Showing results by author "Ian Shimwell" in All Categories

A comprehensive collection covering the formative years of the fun cosy mystery series, The Armchair Detective. Featuring every script from Series One & Two, and even the first 2 plays of the not-yet published Series Three. In total, a bumper deduction-busting 12 mysteries!

Four enthralling, distinctive novellas representing the diverse genres of: historical adventure; political thriller; science fiction and murder mystery. Plus exclusive Extras: an alternative, extended ending and a bonus ghostly story to explore - if you dare...

Journey from the stunning, unique and ultra-modern Times Apartments to the brooding, Gothic atmosphere of Castle Mandrake... Series Nine of The Armchair Detective plus two feature-length Specials.

Bossy Margaret joins Trench at the Stokeham Herald as they investigate: A nefarious night school; a life-changing book; a footballing mystery and a menace of a once familiar manor-house... Extras include a never-before-published deleted scene.

Trench and Old Tom follow the clues for finding the old fellow's long-lost friend from the past, Eleanor. Can Trench find her, for his old friend, before illness strikes a deathly blow? And discover the final secret of the armchair detective..? All five mysteries of the last-ever series of The Armchair Detective.

A curious Christmas cuckoo; a clockwork mystery; a capital investigation and a suspiciously helpful Mandrake... Be the armchair detective alongside Trench and Old Tom in four more cosy mysteries. Plus Extras: Play of the Month Guide & Planning The Armchair Detective

Dreadbury Manor has endured more mysteries than most over the years. A missing girl; a manipulative aristocrat; a madcap father and the bubbling Dreadbury Punchbowl. And six years later: A mystery woman; an absent aristocrat; a hidden menace and the bubbling Dreadbury Punchbowl. Mystery and the manor-house go together. So read both manor-house mysteries – available for the first time, in this one special volume.

The shop around the corner… Following a clue to find Old Tom’s friend from the past, Eleanor, Trench visits The Stokeham Shop and can’t quite believe what he sees there. Why for a busy shop, does it seem to take little or no money? Why is there an abundance of security cameras? And what is the connection between a member of the shop’s staff and a particular awkward customer? What’s more, Trench and Debsy want to actually shop there, but find it to be… impossible.

"Old Tom, I've lost my memory..." Trench turns up on Old Tom's doorstep barely knowing how he came to be there, having seemingly lost all of his memories. Old Tom sits him down and suggests that Trench forgets his lack of memory for now, and carry on as usual. The old fellow even has to hand-draw him a map of how to reach the Stokeham Herald. At the Herald, Trench meets the new temporary girl, Diana. They soon start looking into an alarming number of recent shop closures which may have a connection to forgotten figures from Trench's own unreachable past...

A major sponsor of the Stokeham Herald, a gadgets factory, severs its ties with the newspaper. Trench finds his new colleague, Debsy infuriating, exasperating and dizzy in turn - but can she somehow help? What is the reason for all the sudden changes at the factory? And will Trench, once more, seek guidance from an old friend with a fondness for armchairs..?

First ever Armchair Detective two-parter: "Events cast shadows before them." Old Tom, most unlike himself, is suddenly fearful of the 'Old Days'. He eagerly looks into Trench's new mystery to take his mind off his worries. The investigation takes Trench and Debsy away from traffic duty to a detective agency who are monitoring the strange case of a wife who disappears every Tuesday night. And just who is watching Trench from afar? Old Tom slowly realises that he must solve the mystery before his past catches up with him...

"You look as though you need a holiday, Trench.” Old Tom encourages Trench to take a holiday to the Bayview Guest House in sunny Clayton-on-Sea, primarily to see if he can discover anything of a previous guest there, a certain Eleanor. But as Trench steps into the guest house, he finds it curious to say the least. An old-fashioned atmosphere seems to permeate through the very walls. The vintage colour television in the lounge looks like it hails from the 1970s. There is no mobile telephone coverage, and don’t even think about a Wi-Fi signal. Trench considers his fellow guests and ...

A shoebox has appeared on Trench's desk at the Stokeham Herald - he has no idea of how it came to be there. Trench opens the box to reveal three wooden dolls. Trench looks at the dolls. Two boys and a girl. Their clothes are dishevelled and bedraggled. Their wooden faces are dark and stained with age. He looks into their eyes. Somehow Trench knows that they were once, perhaps a lifetime ago, much loved. Trench wonders what the dolls would say if they could speak. He places the lid back upon the shoebox. He decides to take the dolls to Old Tom, with a hope to discover just what their story, ...

Like everything else Mandrake has accomplished in his life, he has meticulously planned and prepared his final memoirs. Mandrake knows that Thomas and Trench will have to, not only examine every word, but also read in-between the lines, if they’re to have any hope of unearthing the clue, for finally finding Eleanor…

"Kind sir, would you buy a match? Only a penny each..." Trench finally visits the secretive Fellowship - the link behind the management conspiracy - and finds them just that, secretive. He sends Debsy and Steven to do some Fellowship research, while he picks up a story - about a children's care home, the Workhouse. The Workhouse do a good job in helping poor and vulnerable children, but Trench discovers, round the back of the Workhouse, something impossible on a cold, fog-fuelled cobbled alleyway that shouldn't even be there - a little match girl, selling matches...

“Goal! A record-equalling goal!” Watched by Margaret and Trench, ‘Strike‘em in Staunton’ scores for the ninth game in a row, equalling Stokeham United’s all-time goal scoring record. But then striker Staunton suffers from a series of suspicious mishaps. Could someone at the club be attempting to stop Staunton from breaking the goal record by using foul play? Old Tom suggests delving deep into the club’s historical records, but soon realises that the footballing mystery is becoming more complicated than the off-side trap…

"The end days are upon us." For over a thousand years, The Fellowship has survived, evolved, planned and prepared for one purpose and one purpose only. The Fellowship believe the wrath of the ancient Gods will soon cause a cataclysmic event. They believe, as it is written, that only one person can provide salvation - and that person happens to be Trench. Trouble is, Trench doesn't even know what he's supposed to save them from, never mind how to do it. Perhaps, as always, the final secret lies with his armchair-bound friend, Old Tom...

"A Housewife comes as standard." The last remaining of the unique and innovative Times Apartments, at One Solo Street, is still available to let. This stunning apartment features: ultra-high specifications throughout, including state-of-the-art appliances that contour seamlessly into the living space, combined with an advanced 100 inch flat screen television which covers one entire wall. Instinctive lighting is combined with unsurpassed comfort and eye-catching austere, minimalistic design. An intuitive Housewife is included with the apartment and you will find the letting price to be the ...

Tearing Debsy away from her latest craze, logic puzzles, Trench looks into a noisy neighbour story with a difference. Why does Harris play very loud music at such precise, regular intervals? What is the purpose of a Bank in the middle of a housing estate? And is Harris' obsession with the Cold War anything to do with the price of fish? Helped again by Old Tom, Trench needs to take a leaf out of Debsy's book, and start looking at the problem, logically...

TRENCH'S HOLIDAY CHECLIST (for a visit to the sleepy coastal village of Fisherman's Cove) TOOTHBRUSH - CHECK BUCKET & SPADE - CHECK (I'll need to do some digging.) MYSTERY - CHECK (An enduring fifty year-old one: whatever happened to the brothers Quinn?) GIRLFRIEND - NOT EXACTLY (But Sally-Anne's coming along.) ARMCHAIR - AFRAID NOT (Sorry Old Tom, but it won't fit in the suitcase.)