Albert Smith's Culinary Capers

A shadowy master criminal has been kidnapping experts from the food industry and stealing both food and equipment. The crimes are so unrelated no one in the world had noticed the connections. No one except Albert Smith, that is. He’s got almost nothing to go on, but with every place he visits, he gets just a little closer to the truth. He’s not working alone though, his faithful sidekick, Rex Harrison the former police dog is right there with him. Can the two of them pull off the impossible and find the man Albert chose to dub ‘the Gastrothief’?

Albert Smith might be retired, but a long career as a police detective has left him with skills that just won’t switch off. So on a walking tour of the British Isles, it doesn’t take long for his eyes to spot something he wasn’t supposed to see.

Melton Mowbray is world famous for its pork pies, but beneath the façade lies an undercurrent of lies and deceit, and Albert Smith just saw something that made him curious. The operation hiding in plain sight is worth a lot of money. The kind of money people will kill to protect and now they need to make him vanish. Quietly. Permanently. Good luck with that. Albert spent decades taking down criminals and his mind is as sharp as it ever was. Get ready for pandemonium.

On a culinary tour of the British Isles, retired Detective Superintendent Albert Smith and snarky former police dog Rex Harrison find something quite unexpected waiting for them at their B&B... it’s the almost-dead body of their landlady.

When retired cop, Albert, arrives in Stilton for a festival, he has cheese on his mind, but that’s not what he gets …… arriving the morning after the factory and warehouse have been raided, all the stilton is gone, and the security guard, Dave, who bravely fought to stop the thieves, needs someone’s help to save the day. With sidekick Rex Harrison, the failed police dog, at his side, our aging but sprightly hero will put his ear to the ground and his mind to work as he unravels the clues to this mystery.

Baking. It can get a guy killed. In the small Bedfordshire town of Biggleswade, retired detective Albert, and former police dog, Rex, are enjoying a peaceful break from the murder and mayhem of the last week. Until the waitress serving him is arrested for murder …… and he discovers she killed the café’s owner three days ago. But Albert saw her eyes when the police came for her – she is innocent! With evidence stacked against her, no alibi, and both motive and opportunity, she will carry the blame unless someone can prove otherwise.

After the drama in Biggleswade, our crime-busting duo head to York for the annual Yorkshire pudding competition and a well-earned rest …… well fat chance of that because they interrupt a robbery before they can even get to the venue. When Albert realises he’s stumbled across something much bigger than a random mugging, he decides, for once, to leave the crime-solving to the locals.

Baking. It can get a guy killed. On the trail of a master criminal, a retired detective and his former police dog expect a quiet time in the Cumbrian village of Keswick. However, when Rex picks up a scent upon arriving at their B&B …… the discovery of a body in a shallow grave draws them into a mystery someone does not want solved. With help from a local amateur sleuth and her dog, our mystery-busting duo set out to investigate two cases at the same time. Along the way they’ll identify a host of possible suspects and have to answer some big questions: Who stood to gain from the victim’s death?

On a culinary tour of the British Isles, a retired detective and a failed police dog intend to taste the smoked fish that made the town famous …… but when the first person they meet turns up dead a few hours later in an apparent suicide neither one of them believes, both man and dog must accept they’ve stumbled into another mystery. All too soon, they wish they hadn’t poked their noses in because what they have uncovered could be truly sinister.

Snoozing on the train ride into Dundee, a horrified scream tears both Albert and Rex from their dreams and back to reality …… where they discover a woman has just witnessed a murder. It would be easy to dismiss her claim; she saw something in the window of a house as the train went by, but when there are dangerous men waiting for her at Dundee station, Albert has to accept she might be onto something.

Visiting a small Lancashire town to learn their culinary secrets, a retired detective and his former police dog dream of delicious dishes …… what they get is the dead body of a famous TV chef. Instantly plunged into a mystery that threatens to test their limits, Rex and Albert must stay one step ahead of the killer. However, it seems that everyone around them had a motive for wanting the TV chef to meet an untimely end. With no end of suspects, who can they turn to for help? Everyone around them could be the killer and it quickly becomes clear that someone does not want this mystery solved.

Arriving in the famous English seaside resort, Albert plans only to reminisce about a childhood holiday more than seventy years in the past. While there he will eat the town's most famous creation - the sugary treat known as rock. But when he walks into a shop being shaken down by heavies enforcing a protection racket, all thoughts of relaxation go out the window.

On the southeast coast of England, three wines growers have just gone missing and a fourth was found dead at the scene. Could this be the work of the master criminal Albert Smith has been chasing all over the country? You'd better believe it. Rushing back to his home county, Albert hopes to pick up the trail once more. With trusted former police dog, Rex Harrison, at his side, the duo begins to snoop …… but they have no idea the perpetrators are still there. Worse yet, the criminals know who Albert is and they’re not about to let him spoil their plans again.

Baking. It can get a guy killed. When the chef tipped to win this year’s annual Eton Mess competition falls to his death in mysterious circumstances, Albert races to investigate — surely this is the work of the Gastrothief again. However, Albert barely makes it out of the train station before his detective’s brain sees something most other people would never spot – a crime is about to take place and there’s no way he can ignore it. Instantly shackled with a new problem, Albert attempts to solve both cases simultaneously, but is he up to the task?

Following a trail of clues to a sleepy seaside village in the southwest corner of England, retired police detective, Albert Smith, aims to prove his theory of a master criminal by catching the ‘Gastrothief’s’ agents red-handed. With trusted former police dog, Rex Harrison at his side, the crime-busting duo know precisely who and what to look for. However, beneath the narrow streets of the picturesque resort a far more sinister plot is being hatched and if Albert were to look over his shoulder, he might notice a set of eyes lurking in his shadow.

Every journey might start with a single step, but where does it end? Albert Smith and his faithful dog, Rex Harrison, have been on the road for far longer than they ever expected, but they can’t go home yet. Not until they solve one final case. Following a near-invisible breadcrumb trail of clues to find a character they know only as ‘The Gastrothief’, the man and dog duo find themselves in a remote village on the Welsh coast. Miles from home and without a friend in sight, do they really stand a chance against this invisible enemy and his merciless agents? Of course they don’t.

Baking. It can get a guy killed. And this time it does. A murder staged to look like a suicide fools everyone except Albert Smith. He knows better. In Lyme Regis with his faithful dog, the victim invited him to visit the seaside resort. Now he’s dead and Albert wants to know why. But when the trail of clues leads Albert into a darkened courtyard, Rex finds himself left to investigate alone and all too soon a second body is discovered. Is there a killer out there? Or are the suicides just poorly timed?

Albert and Rex are going to the palace. It’s the day the Kings' birthday honour list recipients get their knighthoods, but like everywhere else they go, there is trouble to be found. With his three children and youngest granddaughter, Apple-Blossom, in tow, Albert is a little embarrassed by the lavishness of the affair. Yet all that is forgotten when he spots a man he knows. A man guilty of murder. A man who can only be at the palace for one thing.