GREEN SHOOTS

by Mark L. Fowler

When an estate agent goes missing, her husband, a security consultant, is the chief suspect. But when DCI Tyler and DS Mills are involved, things rarely prove to be so straightforward.

Estate agent Paula Lyons has it all. Young and beautiful, living in a dream house, in a desirable part of town, married to a successful hunk of a man, a recent promotion and plans to start a family.

But leaving for work one morning, she never arrives.

Her husband, John, a security consultant, reports her missing, and DCI Tyler and DS Mills investigate. Paula and John appear to have perfect lives, and everyone who knows them describes a happy, doting couple.

The empty properties in Paula’s portfolio are checked out, but the detectives draw a blank. Then keys to unauthorised properties are discovered missing. In one property a scarf belonging to Paula is found, with an anonymous note.

A note suggesting that Paula and John Lyons are not the people they appear to be.

This is a brilliant series which does not get the fanfare it deserves. This latest is another terrific read which kept me engrossed from start to finish. Tyler and Mills are a great double act and I love how both seem to clash yet work well together. I've loved this series from the start but I think this one is probably my favourite of the lot. I look forward to reading much more in the future - Mary R.
It’s great to have Tyler and Mills back again. This is an enjoyable read from this great series. I love the funny one liners between Tyler and Mills, they inject just the right amount of humour to stop the story from being overly dark - Dee Groocock.
I really enjoyed this book. It is part of a series it could be read alone but why not enjoy the series.
The crack between Mills & Tyler is worth it alone - TerryHeth.
Another great read in the series with DCI Tyler and DS Mills.
A rollercoaster of a ride with plenty of humour.
This series does not disappoint and is a pleasure to read.
Definitely need the next ASAP - SR Lewis.
Brilliant Book! I thoroughly it.This series gets better with each book.I can highly recommend this book and am really looking forward to reading the next one - Colin Blackman.
Another thoroughly enjoyable entry in this series as the detectives investigate the disappearance of an estate agent. As ever the interplay between Tyler and Mills is a standout feature and the twists and turns of the plot kept me guessing throughout. The gritty realism is nicely offset by the humorous moments and the book builds to a suitably dramatic finale. Great entertainment! - Julian Middleton.
A brilliant series not to be missed - Alyson R.
Secrets, deception and chilling truths all wrapped up in a compelling crime thriller - PJ.
I always love returning to these two! Tyler and Mills are two characters who bounce off each other. The one liners and humour that Mark L. Fowler brings is so appreciated. It manages to balance out the darker themes of the book.
I didn't want to put it down! Another great read! - Beyond The Books.

276 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 29, 2025

About the author

Mark writes in a number of genres, including detective crime fiction, psychological thrillers, and Gothic fantasy.

He is the author of the popular Tyler & Mills detective crime series set in Staffordshire in the noughties. RED IS THE COLOUR was shortlisted for the 2018 Arnold Bennett Prize and begins with the grim discovery of a schoolboy who disappeared thirty years earlier. BLUE MURDER involves a missing singer and a murdered guitarist, elevating an obscure band to sudden fame and fortune. THE DEVIL WORE BLACK unveils the mystery of a crucified priest. THE SMELL OF COPPER, finds Tyler out on a limb as the detectives uncover police corruption. SCARLET RIBBONS investigates the brutal murder of a sex worker. The latest book in the series, BLOOD ORANGE, concerns the death of a local greengrocer. All the books can be read as standalone crime novels.

Other detective mysteries include THE BATHROOM MURDERS. A series of women are found hacked to death while taking a shower. This is the first in a new series set in Manchester, featuring female detective Charlie Reed and her sidekick Paul Rigsby.

TWIST has the eponymous private investigator returning, against his better judgement, to the city of nightmares to look into the strange case of a dead philosophy student.

THE MAN UPSTAIRS introduces hard boiled Frank Miller, discovering he’s a fictional detective and that his author is plotting to kill him. This is the first in a series of crime fantasy novels, and the second book in the series has now been published: THE POISONED EYE OF A LOVING GOD,

Mark also writes psychological thrillers. SILVER finds journalist and crime writer Nick Slater obsessed with an unpublished manuscript that a best-selling author was working on when she was murdered, and which her family refuse to publish.

SEXTET explores the twisted rivalry between twin sisters, the weird games they played as children, and the rising murder rate in a small English town.

COFFIN MAKER is a Gothic tale. Death is sent two apprentices amid warnings from an out-of-favour priest that the devil has arrived on Earth.

PAINTED FIRE finds a writer travelling to America’s West Coast in a desperate bid to find a cure for a baffling illness afflicting his wife. An anonymous benefactor has offered to help, but at what price?

Reviews

[Sharon Rimmelzwaan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The latest instalment in the Tyler and Mills series is the seventh book! Even being the 7th, it doesn't get old at all. Mark L. Fowler successfully keeps every book fresh and so entertaining. 


This time, an estate agent, Paula Lyons, goes missing. It's down to our Tyler and Mills to investigate. The general consensus is that Paula, who was promoted recently, wouldn't just up and leave. Tyler and Mills begin to consider kidnapping. But why? And who has done this? They have their work cut out for them.


I always love returning to these two! Tyler and Mills are two characters who bounce off each other. The one liners and humour that Mark L. Fowler brings are so appreciated by me. It manages to balance out the darker themes of the book. 


I was so invested I didn't want to put it down!! Another great read! Thanks to the author for my gifted ebook in exchange for my honest review.

[Mary Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a brilliant series which does not get the fanfare it deserves. This latest instalment is another terrific read which kept me engrossed from start to finish. Paula has recently been promoted and is happily married to John so all seems good in the world until she disappears one morning without a trace. Tyler and Mills are handed the investigation and soon discover things are not all as they first seem.

Tyler and Mills are a great double act and I love how both seem to clash yet work well together. The story had plenty of twists throughout and I really enjoyed how things turned out in the end. I thought I had things figured out but no, I hadn't ! I've loved this series from the start but I think this one is probably my favourite of the lot. I look forward to reading much more in the future.

[Susan Pearson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the 7th outing for Mills and Tyler and another enjoyable read.

The story focuses around the disappearance of Paula Lyons who appears to have the perfect life. Once Mills and Tyler start to dig deeper the cracks in Paula’s ‘perfect’ life begin to appear and the rush to find Paula increases.

I had been in a reading slump before picking this book up and read it in 2 sittings as I wanted to know what had happened. I’m usually good at predicting the endings of similar style books but was happily wrong on several parts of this book.

This did keep me guessing as I couldn’t work out the who or the why. Another great read from Mark L Fowler. I always enjoy an outing from Mills and Tyler. I would definitely recommend this book and series. This can be read as a stand alone

[Charlotte Baddeley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really love this series. Not your normal detective series, it is much, much deeper.  The characters of Morecame and Wise, sorry Mills and Tyler, continue to develop and mature and the combination of humour and vulnability is magic.  Characters aside we do also have an extremely puzzling kidnapping, murder mystery to solve.  This might be the most challenging case yet.

Naturally there is a twist at the end.  Just when the boys feel they have the case finally tied up, the rope begins to fray and loose ends appear.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great read in the series with DCI Tyler and DS Mills.
A rollercoaster of a ride with plenty of humour, questions and gasps along the way.
This series does not disappoint and definitely gets better with each one.
Looking forward to seeing what happens next in the lives of Tyler and Mills.

[Rebecca Charlesworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 7 in a series though could be read as a stand alone. Tyler and Mills are looking for Paula, who has the perfect life, perfect marriage, perfect job promotion, but Paula seems to have vanished in to thin air with no explanation. Will our duo be able to solve her disappearance.

[Kerry Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic series that deserves more attention. The latest book is gripping from start to finish and had me interested from the start.
Paula’s sudden disappearance sets off a twist-filled investigation led by the brilliant duo, Tyler and Mills. Their relationship is always fun to watch, and the ending took me completely off guard . I’ve loved every book, but I think this is the best yet. Can’t wait for the next one!

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It is part of a series it could be read alone but why not enjoy the series.
The crack between Mills & Tyler is worth it alone.
Always one liners & the glances, I can imagine them in my mind. Amusing as.
The storyline is really good. A missing person. Kidnapped maybe? Her husband is thought of at first but as they go deeper lots of things come to light and this becomes a bigger case.
Such a good read.

[Dee Groocock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paula Lyons has gone missing - it’s not like her, she always keeps her husband informed if she’s going to be late home from her job working in an estate agent. She’s recently been promoted at work and would not intentionally disappear.

DCI Tyler and DS Mills look into her disappearance, but with everyone saying this is unlike her, they have to consider that she might have been kidnapped. But who would kidnap her and why? Not everything is as it seems.

It’s great to have Tyler and Mills back again. This is an enjoyable read from this great series.

I love the funny one liners between Tyler and Mills, they inject just the right amount of humour to stop the story from being overly dark.

The story kept me hooked from the very start and I enjoyed this easy read.

[Alyson Read · Rating 5 out of 5]

Estate agent and model employee Paula Lyons goes missing after leaving her luxury home for work one morning and naturally suspicion falls on her security consultant husband John, an intimidating giant of a man who claims they were blissfully happy. As DCI Tyler and DS Mills start to investigate, they find themselves led around a series of empty houses with missing keys by a trail of clues and anonymous notes that encourage them to look deeper into Paula’s life. What a tangled web of dubious and dodgy people they uncover as the case progresses, taking them from one likely suspect to a host of others with a good motive. But will it ever lead them to find Paula?
DCI Jim Tyler, the product of a tough upbringing in London and with a hatred of bullies, authority and hierarchy nearly lost his job after hitting a senior officer. He moved to Stoke and was readily taken on by Chief Supt Graham Berkins, he of the awesome moustache and nutshells, when others shied away from what they considered damaged goods. Divorced, his passion is running, the complete opposite of his partner DS Danny Mills who appreciates his food far more than exercise and loves the city but lives in the countryside as he loves his wife more. The pair make a formidable partnership in solving crime, even if Tyler baffles Mills at times with his very dry and humorous manner. Mills is actually my favourite character, with his love of family, football and food (in no particular order), and the relationship between the two detectives is a pleasure to behold, especially where Mills is convinced Tyler has a new love interest, something that he fails to discover despite his best interrogation techniques! It’s always a pure joy to read a new book in this series which once again could be easily enjoyed on its own. The story itself is told with a great deal of wit and warmth and features a clever and very twisty mystery which kept me guessing to the end!

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've really been enjoying the Tyler and Mills series by Mark L. Fowler. The stories are set relatively local to me, over in Stoke, and so much of the history that Mills in particular waxes lyrical over is familiar to me, as are many of the places that the pair end up visiting. This was no different this time around with them venturing out to such exotic locations as Crewe and Stafford. Glamorous, hey? But beyond the familiarity, what I do like is the partnership of the two lead Detectives. They are chalk and cheese, with Tyler the far more cerebral of the two, although unlikely to be able to challenge the encyclopedic knowledge of Mills when it comes to pies, biscuits and the local football team. The banter between them, though often formal in tone, and often weighted (no pun intended) in Tyler's favour, works really well, and always manages to elicit a chuckle or two from me.

This time around, this fabulous pairing are called in to investigate the disappearance of a local Estate Agent. Her husband, John, a particularly intimidating character, is certain that something bad has happened, but with few leads, it takes some canny investigation on the part of the duo to start to get to grips with what could possibly have happened. Afterall, it's not easy for a woman in an emerald green Range Rover to just vanish. The more they learn, the murkier things become, and it is soon clear that the missing Paula Lyons is perhaps not as squeaky clean as people might have had them believe.

This is a bit of a perplexing case. There are many reasons there could be for Paula's disappearance and, given the headlines of past years, expecting the worst doesn't seem unreasonable. But this is no straightforward case, and strangely the people in Paula's life seem somewhat reluctant to speak the full truth to the Detectives. I like how Mark L Fowler has spread out this mystery, slowly revealing more and more about Paula and John and the companies they work for. It's clear that the truth lies in their somewhere, but it remains carefully hidden and there were several possibilities floating through my mind as the case progressed.

The pacing of the book is just right, the balance between dialogue, investigation and biscuit obsession just right to drive the action onwards. I do love the scenes between Mills and his wife who certainly keeps him on his toes, if not quite rigidly on his healthy eating kick. The characters in the book all feel authentic, with the author misdirecting several times and making certain people look more or less trustworthy than they may actually be. It all blends together to make an entertaining and engaging mystery that I read through in next to no time. I'm really enjoying these books and look forward to seeing what lies in the future for Mills and Tyler.

[Donna Morfett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this easy read. Tyler and Mills have a strange case of a woman going missing. There didn't appear to be any conflict in Paula Lyons life. She wasn't involved in any criminality, she was blissfully happily married to John. However, when she doesn't come home from work one day, and her husband calls her work to find out she never arrived at all, he calls the police.
I really like the cop due. One serious, in work and in life, strict about his exercise, diet, by the book policing. The other is overweight, cheating on the diet his wife has put him on with canteen meals, and more chilled all round. There are some great one liners in this between them. I quite liked the sound of the snack drawer as well. I think every office should have one of these.
As they start to investigate, they discover the estate agents she worked for had a lot to hide.
Its difficult to say too much without spoiling it, but the clues are really slowly uncovered, and the author leads you on the path he wants you to follow, and reveals what he wants when he wants, so you are engaged to the end.
There are some great little details like this his and hers matching orange and green range rovers. All the characters are well developed and none are massively likeable. Actually most are quite unlikeable, except for Felix Squire. He seemed the only honourable and decent one out of the lot of them.

[PJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Green Shoots is book 7 in Mark Fowler’s outstanding Tyler and Mills series, and, for me, it nails him as one of the most rewarding authors of detective investigative crime out there.

The reward of reading the series in the order of publication is to gain an appreciation of the evolving partnership, and friendship of the wonderful DCI Tyler and DC Mills. However, all of the books can be read standalone.

The storyline of Green Shoots is one full of secrets, deception, and a chilling truth. Full of various twists which I all too often did not see coming and all culminating in a remarkable revealing of that alarming truth.

And on top of this, we have the great interaction between Tyler and Mills. One so driven he is willing to compromise his own safety and future (both personally and professionally) - even his superior doubts his DCI when all except Tyler believe they have identified the criminal. And complementing this human terrier is the less emotional and always full of pitch perfect irony, DC Mills.

Mark Fowler is a super author and his Tyler and Mills are two fictional characters that are so worthy of getting to know.

Highly recommend Green Shoots.

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great addition to the Tyler & Mills series; I can’t believe this is book 7! Don’t worry though, it can easily be read as a standalone although I’d recommend starting at the beginning of these entertaining books.

Estate agent Paula Lyons has gone missing. Her husband, John, a security consultant, is prime suspect; following the old adage ‘it’s always the husband’ plus he’s as broad as he is tall! As with all their cases, this is not cut & dried & a good old fashioned police investigation ensues.

I love this double act &, also, the way the book is written. Not overly complicated with jargon or procedures, but intent on driving the story forward at pace. Add in Mills’ food fixation & Tyler’s sardonic view on life & it makes a cracking mix. In a nutshell (IYKYK), read it.

[Martha Brindley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another very engrossing read in the Tyler and Mills series. I love this team, their antics make me laugh out loud at times, especially over the biscuits! They are a solid partnership, with excellent dialogue between them. I really liked the plotting in this latest escapade, set in the Midlands. Just when I thought I had it all figured out, off it went at a different tangent. So many twists and turns, which kept me guessing until the end. I was intrigued from the start until the last page. Another great read from the author, which I am sure fans will thoroughly enjoy.

[Mark Pearce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent as usual. Mark is an unknown 'best selling' talent, at least as far as I know. Not the first of his books I've read and certainly won't be the last. Tyler and Mills are a great team: Tyler has the brains and Mills can drive well!
This book was provided to me as an ARC read and I'm happy to give it a big thumbs up.

[Kaz H · Rating 5 out of 5]

My review of Green shoots by Mark Fowler
Tyler and Mills are investigating the disappearance of Paula Lyons unaware of the many other crimes it will uncover. Past crimes come into light but are they linked to the disappearance and if so how and why. This book held my attention throughout and it was not the ending I thought it was going to be.
A great read and one I would recommend.

[Kath Middleton · Rating 5 out of 5]

A young woman is kidnapped and suspicion, as always, falls on her husband. The team dig into her relationships, work, friends, and find a tangled web. The relationship between Tyler, tense, uptight, unpredictable, and his sergeant, Danny Mills, a food addict fighting a losing battle with the calories, makes for some unpredictable story lines. Long may this series continue!

[A.A. Abbott · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fast-paced detective story, with dizzying twists to keep the pages turning. This case of a missing estate agent is likely to confirm all your prejudices about the industry. It certainly leads DCI, Tyler and DS Mills on a merry dance around Stoke-on-Trent.

[Sandra Weaver · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story very intriguing fabulous twisting tactics which keep you guessing great read