Happy to say 'Des Buckley's Braces Are Missing' is now available on Amazon in paperback and kindle formats.

Respectable People. Disreputable Secrets.
March 1963. The Beatles and the Stones tune up, hot-water bottles are abandoned, and a new permissive era dawns.

The Profumo affair is about to rock Westminster, but before the climax, Christine Keeler – at the heart of the scandal – goes missing.

More prosaically, in the Norfolk village of Orton Magna, another mystery: Des Buckley’s trouser braces are missing too.

Affable but gaffe-prone village Constable Les Pinchen, dogged by the complainant Buckley, a dimwit reputation, a caustic superior, and a local hack who’s convinced he’s onto the scoop of a lifetime, is busy fending them off.

But when Joyce, Les’s sharp-witted wife, receives an unexpected visitor, her curiosity is piqued. Turning amateur sleuth, she heads for the capital. Meanwhile, a frosty encounter at an isolated farmhouse finally jolts a hitherto indolent Les into action.

As their investigations converge, Orton Magna’s cosy façade begins to crack. From a suspiciously moored yacht to the gravedigger, the publican, the vicar, and the aristocratic De Clare family, everyone has something to hide and the respectable, something to lose.

The permissive Sixties come knocking, forcing Les and Joyce to confront their insecurities, with hair-raising and comically unpredictable consequences.

Wry, character-driven, nostalgic and gently comic - this is classic British village crime — perfect for readers who enjoy Richard Osman, M. C. Beaton, and traditional cosy mysteries.