The Exploits of Neptune King

In this the fifth book of the Neptune King series our heroes tackle the supernatural when they are hired to catch a vampire in Cornwall. In the isolated village of Abernathy, five young women are dead, their blood completely drained and puncture marks in their necks, and if that wasn’t enough the locals are being scared by the spectre of a man that transforms himself into a bat. This is the sort of case that Neptune delights in, and he and Shark soon impress the locals by catching the bat man on their first night in the village. While Neptune is off sick, Rachel begs Shark to give her time off so she can nurse him back to health. Against his better judgment she convinces Shark to give her new friend Rebecca Evans a chance, leading to some volatile scenes thanks to her bad habit of conclusion jumping. Naturally she falls for him, and Shark finds he is irritated and attracted at the same time, but what could they possibly have in common? She, the daughter of an earl and distantly related to the Queen, and he the son of a drunken motor mechanic. Shark figures it’s a relationship doomed from the start, while Rachel hopes that the relationship will develop so that Shark too can find love. They continue to go from strength to strength cementing their reputation as detectives when the tackle a multiple murder case. An elderly woman retains them to investigate several suspicious deaths in the nursing home. She suspects the new owners are killing them for their savings as their wills are being altered, with the nursing home being the major beneficiary in each case. Shark initially thinks it is just a lonely old lady with an over active imagination, but Neptune is more inclined to take her seriously. He sends Rachel in undercover as a nursing assistant, mostly to keep an eye on their client, but she breaks the case wide open, putting herself at risk.