Amalgamated Arts Michael Heath - actor, director and screenwriter.

AMALGAMATED ARTS

NOVELS

Michael fell into writing novels by accident. When looking at developing his very first screenplay, he began to write out the story in narrative form in order to consolidate his ideas and discovered that it became an engaging read that people really liked and wanted to read more. It became his first novel and he now has seven completed books.

Devereux ... and a question of class

Former military intelligence officer, Clayton Devereux, resigned his commission in 1930 and set-up his own detective agency, which he runs with his secretary Rose and the occasional hiring of his street-wise cohort Ollie Jones. Their routine work of divorce and petty crime usually bores the urbane Devereux so he is intrigued, and keen to help, when a former colleague asks him to assist unofficially in the search for an M.I.5 operative who has gone missing. In a plot that is woven against the actual political and social tensions of the period, the story twists and turns as Devereux’s clandestine investigation gradually uncovers a dangerous and sinister threat to national security and the stability of the country. Solving the case and finally defeating the forces set against him costs Devereux far more than he was prepared to lose.

Devereux ... and a Royal Flush

The second Devereux novel in the series.

In the fateful abdication year of 1936, Devereux receives a clandestine summons to the Houses of Parliament, where he is hired in secret to investigate the theft of personal letters that, if made public, could bring down the monarchy and the empire. With his close team of Rose Merriman and Ollie Jones, Devereux infiltrates the highest echelons of London society. Their enquiry constantly twists and turns through a convoluted path that exposes them to violence and major fraud. Set against the background of actual events of the period, this fascinating tale finally results in an extraordinary and unexpected revelation that must never be disclosed.

Devereux ... and a case of second sight

The third Devereux novel in the series.

Devereux is hired by a star of film and theatre when she receives mysterious threatening letters that order her to abandon her hit West End play or face death. The strange stanzas of the letters appear to suggest witchcraft and the occult and lead Devereux into the oddest case of his career. With his team of Rose Merriman and Ollie Jones, Devereux sets out on the first week of the play’s tour and immediately encounters murder. As he finally uncovers the source of the strange threatening verses, Devereux discovers a far more sinister and dangerous plot that leads him to Special Branch and the secret services and risks repercussions for the safety of the whole country.

Willow Moon

In Christie’s London auction rooms in 2012, a painting by Chinese Master Bingwen, called The Willow Moon, sells for a record price. As the delighted buyer, James Covington, leaves the auction he is confronted by a young Chinese woman. She produces an old sepia photograph showing The Willow Moon in the possession of a beautiful Chinese girl named Lihua and standing beside her in the photograph is an Englishman whom James instantly recognises as his ancestor Richard Covington. The exciting and deeply moving tale the girl then relates, handed down by each generation of her family, is the story of Tián Shuĩ, a small village in China. James learns that Richard Covington was a hero who saved the rural community from the terrorising bandit leader Meng and married Lihua, the daughter of the head man. Their wedding gift was the painting by Bingwen of the rare lunar eclipse called The Willow Moon. But the extraordinary story of the painting and its strange and wonderful journey to Christie’s one hundred and forty years later, brings James Covington more than the true history of a work of art.

Conquered Hearts

The discovery of a skeleton on a Jersey farm in the summer of 2010 leads a local reporter to elderly Belle Legallienne, whose amazing personal story takes the journalist back seventy years to the German occupation of 1940. Her poignant and touching tale relates the strength of spirit and humour with which the Legallienne family and the entire island population endured five long years of hardship and oppression under the heel of Nazi rule. The eighteen year old Belle grows to womanhood in a gripping account of courage and daring that shows the best and worst elements of human nature and salutes those who stood against injustice and the loss of liberty. As her story finally reaches the liberation and the island is free, the reporter brings the interview to what he thinks is a close; but Belle has one more secret to reveal. She takes the reporter back again to 1945, to a surprise twist in the tale that finally provides the answer to a decades long murder mystery.

The Executive

When an African diplomat dies in his hotel room from a heart attack after buying the services of a call girl, the doctor conducting the autopsy is unhappy with his findings but receives pressure from above to ignore his suspicions and close the case. Unable openly to oppose his superiors, he calls freelance journalist Josh Brody and asks him quietly to investigate. Struggling to keep up his alimony payments and trying to be a decent, if absent, father, Brody needs an assignment and so agrees to help. His initial enquiries produce nothing significant, and he is about to abandon the story, when he unexpectedly discovers there has been a definite attempt at official cover-up. Sensing the possibility of a big story, the journalist begins to dig beneath the apparent facts and starts to uncover the extraordinary truth. His enquiry takes him to Vienna where he finds yet more contradictory evidence and slowly discovers a conspiracy more sinister and far reaching than he could possibly imagine. Faced with forces he cannot hope to defeat, Brody’s investigation not only puts his own life at risk but places his family and everything he loves in danger.

The Linguist

The Linguist is an exciting and intriguing espionage novel that tells the story of a man alone against the all-powerful state and his fight to survive.
In Switzerland, a British tourist dies suspiciously on the ski slopes. In Russia, a top scientist conducts cutting-edge research under the scrutiny of the state secret police. In France, a world-weary detective hunts Islamist terrorists bombing the streets of Paris. In England, the Special Intelligence Service secretly monitors an international conference of The United Nations World Food Programme. As these apparently unrelated threads gradually converge, the fly caught in the spider’s web is Adam Russell, a British Government interpreter whose car collides with another driven by Nina Petrova, a Russian journalist. The consequences of that collision penetrate the highest ranks of British Intelligence and change Russell’s life for ever.

Devereux

Devereux ... and a Royal Flush

The second Devereux novel in the series.

Devereux ... and a case of second sight

The third Devereux novel in the series.

Willow Moon

Conquered Hearts

The Executive

The Linguist

Devereux

Devereux ... and a Royal Flush

The second Devereux novel in the series.

Devereux ... and a case of second sight

The third Devereux novel in the series.

Willow Moon

Conquered Hearts

The Executive

The Linguist

Devereux

Devereux ... and a Royal Flush

The second Devereux novel in the series.

Devereux ... and a case of second sight

The third Devereux novel in the series.

Willow Moon

Conquered Hearts

The Executive

The Linguist

Devereux

Devereux ... and a Royal Flush

The second Devereux novel in the series.

Devereux ... and a case of second sight

The third Devereux novel in the series.