Heather Peck

BOOKS

Goat farmer, cheese maker and weaver Tristan Smith is working on her North Yorkshire smallholding when a chance visit by archaeologists exposes a skeleton in an abandoned WW2 bunker. But it’s not a wartime casualty.

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Tristan becomes involved in the search for the truth about her predecessors, as DI Greg Geldard follows a trail from North Yorkshire to the Norfolk Broads. He is seeking justice for a long dead victim; but another casualty is hunting for a new life and a safe place to start again.

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Secret Places introduces DI Greg Geldard and first responder Ben Asheton. You will meet them again in the second in the series 'Glass Arrows'. 

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When the body of a farmworker is found during a turkey cull, the incident falls to DCI Greg Geldard to investigate. Newly promoted and newly transferred from North Yorkshire to Norfolk, he is about to face the most challenging case of his career. As he uncovers evidence of organised crime and modern slavery, the body count rises, a friend is threatened and he struggles to bring the murderer to justice.

Glass Arrows is about loss and exploitation. Loss of belonging and certainty. Exploitation of labour, of people and of the environment. And one man’s fight to rise above his own problems to do what he believes is right.

Prey, predator or protector - which are you? Glass Arrows is the second book in the DCI Greg Geldard thriller series.

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Join author Heather live for the official book launch of Glass Arrows. Submit your questions to ask Heather live during the event - can't make it? No problem, register and we'll send you the recording.

Burning Pyres

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Greg Geldard 3

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coming soon

The Author then

BIO

I’ve had a life of two halves. In the first I was both farmer and agricultural policy adviser. I bred sheep and alpacas, reared calves, broke ploughs, represented the UK in international negotiations, specialised in emergency response from Chernobyl to bird flu, managed controls over pesticides and GM crops, saw legislation through parliament and got paid to eat KitKats while on secondment to Rowntree. In the second I chaired an NHS Trust, worked on animal welfare, sailed a boat on the Norfolk Broads, volunteered in Citizens Advice and the Witness Service and vaccinated humans against Covid. Two golden threads have run through everything; my love for both reading and writing, and the wise words of my Gran. ‘You can do anything if you try hard enough.

Now I write about the countryside and the animals I love, the industry (farming) I hold in deepest respect, and the various ways in which humans make things bad for each other and the world around them, always being very aware of the sad fact that cruelty to animals usually goes hand in hand with cruelty to other humans. Much of my time in the Witness Service and in Citizens Advice has indeed brought me face to face with some of the more tragic aspects of family life and work.

I write about the rural world because I want to share its wonders, peculiarities and hilarious moments with people who may not have been privileged to see it as I have seen it. But I wrote these specific books, Secret Places and Glass Arrows, because each uncovers problems that are probably hidden to most of us and about which I care passionately.

My main protagonist has grown with each story and his life has changed in ways I couldn’t have predicted at the start. When I started writing Secret Places I did not intend Greg Geldard to be the main protagonist. But I find that he, and other characters, take on a life of their own. How they react to circumstance affects what and how they feel, and therefore how they evolve. That too gives me immense satisfaction. Greg Geldard is now a man with a rounded personality; some strengths, some weaknesses, some insights and some blind spots. I’d like to meet him.

For any inquiries, please contact Heather Peck

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