Move over, Sherlock Holmes, take a back seat, Philip Marlowe, make room for a new kid on the crime fiction block. Astrid’s the name, Astrid Price and she is a private eye fighting crime on the mean streets of the newly independent Welsh Republic. (In a previous life, she pulled the strings for the Welsh women’s rugby team at outside-half.)

Astrid is the star of two new books by Newport author Alan Roderick: ‘Astrid Investigates’, a collection of 21 short stories and ‘Astrid and the Golden Lovespoons’, a full length novel.

In Astrid Investigates, Astrid survives a shoot-out with Argentinian gangsters; recovers stolen Eisteddfod chairs; foils a North Wales plot to secede from the Welsh Republic, gets to the bottom of strange goings-on involving Roman soldiers in the town of Caerleon; tracks down a missing Miss Cymru in a wintry Venice; guards a jackpot winning lottery ticket; defeats a criminal Mari Lwyd gang; discovers who is embezzling funds from The Casnewydd Gwent Gryphons and all this with a smile on her face and her trusty rounders bat always by her side. From poison pen greeting cards to rescuing kidnapped cats and saving lost or stolen Welsh icons, Astrid is your woman.

In Astrid and the Golden Lovespoons, Astrid sets out to find the truth behind the mysterious Golden Lovespoons, a path littered with dead bodies which then disappear and no one believes her when she tells them, least of all the Welsh Republican Police. She is hindered and helped by the sinister Hoodyman and Gelert, the talking African Parrot, who knows more about the Golden Lovespoons than he is telling.

As the rain falls, Astrid is knocked unconscious, shot at, abducted by the Hammers of Edward, the terrorist organisation seeking to destroy the Welsh Republic, and nearly drowned. Before she can answer all the riddles facing her, she must confront her own fears and come to terms with past memories.

Both books cost £8-99 each (plus postage and packing), with copies available from Alan Roderick at: [email protected] or write to Alan Roderick, 84 Llanthewy Road, Newport, Gwent, NP20 4LA. They are also available as Ebooks at Amazon, Kobo and IBooks for around £4 each.