Books by Colin Holcombe

When one hears the name Samuel Colt, one immediately thinks of the Colt revolver, but how many people realise that he was one of the first businessmen to appreciate the financial implications of mass production, or that he was a pioneer in using machinery to produce products with truly interchangeable parts. How many know that he cut the working hours of his employees, supplied them with housing near their workplace and decent washing facilities at work, together with a meeting hall, theatre and library. All this in the first half of the nineteenth century. The story of Samuel Colt's life is one that involves love, determination, tragedy, family strife, intrigue and even murder. From an early age Colt was determined to make his fortune as an inventor and whilst working on a farm, he read of inventors who had changed the world. He was especially inspired by John Fulton, who designed the first practical submarine and he was intrigued with the idea of creating explosions under water. At the age of just fifteen, he blew up a raft on Ware pond, using electricity, delived via a waterproof cable and produced by a Galvanic cell that he made himself. Sent to sea by his father, he conceived the idea of improving the design of revolvers and carved a wooden model of one while on a voyage to India. To raise the money needed to develop his invention, Samuel Colt became Dr. Coult and toured a sideshow demonstrating the effects of nitrous oxide gas (laughing gas) when inhaled into the lungs. When finally, he launched the "Patent Arms Manufacturing Company" he was beset with financial problems from the outset. Lack of sales and disputes over money with his cousin Dudley, who held the purse strings, eventually doomed the venture to failure. Being his own master again he developed his, "submarine battery" and harbour defence system and the fact that he failed to sell his idea to the government, seriously delayed the development of America's underwater warfare capability. Family tragedy struck again when his brother, John Caldwell Colt, was arrested for murder and sentenced to hang. John Colt was visited in prison by the author Edgar Allen Poe, and the way Colt disposed of his victim's body was in some part the inspiration for his story, "The Oblong Box." John Colt committed suicide on the day of his execution, only hours after marrying the mother of his child in his prison cell. Tragedy continued to pursue Colt's family, even after he died in 1862, one of America's richest businessmen, when his last surviving child, Caldwell Colt, met a mysterious death aboard his yacht.

Inspector Roy Darnley is investigating the discovery of the body of a young girl who has been missing for sixteen years. The body is found buried in the garden of a house currently owned by a young man whose father becomes the prime suspect.Can he prove his deceased father's innocents?Inspector Paul Manley is investigating the murder of a woman bludgeoned to death in her own home. Is it what it seems, a burglary gone wrong?Could there be a link between these two, apparently separate cases?Can Inspector Manley and his team save his friend from being the next victim in a bizarre chain of events?

Twenty-six years ago David Carver's jewellery shop was robbed and his wife murdered. The robbers took him hostage in his own boat and threw him over the side to drown. He survived but the police failed to find either the men responsible, the jewels or David's boar.Twenty-six years later his boat is found by two divers and the discovery of two bodies on the boat throws his version of events into doubt.Can the murder of a private investigator found on a golf course near David's new home shine new light on an old case?

Richard Drake is an ordinary man leading an ordinary life, but when the simple act of purchasing a bronze statue brings him into contact with vicious killers, can he find the strength of will to do extraordinary things to save himself and his family?What will be the fate of poor Louise? mistaken for Richard's daughter, Rebecca? Will the police find her in time?

Thomas Carter was born in England but has lived in Australia for the last eighteen years.What is it about a newspaper report of a record price realised at auction for a bronze sculpture in England, that makes him drop everything to return home? and why is he found murdered only a day after arriving?Are the deaths of an investigative reporter, found shot by an antique gun, and the apparent suicide of an auctioneer, also connected in some way?These are just some of the questions that Inspector Paul Manley and his team have to find answers to, if they are to solve the mystery.