Writing as Jack Adams… The Delaney and Murphy series

Ten-year-old best friends, Nathan and Adam, really liked Joe. He was their friend, an artist, the man they spoke to through the wire fence of the lunatic asylum.

But something happened behind those walls, in those rooms, on the grounds, at the river. The inmate sketched it all – fine lines, truth in the negative space, truth in the pencil strokes. Then one day Joe was gone. Twenty years later Nathan and Adam receive a letter.

“Jack Adams skillfully unravels this unnerving tale of suspense with a keen sense of place and character. Asylum is well worth the price of admission.” B. Michael Radburn.

Adam couldn’t wait… his Uncle Allan was coming to watch his cricket game this afternoon; Adam’s father was always too busy to get there. Uncle Allan believed Adam and his best friend, Nate, would one day be chosen for the State side if they kept practicing… Adam’s bowling was really improving. Adam didn’t have an Uncle Allan.

Eleven-year-old Nate wasn’t happy. There was a new kid on the block named Griffin Maxwell and he wanted Adam to be his best friend. That was Nate’s job, they had sworn they were blood brothers forever. Two days after Adam’s birthday party when Adam received a strange birthday present from Griffin, the Maxwell family was gone.

Twenty years later, Griffin Maxwell is back.  And he wants Adam to come out and play.

Coming mid-2024

For twelve-year-old Adam Murphy and Nate Delaney, Debrov’s Carnival World was the best day out with its ghost train and dodgem cars, but not everyone felt the same. The loud and unsightly carnival run by Rayco Dobrev and his fortune-telling wife, Gerta, was unpopular with new residents in the expanding estate who wanted it gone at any cost. That price was a riot and a life lost.
Eighteen years later, the carnival is deserted, an eyesore for residents – the riots and death but a memory. Except for one girl, Laura Armstrong, who is all grown up and wants Nate to find out what really happened to her father—the neighbourhood group leader—all those years ago.
Adam and Nate are about to be frightened by the ghost train all over again.