This bumper offering of three contemporary novels reveals how criminality flourishes when driven by greed, particularly when nobody has the courage to report wrongdoing.

1. The Whistleblower Affair: Exposing Immorality within boardrooms

A major British bank is in trouble. Investors and account-holders alike are in peril. The rot is embedded at board level. Step forward a highly paid employee so infuriated by his director’s behaviour that he links up with a journalist to expose the criminality involved.

Few anticipate the ferocious worldwide response to the news that much is amiss within this bank; certainly not the journalist, or the whistleblower. Within hours both are put under pressure, from surprising quarters.

Venturing into this field of unbridled greed and avarice, Jonathan Veale, in his wry manner, exposes the criminal behaviour of millionaire bank directors too busy feathering their own nests to deal with complaints about the dreadful services offered to account holders, if any can be found at all in some areas by!

This insightful novel pulls few punches as it denounces these overpaid, rapacious people while informing and entertaining in equal measure.

2. A Chateau To Die For: A Lothario Hell-bent On A Bargain

Property bargains excite Brits contemplating a new life abroad, and French estate agents welcome these expat hopefuls with open arms.

‘Too good to be true,’ is not a concept that bothers dreamers, especially those who have had one too many cognacs and already sold their overpriced homes in Britain for what they regard as the lottery win of a lifetime.

In this diverting story, expat chateau-owners are threatened by an amoral chancer who befriends lonely women anxious to believe they have at last met ‘the right man’. Stryker Upshott’s thoughts are elsewhere, however. He plans to acquire the chateau at a knockdown price as the couple find themselves temporarily stuck for cash. He’s in for a shock. Women, too, can play it rough, and one is briefed to do just that.

And then a Mafia connection surfaces, encouraging both greedy and romantic aspirations to take off in new and unexpected directions.

3. Katie Turns To Crime: Comeuppance for an Actress?

And finally, a female of the species takes centre stage, many of whom have struggled valiantly in the first two novels while, as usual, well meaning men make fools of themselves.

Diamond dealing in Amsterdam, money laundering with a maverick Sicilian in Ibiza, and all the while neglecting her beloved cats . . . what on earth possessed this young now widowed actress to leave her cottage in deepest France and move into circles that would give most of us nightmares?

A few years earlier, Katie Maltravers had undertaken one short role, to help out a friend. Her performance, a real life one, was spectacularly profitable, and the windfall has prompted her to seek further wealth. Soon, nothing is ‘beyond the pale’. Crime awaits, as do complications, romantic and legal. One can only hope Katie eventually sees sense, and repents?

A fitting novel to complete this series of entertaining stories about all too human beings. Of course, we would never behave so inappropriately . . .

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