Richard Hernaman Allen

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Richard Hernaman Allen's Latest Book

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  • Bibliography:
    40 Books (2 Series)
  • First Book:
    October 2013
  • Latest Book:
    March 2020
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Full Series List in Order

By Water

1 - By Water (Jan-2016)
2 - Uncharted Lands (Feb-2016)
3 - Journeys from and to (May-2016)

Out of Sight

1 - A Suspicious Death (Feb-2017)
2 - Invisible People (Mar-2017)
3 - An Invisible Conspiracy (May-2017)

Book List in Order: 40 titles

  • The Summer of Love

    1967 - "Summer of Love" and an escalating war in Vietnam. The British want to do a deal with the US to acquire high-tech computer knowledge, but the US fears it will be leaked to the USSR. Nick Storey is tasked with checking the security of UK export...

  • Through Fire

    Born the son of a fisherman in a small provincial port, Rakvir Stagarnik is given the chance to attend school. There he befriends the son of the local ruler, but, having fallen in love with the ruler's daughter, he is caught with her and has to flee ...

  • Bankers' Draught

    When Vat is introduced in 1973, Nick Storey is worried about the potential for fraud - especially in the financial sector. After he gets a tip-off about fishy business in two Vat offices, an undercover agent in one of them (City Vat Office) is murder...

  • Magdarg

    Reunited with Arhilka and his family, Rakvir Stagarnik marries Arhilka, becoming Duyar of Kerkrand. He defeats the Magd armies on Karizhian soil and subsequently unmasks the traitors at the court of the Zgar. Allied with neighbouring realms also inva...

  • Thlaxaca - The Blood Sun

    The Magd are defeated, and the alliance is broken. Rakvir returns to Kerkrand to govern as Duyar and finds problems adjusting, especially when Arhilka nearly dies in childbirth. A unique solar eclipse causes many Thlaxacans to believe that the world ...

  • Blood of the Blood Sun

    Though the killings by the "Nameless Ones" cease, a rebellion in eastern Kardakan is put down brutally. Rakvir Stagarnik is sent on a mission to preserve peace, but the Thlaxacan ruler who resisted war is murdered and his successor leads his people a...

  • Background Papers

    The epic novel "Through Fire" is set in a far distant world. In order to provide background for the events which take place in the novel, a short history and geography of the world are provided here. As the hero encounters many people in different la...

  • Along the Watchtower

    1974. Nick and Rosemary Storey are seconded to the Eu as national experts in an anti-fraud unit. At an Eec-Soviet conference, a Latvian Customs official seeks Eec help to tackle heroin smuggling from Soviet Central Asia through Riga. After an unsucce...

  • Murder at the Baltic Coast Hotel

    1995. Nick and Rosemary Storey, recently retired, visit Riga and Jurmala, at the invitation of a former Latvian customs officer they met in 1974. At the hotel, Nick trips and breaks his ankle. Confined to a wheelchair, he indulges in people-watching,...



  • A Well-Respected Man

    1966. Recently married, Nick and Rosemary Storey overhear two foreign exchange traders boasting that they can get secret information from Civil Servants about a possible devaluation of the Pound. A squash club/wine bar in the City is supposedly where...

  • Nothing Was Delivered

    1969. Nick Storey is unexpectedly seconded to freight controls at Heathrow Airport. As no-one gives him a straight explanation about why he was chosen, he tries to find out about the sudden sickness of his predecessor. Assuming that something untowar...

  • Something in the Air

    Briefly seconded to a Purchase Tax office in London's East End, Nick Storey comes across evidence of a criminal organisation which includes loan-sharking, extortionate insurance and huge rent increases on properties previously owned by West Docklands...

  • By Water

    By Water - 1

    "By Water" follows the exploits of Rakvir Stagarnik following on the events in "Through Fire", as seen by his son Rako and eldest daughter, Asha. Wishing to embellish his capital, Zgar Zavzar manoeuvres to impose an extraordinary levy on his subjects...

  • Uncharted Lands

    By Water - 2

    The crew of the "Syarduyar Arhilka" travel south, past contrary currents, giant waterspouts and barren, poisonous lands. Finally reaching an island of plenty, they encounter huge and aggressive serpents, one of which kills a member of the crew. Many ...

  • Heard It On The Grapevine

    Still on secondment in an EEC counter-fraud organisation in early 1974, Nick & Rosemary Storey are asked to look at a case where wine has been adulterated by diethylene glycol. From their investigations, it appears that the problem is much wider:...

  • Journeys from and to

    By Water - 3

    The crew of the "Syarduyar Arhilka" depart from the island of the Turven, leaving one member behind. After a long journey across desolate seas, they come upon a ruined city which appears to have been where giant serpents ruled over men, as slaves. Tr...

  • Brussels Sprout

    1975. The Secretary of the Eec Commission asks Nick and Rosemary Storey to investigate a discrepancy of nearly £10 million in Eec money used to rationalise coal and steel production in Eec countries. They quickly identify transactions where the Comm...

  • Full Circle

    Ashmara Alahin accompanies a Thanian-Karian expedition across barren, barbarian-infested deserts and desolate, poisonous mountains, before finally arriving at the western coasts of the Old World. There they make a discovery which will change everyone...

  • Our Friends in the South

    1976. On return from the EEC, Nick Storey is working on excise duties. He comes across an export warehouse in Woolwich, which seems a little too perfect. Finding a suitable reason to check them out, he uncovers a large fraud, involving the diversion ...



  • A Suspicious Death

    Out of Sight - 1

    Suspicious visitors from across the ocean, who vanish once they reach Ralchis are followed by several untoward events, culminating in the brutal murder of a citizen of Kerkrand. Evidence suggests the Ralchis authorities wished to conceal it. Rakvir a...

  • Invisible People

    Out of Sight - 2

    Nocturnal excursions enable Rakvir Stagarnik to gain useful information about who killed the Kerkrander and how the two Thanians were involved. Tracking some of these people leads to an empty house in a wealthy quarter of Ralchis and the realisation ...

  • An Invisible Conspiracy

    Out of Sight - 3

    Having disposed of the bodies of the would-be informant and his killers, Rakvir and Arhilka Stagarnik try to unsettle the still largely unknown conspirators. Learning that a force of Borvmen soldiers are involved in some way, they discover their wher...

  • Fools' Copper (Not to Be Confused with Ghost Beer)

    1977. Nick & Rosemary Storey's help is sought by the EEC Commission to track down those responsible for fraudulently claiming money from the EEC's Regional Development Fund to convert a former copper mine in North Wales into a tourist attraction. As ...

  • Kisses Sweeter Than Wine

    1977/8. Informed by an Italian diplomat that English Wine producers are using foreign grapes, Nick Storey investigates, but within weeks, one of the English Wine producer's equipment is blown up and his vines ploughed over. The possibility that this ...

  • Copper Kettle

    1978. On holiday with their children in Oban, Nick and Rosemary Storey stumble across a stone hut filled with barrels of what seems to be illicit whisky. While on their way to walking nearby hills, they smell the unmistakeable smell of barley being f...

  • The Magic Clarinet

    Shadowing an Excise officer in a tobacco factory, Nick Storey finds he is using incorrect procedures. When Nick carries out the right ones, he discovers that the company are importing large amounts of tobacco illicitly. But the evidence goes missing ...

  • On A Carousel

    1979. Nick Storey is transferred to head up a new internal investigations unit required by Mrs Thatcher's new government. His unit uncovers several illegalities including thefts of Government property and a false travel expense claim by an official w...

  • Ballad Of A Thin Man

    1984/5. Nick Storey is seconded from Customs & Excise to review DHSS work to tackle benefit fraud. Ministers have received an anonymous letter alleging a large scale fraud involving National Insurance numbers. Nick and Rosemary go undercover in Newca...

  • The Corridors Of Secrecy

    Nick Storey is asked to carry out a review of Cabinet Office security procedures, but learns from a contact in MI6 that the real purpose is to identify a mole leaking secrets to the Chinese. Making slow progress because of the defensive attitudes by ...



  • Old Ghosts

    1985. As the new Collector London Port, Nick Storey inherits a Collection with low morale and weak performance in a declining port. Among the changes he makes, flexible use of staff to massively increase controls at random times, leads to the discove...

  • Medicine Man

    Despite Nick Storey's reservations, London Port Collection are "twinned" with the port of Bordeaux in an EEC project. Nick's counterpart in Bordeaux is equally suspicious, but examination of their trade reveals a lot of medicines and drugs being expo...

  • Eight Miles High

    Smugglers of a powerful methamphetamine, nicknamed Ã'dilithium crystalsÃ", by speedboat and light aircraft kill themselves rather than be caught by Customs. Nick Storey, Collector London Port, identifies patterns of evidence and smuggling routes by s...

  • Ghosts In The Machine

    Just promoted to the Board of Customs & Excise, Nick Storey is asked to help a Metropolitan Police enquiry into illegal arms sales to Morocco. Military hardware for "rockhopper" missiles misdescribed as telephonic equipment and destined for Morocco h...

  • Market Forces

    Along with the rest of the Civil Service, Customs & Excise are required by Government to market test some of their activities in competition with private sector firms. As the majority of market tests are in the Outfield, Nick Storey keeps a careful e...

  • End Of The Road

    1993. Concerns about former Soviet bloc weapons falling into the wrong hands leads to Nick Storey becoming a member of a Cabinet Office committee and a special committee of the World Customs Organisation (WCO). Having seized harmless ex-Soviet weapon...

  • It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

    1994. Customs & Excise staff in Dover find revolting pornography being imported by a Cabinet Minister. Various underhand attempts are made by the Minister to retrieve the porn or get the case heard before a compliant magistrate. But how does this lin...

  • The Body in the Marine Buildings

    A hundred-year-old body is discovered walled up in the flat above one owned by the daughter of Nick and Rosemary Storey. How did he get there and why? Deal was a notorious smuggling town and, as a former Customs Commissioner, Nick thinks it might ...

  • Death On The Volga

    1996. Nick and Rosemary Storey are enjoying a river cruise from Moscow to St Petersburg when two British passengers from their excursion group are murdered, apparently on return from a visit to Yaroslavl. The cruise line ask them to get statements fr...

  • Misfits And Miscreants

    1965. Starting work in Customs & Excise HQ in London, Nick Storey comes across some strange people, including a bully and a very tall rude man with a violent friend. He strikes up a friendship with a colleague, who is subsequently stabbed to death in...



  • Post And Perfidy

    When Nick Storey visits the Overseas Parcels Office (OPO) at the Royal Agricultural Hall, to check whether the Temporary Charge on Imports is being collected, the arrangements look wide open to fraud. After this is confirmed by two postal workers, Ni...

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Richard Hernaman Allen has published 40 books.

Richard Hernaman Allen does not have a new book coming out soon. The latest book, Post And Perfidy, was published in March 2020.

The first book by Richard Hernaman Allen, The Summer of Love, was published in October 2013.

Yes. Richard Hernaman Allen has 2 series.
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