Downs Crime Mysteries

Bernard Wilfred Downs who prefers his nickname of Sarge is a retired Detective Chief Inspector living in Cairns, Australia. Using his network of contacts, he sets out to solve a mystery that has landed in his lap. It is a dark secret that the ADF and the government don’t want to see the light of day.

The fifteenth in the Downs Crime Mystery series, sees Sarge Downs and his family under attack from an unknown source. The criminal behind the attacks has ulterior motives and a series of incidents rock the North Queensland city of Cairns.

Former Chief Inspector "Sarge" Downs comes out of retirement to work as a private individual attempting to re-unite a young man from Germany with a man who disappeared more than twenty years earlier in Cambridge UK, but was recently seen in Cairns, Australia. With the aid of an old Scottish friend, Donald McPherson, they discover that the UK Home Office may have secrets to hide.

Chief Inspector, 'Sarge' Downs of the Cairns police in Queensland, Australia is drawn into the investigation and coroner's inquest following an explosion of an LPG tanker being hauled by a locomotive to Cairns. The information that is established in the inquest shows that it was not an accident. In searching for the suspect, all of Cairns comes under threat from an unexpected quarter.

Coral Voyager, a large cruise ship, runs aground just south of Cairns in far north Queensland. Passengers disembark. The ship is refloated. Cairns Police Chief Inspector "Sarge" Downs and two colleagues board the ship off Cairns when it is noticed two crew have gone missing. They travel on the vessel which is under tow, all the way to Townsville trying to work out just what has happened.

Twin brothers on two sides of the world are kidnapped at the same time sparking investigations in both Cairns in Northern Queensland and Inverness in Scotland. Two police forces work together finding the supply and distribution of drugs are involved and the twin brothers' business is not all it appears to be. Just who the kidnapper is and what his motives are, remain a mystery until the very end.

A private jet crashes into the hillside above Cairns. Bodies are retrieved and the plane contents are examined. All is not as it should be and Detective Chief Inspector “Sarge” Downs and Detective Sergeant Nat Johns of Cairns CID are called into investigate. This case proves to be one of the most complex, mysterious and dangerous ones that they have encountered.

Detective Inspector "Sarge" Downs of the Queensland police received a mysterious parcel. In it he finds various accounts of the role his grandfather, Wilfred played in WW2. He learns that the frail old man he once knew, was indeed an unsung war hero who had a number of dangerous missions behind enemy lines. What took place on an island in the Pacific and later in Burma however destroyed him.

A trip to New Zealand by Cairns police Detective Inspector "Sarge" Downs and his family goes horribly wrong when they become involved in the transport of drugs around the South Island by a major drug organisation. With the support of the local police and the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service, they still manage to enjoy their holiday; though always kept aware of the danger they are in

A dismembered arm washed up on a beach leads Detective Inspector "Sarge" Downs and Nat Johns all the way from their Cairns base down to Melbourne to seek a murderer. They find a close knit but very dysfunctional family with criminal ties, who seem to go to great lengths to avoid being caught up in the investigation of their son and brother's death. The mysterious conspiracy is eventually uncovered

Detective Inspector "Sarge" Downs of the Queensland police witnessed the brutal murder of a student near Cairns. With the aid of his colleagues, Nat Johns and Liz Rhodes and the Australian Federal Police and Border Force, he gets to the heart of the matter. Real estate fraud, extortion, prostitution, money laundering, drug trafficking and people smuggling have been behind the young woman's death.

Detective Inspector "Sarge" Downs of the Queensland Police and based in Cairns came to learn of what happened to his Uncle Ray who had been called up to do National Service near the end of the Vietnam War. Ray was seconded to the Joint Intelligence Organisation in Canberra and was faced with a case of spying, corruption and illegal operation at the time of great change in Australian government.

"Sarge" Downs, a detective Inspector in Cairns, Australia relates how he and his older cousin, Francis, became mixed up in the major gangland war that was happening in Melbourne during the late 1990's. He was out of his depth completely, having only just graduated from the police academy. More by good luck than good management they were able to avoid becoming collateral damage. But only just.

Ostensibly Detective Inspector "Sarge" Downs from Cairns was looking for a break. However, while on a holiday in Hong Kong with his partner Sarah, his attempt at saving a man from being beaten up in a market place leads to a kidnapping and ransom demand from a Chinese drug triad. Sarge is eventually released and then aided by Hong Kong and Australian police, he tries to track down his captors.

Detective Acting Inspector"Sarge" Downs, investigates a suspicious death in Port Douglas that leads he and his colleague Constable Nat Johns to discover that corruption is still rife in the governmental, policing and judicial sectors in Queensland. These two police officers and their respective partners, Sarah and Jess are placed in a great deal of danger as they unravel the tangled web of deceit.

When a total stranger entered Cairns Police Station in Far North Queensland, a bored Sergeant Downs becomes suddenly interested. To solve a mystery, he is dragged half a continent away to an opal mine in Coober Pedy in South Australia. This led to a manhunt in outback Queensland over the case of two missing miners. This is the first book in the Downs Crime Mystery Series.