Mike Scantlebury

Vlad Hugg is a popular new singer, young, dashing romantic, with a nice line in deprecating chat and a handsome, weather burned face. He has been travelling, he says, out 'on the road', seeing life and the world, writing about it and singing about it. He is an egrossing hero. So who wants him dead? Melia's cousin, Liv, writing his authorised biography, is equally baffled by the gaps in his story and worried by the threats on his life. But that's not all: there's also the rumours about the young man, the allegations that he caused - either directly or indirectly - the deaths of about a dozen people. How is that even possible? He comes from Swinton, for goodness sake, a small, dowdy suburb in Salford, the old, run-down centre of the North West of England. He's a slightly boring, nondescript youth from a predictable background: how could anyone think the stories are true? Melia, of course, has her own reasons for trying to delve in and find the truth. Her boss, and British Security, thinks Vlad Hugg is a spy

Melia is suffering from the fact that her boyfriend Mickey is out of town, sent away on a secret mission, according to her boss. She's on her own, left to pick up the pieces of a favour he promised to a friend, to meet with her ex-husband and see if their marriage can't be saved. It's a mundane matter, far removed from Melia's day job as a Secret Agent. Just her bad luck, then, that she is on hand to witness a murder, taking place at that most unlikely setting, an arts centre on the renovated banks of the River Irwell in Salford. What lofty heights such a setting promises, and what depths of depravity it delivers. Melia is shocked to find evidence of corruption and double-dealing, forgery and fraud. She is swept along by a tide of wickedness, and then another attempted murder forces her to re-consider again; is she out of her depth? Are the murky waters of the river merely concealing worse things than she ever thought possible? Is it time to leave? If only she could: it isn't easy, once you've been kidnapped.

Salford in England has been a city since 1270, but it has never elected a Mayor, not until now. The town has been transfixed by the sight of numerous hopefuls falling over themselves to put their names forward and sieze the prestigious - and well-paid - new position. Greed, ambition, naked search for power, all the worst qualities of the human psyche have come to the fore, and Melia is involved, only because her Uncle has asked for her help in getting a friend of his elected. Later it gets more difficult, especially when Uncle Mart puts his own name forward, and then blackmail, sexual assault and murder get added to the mix. Can Melia win through, or, equally as important, can the good name of Salford survive?

Everybody in Salford is talking about the Secret Garden Festival: it's affecting everything. Melia, preoccupied with the job her Deputy Director is setting her up with next - protecting Prince William at the Olympic Games - has little time to think about flowers and painting, singing and dancing, she has her little cousin to save. Liv, newly enrolled at Salford University, is making enemies faster than a regicide, but for no apparent reason! What reason could anyone have to dislike the beautiful, persuasive young beauty? Is it what her studies and reasearch are uncovering? Is that the problem? Melia needs to know. It's a race against time - save Liv before her father dies, and before the Garden Festival comes to an explosive climax.

It's so simple. Everyone in England wants to own their own house. Why, they'd practically kill for it! Mickey, scouting the dark alleys of South Central Salford for an elusive quarry, The Mandley Park Molester, is dragged into an investigation of deceit, fraud and arson by an attractive young woman, a property developer, and a greedy millionairess. Perhaps they can make beautiful music together, after all, there's always time for singing!

Who wants alternative power? Not the British government. They want to rebuild nuclear power stations. Some residents are out to stop them. Poor secret agent Mickey finds himself caught in the middle, determined to try and catch whoever killed his colleague, and thinking little about politics. This time it's personal.

It's a busy year. Mickey is called in to help an old friend, but he's hardly got started when he gets another commission. And another. What's going on? Is it all because the BBC has decided to move its North of England headquarters to Salford Quays, and suddenly the whole world wants something from them? Mickey, confused, frustrated, has to struggle, as the months go by, to make sense of what is happening in his home city, how it is changing, and how it is being forced to change. Not everyone seems happy with the process, not even the BBC, whose members are slowly coming to terms with the fact that though the streets of Salford are outside the windows of their new, glossy buildings, they really have no idea what is happening down there and who these residents really are. Or what they're capable of.

It's only an old church, isn't it? Well, no, the Church of England has abandoned the old building and taken it out of commission. Even though it was designed by one of the foremost Victorian architects, they'd be happy to see it rot, or, perhaps, turned into designer flats by a local property developer. Until that happens, it's a perfect Safe House, a bolt hole for the man Mickey has promised to protect - a man called Lucky. So 'lucky' that he's the target of three local gangs and numerous villains. How lucky is that?

Mickey and the team are called in to another adventure, but this time it's weird. There's a ship that's been wrecked in the Bristol Channel, but it's two thousand years old and the jars it was carrying hold secrets, vital secrets that could threaten the future of the Christian Church. Is that why people are willing to spy, shoot and kidnap in order to suppress the words that are listed in the containers? In a desperate race to decode the scrolls and save them from attackers, Mickey organises a pursuit around England, trying to stay one step ahead of the terrorists and two steps ahead of other interested parties - a selfish billionaire, an outraged Archbishop, one or two mad monks and the Heir to the English Crown. Who needs that sort of attention?

Mickey finds himself drawn into the centre of an unexpected and unwelcome investigation. Manchester's foremost and most famous entrepreneur is under threat, and, with him, the future of the city's bid for the Olympic Games is in doubt. Who is behind the sudden speight of supposed 'accidents'? Who doesn't want England to win? Who doesn't want the city to drag itself out of the dirt and grime of the earlier Industrial Revolution and move on? And, most important, can Mickey help, or is he - with his burgeoning romance and his incipient entanglements - becoming merely part of the problem?