Roy Jenner A Life in Words Collected Novel Summaries . About the Author .. Nine decades of the challenging experiences of ROY JENNER laid the foundations for a platform of scintillating novels. Roy loves to write from the heart delivering a reading package designed to satisfy the most discriminative reader. Roy Jenner was born in the East End of London and has resided in New Zealand for more than sixty years. Having completed 17 full length novels he continues to write for your pleasure. ‘Roy Jenner Books,’ inserted in Google’s search window will expand your horizon. ✒️ A Note on the Work of Roy Jenner There is something unmistakable in the voice of Roy Jenner; a clarity born of experience, a grounded humanity that threads through each of his stories like a lifeline. His novels are not merely tales; they are testimonies — to love, loss, justice, memory, and the irrepressible will to endure. What defines his work most is its credibility. Whether writing of crime, romance, war, or time travel, Roy never leans on the artificial or the outlandish. Instead, he crafts characters who feel lived in, who carry their wounds and joys in equal measure, and who make choices as complex as life demands. His dialogue is lean and purposeful; his pacing, unhurried but never lagging. There is dignity in his prose — a quiet refusal to write anything he himself would not believe. Reading Roy Jenner is not like reading a book. It's like being spoken to - by a man who has seen much, felt deeply, and still believes that stories matter. {Charles Chattaway) DID MY FATHER PLAY GUITAR? Brad Mason had never known a father's love. Whenever he raised the question his mother's answer was always the same. 'He was a good man.' Tilly Mason was a hooker on Kings Cross. Brad left Sydney on her death to seek seclusion in the outback of Australia. Trees, a paddock, a stream, no electricity, and no people, all this enabled him to fulfil his dream; play guitar and paint. His landscapes were good. Lester Arnold, an ex-patriot Nashville musician, recognised the potential of Brad's paintings and displayed his work in his steak-house on the Princes Highway. Success created new friends for Brad. He was welcomed into a world of country music, romance and intrigue. Laurie Anderson was a Sydney police sergeant on late shift when attracted by smoke billowing from a boarding house on Darlinghurst. He entered the burning building and rescued a young woman, left her on the road and returned to the flames to save her companion. Tilly Mason watched as firemen carried Laurie from the blaze and was by his bed the day the bandages were removed from his sixty five per cent burns. She was not repulsed by the synthetic mask that was now his face. For Laurie the prospect of rehabilitation was long, but Tilly was there and supported him. She stood by Laurie and fell in love, but continued to work at her profession. When she lay with him she saw only the beauty within, but would not give up her profession and continued to do what she did best. Laurie grew strong enough to re-enter the work force. His reputation as a police officer bore him in good stead for a position with a security company. His daily routine saw him responsible for the collection of large sums of money. Life continued to be cruel for Laurie, but acceptable, but he lost the one thing in the world he cared about. Tilly died and left a legacy that tested his emotions to the full. She revealed she'd had a son by him many years before; her only child. The boy had no knowledge of his father. That child was Brad Mason, a young man running from life while grieving over a lost mother and yearning for a father he didn't have. Laurie Anderson, a ruin of a man, became inspired by the search for his son. Two torn individuals, each a vital character in a twisting tale of romance and intrigue. FAMILIAR SURROUNDINGS Joseph Scott became enrolled in the school of life in February1990, the younger brother of two. The school of life; the one big pool of knowledge where one starts to learn from the first breath taken. There Joe learned how to live, how to laugh, how to accept, how to forgive, how to understand and eventually how to grieve, but how to love? No. He had no need to learn to love for he was born with love in his heart as we all were and his pathway into adult years was enhanced by that love and the directions in which he chose to direct it. His love for his parents knew no bounds and his learning experiences grew more challenging as he moved into adulthood and was forced to contend with the demanding reality of their senior years. This story takes us inside Joe's head as he learns to accept the mother he adores, though mature and beautiful on the outside, is changing and moving away from him in her mind. You are invited to share the pictures in Joe's head as he takes control of the family unit and struggles to understand family secrets inadvertently exposed as senior years affect those loved by him. HOUSE OF SECRETS Terror and violent death are loose in the Catlins of the South Island. An animal's only reason for killing is food. The Catlin's killer is not an animal, but a monster with another reason to kill. What could that reason be? Gloria Stuart's dead body is found in her remote farmhouse in the Clutha Valley; brutally murdered, stabbed to death in a savage attack. In the main bedroom the unconscious form of her husband Angus is found, covered in blood and reeking of alcohol. The jury's verdict is delivered in a short time. Guilty as charged; 'life imprisonment,' said the judge. The one child of this marriage was son Andrew, sixteen years old and in his first year of extended study at University. Since the cradle father and son had been at odds with each other and on many occasions Angus had invited Andrew to leave home. 'Don't come back, ever.' With the death of his mother Andrew had more reason to hate his father. He broke from school and travelled the world. Angus serves fourteen years of a life sentence before being freed. He returns to his home, the scene of the crime where a week later he is found hanging dead in the hallway. A note to his son begs for forgiveness. Andrew's love for his mother was unequalled. He returns with bitterness in his heart unable to forgive. His purpose is to claim his heritage and sell the land with its derelict home, but he is puzzled by the fact someone has been tending his mother's grave. Andrew finds death and fear stalk the valley. IN THE SHADOW OF THE HAWK The stirring sequel to The Bringing Down of the Hawk. A gripping story involving industrial espionage in New Zealand and the effect it has on the lives of Auckland business man Ted Starling and his bride to be Dawn Graham. The opening chapter involves German fighter pilot ace Broer Altschul and describes the events that led to his relocation to New Zealand following his capture in North Africa. Dawn Graham, the founder of her own design and fashion organization, working only in New Zealand wool products, unknowingly becomes the target of lightning sketch artist Altschul who has the ability and means to reproduce her exclusive designs and present them to the New Zealand market before her own marketing processes can be established. Ted Starling's failing heart induces him to make drastic decisions in his life and we are introduced to New Zealand bushman Ryan Elliott in the backwoods of Taupo who becomes the donor of the life saving organ. Many of these characters overflow from the previous book and this story deals with the strength and love between a male and a female in more mature years of life. It also deals with the private lives of unscrupulous characters such as Altschul and his conniving colleague Slade who are the parasites of life who choose to grow fat from the pickings from people such as Ted and Dawn. Dawn Graham's designs are under threat as copyright thieves threaten her industry when she is most vulnerable with Ted in a life-or-death situation. Ted becomes the recipient of a new heart and this story exposes the personal feelings of those involved as relatively the subversive attacks on the structure of their lives take second place. Ted recovers and he and Dawn marry bringing into the story characters from the past who have always stood by Ted in difficult times. Ted's character is tested when Dawn conceives a child she is destined not to carry for nature's full term and heartache and despair tear the story line apart. In personal grief Ted forsakes everything and everyone close to him, but eventually finds the strength to seek the comfort from long time family friends. With his replacement heart failing he understands he has been on borrowed time and undertakes to reveal a few personal secrets and straighten the record. What do we have here? We have a story of love, of loyalty, of failure and extreme success and of course, recrimination. LOST IN TIME Retired Chief of Detectives Phillip Maynard finds life difficult to handle following the death of his wife after forty-five years of marriage. After waking in hospital from a near-death experience, he is told a young man brought him to the emergency department. Of course, it could only be young Robert Gardener, whom he had met recently. Keen to repay Robert for saving his life, Phillip goes to Robert's home to meet his mother Andrea. When accused of trespassing and told that Andrea Gardener had passed away months ago, Phillip cannot fathom this situation. Robert is in search of his father, an RAF Squadron Leader and Battle of Britain pilot. Robert knows his dad is lost and not dead and asks for Phillip's help to find him. Phillip Maynard is now a man given the power to travel through time and possibly change the course of history with startling consequences. MASTER OF THE HOUSE Charlie Lampton was a star; Master of the House and as he proclaimed on stage, 'the best innkeeper in town,' but he was a slave to his destiny as he lost his wife through a ruptured marriage, his house through the pressure of a massive mortgage and everything he owned to the hands of thieves. With life at its lowest things were destined to get worse when his best friend and theatrical understudy died in suspicious circumstances. It was then a chance meeting with retired Sydney police detective Stephen Haynes did much to restore Charlie's faith in human nature as the two work together to salvage love and logic from the shattered remains of a brilliant career. It all happens Downtown Sydney. Stephen Haynes, a top police officer whose overindulgence in everything resulted in him degenerating to a high degree, returns to Sydney after a rehabilitating experience on the hills of Tibet. His double agenda has him in town to sell his assets and reunite with his daughter. The indiscretions of earlier times have been lessons in life for Steve from which he has learned well and the years spent on the slopes of the Himalayas have fashioned him into a new and wiser person. Now he is in control to consolidate his relationship with his daughter, sell his property and return to Tibet. At breakfast he meets Charlie Lampton, thespian, who has a leading role in the top musical production in Sydney. Charlie intends to quit the show at the end of the season when it moves to Perth; which is now. There are too many ghosts in Perth for Charlie. Steve and Charlie strike up a sound relationship and Steve learns of the misfortunes that have befallen the actor. Charlie's best friend and understudy Leslie Due has gone missing in mysterious circumstances and Charlie's actress wife has run away to New Zealand with her leading man. Charlie's house has been burgled and everything he owned has been taken; even his car from the garage. He is left only with the clothes he wears. Steve Haynes explains to Charlie it is only a matter of time before all these problems will be solved by the police and those responsible taken to task; except for the wife problem which is a matter of the heart. Charlie tells Steve he has little faith in police methods for there has been a nil result until now. NOT WITHOUT REASON The dramatic disappearance and subsequent death of socialite and art critic William Bond Walshe when his pleasure cruiser The Owl was wrecked off the Devon coast was neither an accident, nor a random killing. It was a premeditated and precise act of murder planned by much sought after criminal Glenys Hasting. Glenys had fled New Zealand with hundreds of millions of NZ dollars accrued by a syndicate of criminals who themselves were unable to avoid the law before paying the ultimate price for their horrific deeds. Glenys ran free and with INTERPOL still seeking her after five years she settled in Torquay England under a new identity. There the weakness of the flesh introduced her to high flying Billy Walshe who excelled in filling her sexual needs, but in doing so he revealed to her a dark side to his character that when exposed by her through media associates shocked the world. Glenys was ready to repay her debt to society and a night of hi-jinks on the high seas aboard Billy's luxury cruiser provided the opportunity she required to execute her daring scheme. She constantly told her peers she was not a bad girl, but her new mission in life was one to make Billy Walshe pay for the injustices and obscenities inflicted on her family in her youth by his peers; and pay he did. Satisfied with the results of her actions Glenys's complacency led to a chink in her armour which when exploited by top CIB detective Abe Griffin had her blazing a trail of retreat through the West End of London and the Home Counties. With Detective Abe hard in pursuit she continued to switch identities and struggle with personal afflictions to which she accepted there was no remedy. At peace with herself once more and with Billy held to account for his sins Glenys was able to concentrate on the altruistic facet of her nature. Her final act was to dispose of the many millions of dollars available to her to deserving causes. It was no easy task to give away money anonymously. As her race against time became her final one she returned to her homeland of New Zealand where she made one final effort to prove to the law that indeed, she was not a bad girl. OFF THE WALL Ned Newman a potentially retired real estate agent and frustrated writer is an insignificant character in this tale of intrigue which thrives on the devious and life threatening actions of a select band of ruthless individuals inspired by greed. Unknowingly Ned has become the thorn in the side of one of New Zealand's richest men, Eric Dunsheath, who by his own admission will stop at nothing to fulfil his goals and dreams. Eric is a vertically challenged male from the wrong side of the tracks; a dwarf with an IQ of 191. At an early age as an unwanted child he chose to leave the orphanage where his superfluous being was deposited at birth, for life on the streets. He lived rough until his cunning led him to fortune. Riches are his; millions! Eric is aware his life expectancy is short and is ready to make the world pay for the manner in which it has treated him. Unfortunately Ned Newman is in his way. Ned's weakness for the opposite sex serves only to lead him deeper into a web of premeditated deception designed to systematically destroy the neighbourhood in which he lives and bring his hopes of a peaceful retirement crashing to the ground. Anyone who dares to offer an impediment to Eric Dunsheath's master plan, either knowingly or unknowingly, will suffer the same fate as the beautiful Amanda and the ruthless gay guy Alex whose devilish counter plot spirals to an unimaginable finale. But Eric himself is a target. Is it possible to capture a person's identity, relieve them of all worldly goods without raising suspicion, or give a hint to an outside world of any wrong doing? There are those who know it can be done and make it look scaringly easy. Devious characters with unscrupulous actions are ready to move on Eric with an infallible scheme of seizure and extortion. Where will Ned Newman feature in the process and what surprises doe Eric have for everyone concerned. There could be big winners in this battle for Shallows Lane; but it is conceivable that nobody will win. ON THE LIP OF A LION Kidnap and treachery on the streets of Auckland. Enjoying a respite between marriages TV personality Kris Nevan is reunited with his teenage daughter at the height of the Christmas season. Nevan is rich, successful and invulnerable, so he thinks. He is almost offhand in his down-playing of an ominous threat to separate him from his daughter and his money from his bank account. He is soon to become acquainted with the force of evil lurking behind the facade of a pantomime clown who, in the guise of Santa Claus, blatantly snatches the girl in an audacious act of villainy. Mortimer Kingsley, also known as Sunbeam the Clown, is the Gaffer, an ex-patriot Brit and vaudeville star, whose broken heart is held together by scars of bitterness and retribution. He and his select band of thugs have systematically plundered banks and payrolls with huge success in Auckland who remain hidden behind pseudonymous. They take Nevan's daughter and as planned they get their ten million dollars. The Gaffer is a generous, but hard master and those who make mistakes in his organisation pay the ultimate price. But mistakes have been made and a trail of devastation is uncovered to take the reader through the length and breadth of New Zealand's North Island, out onto the Waitemata Harbour where the ranks of the Gaffer's team are depleted in a serious act of housekeeping on his part. There is death on the high seas and death in the suburbs of Auckland as the Gaffer seeks to right things that have gone wrong for him. The perfect crime is suddenly not as perfect. The violence begins as the scales of poetic justice tip one way and then the other. All hell breaks loose at the Part-Time wrecking yard as discounted underlings break ranks and express opinions. It is suggested amid the fire and the fury that follows the curtain has come down for the last time on Sunbeam, the pantomime clown; but has it? Mortimer Kingsley has cashed up and is ready to move offshore and it is never clear who it was died that Christmas morning in West Auckland. One thing is sure, it wasn't Father Christmas. Maybe it was somebody pretending to be Father Christmas, but isn't that what normally happens? TAKEN BY EXPERTS It was too late for introductions. You don't shake hands with a dead man; especially one whose fingers and thumbs of both hands had been severed at the first joint. Phil Rudolph of Auckland CID knew he had the job ahead of him as he took stock of Anton Clegg Chairman of the Board of Air-Chill Cold Storage strapped in his chair in his private office at 3am on a disturbing Sunday in the middle of winter. Here was a man who was going nowhere other than the morgue from a place that resembled an abattoir more than a cold store. Chief Inspector Philip Rudolph didn't need a coroner to tell him Clegg had used up his life's supply of group something blood. A gory trail of investigation lay ahead for Auckland's top policeman. Prime suspect Greg Parkinson was drunk enough and sober enough to leave his car after a Saturday night birthday binge and wander into the loading bay of a city warehouse to relieve nature. He heard somebody's death cries and stumbled upon the butchered body of Anton Clegg. Clegg, a white collar criminal who excelled when misappropriating investors funds. The question had to be raised: Is it Anton Clegg? His identical twin brother was knight of the realm Sir Alexander Clegg, philanthropist. The two were often mistaken for each other . Who was the one slain in that Auckland City cold store? No fingers meant no fingerprints which made it hard to confirm the identity of the bloodied remains. And so began the chapters of corruption, murder and suspicion. Anton Clegg was not unknown to Greg Parkinson who with Clegg's blood on him was the immediate suspect. It was one of Clegg's investment companies those years before that had eaten up in excess of a million dollars of Greg's money and in the process destroyed his marriage. 'I was taken by experts,' Greg told the police who were keen to connect him to the crime in the cold store. This story is more intricate than that, however, with a string of dead bodies and savage deeds reaching from the Eastern Bay of Plenty to the Bay of Islands; from Hamilton City in New Zealand to The Rocks on the waterfront of Sydney. All this merely a beginning to an intricate story of murder and extortion. THE BRINGING DOWN OF THE HAWK A gripping family saga involving love, heartache, war, crime and retribution. The share market crash in October 1987 affected the lives of many New Zealanders. None more than that of Ted Starling, a childhood immigrant carried to those shores in 1946 in the wake of World War 2. Ted was ten years old when his father Staff Sergeant Eddie Starling was engaged with the 18th Battalion of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force combating the might of Rommel's armour in the North African desert. Eddie survived the ravages of Dunkirk, but suffered severe injury. His shell-shocked body was transported in its amnesic condition to New Zealand where a new life with a new identity was established. Sixty years of passion and devotion are exposed as a father and a son grow together to form an inseparable relationship. Their story crosses five continents and five decades to culminate in a powerful, well planned and particularly personal act of retribution. A must to be read. < b>THERE IS NO HIDING PLACE World War 2, London 1940. For 76 consecutive nights Adolph Hitler unleashed the fury of his Luftwaffe on Britain's largest city in a nonstop hail of bombs that had helpless civilians wilting under their blast. Step Green was three weeks old and his sister Tess two years when the Green family of eleven siblings sought refuge from the bombing and in desperation were evacuated from London's East End and dispatched to sympathetic countries of the British Empire to evade the Fuehrer's wrath. Having been assessed as being too young to travel from their homeland, Step and Tess were sent to East Anglia to live with an aunt where they were reasonably safe from the war, but never safe from death which lurked in the hedgerows of Poplar Farm. Stepney Green dedicated his life to seeking the one responsible for the demise of his sister so that he could forgive him, creating a devastating outcome. THE SHADOW OF THE BLACK SHEEP From London to New Zealand Laurie Davidson spent twenty five years travelling the world with his guitar pumping out his music as a busker on the cobbles and in the markets, wearing the personal injustice heaped upon him like a badge of honour. There was no other way. He was a proud man and took the social rejections on the chin, picked himself up and was straight back into it. When down and out there was but one way for him to go and that was up and he wouldn't be stopped. Four years of prison was a hard school for a young man who lost most of what he loved when punished for a crime he did not commit, but he came to realise the friends who remained at his side were true friends who loved him in spite of what he did, or didn't do. TWO SIDES OF THE COIN Paul Walker, head teacher who when happily married to the love of his life, became widowed after twenty seven years. For three years he shouldered his grief, being unable to accept another woman into his lonely world, until he was drawn to the rescue of Sylvia Livingstone, a maiden in distress who was also facing challenging times with her life in crisis. With a mutual attraction the backgrounds of two devoted people are exposed in a traumatic revelation that focuses on the rehabilitation of two souls under threat.The other side of the coin? Greed and corruption and the way it can exist at the highest level to destroy society. Explore Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, and enjoy the tense climate that reveals how the mighty are fallen. WILD IN HIS SORROW His dream was Eden Park - Number 10 jersey. His nightmare Mt Eden Prison - cell block 10 with a promising All Black rugby career shattered. A sentence of a life behind bars can do much to change a man's thinking. 'A grave miscarriage of justice,' were the words on the paper the Minister of Justice had handed to Terry Stamp when it was decided after fourteen years of incarceration he had not killed his wife. 'Go home, my man. Start your life again. You have plenty of good years remaining.' Yes, plenty of good years to control the bitterness filling his heart and driving him on in his personal quest for his wife's killer. He and Cavanagh had been married ten years when she was taken from him in a brutal attack by a spurned group of rugby supporters at a time when Terry Stamp was a name on everyone's lips whenever All Black football was mentioned. WINTER’S SONG In retirement in Winter's Song sheltered accommodation village Adam Mulberry found each of his aged companions had an untold story to tell, an anthology of their life experiences, which he slowly extracted from them as respect and confidence grew. It had been hard at first, but gradually for many of them Adam had compiled a file in his laptop. Each was a walking history book which in some cases went back almost a full century and it excited him to know he had been accepted by them. With their permission he had converted that knowledge and documented in biographical detail, a series of short stories, cameos that depicted the change that had occurred in a dozen lifetimes on the converging trails that led people not known to each other to a common destination; Winter's Song. These are their stories. With admiration and care, Prepared by Charles Chattaway, 2025