Best Selling Books by Ian Thompson

An ancient, abandoned church... with a victim impaled on its metal spire. A terrifying kidnapping... Old friends - once trusted, now lying... A devastating arson attack... Ruthless blackmailers who will kill anyone who stands in their way... Crime reporters Ray Hammett and Jessica Summers haven''t recovered from their last case when they find themselves plunged into a lethal new mystery. This time, there are far more dead bodies than clues. Armed with just their keen curiosity, camaraderie and dogged determination, they''ll risk everything to uncover the truth. Ray and Jessica become swamped in a quagmire of deceit and apparently unconnected events. They encounter the Barrentines, a treacherous and immoral married business team. Tanner Leeson, an overnight success - by sheer luck or twisted design? Ronnie O''Farrell, ex-military and suspiciously willing to help. And, visiting Norbourn''s Flights, the pair meet a crew who act like drunken fools - but could Jeff Norbourn really be hiding a smuggling operation, murder or worse? What is the secret behind Angel Park Hall and Marshall Holdings? Who gains from the escalating array of death and destruction? Was the arson attack devised for insurance or for a more sinister purpose? Were the killings in revenge or to silence witnesses? Does the root of the mystery lie with one of the mobster families of Prestford? Are the reporters going head-to-head with organized crime? Most baffling of all, how can anything connect to the murder on the spire? The latest murders take on an even more macabre twist: the bodies are incinerated, annihilating all evidence. Why? While Ray and Jessica collect pieces in their ill-fitting puzzle, the killer always seems to be many steps ahead of them. Ray''s healing wound, plus their increasing fatigue and frustrations, wear the pair down. Only their growing friendship keeps them from breaking... Worst of all, someone wants the reporters to stop - and will kill to ensure they do. Can the mystery be solved? Or will the two friends become victims themselves... and be burned from existence? The Murder Weapon On The Hill is the sequel to Paradise Exhumed, a novel reviewers described as: "very intense and very well written" "a great story, well written and beautifully constructed, with well drawn characters". "...a thriller... you can''t stop reading" "I went back to Sherlock Holmes, this was awesome" "The mystery combined with the action and murder made it something I couldn''t resist" "...characters were interesting and real... full of twists and turns" "...a fantastic whodunit thriller... Highly recommended" "...an absolutely awesome, intense read."

Join Drainage the Dragon in his second adventure. It''s Christmas Eve and Drainage is looking forward to his first Christmas with Michael. However Santa has a big problem that only Drainage can solve to save Christmas!

High-pressure (HP) air bottles are used in the Victoria class submarines for emergency air and displacing water in the ballast tanks during surfacing. The vital nature of these activities means that the integrity of HP air bottles is critical to safe operation. As such, measures must be taken to ensure fracture or leakage is avoided. Currently, the bottles are periodically inspected and damaged bottles are removed from service. This document covers the validation of the use of externally mounted strain gauges to monitor further growth of cracks of a limited size. Finite element analyses of experimental samples similar to air bottles were conducted using the same modelling techniques used by BMT Fleet Technology. The results of the finite element analyses were compared to experimental results. Digital image correlation (DIC) was used in the experiments and its use, associated challenges, and potential future uses are discussed.