By definition I’m not quite a third ager, but I consider myself one.

The idea behind STAC was a series of short mysteries with three nosy parker detectives in the shape of Joe Murray, who runs a café n Sanford, and his two assistants, Brenda Jump and Sheila Riley.

They’re all in their fifties and they run the Sanford Third Age Club. The opening tale is that of a club member who disappears apparently drowned off Filey Brigg. But Joe has his suspicions.

The idea of writing this kind of book comes out of my love of mysteries. I can read authors like Agatha Christie and Colin Dexter forever. None of the violent, police procedurals which supposedly reflect real life, but solid mysteries built on the tiniest clues there to be uncovered by the like of the intellectual Morse, or the Belgian Brain, Poirot.

STAC is my homage to them.

The following excerpt is the first chapter of the Filey Affair.