R. Michael Phillips

Michael is a classically trained artist who has been painting for over 30 years. By combining his creative talents with a passion for art and antiquities he conceived the fictional world of the East London Adventurers Club, home to The Ernie Bisquets Mystery Series. Michael has completed 2 books in the series and is finalizing the third. He has plans for at least five additional books following the adventurers of this remarkable group of London irregulars.

His short story “Oranges and Lemons” was recently published in Suspense Magazine, January 2011. Michael is a proud member of the Crime Writer’s Association.

The first book in the Ernie Bisquets Mystery Series, “Along Came A Fifer,” was published July 2009 by Asylett Press. It introduces Ernie Bisquets, a retired London pickpocket who put his hand in a pocket and pulled out a murder. Together with Nigel Coats and Lily Jean Corbitt the East London Adventurers Club is drawn into a dangerous journey through the streets of London and Paris, exposing the darker side of the art world.

Ernie Bisquets, Lily Jean Corbitt and Nigel Coats return in the second Ernie Bisquets Mystery, greeted by an even more engaging group of characters than they came across in the first book, as they dodge murder and mayhem in “Rook, Rhyme & Sinker,” released January 2011. Ernie’s daily routine is interrupted by the apparent suicide of an old school mate. What surprises him even more was the bequeath left to him by the deceased - an old nursery rhyme and one of the lost Lewis Chessmen. Confused about the connection, the group starts to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death. They soon find it was murder, and that leads to the discovery of a second hoard of these enigmatic little figures hidden in a St. Ives bridge. What they didn’t realize was an unscrupulous antique dealer, who has been searching for this lost hoard for decades, is shadowing their every move.

Look for “Passage Of Crime,” third book in the series to be release soon.