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Phobia: Detective Jason Smith's early years (A DS Jason Smith Thriller) Kindle Edition
Phobia is a series of five Detective Jason Smith cases that he worked on before we met him in the first book 'Smith'.
We are given insights into what moulded him into the Detective Sergeant we first get a glimpse of in 'Smith'.
As a young detective disillusioned by life, Smith quickly realizes that police work isn't always cut and dried. Justice is not always black and white; there are many shades of grey in between.
If you like gripping detective stories, then this is a series you won’t want to miss.
THE DETECTIVES
DS Jason Smith is an Australian who was sent to York to live with his Grandmother when his sister disappeared from a beach. He has suffered many losses in his short life and is now a dedicated detective. He is a bit of a loose cannon he has his own way of doing things and that doesn’t always mean following orders and procedures.
DS Thompson is of the same rank as Jason, but he doesn’t have the same support or success. He and Jason have a love/hate relationship which brings a bit of humour to the series.
DC Erica Whitton is Jason’s preferred partner they work well together and share a bond. She isn’t always appreciated by Jason, but they care about each other and that brings a different dimension to the series. What readers are saying about Phobia: ‘I really enjoyed this book, we get to read five stories featuring Jason Smith which set the scene and tell us more about his character before the first full length novel - Smith..’ –Donna Maguire ‘I still can't understand why Stewart is not better known to fans of crime thrillers, but it's their loss! Five stars *****.’ –Pat McCulloch ‘- which is just as well as I have already downloaded the next 8 books. I'm liking DS Smith so far and look forward to reading more about this very interesting detective.’ -Dora ‘An unusual and effective way to introduce young policeman Jason Smith to his reading public, and to his induction into CID. A thoroughly entertaining read.’ –Kindle Customer ‘Well written. I really cannot wait to read more about Jason Smith. Now we know his background, let's read his future’– Wendy Gail
BOOKS BY STEWART GILES
DS JASON SMITH SERIES
Book 0.5 - Phobia
Book 1 - Smith
Book 2 - Boomerang
Book 3 - Ladybird
Book 4 - Occam’s Razor
Book 5 - Harlequin
Book 6 - Selene
Book 7 - Horsemen
Book 8 - Unworthy
Book 9 – Venom
Book 10 – Severed
Book 11 – Demons
Book 12 - Deadeye
Book 13 - Motive
Book 14 – Australia
Book 16 – Wishbone
Book 17 – Ghosts
Book 18 – The Scarecrow
Book 19 – The Bluesman
Book 20 – The Librarian
Book 21 – The Viaduct
Book 22 – The Twin
Book 23 – The Dogwalker
Book 24 – The Flytrap
Book 25 – The Electrician
Book 26 – The Cellar
Book 27 – The Loner
Book 28 – The Painter
Book 29 – The Hitchhiker
Book 30 – The Creed
DI O’REILLY MYSTERIES
Book 1 - Blood on the Island
Book 2 - Lies on the Island
Book 3 - Fear on the Island
Book 4 - Malice on the Island
Book 5 – Revenge on the Island
Book 6 – Christmas on the Island
Book 7 – Silence on the Island
Book 8 – Secrets on the Island
Book 9 – Chaos on the Island
Book 10 - Sadness on the Island
Book 11 – Danger on the Island
Book 12 – Evil on the Island
Book 13 – Fire on the Island
Book 14 – Evil on the Island
DC HARRIET TAYLOR SERIES
Book 1-The Beekeeper
Book 2-The Perfect Murder
Book 3-The Backpacker
DS JASON SMITH &DC HARRIET TAYLOR SERIES
Book 1 - The Enigma
Book 2 – Dropzone
Book 3 – The Raven Girl
THE MIRANDA TRILOGY (psychological thrillers)
Miranda
Mistress
Medusa
STANDALONE NOVELS
Horror - The Divide
Thriller - The Ghostwriter
Thriller – The Guests
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateNovember 25, 2015
- File size2454 KB
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Product details
- ASIN : B018K0VVM2
- Publisher : STILL Books (November 25, 2015)
- Publication date : November 25, 2015
- Language : English
- File size : 2454 KB
- Simultaneous device usage : Unlimited
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 327 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,131,262 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #304 in World Literature Short Stories
- #752 in Australia & Oceania Literature
- #2,368 in Mystery Anthologies (Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
After reading English at 3 Universities and graduating from none of them, I set off travelling around the world with my wife, Ann, finally settling in South Africa, where we still live.
In 2013 Ann dropped a rather large speaker on my head and I came up with the idea for a detective series. DS Jason Smith was born. Smith, the first in the series was finished a few months later.
3 years and 8 DS Smith books later, Joffe Books wondered if I would be interested in working with them. As a self-published author, I agreed. However, we decided on a new series – the DC Harriet Taylor Cornwall series.
The Beekeeper was published and soon hit the number one spot in Australia. The second in the series, The Perfect Murder did just as well.
I continued to self-publish the Smith series and Unworthy hit the shelves in 2018 with amazing results. I therefore made the decision to self-publish The Backpacker which is book 3 in the Detective Harriet Taylor series and was published in July 2018.
After The Backpacker I had an idea for a totally new start to a series – a collaboration between the Smith and Harriet thrillers and The Enigma was born. It brings together the brooding, enigmatic Jason Smith and the more level-headed Harriet Taylor. Dropzone followed shortly after and the third in the series, The Raven Girl finished things off.
Miranda is something totally different. What was to be a stand-alone psychological thriller, it is a real departure from anything else I’ve written before. The ending begged for a sequel and, Mistress was born. Medusa completes the Miranda trilogy.
There are now 25 DS Smith books available with many more planned for the future.
I wanted a break from the crime thriller genre so I came up with The Divide - a macabre horror tale of survival, but crime will always be my true love.
A new series featuring Irishman, DI Liam O'Reilly begins with Blood on the Island, and that was followed by ten more mysteries set on the island of Guernsey.
When I'm not writing I love sailing, guitars and jumping out of perfectly good planes. I'm lucky to have a huge lake on my doorstep as well as a world-class skydiving drop zone.
Books by Stewart Giles
DS JASON SMITH SERIES
Book 0.5 -Phobia
Book 1 -Smith
Book 2-Boomerang
Book 3-Ladybird
Book 4-Occam’s Razor
Book 5-Harlequin
Book 6-Selene
Book 7-Horsemen
Book 8-Unworthy
Book 9-Venom
Book 10-Severed
Book 11-Demons
Book 12-Deadeye
Book 13-Motive
Book 14-Australia
Book 15-Wishbone
Book 16-Ghosts
Book 17-The Scarecrow
Book 18-The Bluesman
Book 19-The Librarian
Book 20-The Viaduct
Book 21-The Twin
Book 22-The Dogwalker
Book 23-The Flytrap
Book 24-The Electrician
Book 25-The Cellar
DC HARRIET TAYLOR SERIES
Book 1-The Beekeeper
Book 2-The Perfect Murder
Book 3-The Backpacker
Trotterdown a box set of DC Harriet Taylor books 1-3
DS JASON SMITH &DC HARRIET TAYLOR SERIES
Book 1 -The Enigma
Book 2 – Dropzone
Book 3 - The Raven Girl
PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLERS
Miranda
Mistress
Medusa
Standalone Horror
The Divide
Standalone Psychological Thrillers
The Ghostwriter
The Guests
DI O'Reilly mysteries
Book 1 - Blood on the Island
Book 2 - Lies on the Island
Book 3 - Fear on the Island
Book 4 - Malice on the Island
Book 5 - Revenge on the Island
Book 6 - Christmas on the Island
Book 7 - Silence on the Island
Book 8 - Secrets on the Island
Book 9 - Chaos on the Island
Book 10 - Sadness on the Island
Book 11 - Danger on the Island
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonTop reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on June 20, 2018I saw the name of author Stewart Giles while watching a BBC show on PBS which I enjoyed. So I looked him up on Amazon & found his books. Starting at the beginning of DS Smith's seemed like the best way to go so I did. And it was. Writers from the countries in Great Britain are easy for me to read because if their logic while the mysteries are intriguing & challenging. Giles writes stories that are top of that line & very hard to put down. Am starting the next one, "Smith", right now.
- Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2016Excellent intro to the rest of the series.
- Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2018Many thanks to the author / Books n All Book Promotions for the digital copy of PHOBIA, a crime fiction. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.
This is such an entertaining book! It introduces the reader to Jason Smith before his series actually begins.
There are five different full-length stories starting with the things that turned him away from the law defending thugs into a rookie police officer. From there, he rises up the ranks until in Book 5, he is DS Jason Smith.
It's quite a journey watching him grow and mature from his very first day on the job to a man who has developed and honed his instinctive feelings that make him an exceptional detective.
The crimes are unusual, some misleading and I liked watching the door to door interrogations rather than depending solely on forensics.
Jason is an extremely likable character. He's a straight-shooter, dedicated to catching criminals, and bringing justice to the victims and their families.
I highly recommend reading this one first before Book 1 of the series ... SMITH. There are a total of 9 books .... terrific for a marathon of reading.
- Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2018I really enjoyed this book, we get to read five stories featuring Jason Smith which set the scene and tell us more about his character before the first full length novel - Smith.
I read the stories over a few nights and it was a treat for me as I learnt more about one of my favourite characters. The stories are short but well written and they contain a lot detail. They are as well written as the full length books so it was a real pleasure to read them!
4.5 stars from me rounded up to 5 stars for Amazon and Goodreads - I really enjoyed it and love this series - very highly recommended!!
- Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2018I like most British police procedurals. This series is one of the best. The main character goes through believable development as the series progresses. He is flawed and gifted and incomplete; he’s like a real person. The mysteries are good also and have enough side stories to keep you alert.
- Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2017I started reading this series here, a good place to meet Smith. He quickly catches you with his quirky personality. He is surrounded by equally well-developed and individualized supporting cast members. The author puts all of these into fascinating plots in five shorter stories. I will read more of these stories!
- Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2017Like reading the condensed version of books without the background filler. We're theses the extra outlines for the series. Nicely done and still a satisfying ready and resolution.
- Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2017Excellent group of 5 short mysteries, featuring DC/DS Smith. I am looking forward to reading the rest of this author's works.
Top reviews from other countries
- Meygan BarstowReviewed in Australia on July 12, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant
Brilliant read could not be able to put it down. Best written
- Addicted to booksReviewed in the United Kingdom on June 12, 2018
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant way to cover Smith's journey up to becoming DS
I am a big fan of Stewart’s books they are easy to read and are a little bit different (but I can’t put my finger on why) and I have LOVED every single one. So I was very excited to be reading this book.
I have to say this is an absolutely brilliant way of bringing the reader up to date with the time before Smith became a DS. I haven’t seen this done before we usually get snippets throughout the series that you need to put together or a prequel novella so this was an enlightening breath of fresh air.
I also need to add that I am not a fan of short stories I like a book I can get stuck in to. I usually find that short stories don’t give enough insight into the characters or depth to the story. Here, again, Stewart has excelled himself. Each of the 5 stories is gripping and interesting absolutely no padding these are straight down the line detective stories.
I wont say much about the stories as they are short and I don’t want to spoil them for anyone.
Smith: well he grows and develops in each story and we learn more about his character and history but most of all about him and his unique talent for putting together the clues quickly and effectively. He is a realistic, compassionate character that can ‘read’ people very well and I am looking forward to following his career and personal life.
Absolutely brilliant and well worth the 5 stars.
- ShibinReviewed in India on March 22, 2016
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Great Book!!
- Carole HarryReviewed in the United Kingdom on December 31, 2022
4.0 out of 5 stars Great beginnings
I was just beginning to read ‘Smith’ when I saw this & decided to start hear. A very clever set of stories that lead up to the start of the main series. Well recommend ed.
- ReaderReviewed in Australia on February 14, 2019
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Prequel
Bought this off the back of reading another book in the series. A great set of short stories. I am now buying all the books that I can in the series.