What lies beneath the surface of ordinary lives?
I've always been curious about people.
What makes them tick, what happens when their lives go wrong and circumstances push them beyond their limits.
Whether an ordinary person can change lives and make a difference.
My childhood experiences of unfairness and injustice shaped my values and influenced my decision to become an environmental health officer. (Discover more)
I learned to listen to people, to resolve conflicts, and to understand what lay behind their problems.
I learned to always look beneath the surface.
Perhaps that's why, years later, I became a mystery novelist.
I'm Robert Crouch, and I write murder mysteries set in the English countryside.
Agatha Christie's Miss Marple inspired me. She showed how an ordinary person could notice things others overlooked and make a difference. (Discover more)
It inspired me to take the idea and create stories about everyday people caught up in extraordinary circumstances. To explore what happens beneath the peaceful surface of rural life.
People aren’t always what they appear to be. The apparently peaceful village can conceal gossip, rumours, complicated relationships, old resentments, hidden motives, and unexpected loyalties.
If you're new to the Downland Murder Mystery series, the first novel, No Accident, is the best place to start.
No Accident is the first of my ten Downland Murder Mysteries.
If you'd like to discover the series, you can read the opening two chapters.
When No Accident was published in 2016, Crime Fiction Lover said, “Expect sharp dialogue and irreverent humour in this whodunnit, which manages to pay homage to the traditional murder mystery, while striking a contemporary and irreverent note.”
No Accident ... No Bodies ... No Remorse
Or, if you could start with a bargain by purchasing the Downland Murder Mysteries Collection, which contains the first three novels for only £5.99.
It’s like a breath of fresh air to discover a lead character who is neither a disillusioned police officer or a downbeat private eye.
Kent is a modern creation for a new breed of thrillers!" Susan Corcoran.
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“You will fall in love with the characters and will enjoy every second. If you’re looking for your next whodunit that will give you a complex, twisty mystery with clues that you’ll never figure out, and a plot that will keep you guessing till the end then check this out.”
Curled up with a Good Book.
Meanwhile, I'm working on something new…
The Mother He Never Knew
When James Riddel returns to the village where he grew up, he intends to discover the truth about his parents’ deaths. What he finds is a secret life his mother kept hidden from him.
Add a mystery that reaches back years before her death.
Haunted by the death of her sister Megan ten years earlier, Sheryl Holmes has spent her life believing she was responsible. Now, as she prepares to return to where it happened, the past closes in around her.
A hidden case. A mysterious novel. An unexplained connection to a hotel. A woman who may not be who she claims to be.
As James and Sheryl follow separate trails into the past, they uncover secrets that connect their families in ways neither could have imagined.
And with every discovery, they realise James' parents didn’t die by accident
