The story behind Art Marvik in the mystery thriller series

I like heroes, and, as I’m a sucker for adventure stories and mystery, there was no doubt that this was what the Art Marvik mystery thriller series had to be.  I wanted a lead character who was not bound by the official rules of the law, as is my DI Andy Horton in the Solent Murder Mystery series - although Andy is a renegade detective and often goes out on a limb to solve a case. And neither did I want a thoughtful, sensitive character like my 1950s Inspector Ryga.

I wanted an action-man, fit, but flawed, and the Marvik mystery thrillers had to have the hallmarks of my brand – a troubled hero, the sea, boats, interesting and diverse characters and lots of action.

Art Marvik is a former Royal Marine Commando, Special Boat Services Officer, recently out of the marines. He's tough, highly trained, fearless, intelligent and fit. But injuries inflicted while in combat have forced him to leave the marines and seek a new life in Civvy Street. He thought he’d be able to adjust and carve out a new career for himself on the sea, but his first job (before book one in the series opens) as a private maritime security operative goes very wrong when the luxury motor cruiser he was travelling on, and had been detailed to guard, gets attacked by pirates in the Indian Ocean, and Marvik finds himself with a bullet in his shoulder, and the boat’s owner dead. He’d failed on his first mission in civilian life, and DEADLY WAVES (1) opens with him reeling from it.

Marvik’s not sure what lies ahead for him, but when his former marine comrade, Shaun Strathen, enlists his help to find a missing computer scientist, and a former girlfriend of Marvik’s goes missing after visiting him in his remote Isle of Wight cottage, Marvik find his himself sucked into a dangerous mission.

Soon Marvik is recruited to work undercover for the UK's Police National Intelligence Squad by Chief Superintendent Crowder, which takes Marvik into dangerous and deadly waters as he seeks to find lethal killers whose crimes are steeped in the past.

In his second mission in DANGEROUS CARGO, Marvik has to unravel the truth behind a fifty year old mystery, but as he uncovers its dark and dangerous secrets someone is determined to stop him.

But Marvik is back in LOST VOYAGE, his mission to stop a ruthless assassin who is determined that the secret of the Mary Jo's last voyage never be exposed. In FATAL DEPTHS, things are about to get a lot more personal for Marvik. Aided by his former Royal Marine colleague, Shaun Strathen, Marvik is on the hunt for a stolen computer disk that holds the key to the secret of his parents deaths in an underwater explosion in the Straits of Malacca in 1997.

I have an idea for book five, so Marvik might very well return to solve another gripping mystery. I hope you enjoy reading the Marvik mystery thrillers.