Alan Johnson

1999. A young Detective Constable Louise Mangan crosses the Thames one misty morning in pursuit of a killer. She finds a tranquil community on a leafy island close to Hampton Court Palace, but soon realises that all is not as it seems. There is something evil at play in this quiet suburb, and this junior detective's questions seem only to scratch the surface.

Twenty years later, a horrific fire brings Detective Chief Superintendent Mangan back to that same island. Soon, she discovers that murder was just a drop in these dark waters.

The river runs deep, and the tide is rising at last. Will the truth rise with it?

Book 3 in the Louise Mangan series.

Gary Nelson has a routine for the commute to his rather dull job in the city. Each day, he watches as a woman on the train applies her make up in a ritual he now knows by heart. He's never dared to strike up a conversation... but maybe one day.

Then one evening, on the late train to Gipsy Hill, the woman invites him to take the empty seat beside her. Fiddling with her mascara, she holds up her mirror and Gary reads the words 'HELP ME' scrawled in sticky black letters on the glass.

From that moment, Gary's life is turned on its head. He finds himself on the run from the Russian mafia, the FSB and even the Metropolitan Police - all because of what this mysterious young woman may have witnessed. In the race to find out the truth, Gary discovers that there is a lot more to her than meets the eye...

From the slums of Southam Street in West London to the corridors of power in Westminster, Alan Johnson charts an extraordinary journey. Here he tells of his early political skirmishes as a trades union leader, and his rise through various ministerial positions to the office of Home Secretary in 2009. Book 3 of his memoirs.

A government minister in the Foreign Office has vanished into thin air.

On holiday in Crete, Lord Bellingham had been solo trekking in the White Mountains when he mysteriously disappeared. After a vast search and rescue operation, the local police have no leads, save for a mobile phone discarded on a cliff edge.

Assistant Commissioner Louise Mangan of the Met Police is sent to assist in the investigation but soon discovers that there are more layers to this case than the local police realise.

Lady Bellingham is less than forthcoming, the family nanny is hiding something, and a scandal is brewing back in London that could destroy the minister's reputation for good.

Under pressure from the powers that be, can Louise find the missing minister, or will she discover something much more sinister at play?

Volume 2 of his memoirs. Alan Johnson and his young family leave West London to start a new life in Slough. Alan becomes a postman, and here he paints a vivid picture of England in the 1970s. But as Alan’s life appears to be settling down, his close-knit family is struck once again by tragedy…

Alan Johnson's childhood was not so much difficult as unusual, particularly for a man who was destined to become Home Secretary. Set against the background of West London slums he writes with humour and openness which makes his book anything but a grim catalogue of miseries. Volume 1 of his memoirs.