John Barleycorn Must Die

Detective Chief Inspector Steve Winwood is recalled from retirement to locate a missing MI5 agent. He has no name and no photo to assist his search; only told that he is the right man for the job. He is soon informed that a left hand drive Range Rover crashed on the bypass, burst into a fireball and the car and driver burned to a cinder with no means of formal identification. After speaking to the police station sergeant and the brewery he is reasonably certain that the dead man was Roger Chapman, the Marketing Officer for Redbourne Brewery known to drive a left hand top of the range Range Rover SUV. In his attempts to verify this he is monitored by the agencies of the secret service. Winwood is a plain, working class man who does not believe in UFOs or aliens. However he has contact with strange Men in Black who do not offer any obvious physical threats but make it clear that he should do as he is requested. Winwood has to call on the help of his closest friends who he knows he can trust; Brian Bennett, Consultant Editor for the Rutherford International News Group (RING) and John Cherry, owner of an antiquarian bookshop who Steve has always suspected has links inside Government circles. These two provide Steve with evidence of alien life amongst the everyday life of Rutherford. Steve is still not totally convinced but two close encounters with the mysterious Men in Black shake that belief. His former Sergeant, now Detective Inspector Emma Porter arrives in town to investigate a case of an international property fraud brought to the attention of her department by a mysterious Chinese businessman. The trail leads back to Roger Chapman. Steve Winwood knows that everything he has unearthed is connected but as Brian Bennett warns him, who will believe it. His final report offers a simple solution of a man suffering a nervous breakdown after brokering a deal between the brewery and the Chinese went terribly wrong and being discovered as being the man behind the property scam was the last straw. Roger Chapman committed suicide but maybe that is not the truth. The truth is more bizarre. This book has drawn upon true stories of contacts with aliens; names have been changed but mysteries remain. The main one being the reason behind appearance of the sinister Men in Black. They are far from being Hollywood film stars but are they working for the Government or an alien intelligence? There is no definitive answer. Those who have encountered them do not want to meet them again.