square. I ran back and saw, in the middle of the traffic and a rapidly growing crowd, young Danby — the one who'd gone on about The Magnificent Seven — handing out a beating to a car.
That's what I thought he was doing as I ran over. When I got there, I saw that was what he really was doing...
Undercover man Jim Hussy steps in to sort out the problem.
Colin Dunne continues his intriguing tale set in a quiet north country town. To read earlier chapters please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/ratcatcher/
...Kentish lived there alone, except for his housekeeper. If I'd been looking for company there, I think I might have taken one of those twin-engined Swedish models. He'd got an elderly woman called Mrs Bull who displaced about as much air as St Pancras station, but not quite so elegantly. She might not have looked so nifty bent over the ironing table but she did produce a game pie that would have made the angels sing...
Jim Hussy finds more questions than answers when he goes to Kentish's house.
Colin Dunne continues his mysterious tale.
To read earlier chapters please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/ratcatcher/
Undercover agent Jim Hussy hears at last how Striker Nightingale met his end.
To read earlier chapters of Colin Dunne's brilliant novel please visit http://www.openwriting.com/archives/ratcatcher/
...Just then, I didn't have a doubt at all. I was exhilarated. By some miracle, all my senses had instantly been sharpened. The night was blacker and wetter, my own lights and those in the mirror much, much brighter. My fingertips tingled as I turned the wheel, hot where I'd been holding it, cold where I hadn't. In the engine's roar, I thought I could hear the movement of every single mechanical part. I'd never felt so vital in my life, and it wasn't until I looked over at Tiger's grinning face that I realised I was laughing.
Those seconds when death is on your heels have a fine high rapture you don't find anywhere else, including bed...
But can Jim Hussy cut the mustard when the shooting starts?
Colin Dunne continues his thrilling tale.
...'But we don't even have a sauna,' Eileen protested, noting it for the bill.
'I know. But my boss is very fastidious about personal hygiene -he'll like it.'
'You're a one, you are,' she said, her eyes rolling in a face like an unbaked loaf. 'Let's hope you're in heaven half an hour before the divil knows you're dead.'
'Now what would I want up there with a bunch of strangers?'...
Colin Dunne continues his novel concerning the adventures and misadventures of an undercover man in a small provincial town.
..'So do come tonight,' he said, escorting me to the door. 'It's time we told you why Striker died.'...
Undercover man Jim Hussy receives a surprise invitation to attend a Spiritualists' church.
To read earlier chapters of Colin Dunne's brilliant novel please visit http://www.openwriting.com/archives/ratcatcher/
...He bulldozed straight over my cheerful response. 'You stand in contempt of Her Majesty's Coroner's Court, and I can jail you for that. So I suggest you bear that in mind throughout this conversation.'...
Undercover man Jim Hussy is questioned by those who want to know who he is working for.
Colin Dunne continues his inriguing tale.
Undercover operative Jim Hussy receives firm words from HQ.
Colin Dunne continues his absorbing thriller.
Undercover man Jim Hussy presents his old comrade-in-arms Tiger with a gun in an attempt to lure him back into the “business’’.
Colin Dunne continues his gripping tale.
...Then the ground around me darkened. I looked up and the sky above me was black. That was all I could see at first, a dark mass like storm clouds. Then, as my one eye began to focus, I could pick out the details.
One, two, three, four of them. Bunched. Lounging. Slouched. Leather, studs, denim, sweat rags, boots, badges, painted skulls and swastikas.
The air went quite still. The sun lost its warmth. Civilisation seemed a long way off. They were Hell's Angels and they weren't carrying roses...
Jim Hussy runs into trouble when he visits a quarry searching for a crashed car.
Colin Dunne continues his high-tension thriller.
...And I thought about Tiger. How could he be dragged so low? I'd imagined him - as much as I dared - with his own business, a pub or something, a thick wedge of compensation in the bank, and one of those overflowing girls he so loved to keep the frost off. Hands had explained that bit to me. He'd had one of those girls when he arrived in the town. Unfortunately she'd overflown with the compensation and an insurance salesman...
But Jim Hussy, on an undercover mission, plans to involve his old mate Tiger in some seriously violent action.
Colin Dunne continues his high-tension thriller. To read earlier chapters please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/ratcatcher/
...I looked around. It was like every editorial room I've ever seen. Half-a-dozen old wooden desks, circled with spilled drinks. Every flat surface heaped with ragged piles of papers. Overflowing ashtrays. Two beer bottles on the windowsill coated with dust. And two typewriters big enough and old enough to be prototypes of the Sopwith Camel...
Jim Hussy visits the small town newspaper office hoping to find our more about the mysterious death of Striker.
Colin Dunne continues his thrilling tale. To read earlier chapters please click on
http://www.openwriting.com/archives/ratcatcher/
...'Hussy,' he said finally, fixing me with an unsmiling gaze. 'I am prepared to try not to fall out with you. Frankly I'm not sure it's going to be worth the effort.'...
Undercover man Joe Hussy encounters Chief Superintendent Brassington.
Colin Dunne continues his high-tension thriller.
To read earlier chapters please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/ratcatcher/
...I was his mate, his mucker and his oppo, and I'd stood there with a loaded gun in my hand and watched as they shot him down in the middle of the road. I'd heard him grunt and watched his legs twitch as they pumped the shots into him. And I hadn't done a damned thing....
Undercover operator Joe Hussy is shocked to meet an old colleague when he visits the coroner’s office.
To read earlier chapters pf Colin Dunne’s dramatic thriller please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/ratcatcher/
...I looked around the square behind me where the sun was hotting up the sandstone.
People spoke openly to each other in the street. A traffic warden smiled. Unmugged men raised their hats to unraped ladies who pushed unbattered babies past unrobbed banks.
My experience of life was a bit saltier than that. To me, this looked like the transit lounge between here and heaven. But I thought, just for a change, I'm going to like it....
The peace and quiet is unlikely to last. Violence follows undercover man Joe Hussy, wherever he goes.
Colin Dunne continues his brilliant thriller. To read earlier chapters please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/ratcatcher/
Reluctant undercover agent Jim Hussy gets a gun repaired – and finds out something about Striker.
Colin Dunne continues his thrilling novel Ratcatcher. To read earlier chapters please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/ratcatcher/
...And then I performed what is - nowadays at least - the last of the day's pleasures. I reached for my Browning. The nine-millimetre pistol, not the gravy colouring.
I hadn't been totally and completely honest with Cringle about that. In fact, you might say I'd lied about it. But some¬times the whole point of having a gun is that other people don't know you have. And anyway he might've asked how I got it. Would he have believed me when I said I'd bought it from a man I knew only as Jack? Travellers in the second-hand gun trade are notoriously coy about surnames...
Jim Hussy, enforced to perform another undercover task for his country, is going to need that gun.
Colin Dunne continues the thrilling tale of the Ratcatcher. To read ealier chapters please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/ratcatcher/
...He had a square, bristle-topped head and a putty-piece nose, and just in case I'd been under the impression that he was a visiting vicar, he flipped the big screwdriver over so that it pointed upwards. At my stomach and my throat, for instance...
There's a most unpleasant surprise awaiting Mr Hussy when he returns to his bedroom.
Colin Dunne continues his thrilling tale of an uncercover operative who thought he had retired from the service.
To read earlier chapters please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/ratcatcher/
...Facing me was a man about five-foot-eight tall. He was also five-foot-eight wide and very nearly five-foot-eight deep too.
In his right hand was a foot-long screwdriver. He looked as though he could've escaped from Dartmoor using only his teeth...
Joe Hussy. a reluctant recruit to undercover work, finds himself in a tricky situation in what he had taken to be a respectable hotel.
Here's another chapter in Colin Dunne's outstanding thriller, Ratcatcher.
...'The way things are,' I said, 'I might be bankrupt and I might be bored, but at least I'm fairly free of rigor mortis.'
'Don't worry,' he said, dropping into sneer gear, 'there won't be any shooting or muscle stuff.'
I winced at that. No one likes to be called a coward, however obliquely...
Joe Hussy is compelled to do another undercover investigative job.
Ace thriller writer Colin Dunne continues his tale involving an agent summoned back to the ranks.
...Joe Hussy ('as in brazen') has been out of up-front soldiering for three years: life is less eventful but at least he stays alive. Then he picks up the 'hitchhiker' who tells him about Striker Nightingale.
Striker seems to have been a nice enough bloke, straight and strong, quite the local hero. Curious that he should have met his death in that quaint and prim provincial town. And was it just coincidence that Hussy's old comrade-in-arms happened to be there at the time?...
Today we begin the serialisation of ace thriller writer Colin Dunne's novel, Ratcatcher.
Colin, combining humour with chilling violence and suspense, is a brilliant story teller. We are in for a year's worth of top class entertainment.
