John Barber: 50 books

Knights Templar of Hertford still meet in underground chambers connected by a secret network of tunnels. Two brothers described their existence in an exclusive interview for the local newspaper: ‘a largely unknown, indeed mostly secret, ancient underground network that stretches beneath the town’s...

Childhood eczema in its early stages can be recognized by red patches in the folds of skin behind arms and legs; and can be easily confused with nappy rash in early stages. The condition makes the child scratch the affected area causing the infection to spread. This causes the child to feel uncomfortable,...

Katherine Ferrers is known as the Wicked Lady, a female highwayman who terrorised the local countryside in the middle of the seventeenth century. One night she was mortally wounded but managed to ride back to her home, Markyate Cell, where she died. Her servants took her body to be buried at St Marys...

As Shakespeare once said: ‘We all have our exits and our entrances.’ This is a collection of news stories from the 1980’s. They are real news items from around the world. The one common factor is that they all have a reference to death. Not just deaths of people and animals and the strange...

At 10.45pm on Monday 13th March 1699 Sarah Stout the daughter of a prominent Quaker left the White Lion coffee house in Hertford in the company of Spencer Cowper, the son of the local MP. At six o’clock the next morning her lifeless body was found floating in the River Lea. As the last person...

In this second part of the Fordhamton Trilogy - secrets some residents thought safe threaten to be uncovered with the reading of Arthur Brown’s will. Thoughts of containing the problems in town are blown apart when Tim Rice, a management trainee at CCS Banking Group is abandoned in a training exercise....

On the day that Steve Winwood is promoted to Chief Inspector he is called out to Rutherford Corinthian Football Club. Ben Davies one of the directors is found in the supporters bar with his throat cut and head almost severed from his body. None of the other directors attending the Board meeting saw...

In this final part of the Fordhamton Trilogy the first Fordhamton Arts Festival gets off to a bad start when the stand-in for the school’s production of The Real Inspector Hound is found murdered during the dress rehearsal.The murder brings Detective Inspector Miles Davis back to town. His...

Cllr Bob Ball’s references to the Russian side of his family were always taken with a large pinch of salt. Until his Russian wife turned up at his funeral. Then strange things began to happen in Rutherford. The County Archivist is found murdered in the second basement and the Finance Director of...

When J’s car breaks down outside the village pub Ruth the landlady has no reason to disbelieve his explanation that he was just passing through. They have an instant attraction to the other. Whilst he waits for his car to be repaired J tells Ruth of his career and background. Then the details of...

When the local reporter accidentally stumbles into a hotel room he finds the local MP engaged in a sexual encounter in the middle of a promotional film shoot for a range of personal goods. The MP is forced to resign causing a by-election. The town of Rutherford is known to reflect the mood of the...

The strange circumstances of Alan Price’s death in a car crash is just the first in a series of bizarre events in the town of Fordhamton. DI Harley is not convinced that it was suicide. As his investigations continue he finds that although no one actually liked Alan Price no one was desperate enough...

The Fordhamton Trilogy contains all three episodes in the affairs of Fordhamton. A Little Local Affair begins with the fall out following the suspicious death of Alan Price in a car crash and the ensuing fraud, by-election and strange behaviour of some of the town’s more respected citizens. Return...

The Murder Mystery Weekend at the Fleetwood Arms Hotel is thrown into chaos when one of the guests is murdered. The first thing DI Steve Winwood discovers is that many of the guests are members of the Rutherford Operatic And Dramatic Society (ROADS) and they all have solid alibis for the time of death....