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Mortal Instruments
Johnny Barber is a coffee connoisseur. He is also a sharp businessman with South American connections - his lover, Katie is the wide of an extremely powerful and ruthless South American capitalist. When a machine that can detect a potentially fatal coffee fungus is stolen, Lawrence Edwards, an official from the Department of Trade and Industry, secretly recruits Barber's assistance in tracking down those responsible. Johnny's hunch that more is at stake than simple theft is chillingly realized when Edwards and his associate are found dead in suspicious circumstances. There is big money in the coffee industry and lives don't cost very much. It's a painful discovery and one that will take him into South America and the murky depths of the international business community where people play by different rules and nothing is quite as it seems...
256 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 2003
6 people are currently reading
95 people want to read
About the author
John Malcolm
210 books7 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
John Malcolm is the pseudonymn of John Malcolm Andrews, who lives in the south of England. He is an English author on antiques, journalist and crime writer, engineering businessman and author – as John Malcolm – of the Tim Simpson series of art crime novels and as John Andrews of the first Price Guide to Antique Furniture (1968) and Managing Editor of Antique Collecting magazine
Most of his novels feature Tim Simpson, art investment specialist, and the series began with 'A Back Room in Somers Town' in 1984. '
Born in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, he is the son of May (née Whiteley) and Ernest Andrews, an engineer, His education was at Sale High School in Manchester and The British Schools of Montevideo (1946–1950), he returned to to England as a boarder at Bedford Modern School (1950–1955), and then attended St. John's College, Cambridge, where he read Engineering and was Captain of the Lady Margaret Boat Club. He graduated MA in 1958. Andrews worked as design engineer (1958–63), an export sales manager (1963–70), management consultant (1970–76), and international marketing manager (1976–90) before setting up his own business as a machinery broker in 1990,
In 1966 he was a founding member of the Antique Collectors' Club and published its first book under the name of John Andrews with The Price Guide to Antique Furniture (1968). He went on to write more books on antique furniture and is currently Managing Editor of Antique Collecting magazine.] He was Chairman of the Trustees of Rye Art Gallery from 1995 to 2004.
He published his first crime novel in 1984. He was Chairman of the Crime Writers' Association from 1994–5 and wrote a number of short stories.
Andrews is a member of the Crime Writers Association and the Society of Authors. He married Geraldine Lacey (a picture restorer) on 25 March 1961. The couple live in East Sussex and have one son.
John Malcolm is the pseudonymn of John Malcolm Andrews, who lives in the south of England. He is an English author on antiques, journalist and crime writer, engineering businessman and author – as John Malcolm – of the Tim Simpson series of art crime novels and as John Andrews of the first Price Guide to Antique Furniture (1968) and Managing Editor of Antique Collecting magazine
Most of his novels feature Tim Simpson, art investment specialist, and the series began with 'A Back Room in Somers Town' in 1984. '
Born in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, he is the son of May (née Whiteley) and Ernest Andrews, an engineer, His education was at Sale High School in Manchester and The British Schools of Montevideo (1946–1950), he returned to to England as a boarder at Bedford Modern School (1950–1955), and then attended St. John's College, Cambridge, where he read Engineering and was Captain of the Lady Margaret Boat Club. He graduated MA in 1958. Andrews worked as design engineer (1958–63), an export sales manager (1963–70), management consultant (1970–76), and international marketing manager (1976–90) before setting up his own business as a machinery broker in 1990,
In 1966 he was a founding member of the Antique Collectors' Club and published its first book under the name of John Andrews with The Price Guide to Antique Furniture (1968). He went on to write more books on antique furniture and is currently Managing Editor of Antique Collecting magazine.] He was Chairman of the Trustees of Rye Art Gallery from 1995 to 2004.
He published his first crime novel in 1984. He was Chairman of the Crime Writers' Association from 1994–5 and wrote a number of short stories.
Andrews is a member of the Crime Writers Association and the Society of Authors. He married Geraldine Lacey (a picture restorer) on 25 March 1961. The couple live in East Sussex and have one son.
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May 8, 2025
I think I would prefer the non fiction books to this
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