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This page lists novels that feature the English lawyer Chris Tyroll.

Victory Snapshot

Barrie Roberts

1997

A Chris Tyroll novel.

"Sheila McKenna, an Australian social historian, flies to England to visit her grandfather after he sends her a rather intriguing letter. Almost as she arrives, her grandfather dies. Murdered. Chris Tyroll, maverick midlands solicitor, is drawn into the case and determined to find out who killed the old man. Almost immediately, somebody drives directly at Chris and injures him. Is Chris on the murderer’s hit list too? As Chris and Sheila investigate, they begin to uncover a fifty-year-old story of comradeship, corruption and criminality. Somehow, this story is connected to the death of Sheila’s grandfather. But why does it still matter, to somebody at least, half a century later? Chris and Sheila don’t know – but they do know that their lives are in danger. Only those on the margins of society seem willing to help the pair in their search for truth and justice – and are eerily able to foresee the outcomes. The authorities seem strangely disinterested."

Robbery With Malice

Barrie Roberts

1999

A Chris Tyroll novel.

"Just before the start of what should be an idyllic Christmas, two very different women manage to turn West Midland lawyer Chris Tyroll’s life upside down. One is his beautiful and no-nonsense fiancée, Sheila McKenna, who arrives unexpectedly at Heathrow. To Chris’s delight, she announces that she has arranged a year’s sabbatical in England. The other is the less shapely, but equally beguiling Granny Cassidy who persuades Chris to take on the appeal of Alan Walton; her son-in-law convicted in the infamous Belstone Lane Case. As a man who has served twelve years for crimes he claims he didn’t commit, Walton has nothing left to lose and is dead set on an appeal. To Chris the case initially seems hopeless, but sensing that something doesn’t quite add up and with scores of his own to settle, he reluctantly accepts the job. He and Sheila begin the daunting task of unearthing files that had been closed for eighteen years and searching for parties who frequently don’t want to be found. But troublesome enmities are awakened and witnesses are silenced — sometimes by murder. Repeated threats put the duo in danger until violent threats come to fruition and it becomes crystal clear that trouble awaits them if the case is probed any further."

Bad Penny Blues

Barrie Roberts

2000

A Chris Tyroll novel.

"Sheila McKenna, an Australian social historian, is in the UK to research and write a book about the nineteenth-century transportation of convicts from Britain to Australia. And when she buys a convict’s love token, in the form of an old, engraved copper penny, inspiration strikes. Sheila decides to find out more about the ‘JS’ who gave the token to his loved one, and armed with the name of the ship that took him to Australia, she begins her research. However, there was more than one convict with the initials JS aboard the Lucy Collins in 1865. Sheila investigates each one. Yet it soon becomes apparent that even more than a century later, somebody, somewhere, doesn’t want Sheila looking into their family history. Undeterred, and with the help of her fiancé, lawyer Chris Tyroll, Sheila begins to piece together the lives, loves and legacies of six men, all transported on the Lucy Collins, and their families. She works her way forwards through the generations, identifying, contacting and talking to some of those men’s descendants. Meanwhile, the threats to Sheila’s safety keep coming, and grow ever more serious. Over time, history and the modern age seem to intertwine. Are the actions and inclinations of convicts in past generations still afflicting their descendants? And if so, precisely who is going to such extraordinary – perhaps even murderous - lengths to hide it?"

Crowner & Justice

Barrie Roberts

2002

A Chris Tyroll novel.

"Chris Tyroll is a busy litigation lawyer in the West Midlands. He'd like to have long lunches, play golf and holiday in the Seychelles, but he puts up with early starts, no lunches and late nights. One morning three clients come to him with totally different problems. The first, an Employment Tribunal case against British Defence Systems, looks complicated. BDS manufactures a seek-and-destroy weapon, ‘The Retaliator.’ The dismissal of one man has triggered a strike and two more workers have been sacked as a result. Then Tyroll deals with a distraught mother who cannot accept her son’s death and wants to get the coroner’s verdict changed from suicide to murder. And finally he’s met with a man who asks: why can’t an empty field be used to graze ponies? Tyroll investigates these cases with the aid of his sharp and beautiful girlfriend Sheila McKenna as they weave their way through clues and deal with their own relationship issues. But when another client dies, and a chance comment by a witness reveals that all three cases are somehow connected, Tyroll realises he’s in deeper than he thought. Tyroll finds himself and Sheila in a deadly confrontation. Can he save her? Can he even save himself?"