Books with author Gareth P Jones

Wanted: Dead or Alive! (Or smashed into little bits and delivered in boxes.) The Steampunk Pirates are lured back to England by the promise of gold. But the appearance of their inventor, Mr Richmond Swift, signals big trouble. He has a new army of robots and it's not long before sparks begin to fly. Have the pirates finally met their match? This hilarious new series from Gareth P. Jones, author of Ninja Meerkats, is sure to delight young readers with its madcap humour and larger-than-life robot pirate crew. Perfect for fans of Jonny Duddle's The Ghostly Galleon and the Space Pirates books, looking for more swashbuckling action!

When Detective Dirk Dilly gets a surprise visit from a Sea Dragon in need of his sleuthing skills, at first he dismisses the case. After all, dragons are extremely high risk and they rarely pay well. But soon Dirk is stuck - from his horny head to the tip of his scaly tail - right in the thick of a dramatic new mystery full of unexpected danger. His trusty friend Holly has made some startling discoveries too, and it's not long before Holly and Dirk are together involved in perhaps their slipperiest mystery yet, involving the strange disappearance of a sister, a dodgy billionaire and some very powerful dragons. Not to mention they will make some unlikely friends along the way in this compelling and plot-driven story full of exciting and unusual twists and turns.

When Dirk Dilly gets a call from a distraught wife, he does not expect much in the way of exciting crimes to solve, but he sets off to follow the husband anyway. He couldn't be more wrong and soon he is up to his scaly neck in stolen government secrets, wicked and treacherous dragons, and a confused Prime Minister's son. Of course, nothing is too difficult when you can rely on a good friend like Holly to help you out.

When Holly and her friend Archie are in LA (flown out there by the billionaire Brant Buchanan) they bump into a character from Holly's past. Petal Moses is in the middle of making the film version of her autobiography. While filming in the heart of the Californian desert, the director catches something 'dragonlike' on camera. However, before it can be properly examined, the roll of film goes missing. Realising this is a case for Dirk, Holly immediately calls him up. In no time at all, the dragon detective is up to his neck once more in a dangerous investigation involving some Californian Desert Dragons who spit poison rather than breathe fire.

Wanted: Dead or Alive! (Or smashed into little bits and delivered in boxes.) The Steampunk Pirates jump at the chance to earn a handsome reward in return for doing some snooping. But when they find themselves sandwiched between the Dread Captain Inky beard and a spider on the attack, it’s time to beat a retreat. Can they escape without a scrape or have the robotic rebels ticked their last? This hilarious new series from Gareth P. Jones, author of Ninja Meerkats, is sure to delight young readers with its madcap humour and larger-than-life robot pirate crew.

This brief but fascinating collection contains "The Cave", which was awarded 1st place in the 2018 Hailsham Arts Festival Short Story Competition. All 4 of the tales are allegories about aspects of the world in which we live. "The Pheasant that Refused to Fly" explores passive resistance. "The Dragons of Litlington" takes a gentle tilt at complacency and the "The Elephant who turned into a tree" examines the developing ecological disiaster for which the Industrial World , and perhaps all of us, is responsible.They can be read as stories pure and simple, or used to stimulate thought and discussion, perhaps in young people.Written by a retired Teacher of History and Drama.

Told with Gareth's signature wit, humour and thoughtfulness, this story examines the way stories shape our past, present and future. Eddie is pretty certain nowhere could be more small-town, more boring, and more inconsequential than his home town of the Wellcome Valley. Unfortunately, he is about to be proved spectacularly wrong. Eddie's problems start with the arrival of Scarlett, a new girl in town who seems rather too confident and mysterious for your average schoolgirl. She attracts trouble (and Eddie) like a magnet, and she's apparently only interested in two very strange things - protecting the town's local crackpot scientist, and telling Eddie absolutely nothing about what on earth is going on. And why is she so interested in Eddie's long-dead mother? Things quickly go from weird to worse for Eddie, as he finds himself right in the middle of a dangerous mystery - one with consequences not just for him and Scarlett, but time itself.