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Catrin Sayer #1
The Chinese Sailor
The Chinese Sailor is the first Catrin Sayer full-length detective mystery.
A Chinese naval officer from Hong Kong goes missing from a cruise ship while it visits the Welsh port of Holyhead… and a missing person investigation turns up nothing. An international police operation to break an art smuggling ring loses track of three stolen Russian paintings worth $2 million ... they disappear from the same ship, on the same cruise.
Four months later Jian Li Yeung, the younger sister of the missing sailor, starts a year at Bangor University. It is the closest university to the point of disappearance of her brother. The Metropolitan Police Art Crime Unit wants to know why she is in the UK and whether it has any bearing on their case. Constable Catrin Sayer is looking for promotion and a new role away from drug squad work in Brixton. Her application crosses the desk of the Art Crime Unit as they look for a way of finding out more. Coincidence and her Welsh background lead Catrin to agree to go undercover to find out more.
Sayer is twenty-four at the time; keen, ambitious, trying to balance her work as a police officer with her interests as an artist. From her short-term undercover role to working on a team trying to discover the fate of both the paintings and the missing sailor, she finds herself adjusting to new challenges, new relationships and the meaning of becoming a ‘detective constable’ at New Scotland Yard.
Please read also The Scottish Colourist, the second Catrin Sayer novel, (now available) and watch out for the next novel in the series, currently titled The Falmouth Model.
A Chinese naval officer from Hong Kong goes missing from a cruise ship while it visits the Welsh port of Holyhead… and a missing person investigation turns up nothing. An international police operation to break an art smuggling ring loses track of three stolen Russian paintings worth $2 million ... they disappear from the same ship, on the same cruise.
Four months later Jian Li Yeung, the younger sister of the missing sailor, starts a year at Bangor University. It is the closest university to the point of disappearance of her brother. The Metropolitan Police Art Crime Unit wants to know why she is in the UK and whether it has any bearing on their case. Constable Catrin Sayer is looking for promotion and a new role away from drug squad work in Brixton. Her application crosses the desk of the Art Crime Unit as they look for a way of finding out more. Coincidence and her Welsh background lead Catrin to agree to go undercover to find out more.
Sayer is twenty-four at the time; keen, ambitious, trying to balance her work as a police officer with her interests as an artist. From her short-term undercover role to working on a team trying to discover the fate of both the paintings and the missing sailor, she finds herself adjusting to new challenges, new relationships and the meaning of becoming a ‘detective constable’ at New Scotland Yard.
Please read also The Scottish Colourist, the second Catrin Sayer novel, (now available) and watch out for the next novel in the series, currently titled The Falmouth Model.
- GenresMystery
326 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 2, 2014
2 people are currently reading
18 people want to read
About the author
Allan Jones
19 books5 followersI grew up in Merseyside, England, became a chemist, moved in the 1980s to Canada and recently retired. I started creative writing several years ago.
Oct 2019 update. My newest novel is a 'stand alone', not part of the Catrin Sayer series. Called 'Canons', it is set partly in the Lake District UK, partly in Hamilton, Ontario. A key element is a modern church trial; a court of canon law. But it begins with a body in a lake near Keswick...
My published novels so far are about a young Welsh detective, Catrin Sayer, who works in an Art Crime Unit at New Scotland Yard. 'The Chinese Sailor' is partly set in North Wales. The second in the series, 'The Scottish Colourist' is in Glasgow and the third, 'The Falmouth Model, moves the events to Cornwall and, towards the end, Malaysia. The fourth in the series, 'The Carnforth Double' picks up the end of the third but moves quickly to London, and an investigation of the theft of paintings from a merchant bank. The last novel published in November 2016 deals with a strange painting found in mid-Wales - 'The Powys Deacon.
The series follows the life and career of Catrin Sayer, both the ups and the downs, from her decision to become a police officer in London after graduation from university with an arts degree. I try to make both the characters 'real people' as each art mystery unfolds; no macabre violence, serial psychopaths or detectives with no life outside work. But interesting characters, I think, nonetheless, some of which crop up in each book.
I hope you have a look at them if you like traditional British detective mysteries.
Oct 2019 update. My newest novel is a 'stand alone', not part of the Catrin Sayer series. Called 'Canons', it is set partly in the Lake District UK, partly in Hamilton, Ontario. A key element is a modern church trial; a court of canon law. But it begins with a body in a lake near Keswick...
My published novels so far are about a young Welsh detective, Catrin Sayer, who works in an Art Crime Unit at New Scotland Yard. 'The Chinese Sailor' is partly set in North Wales. The second in the series, 'The Scottish Colourist' is in Glasgow and the third, 'The Falmouth Model, moves the events to Cornwall and, towards the end, Malaysia. The fourth in the series, 'The Carnforth Double' picks up the end of the third but moves quickly to London, and an investigation of the theft of paintings from a merchant bank. The last novel published in November 2016 deals with a strange painting found in mid-Wales - 'The Powys Deacon.
The series follows the life and career of Catrin Sayer, both the ups and the downs, from her decision to become a police officer in London after graduation from university with an arts degree. I try to make both the characters 'real people' as each art mystery unfolds; no macabre violence, serial psychopaths or detectives with no life outside work. But interesting characters, I think, nonetheless, some of which crop up in each book.
I hope you have a look at them if you like traditional British detective mysteries.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 31, 2015
This is an intriguing book told in convoluted layers of time at first, which took a little getting used to. The main story is set in contemporary Wales, but almost immediately the reader is transported to China several decades before. I'd almost forgotten the original Welsh-setting opening as I became engrossed in the multi-generational story of the Yeung family. Even so, I'd been fairly warned by the book's opening that this family was fated for undeserved ill-fortune; subsequent chapters bring us back to Wales to learn how it played out.
This is an intelligent, thoughtful mystery with nice historical touches. I liked the pace of the unfolding narrative and the glimpses and clues that were just enough to get my ideas for suspects going without revealing too much. I particularly appreciated the balance in describing some cultural and linguistic patterns of both Wales and China, without falling into simplistic stereotypes for either.
There were some minor typos here and there, but not out of the ordinary for anyone who doesn't have the services of a publishing house editor.
I liked the book very much. As soon as I'd finished, I felt compelled to go back to the beginning and reread a nice chunk of it to make sure I had it all settled. I suspect the occasional shifts of time and perspectives is a stylistic signature of author Allan Jones, though I can't say for sure until I read the next in the series, which I plan to do very soon.
This is an intelligent, thoughtful mystery with nice historical touches. I liked the pace of the unfolding narrative and the glimpses and clues that were just enough to get my ideas for suspects going without revealing too much. I particularly appreciated the balance in describing some cultural and linguistic patterns of both Wales and China, without falling into simplistic stereotypes for either.
There were some minor typos here and there, but not out of the ordinary for anyone who doesn't have the services of a publishing house editor.
I liked the book very much. As soon as I'd finished, I felt compelled to go back to the beginning and reread a nice chunk of it to make sure I had it all settled. I suspect the occasional shifts of time and perspectives is a stylistic signature of author Allan Jones, though I can't say for sure until I read the next in the series, which I plan to do very soon.
January 9, 2021
I liked this new (to me) detective, Catrin Sayer, enough that I have obtained the second book in the series, despite the fact that I had some difficulties with this one. Realized on second reading that I should have paid more attention to the details in the Hong Kong section. Even so, the numerous characters turning up out of the blue in the second half made the story confusing. And the wrap-up was very protracted.
August 1, 2022
I thought that this was a very good read. For me it was a page turner, with nice depth of story, good pace, and very engaging.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews