Ian Austin - guest on December 2024
Ian is a talented writer with an impressive background. He has transformed his real-life experiences as an undercover detective into captivating stories. As a master of suspense, he crafts intricate plots with intelligence, guiding readers through each narrative until justice is served. His extensive knowledge of the criminal world enables him to bring his characters to life, compelling readers to engage deeply with each page as if they were part of the story themselves. Camilla Hillberg
Ian Austin books
THE AGENCY: A powerful and gritty Detective story
(The Dan Calder Series Book 1 of 5)
‘Death by Design.’ Your dream departure is The Agency’s bespoke service.
What started as a simple revenge killing, has become a career for the serial murderess with a dozen identities. She now focuses on victims who want a happy ending to their stories but they’re not getting what they’ve paid handsomely for.
Ex-cop Dan Calder’s life is still going nowhere, despite the fact he’d moved to the other side of the world looking for a fresh start. When Calder meets Tara, things appear to be changing for the better until his and The Agency’s paths also cross. Without knowing it, his desperate need of a mission to give him a purpose once more, will become a death race to prevent another victim from falling prey to the woman consumed with taking another life.
Authentic Police procedures and real Police experience including specialist covert operations inspire a story which is all too believable. Dan Calder is a convincing new protagonist, a flawed character with enough skeletons of his own before taking on those of an intriguing, clever and motivated enemy.
Ian Austin's incredible Police career shines through in his Dan Calder series. Readers will be left breathlessly wondering where he put down his official Police notebooks and picked up the blank pages for the next story.
Anybody who wants a book, heavy with twists and turns, convincing characters and detail that only comes from an author who's walked the walk, will want to read The Agency.
Buy on Amazon
The Second Grave: A police procedural
(The Dan Calder Series Book 2)
If revenge is a dish best served cold, Dan Calder needs a much bigger fridge.
His best friend’s daughter has been accused of killing a prostitute. His ex-boss and nemesis Detective Superintendent James Allen is somehow involved and therefore Calder needs to know nothing else. Travelling all the way back to England to lend his unique talents in support of Amber Hetherington’s cause; God help anyone who gets in his way.
However, the old country still holds old secrets of Calder’s past. He’ll have to deal with them as well as local villains and more corrupt cops too, before the final course of this meal is finished.
Ian Austin's incredible Police career shines through in his Dan Calder series. Readers will be left breathlessly wondering where he put down his official Police notebooks and picked up the blank pages for the next story.
Buy on Amazon 
Frozen Summer: A police procedural
(The Dan Calder Series Book 3)
After two decades stuck in limbo, Zoe Summers finally has a chance to rest in peace, if Dan Calder can resolve her death at his feet all those years before.
In gathering more evidence, Calder unearths another mystery relating to a huge drug dealing operation which the unfortunate Zoe became involved in prior to her demise. He’s not on his own this time and his small team start making significant progress, giving Dan hope at last.
As their investigation continues, suddenly there’s another life hanging in the balance and this time it’s much closer to home.
Ian Austin's incredible Police career shines through in his Dan Calder series. Readers will be left breathlessly wondering where he put down his official Police notebooks and picked up the blank pages for the next story.
Buy on Amazon
Bonded
(The Dan Calder Series Book 4)
Some families shouldn’t stick together. Dan Calder’s thrown in at the deep end to help Police unravel the evidence of a terrorist bombing plot at Auckland International Airport, but the one thing he needs most of all is the one thing he doesn’t have… Time!
When Calder challenges the authorities view, he’s summarily dumped from the investigation. Aggrieved and hell bent on solving the outrageously audacious crime, he takes off to St Louis in search of a missing sister and preventing the family reunion to end all reunions.
When men with seemingly unlimited wealth and power become fascinated with any subject, that fascination can be distorted and eventually corrupted as it grows and grows. But if it’s then passed on from one generation to the next, the fascination, distortion and corrosive corruption becomes magnified, maybe even boundless.
The Plate 77 Penny Red postage stamp, printed in England in 1863. The fabled Plate 77, 240 alphabetised squares of pinky red paper; transformed over the years into the Holy Grail of philately because of a mistake in their printing which wasn’t discovered until after they went into circulation. 160 years later, only ten are known to exist and each with a tale to tell. When combined their stories are legend.
Charles Drake IV is a multi-generational man of wealth and power with a fascination for collecting postage stamps.
But there aren’t ten Plate 77’s, he knows there are eleven and Charles Drake IV has waited decades to bring them all together for the first time since 1841. Legends require nothing less and also require that no one and nothing must come between the crusader and the subject of his quest. Only his enigmatic Personal Assistant, Miss Giselle shares his knowledge.
Drake recruits a mercenary, ‘The man’ to complete the task of obtaining the eleventh 77. The stamp known as LC will be in Auckland, New Zealand for a week and it might be the only time its location will be known in Drake’s remaining lifetime. Unlimited wealth, unlimited power equals unlimited means to justify the ending of his crusade.
Buy on Amazon
Man. Made.
(The Dan Calder Series Book 5)
Man. Made. is the fifth book in a crime thriller series which features Dan Calder. Calder is an ex-cop who specialised in covert surveillance and undercover operations during his career in the UK Police. Dan's very unique set of skills have enabled him to investigate crimes and criminals in the UK and also in his new home country of New Zealand. On opposite sides of the world, the two countries could not be more different in many ways and yet when it comes to the good guys up against the bad, some things never change.
Man. Made. is set against the backdrop of the hottest weekend of Summer 2000 and it's a public holiday to boot. Dan Calder’s at home with his girlfriend and she is packing up to leave when a call-out from Headquarters comes as a blessed relief. A run-of-the-mill job like a hundred the team’s done before. Once he and his surveillance colleagues are all in position, all they can do is wait for the target to move.
Fortunately for Dan, this job calls for the Obs Van which is his happy place. It’s mechanical idiosyncrasies make them kindred spirits in many ways. Plus double time for just sitting and watching the target’s front door. ‘Money for jam.’ As his best friend Nick would say.
To take his mind off the end of his latest domestic disaster, what could be better than whiling away the solitary hours by listening to all of his favourite songs, freshly installed on his brand-new iPod.
But Dan’s life is about to be turned upside down and ripped apart to the soundtrack of his past and present-day life.
The result could destroy him completely… or it could just be the making of him.