Books by Tony Berry

Big surprises await the Kent-born son of a Sussex maid when he begins probing into his family's unknown past. His journey soon upends his belief that he comes from solid English stock (Yorkshire miners and millworkers) as it takes him into an ancestral maze rooted deep along the rugged shores of Pembrokeshire in the wild far west of Wales.Here he is plunged into a world of poverty, subsistence living, tidewaiters, dangerous encounters with smugglers and his ancestors' endless daily battle for survival. From these grim beginnings emerge a solid community of carpenters, shipwrights, Customs officers, mariners and skilled tradespeople.His trail detours to the booming shipyards of the Clyde in its heyday and the discovery of close ties to the Scots before doubling back into Wales as his kinfolk venture along the coast to Swansea and broaden their maritime links as keepers of lighthouses at some of Britain's wildest and loneliest locations, and also as seamen's missionaries..The discovery of hitherto unknown cousins, aunts and uncles lures him into Cornwall, the magical Celtic nation where he has fittingly returned to settle after many years living and working in Australia.Here he is introduced to a rich melange of relatives, from pillars of society, farmers and stonemasons to fornicators, sheep-stealers, thieves and killers. Several ventured overseas, some of their own volition and others as convicts. The convicts mostly came good while, perversely, some of the migrants take a route that ends in gaol.Closer to home, there are kinfolk going willingly to war - several never to return - and others taking their chances, and sometimes losing, with all that the sea can hurl at them.Genealogy resources, archives, newspapers, family papers, oral histories, industrial and medical records, visits to graveyards and contact with new-found kinfolk all help weave a fascinating story of one man's links to the past.Occasionally, and staying true to journalism's alleged creed to "never let the facts spoil a good story", he enlivens his narrative and its people by imagining situations and conversations that might or might not have happened. Who knows?

When a knife-wielding thug shatters a shy young Asian woman's lunch break with a vicious attack on her dog Bromo Perkins, lover of Lagavulin and double espressos, returns to the mean streets of Richmond. By next morning the woman is found brutally murdered, her body revealed as the hiding place for a clutch of illegal diamonds.The gruesome murder lures disgraced secret service agent Bromo Perkins from his would-be reclusive life in an Australian inner-city suburb and opens old wounds from a dangerous mission to Sri Lanka. Mugged and threatened, he is soon dragged back into the murky world of his past as he becomes involved with a group of mercenaries, a sex-crazed businesswoman and the dark and murderous international trade in blood diamonds.The trail of deceit and duplicity leads him to England's remote southwest where threats from an enigmatic tycoon to his daughter's life persuade him to connive in an explosive climax that rocks the back streets of his beloved Richmond.

A severe beating brings disabled youth Tek Firbank close to death when he decides operating a drone could be much more than a hobby and he tries selling the idea to standover man Stan Probert. His sleazy agent, Carl Larkins, ends up stripped and naked on the seafront when Proberts henchmen give him a working over. Meanwhile an elderly Greek couple are brutally beaten and their milk bar trashed for resisting Proberts demands for protection money.Disgraced former spy and reluctant sleuth Bromo Perkins is prevailed upon to resurrect his past connections and investigate inroads being made by the Bulgarian mafia. Only then are connections made between the three events and a separate investigation into underworld activities attracting the attention of Bromos former lover and Federal agent Delia Dunstan.

Disgraced undercover agent Bromo Perkins becomes a reluctant sleuth when he tries to unmask the people threatening to release revealing pictures of his past life. An alluring blonde who interrupts his coffee break brings death and mayhem in her wake and he is soon enmeshed in the activities of a vengeful group of women campaigning against internet porn and fraudulent dating sites. A trendy art gallery becomes the setting for a ghoulish warning to its double-dealing owner. The waters become further muddied by murky and violent dealings among the cosmopolitan suburb's property developers and local government bureaucrats. When a mysterious Goth helps him unveil bribery and corruption among local property developers Bromo is dragged ever deeper into a turf war where murder is the only solution. Eventually a violent punch-up at a dubious nightclub and a secret raid on City Hall lead to a thrilling but deadly climax in the grounds of the famed MCG sports arena.

Reluctant sleuth Bromo Perkins returns to the streets of Richmond, persuaded by the tempting wiles of Liz Shapcott, to look more closely into the death of bright young student Melissa O'Grady. As he bumbles his way into the murky depths of this trendy Australian suburb, Bromo soon falls foul of devious real estate agents, housing developers and town planners as he uncovers something far more sinister than shonky real estate deals. The tentacles of a cruel and vicious trade in young Asian women drag him into a world of murder and torture simmering below the surface of a richly diverse community where he is never more than a few paces away from his beloved short blacks and a soothing shot of Lagavulin malt.