Spookies are a four-handed team of ghost hunters.

Sceptre Rand: her full name is Lady Concepta Rand-Epping, Countess of North Yorkshire, and she is a 27 year old, genuine, bona-fide aristocrat, down on her uppers, who also happens to be a psychic medium, in touch with the other side. With no means of earning a living, Sceptre has dedicated her life to helping lost souls cross into the light. She is a newcomer to the town of Ashdale where she shares a three-bedroom flat with her business partners.

Pete Brennan: an ex-cop, fired after he punched a senior officer. Pete is 29, tall, muscular, tough and courageous, determined to fight the low life of Ashdale even if it threatens his own life. Now a private investigator, he is sceptical of Sceptre’s psychic abilities, does not believe in ghosts and even when he is confronted with the inexplicable, he usually manages to find an alternate explanation, no matter how unconvincing.

Kevin Keeley: Kevin is the same age as Pete, and the two are lifelong friends. Kevin is short and portly, with a fondness for curries, sweets and beer that gives him a gastric system that could rival British Gas at their finest. A super salesman, a ducker and diver, who doesn’t always ask questions about the goods he trades in, Kevin is also a techno-wizard. He’s not sure whether he believes in ghosts, he lacks the courage to find out and spends much of his tie on the ghost hunts terrified out of his wits.

Albert Fishwick: the fourth member of the Spookies team is the most unusual. He is a ghost. Former butler to Rand-Epping family, Fishwick died on the first day of the Somme in 1916. Such was his devotion to Rand-Epping family, that he stayed with them until he could find a channel through which he could utilise his spiritual energies, and he found that in Sceptre, whom he addresses as “Modom.” Fishwick’s intervention frequently saves Sceptre’s life, and the information he provides from the other side is often vital to Spookies’ investigations.

Kevin thought of the name Spookies taken from their initials: S-P-K (Sceptre, Pete, Kevin). He tried their surnames, B-R-K (Brennan, Rand, Keeley) but all he could get was Berks and it didn’t have the same ring about it.

The Spookies’ mysteries are essentially crime novels, with a supernatural angle, and each has a vein of humour running through them. Written for a wide audience, there are scenes which may make the reader’s hair stand on end, but there is no graphic horror, no sex, only innuendo, and no violence other than the Tom & Jerry kind.

Spookies was conceived with a multimedia angle in mind. The tales are perfect for conversion to movies, TV series, animations and video games.  After struggling to find someone to take on the project, American publishers Virtual Tales finally accepted The Haunting of Melmerby Manor. The book was released early in 2008 and the POD paperback followed in October of that year.