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Pauline Rowson is a British author of mystery, thriller and crime fiction novels.

Born and raised in the seaside English city of Portsmouth, she is best known for writing thrillers featuring ex-Royal Marine Commando Art Marvik, Scotland Yard detective Inspector Ryga, as well as the DI Andy Horton mystery series.

Pauline has a soft spot for her coastal hometown, which is why her fiction writing revolves around coastal towns.

Prior to becoming a full-time novelist, Pauline worked as a distinguished marketing and training guru.

Whenever she isn't writing, which seldom happens, Pauline can be found treading the seaside paths looking for the most befitting place to hide a body!

She is a member of the Crime Writers' Association and the Society of Authors.

More about Pauline Rowson

Genres: Crime Suspense, Mystery, Thriller

United Kingdom

Website: https://www.rowmark.co.uk/

Non Series

  • In Cold Daylight (2006)
  • In for the Kill (2007)

Art Marvik

  1. Silent Running (2015)
  2. Dangerous Cargo (2016)
  3. Lost Voyage (2017)
  4. Dead Sea (2021)

DI Andy Horton

  1. The Portsmouth Murders (2006)
  2. The Langstone Harbour Murders (2007)
  3. The Horsea Marina Murders (2008)
  4. Dead Man's Wharf (2009)
  5. The Isle of Wight Murders (2010)
  6. The Portchester Castle Murders (2011)
  7. The Chale Bay Murders (2012)
  8. The Farlington Marsh Murders (2012)
  9. Undercurrent (2013)
  10. Death Surge (2013)
  11. Shroud of Evil (2014)
  12. Fatal Catch (2016)
  13. Lethal Waves (2017)
  14. Dead Passage (2018)
  15. A Deadly Wake (2020)

Inspector Alun Ryga

  1. Death In The Cove (2019)
  2. Death In The Harbour (2020)
  3. Death In The Nets (2021)

Detailed book overview

Non Series

In Cold Daylight

Before fire-fighter Jack Bartholomew can reveal the cause of his own and his colleagues’ cancer he is murdered.

In a cryptic message orchestrated before his death he has left a trail of clues that will lead his friend, marine artist, Adam Greene, into a labyrinth of lies, secrets and conspiracy at the highest level.

Fire fighter Jack Bartholomew dies whilst trying to put out a fire in a derelict building. Was it an accident or arson? His closest friend, marine artist Adam Greene, doesn't know, only that Jack has left him a cryptic written message and had also confided in him shortly before his death that he was hot on the trail of exposing a deadly and dangerous secret.

When Jack's house is ransacked on the day of the funeral, Adam feels compelled to take up Jack's quest. Soon he is caught up in a mysterious and dangerous web of deceit and, as the facts reveal themselves, the prospects for his survival look bleak.

For Adam though there is no turning back; he has to get to the truth no matter what the cost, even if it means his life.

Author: Pauline Rowson
First Release: 2006
ISBN: 978-0955098215
Publisher: Fathom
In for the Kill

What happens to one man when his identity is stolen. For Alex Albury the nightmare that destroyed his life will only end in death; his or his tormentor’s.

Alex Albury has it all: a successful business, a luxurious house, a family. One September morning the police burst into his home and arrest him. Now, three and a half years later, newly released from prison, Alex is intent on finding the man who stole his identity and framed him for fraud and embezzlement.

All he knows is his name: James Andover. But who is Andover? Where is he?

Alex embarks on his quest to track him down but with the trail cold he is frustrated at every turn. Worse, he finds himself under suspicion by the police.

The pressure is on and Alex has to unearth the answers and quick. But time is running out. For Alex the future looks bleak and soon he is left with the option - to kill or be killed.

Author: Pauline Rowson
First Release: 2007
ISBN: 978-0955098222
Publisher: Fathom

Art Marvik

Silent Running

Adrift after leaving the Royal Marines, and smarting from his first failed civilian mission, Marvik seeks refuge in a remote cottage on the Isle of Wight but all that is about to change when a former girlfriend shows up with a disturbing story about the murder of a young woman fifteen years ago and her growing belief that the man convicted of it is innocent.

When the girlfriend goes missing after leaving Marvik's house the police suspect Marvik of not only her abduction but also her possible murder. In order to prove his innocence, and find the missing girl, Marvik needs to draw on all his skills, instinct and training, and those of his friend, former Royal Marine Special Forces Communicator, Shaun Strathen, to get to the truth.

Their mission, to stop a ruthless killer before he kills again.

Author: Pauline Rowson
First Release: 2015
ISBN: 978-1916392281
Publisher: Fathom
Dangerous Cargo

Undercover investigator, former Royal Marine Commando, Art Marvik is tasked to find the truth behind a fifty year old mystery but as he unravels its dark and dangerous secrets someone is determined to stop him from ever revealing them.

Marvik is detailed by his boss, Detective Chief Superintendent Crowder of the UK’s Police National Intelligent Marine Squad, to discover why the body washed up on an Isle of Wight beach is a man declared dead fifty years ago. Marvik's investigations take him to the Dorset coastal town of Swanage.

When an innocent woman is killed during the course of the investigation, Marvik realizes that the stakes are much higher than he’d previously thought. As he begins to uncover a trail of deceit, corruption and murder that spans over half a century, Marvik must confront a ruthless killer who will stop at nothing to make sure that his dangerous cargo of sins of the past stay in the past.

Author: Pauline Rowson
First Release: 2016
ISBN: 978-0955618901
Publisher: Fathom
Lost Voyage

Undercover investigator, Art Marvik faces a desperate battle to save others from a ruthless assassin who will stop at nothing in order to protect the secret of the Mary Jo’s last voyage from ever being exposed.

Former Royal Marine Commando, now undercover investigator for the UK Police National Intelligence Marine Squad is surprised to receive an unexpected summons from Helen Shannon, a woman he helped on his first mission for the squad.

When a body is discovered in her flat, Marvik is convinced that Helen is being framed for murder, but why and by whom? Before he has a chance to follow it up, the head of the Squad, Detective Chief Superintendent Crowder, asks Marvik to investigate the disappearance of a salvage vessel, the Mary Jo, which went missing in 2003.

As Marvik delves into the past, it becomes clear that he faces a desperate battle to keep Helen and others safe from a ruthless assassin – one who will stop at nothing in order to protect the secret of the Mary Jo’s last voyage from ever being exposed.

Author: Pauline Rowson
First Release: 2017
ISBN: 978-0955618925
Publisher: Fathom
Dead Sea

Marvik is on the hunt for a stolen computer disk that holds the key to a secret which a ruthless killer is determined must never be revealed.

When Marvik visits his safe deposit box in his London bank and discovers that a three-and-a-half inch floppy disk he had placed there a few weeks previously has been stolen he is surprised and deeply troubled. What’s more it has been taken only the day before his arrival by a man Marvik has never heard of.

Puzzled and disturbed, Marvik is left cursing his reluctance to ask his former Royal Marine colleague, intelligence and cyber expert, Shaun Strathen, to open the disk and reveal its contents when he first discovered it in the possession of murdered marine archaeologist, Sarah Redburn. Now its theft indicates that Sarah was killed because of its highly toxic contents.

Convinced it holds the key to the truth behind the deaths of his parents, Marvik, with Strathen’s aid, sets out to track down the thief. As they follow a trail of abduction and murder it soon becomes clear that the computer disk holds the key to a secret that a ruthless killer is determined must never be revealed.

Author: Pauline Rowson
First Release: 2021
ISBN: 978-0955618949
Publisher: Fathom

DI Andy Horton

The Portsmouth Murders

Meet Detective Inspector Andy Horton. It’s his second day back in Portsmouth’s CID and things aren’t going well.

DI Andy Horton is on his morning run along an isolated stretch of beach when he stumbles across a dead man. Stark naked and bludgeoned to death.

Eight months ago, DI Horton’s life fell apart when he was suspended for misconduct. His wife kicked him out and stopped him seeing his daughter.

The young woman who’d accused him went missing and the charges were dropped, but his personal and professional life are still in a mess.

And now it doesn’t look good for a detective under suspicion to be the one to find a dead body. His colleagues don’t want him on the case.

But this murder will challenge Detective Horton in every single way. And when another body turns up with the same cause of death, Horton suspects he might be the next person in the killer’s sights.

NB: Previously published as Tide of Death.

Author: Pauline Rowson
First Release: 2006
ISBN: 978-1804050590
Publisher: Joffe Books
The Langstone Harbour Murders

The head mistress of a Portsmouth school is found brutally murdered on an old structure in the middle of Langstone Harbour. Detective Andy Horton of Portsmouth CID leads the investigation.

A note is found on the victim with the words ‘Have you forgotten ME?’ scrawled on it.

And a wad of money covered in honey, and wrapped in a five pound note is also discovered on her person.

The victim is Jessica Langley, a steely, determined woman who has made enemies on her path to success. But did any of them hate her enough to want her dead?

All the evidence points to a killer who wanted to leave a very particular message.

Horton is in a race against time to piece together the clues and stop the killer. With the clock ticking and Superintendent Uckfield pressing for results, Horton is forced to make a decision that will put his life on the line.

NB: Previously published as Deadly Waters.

Author: Pauline Rowson
First Release: 2007
ISBN: 978-1804051078
Publisher: Joffe Books
The Horsea Marina Murders

One foggy December night, Detective Inspector Andy Horton is called to the site of a burning boat on Horsea Marina. He finds a charred body onboard.

The autopsy reveals startling evidence of foul play. The victim was Tom Brundall, a wealthy financier from Guernsey. And Tom had terminal cancer. What made him sail back to his hometown of Portsmouth? And who would kill a dying man?

Horton is determined to find out.

But then another body is found and Horton is forced to confront the past. Not just the victim’s, but the mystery surrounding his own mother’s disappearance over thirty years ago.

As the pieces of the puzzle begin to unravel, it becomes clear that Horton is up against a deadly adversary who will stop at nothing to prevent the truth from coming out.

Can Horton catch a killer and find out what happened to his mother all those years ago?

NB: Previously published as The Suffocating Sea.

Author: Pauline Rowson
First Release: 2008
ISBN: 978-1804051443
Publisher: Joffe Books
Dead Man's Wharf

Inspector Andy Horton and Sergeant Cantelli are called to a nursing home where an elderly resident, suffering from dementia, claims she's been attacked by an intruder.

Horton is ready to dismiss it as senile ramblings until he discovers that her room-mate has died, the dead woman's belongings are missing and her son, convicted for armed robbery, has been found dead in his cell.

Coupled with a series of threatening telephone calls to a television personality, and a mother's conviction that her son's death on Christmas Eve was no accident, Horton finds he is caught up in a complex investigation that has far-reaching international implications.

With the pressure on to find a killer, and hampered by his belief that his bosses are lying to him, Horton discovers that he's stepped into a web of intrigue, deception and corruption that stretches back into the past.

NB: Previously published as The Royal Hotel Murders.

Author: Pauline Rowson
First Release: 2009
ISBN: 978-0955098253
Publisher: Fathom
The Isle of Wight Murders

A cold, grey January morning.

A woman with a gun in her hand.

A corpse on an abandoned golf course.

Detective Inspector Andy Horton is taking a break on the Isle of Wight. But even when he’s on holiday trouble follows him . . .

On an abandoned golf course, Horton finds a distraught, young woman with a gun in her hand, crouching over one of the derelict bunkers.

Then the smell hits him. A dead man lies there. Dressed in walking gear, his body decomposing.

The woman with the gun says she’s his sister.

The local police think she killed her brother, but Horton’s not so sure.

Then Horton’s boat is broken into and another body is found in a barn. The victim stabbed in the back with a pitchfork.

Horton must race against time to uncover the truth before the killer strikes again.

NB: Previously published as Blood on the Sand.

Author: Pauline Rowson
First Release: 2010
ISBN: 978-1804051559
Publisher: Joffe Books
The Portchester Castle Murders

It’s Friday the thirteenth and Detective Inspector Andy Horton’s luck is about to run out.

His Harley-Davidson is vandalized, a strange symbol etched into the paintwork. Is it some kind of warning?

To make matters worse, Horton’s nit-picking boss, DCI Lorraine Bliss, has returned early from her secondment to HQ.

And a convicted murderer out on license has gone missing. Luke Felton. Horton recognizes the name from a case he worked as a sergeant.

Now a decomposing corpse washes up in Portsmouth harbor. The bloated body is found lying in the thick slimy mud.

Before Horton can get a grip on either case, his phone rings. He doesn’t recognize the number. A voice on the other end gives him an address: Willow Bank, Shore Road, Portchester.

Horton knows it. The house belongs to a woman he’d met the day before. And now she’s dead. Her body lies in her windswept garden.

Horton’s got a lot on his plate. Can he connect the dots before anyone else dies?

NB: Previously published as Footsteps on the Shore.

Author: Pauline Rowson
First Release: 2011
ISBN: 978-1804051573
Publisher: Joffe Books
The Chale Bay Murders

Suspicious lights at sea, decomposing bodies and an old flame send Horton down a rabbit hole...

An elderly man obsessively watches the coast from his Victorian house high on the hill above Ventnor. When he observes mysterious lights out at sea, he reports them to the police.

The local police think he’s a bit of a nuisance. And when Horton interviews him he’s inclined to agree. A judgement he may bitterly regret.

Meanwhile a call comes through from Horton’s partner, DS Cantelli. A woman’s decomposing body is pulled out of the sea, wearing a Victorian-style dress. The post-mortem gives them a massive shock.

And when another body is found, Horton thinks he’s got a serial killer on his hands. At this point the last thing he needs is his old girlfriend showing up.

NB: Previously published as A Killing Coast.

Author: Pauline Rowson
First Release: 2012
ISBN: 978-1804051597
Publisher: Joffe Books
The Farlington Marsh Murders

Detective Inspector Andy Horton is at the funeral of ex-con Daryl Woodley. He’s there to keep an eye on the mourners and watch out for a big-time crook, who they suspect was involved in Woodley’s murder.

But it’s a perplexing case. Prior to his death, Woodley was assaulted and spent three days in hospital before discharging himself. His body is found by a dog walker on Farlington marshes, three miles from the hospital. How did he get there?

The funeral surveillance appears to be a bust. But the next morning Horton is called out to another suspicious death.

A woman’s body is found on a yacht wreck, stabbed in the back. She’s wearing a black figure-hugging dress and a wide-brimmed black hat.

Horton recognizes the woman instantly. She was at Woodley’s funeral.

Are the cases linked? Horton is thrown into another complex investigation. As tensions rise, Horton receives a chilling message. It looks like time is running out for our bold detective...

NB: Previously published as Death Lies Beneath.

Author: Pauline Rowson
First Release: 2012
ISBN: 978-1804051610
Publisher: Joffe Books
Undercurrent

When naval historian Dr Douglas Spalding is found dead in Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard, Superintendent Uckfield head of the Major Crime Team is adamant it is suicide. Detective Inspector Horton is not so sure. Then another body is found in similar circumstances and Horton is convinced they’re looking at murder; but not so his bosses.

Angry and frustrated at the lack of investigation, Horton goes out on a limb to prove he’s right. Whichever way he turns, he finds the deaths have all the hallmarks of a cover up at the highest level, but who is behind it and why?

Soon Horton begins to find disturbing similarities with his own private investigations into the disappearance of his mother thirty years ago. As he gets closer to the truth though someone is determined to prevent it from ever coming out, even if means death.

Author: Pauline Rowson
First Release: 2013
ISBN: 978-0992888909
Publisher: Fathom
Death Surge

A telephone call from a frantic Sergeant Cantelli to say that his nephew, Johnnie Oslow, is missing cuts short Detective Inspector Horton’s sailing trip to France.

Summoned back to the Isle of Wight, Horton learns that Johnnie has not shown up for the International sailing regatta of Cowes Week on the Isle of Wight, as previously arranged. The investigation is ranked low priority by Horton’s boss, DCI Lorraine Bliss, who like others believes Johnnie has probably gone off with a woman.

But events take a very different turn when the charred remains of a body are discovered in one of the disused tunnels at the Hilsea Lines in Portsmouth. Is it Cantelli's nephew?

With the arrival of Detective Chief Superintendent Sawyer of the Intelligence Directorate and Agent Harriet Eames of Europol, what began as the hunt for a missing man becomes the search for a ruthless killer.

Author: Pauline Rowson
First Release: 2013
ISBN: 978-0992888916
Publisher: Fathom
Shroud of Evil

Detective Inspector Horton of Portsmouth CID is assigned the case of a missing person: Jasper Kenton, a private investigator. Eunice Swallows, Kenton’s partner,seems reluctant to help them, and Horton concludes that she is probably relieved to be rid of him. He instructs Sergeant Cantelli and DC Walters to put out the usual alerts, believing Kenton has probably run off with another woman.

But when Kenton’s car turns up, and a shocking discovery is made, things turn serious. Immediately, Horton finds himself embroiled in an investigation that has major personal ramifications and one in which he has no choice but to withhold vital information. As he struggles to crack the case, he knows it is only a question of time before someone discovers he’s kept silent and when that’s revealed, his part in hindering a major investigation will end his career...

Author: Pauline Rowson
First Release: 2014
ISBN: 978-1847516503
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Fatal Catch

Trust no one. Believe nothing.

DI Andy Horton is called out to examine a gruesome catch by two fishermen: a human hand. Is it that of missing violent criminal, Alfie Wright - or is he the killer? And where is the rest of the corpse?

Soon Horton finds himself immersed in a complex case where everyone has a reason to lie and no one is who they seem. Assailed by doubts both in his personal and professional life, Horton desperately tries to keep his emotional feelings under control and his focus on his work. His instincts tell him to trust no one and believe nothing; he's not sure, though, whether this time he'll succeed...

Author: Pauline Rowson
First Release: 2016
ISBN: 978-1847516602
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Lethal Waves

Two apparently unrelated deaths draw DI Andy Horton into the dangerous current of a complex and disturbing case.

Number 13 in the Inspector Andy Horton series. DI Andy Horton's meal with his old friend, Inspector John Guilbert of the States of Guernsey Police, is cut short when a smartly dressed, affluent woman is found dead in her cabin on the ferry from Portsmouth to Guernsey. There doesn't appear to be any suspicious circumstances.

As soon as he returns to Portsmouth, however, he is called to the scene where a vagrant's body has been found lying partially covered under one of the rotting houseboats close to Horton's boat in the marina. This time, it's clearly murder.

Troubled by the many unanswered questions surrounding both deaths, Horton must call upon all his skills and intuition to solve a complex case, uncovering dark secrets that have led to such lethal waves of destruction.

Author: Pauline Rowson
First Release: 2017
ISBN: 978-1847518071
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Dead Passage

Inspector Andy Horton receives a mysterious telephone call from Adele Goldsby, the daughter of a dead Portsmouth politician, with an urgent request to meet him on the Isle of Wight ferry because she has something to reveal about her father's death twelve years ago.

When she doesn't show, Horton is at first inclined to think it was a hoax until more information comes to light. As he unofficially looks into the circumstances surrounding the politician's death he becomes more convinced that the initial investigation was cursory to say the least, a fact that is borne out by Sergeant Cantelli who was on the case.

With increasing concerns over the continued silence from Adele Goldsby and as new evidence is unearthed connected to a long ago killing, Horton believes the politician was murdered. Now all he has to do is convince his bosses.

Author: Pauline Rowson
First Release: 2018
ISBN: 978-0992888923
Publisher: Fathom
A Deadly Wake

Inspector Andy Horton returns to his desk in Portsmouth CID after a tedious computer course in London to find there has been a series of highway robberies in his absence and an arson attack at the sailing club where the Chief Constable keeps his boat. What’s more the Chief’s boat is one of three that have been set alight and he’s demanding action.

But when the fingerprint bureau phone Horton to tell him the prints of an unknown man found dead in a log cabin in a secluded bay on the Isle of Wight match those of someone he met six months previously, Horton’s priorities are clear. He travels to the island to identify the body but what greets him is totally unexpected.

As he follows the trail of the dead man, he uncovers some startling revelations into his own mother’s past and the truth behind her disappearance over thirty years ago.

Author: Pauline Rowson
First Release: 2020
ISBN: 978-1916091566
Publisher: Fathom

Inspector Alun Ryga

Death In The Cove

England 1950, struggling to come to terms with peace in the grip of austerity and rationing. The body of a man in a pinstriped suit is found in a secluded bay on Portland Island, Dorset. Scotland Yard's Inspector Ryga is sent to investigate.

Recently promoted, Ryga, is on his first solo investigation outside of London, and is keen to prove his worth. Ignoring the warnings of the local police inspector, and the Dorset Chief Constable, that his trust in Eva Paisley, a former war photographer who discovered the body, is misjudged, Ryga quickly realises that her observations could provide the breakthrough he needs in a complex murder investigation and the answer to the haunting circumstances that have sent the man in the pinstriped suit to his death.

“Ryga studied the face of the dead man with interest. Death no longer had the power to shock him. He’d seen too much of it. That didn’t mean he didn’t feel sorrow, pity, anger or despair, or sometimes all four emotions and in such a swift succession that they became one. This time he felt none of these, only professional curiosity.”

Author: Pauline Rowson
First Release: 2019
ISBN: 978-0992888954
Publisher: Fathom
Death In The Harbour

Scotland Yard's Inspector Alun Ryga is sent to Newhaven, East Sussex to unravel the mystery of why an ordinary police constable was murdered and his wife has gone missing.

December 1950. Myra Swinley is convinced that her police constable husband’s death was no accident, and that he would never have lost his footing on a dark, foggy night on the quayside of Newhaven Harbour while on his beat. Determined to get to the truth she visits Scotland Yard to ask his former friend, Detective Superintendent Street, to investigate. Street says they have no basis to do so, but when Myra fails to return home from her visit to the Yard, Inspector Ryga is sent down to the Sussex coast to investigate.

Accompanied by former war photographer, Eva Paisley, who has been airlifted back to England after suffering a wound incurred in Korea, Ryga’s investigation soon begins to uncover some puzzling facts. Painstakingly, and with Eva’s assistance, Ryga begins to unravel the mystery of why an ordinary police constable was murdered and his sensible law-abiding wife has gone missing.

Author: Pauline Rowson
First Release: 2020
ISBN: 978-1916091580
Publisher: Fathom
Death In The Nets

A cold wet January in 1951, former war photographer, Eva Paisley, insists that Scotland Yard detective, Inspector Ryga, return with her to the Devon coast where she has been staying with a friend, a former refugee from Belgium.

Eva remains tight-lipped about the reason, saying only that she’s puzzled and concerned over something she has heard since arriving there a week ago. Ryga, off duty for the weekend, is only too pleased to escape London for the sea air and spend time in Eva’s company.

Eva takes him to a house in the fishing port of Brixham where the son of her friend is adamant that he’s seen a body on the shore ‘all bashed up’. Eva claims the little boy has been talking of nothing more for a week. The boy’s mother dismisses it as an over-active imagination but Eva’s not convinced. Now the child is adamant the body he saw was on the very night of their arrival.

Ryga asks the child to take them to the location, not expecting to see anything, but is stunned to find the child has been telling the truth; on the dark shore, on the wet January night is indeed the body of a man, stabbed through the heart and tangled up in fishing nets.

After making some preliminary enquiries, Ryga, who has no jurisdiction to investigate, has to hand the case over to the local police. Very soon though, after a series of startling revelations, he is summoned back to Devon to discover why the dead man who left the town eleven years ago has returned and why someone hated him enough to murder him.

Author: Pauline Rowson
First Release: 2021
ISBN: 978-0955618963
Publisher: Fathom