Official website of
the author of
the DCI Greg Geldard book series
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.
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.
Secret Places introduces DI Greg Geldard and first responder Ben Asheton. You will meet them again in the second in the series 'Glass Arrows'.
Praise for Secret Places
'This is a unique and fascinating novel that really delves deep into society's murky depths..'
'I was hooked and engaged in this fascinating and intriguing story'
crazedredheadblog.wordpress.com
'a great book and I will look out for the rest of the series'
@bookworm1346
'Heather has woven this terrible theme (domestic violence) into the story with great skill. Not just another crime story!'
'The plotting...was fantastic' 'highly, highly recommended.'
choppercrimebooks.wordpress.com
'not your standard mystery thriller - the author successfully included an underlying message which was not allowed to overpower the story.'
'It is an astounding tale that is guaranteed to keep you entertained to the very last page'
featzreviews.com
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.
Glass Arrows: shortlisted for the 2021 East Anglian Book awards fiction prize
The 2nd in the series, ‘Glass Arrows’ was shortlisted for the 2021 East Anglian Book Awards prize for fiction. The category judge, Kate Weston of UEA, said: "Unmistakably East Anglian in its setting, ‘Glass Arrows’ explores a dark side to rural communities and agricultural crimes, and tackles such issues with realism and sensitivity, from the personal impact of a bird flu outbreak to the challenges of recognising modern slavery. Glass Arrows keeps the reader engaged from start to finish, with remarkable attention to the details of a criminal investigation by Peck. A page-turner that, as a reader, would be enjoyable on screen as well as on the page."
Published 28 March 2022
Praise for Fires of Hate
Scintilla
I have become a huge fan of Heather Peck and her character DCI Geldard.
Peck’s books do not have the outsider savant who shows the police how to do the job. They do not have the brilliant but quirky officer who ruffles everyone’s feathers but gets the job done. Instead they feature a smart and dedicated team who work well together, share a common mission, have mastered the basics, and keep working the job until something breaks. They are decent, mature adults who have decent, mature relationships with each other and with families. None of them are perfect, none of them are extraordinary. Some authors seem to feel that drama requires a brilliant but acerbic figure, a cop on the take, or some other unusual or corrupt character. Some of those authors need to read Heather Peck to discover how to find drama in the ordinary.
Rutherford Reads
I’ve read both of Heather Peck’s previous books and have enjoyed them so much..... Her series of books have opened my eyes to a world of things I know very little about but, find completely fascinating, this book covers the topic of laboratory research testing and threats and then the investigation into the attack on this government department. With hidden secrets along the way there is always more to things than meets the eye and I love getting stuck into a good mystery like this which keeps me guessing.
A really brilliant series of books.
Wee Glasgow bookworm
Today is my blog tour stop for #firesofhate by the lovely Heather Peck.
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
I’ve given it 5 stars as it has everything I need in a book. Fantastic characters, a great storyline, and that feeling of sadness when it’s finished. Well deserved!
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 books 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.