NIK MORTON | Writer & illustrator

My Books (1)...

Books Published or accepted

Death at Bethesda Falls by Ross Morton - Published by Robert Hale July 2007; also F.A. Thorpe Large Print version November 2008. Jim Thorp had killed plenty of men. They deserved to die. Thorp was a hard man, made so by a bloody Civil War. But he didn’t relish this visit to Bethesda Falls. His old sweetheart Anna worked there as a school-teacher and he was hunting her brother, Clyde, for armed robbery and other more terrible crimes. He didn’t want to hurt Anna but it looked like he would anyway. Clyde, the foreman of the M-bar-W ranch, is due to wed Ellen, the rancher’s daughter. He’s also poisoning the old man to hasten the inheritance. Thorp’s presence in town starts the downward slide to violence, when not only is Ellen’s life in danger, but also that of Anna and Thorp himself.
Pain Wears No Mask by Nik Morton - Published by Libros International November 2007. Before taking her vows, Sister Rose was Maggie Weaver, a Newcastle policewoman. Suffering severe trauma while uncovering a serial killer, she’s nursed back to health by nuns and, finding her spiritual self and a new identity, she joins their Order. In her new calling she is sent to London to run a hostel for the homeless. Then, as she attempts to save a destitute woman from a local gang boss, events crystallise, taking her back to Newcastle, the scene of her nightmares, to play out the final confrontation against old enemies in the police. Pain Wears No Mask is about surviving trauma and grief – a triumph of the human spirit, of good over evil. The tagline is: When she was a cop, she made their life hell.Now she’s a nun, God help them! The first chapters of this novel won the joint runner-up prize in the 2006 Harry Bowling Prize competition.
Last Chance Saloon by Ross Morton - Published by Robert Hale May 2008;also F.A. Thorpe Large Print version August 2009. Daniel McAlister returns from a gold prospecting absence of two years to wed Virginia, the wheel of fortune operator in The Gem saloon at Bethesda Falls. Unfortunately, he's bushwhacked and robbed in town. Meanwhile, the stage is robbed and Ruth Monroe, the stage depot owner, is being coerced into selling up. Daniel and Virginia become embroiled in the deadly business and side with Ruth against the saloon owner and gunslingers. Only a showdown will end it, one way or another.
The Prague Manuscript by Nik Morton - Published by Libros International June 2008. Tana Standish - Czechoslovakia, 1975. Tana is a spy with a difference. She has a photographic memory and is psychic. Unfortunately, it isn’t a gift she can switch on at will, but it has proved useful in her eventful life. Orphaned in the Warsaw ghetto during the Second World War, she was adopted by a British naval officer and his wife. Now she works for Interprises - International Enterprises - a cover branch of the British Secret Intelligence Service. Czechoslovakia’s people are still kicking against the Soviet invasion.Tana was called in to restore morale and repair the underground network. But there’s a traitor at work. And she learns about a secret Soviet complex, concealed in a colliery in the Sumava Mountains.Unknown to her there’s a top secret psychic establishment in Kazakhstan,where Yakunin, one of their gifted psychics, has detected her presence in Czechoslovakia. As he gets to know her, are his loyalties strained? With her old lover Laco she infiltrates the secret Soviet complex.When she’s captured, Interprises mounts a desperate attempt to get her out or to silence her - before she breaks under interrogation. Read an excerpt of the early chapters on this website.
The $300 Man by Ross Morton - Published by Robert Hale 29 May 2009. What's a life worth? $300, maybe. Half-Mexican Corbin Molina lost a hand during the Civil War but he has adapted. Now he’s on a mission to the town of Walkerville. On the way, he prevents a train robbery and finds an old friend. Corbin always tends to carry $300, which is significant, since that's what he was a paid as substitute soldier for the Union. When Corbin starts asking questions about the law and administration of Walkerville, he discovers that the townspeople are not happy. They’re being dominated by the Walker family, who seem to have bought and paid for loyalty and position. Inevitably, trouble finds Corbin – and his past rises to confront him during a tense showdown which threatens not only him but his newfound love.
The Tehran Transmission by Nik Morton - To be published by Libros International in 2009. Tana Standish - Iran, 1978-1979. Tana doesn’t hesitate to kill evil men. It’s 1978 and Iran is in ferment. Interprises want Tana’s assessment. CIA agents paint too rosy a picture. Because they’re colluding with the state torturers? Allegiances and loyalties are strained. Undercover in Tehran, Tana Standish combats the Shah’s secret police, SAVAK. She teams up with a CIA operative and they both just avoid death at the hands of a demented Pahlavan assassin. Tana learns of a SAVAK plan to capture an Iranian scientist friend and his family and makes a daring bid to rescue them. Is there any threat to the MI6 listening post near the Afghan border? And what about Yakunin, the psychic spy who is tracking Tana? Can he save her without being discovered? Then there’s Aksakov, an elite Spetsnaz fighter out to abduct Tana. Her mission takes her into sand-blasted ancient cities, through snow-clad mountains, from the heart of the secret Interprises HQ in Oxfordshire to the Persian Gulf, and all the while she is attempting to keep one step ahead of the psychic group in Kazakhstan.
Wings of the Overlord by Faulkner Nicholson To be published by Libros International in 2009. Co-written with Gordon Faulkner. The first story from the Institute of Records, Floreskand. Why are thousands of red tellars, the magnificent birds of the Overlord, winging their way towards dark Arisa? It’s a race against time. Magical rites will start on the auspicious day. Then it will be too late for the wings of the Overlord. What kind of link does the mysterious Ulran have with the red tellars? The ascetic Cobrora Fhord conceals a secret, but what is it? Their chance meeting at the dread inn with the mighty warrior Courdour Alomar forges an unlikely alliance on a dire quest to Arisa. Plagued by assassins, forces of nature and magic, the ill-matched threesome must follow their fate across the plains of Floreskand, scaling the snow-clad Sonalume Mountains and penetrating the dark heart of Arisa. Only here will they uncover the truth about the rites. Here too they will find pain and death in their struggle against the evil Yip-nef Dom.
A Sign of Grace by Robert W Nicholson - Published 1995 by Morton Publishing. An earlier novella incarnation of Sister Rose, as Sister Hannah in the United States. Charleston, South Carolina. Sister Hannah stumbles on a corpse near her hostel. And she knows the dead girl. Against the advice of Homicide Lieutenant Salinas, she investigates the murder and puts her life in jeopardy. Criminal investigations come easy to her. Before taking her vows as a nun she'd been a New York cop.
Silenced in Darkness by Robert W Nicholson - Published 1995 by Morton Publishing. Another earlier incarnation of Sister Rose. A slightly shorter version of this novella was a finalist in the 1995 World One Day Novel Competition.Sister Hannah discovers the sickening trade of harvesting human organs for profit. And she falls in love with Homicide Lieutenant Salinas. 'I was very impressed with the book. Sister Hannah is a deeply felt character' - Terry Pratchett.