Who is Oscar Tremont, Investigator of the Strange and Inexplicable?
He's a private investigator who solves seemingly inexplicable puzzles. He's a dichotomy of Victorian charm and progressive spirit. He has a keen intellect, is a master of disguise, is rather fond of whisky, and has a tendency to enter buildings illegally while working on a case, much to the consternation of Louise, his wife. He uncovers secrets, but he also has many of his own. One reviewer called him a "modern-day Sherlock Holmes" and a "mystery-solving maniac", while another said he's "a little bit of Poirot, a little bit of Sherlock, and perhaps a pinch of Shaggy from Scooby-Doo". What's certain is that with every new adventure, you'll grow to understand this complex chap a little more.
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Dead on the Dolmen
Paperback and ebook (including Kindle Unlimited) available from Amazon
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Published by Black Beacon Books, 2026
Genre: fair-play mystery
Length: 207 pages
A LEGEND AS ANCIENT AS THE DOLMEN ITSELF HAS CALLED UPON THE VILLAGE OF GRENO. THE ANKOU RIDES ONCE MORE IN BRITTANY, BUT WHO IS BEHIND THE MASK, AND WHOSE SOUL WILL BE CLAIMED?
Doctor David Trevelyan, professor of Cornish and Breton folklore, is woken in the middle of the night by the hammering of hooves and grinding of cartwheels outside his bedroom window. But when he looks outside, down to where he should see the dolmen - that timeless stone monument - softly growing in the moonlight, his surprise turns to terror...
He recognises the figure standing on a cart drawn by a black horse; draped in black, with a skull for a face, and carrying a curved scythe. There's no doubt about it. Someone disguised as The Ankou, the Grim Reaper of Breton mythology, is terrorising him. The next time the Ankou calls, tragedy is narrowly averted, and Rowan Trevelyan insists his father call the police. But the professor stubbornly refuses. He has a secret to hide and doesn't want gendarmes poking their noses into his past. The matter needs to be dealt with discreetly by a private investigator.
Enter Oscar Tremont, Investigator of the Strange and Inexplicable...
But when murder strikes Greno, there is no avoiding the intervention of the Gendarmerie Nationale. Will Oscar Tremont be able to carry out his investigation without treading on their toes? Will he crack the case before they do and unmask the Ankou?
DEAD ON THE DOLMEN is the first mystery novel featuring Oscar Tremont, Investigator of the Strange and Inexplicable, hailed by one reviewer as a "modern-day Sherlock Holmes" and a "mystery-solving maniac" and by another as "a little bit of Poirot, a little bit of Sherlock, and perhaps a pinch of Shaggy from Scooby-Doo".
FAIR-PLAY MYSTERY
PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR
CLUES AND RED HERRINGS
MYSTERY IN BRITTANY
CELTIC FOLKLORE
Excerpt:
Was this a bizarre joke? Someone in training for Halloween? But the local youngsters weren't capable of playing a trick like this. Every detail was chillingly accurate, just as legend had it. The figure wore a long black coat and a black hat with a brim so broad it blocked David's view of the head. The two tassels which were the ends of the hatband were whipped about by the wind, and the silver buckle in the middle of the hatband shone under the haunting yellow light from the small cart's two lamps, which hung from upright posts. One black horse was attached to the cart and waiting patiently. 'The Ankou!' David mouthed, hardly daring to utter the horrid name, and as if hearing him, the head rose, looking straight up at the bedroom window. Its face was a gleaming skull with empty eye sockets as black as abandoned wells. David gasped as it raised the cruel, curved scythe into the air and slashed wildly in his direction.
Oscar Tremont, Investigator of the Strange and Inexplicable
Paperback and ebook (including Kindle Unlimited) available from Amazon
For more purchase options, visit the Black Beacon Books shop.
Don't forget to add it to your Goodreads bookshelf and leave a rating and review.
Published by Black Beacon Books, 2022
Genre: mystery collection
Length: 235 pages
Join Oscar Tremont on his first four cases as he tackles mysteries too strange for the police and assures his clients that a rational explanation lies behind what at first appears to be impossible. You will find clues, question suspects, don disguises, break into abandoned houses, solve codes and puzzles, and if you really have your wits about you, crack the case before our hero.
Oscar Tremont, Investigator of the Strange and Inexplicable consists of two novellas and two short stories that display the keen intellect of a private investigator who is bound to make a name for himself in the mystery genre.
◆ The Hunt for the Stayne Fortune
◆ The Ghosts of Walhalla
◆ The Witch at the Window
◆ The Secret of the Severed Hand
These four mysteries will challenge and surprise even the most experienced armchair detectives.
Are you up to the task? Yes? Then the game's afoot!
The Oscar Tremont Puzzles
The latest Oscar Tremont Puzzles, available in anthologies:
The Case of the Ghost Slipper (forthcoming)
...and more on the way
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FREE story to whet your appetite!
First published by Flame Tree
| Portrait by Greg Chapman |
Visit Oscar's dedicated page on Goodreads
What readers say about Oscar Tremont:
"Doctor David Trevelyan is awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of a horse-drawn cart outside his upstairs window. He looks out and sees the Ankou, a grim reaper, carrying a scythe and approaching the dolmen below. Is he imagining things? Or is someone terrorizing him? And David knows that there are some things in his past that could be drawing such terror. It is for those reasons that he hesitates to contact the police as his son Rowan suggests... when Rowan himself has an encounter with the Ankou, he urges his father to contact Oscar Tremont, Investigator of the Strange and Inexplicable... Oscar Tremont can be described as A MODERN-DAY SHERLOCK HOLMES, HERCULE POIROT, AND MATTHEW SCUDDER ROLLED INTO ONE. His intellect is obvious. He enjoys a touch of the mysterious and touches of humor. And he has a few personality QUIRKS THAT MAKE HIM MEMORABLE... I love a puzzle mystery and this one didn’t disappoint. I couldn’t solve it, but then, I rarely can solve A WELL-WRITTEN PUZZLE... This is Oscar Tremont's first appearance in long form. I HOPE IT WON'T BE HIS LAST."
- Robert Petyo, five-star Amazon review of Dead on the Dolmen
"A MUST-READ MYSTERY! Oscar Tremont never disappoints. When he steps into a crime scene, you know you're in for a treat. I THOROUGHLY ENJOYED THIS BOOK FROM START TO FINISH. Some parts had me on the edge of my seat. I loved the details that helped me visualize where the story took place. The characters were easy to get to know, and THE THRILL OF FINDING CLUES WITH OSCAR NEVER GETS OLD—a thrilling must-read. I can't wait for the next adventure. Great book. Bravo Cameron."
- Tracy Altvater, five-star Amazon review of Dead on the Dolmen
"Really good read. An ENTERTAINING MYTHOLOGICAL STORY and a CAPTIVATING MYSTERY with a SURPRISE REVEAL. Convincing characters. Thoroughly enjoyed it."
- A. Thomas, five-star Amazon review of Dead on the Dolmen
"BRISBANE'S MODERN-DAY SHERLOCK HOLMES is a mystery-solving maniac. These four short cases are entertaining, and unique. Trost makes the pages melt away with his tight writing style. Enjoyed this book."
- Stephen Ormsby, four-star Goodreads review of Oscar Tremont, Investigator of the Strange and Inexplicable
"AN UTTERLY ENJOYABLE SELECTION OF STORIES from the cases of fictional sleuth, Oscar Tremont. Each story is well crafted and engaging. I'd already read one of the stories, The Ghosts of Walhalla, in an anthology, but was quite happy to reread it, even though I knew the ending. I love that the stories are set in Australia, and even though I'm not overly familiar with Brisbane (only been there a couple of times), I feel I am there in these tales. Great rainy day reading - and I mean that in the best way possible."
- Karen Bayly, five-star Goodreads review of Oscar Tremont, Investigator of the Strange and Inexplicable
"We are all familiar with Sherlock Holmes and his unparalleled intellect and skills of deduction. But WHAT IF WE WERE TO TAKE HOLMES AND MAKE HIM MORE OF AN EVERYMAN? With a loving & exasperated wife, a home in the suburbs, and too much time on his hands? What would we get? Well, the end product would be Oscar Tremont, an investigator specializing in bizarre and random mysteries."
- Jack Wells, five-star Amazon review of Oscar Tremont, Investigator of the Strange and Inexplicable
"I found these stories to be easy reads with the right combination of fun and mystery. OSCAR TREMONT IS A CLEVER, CUNNING INVESTIGATOR who would rather solve an interesting mystery than get paid for a boring one, much to his wife's consternation. The characters and situations are fun, quirky, and will leave you clamoring for more. Oscar Tremont is a perfect addition to that club of literary super-sleuths that includes C. Auguste Dupin and Sherlock Holmes."
- Jim X Dodge, author of Theta House and The Bite, review of Oscar Tremont, Investigator of the Strange and Inexplicable
"This morning I started the day with The Second Black Beacon Book of Mystery and had the pleasure of reading Cameron Trost's The Impossible Theft. A CLEVER AND SEXY INTELLECTUAL GAME. HAS OSCAR TREMONT MET HIS IRENE ADLER? Highly recommended."
- Alexandra Thomas, Oscar Tremont fangirl review of Oscar Tremont, Investigator of the Strange and Inexplicable
"Cameron Trost has created an interesting character in Oscar Tremont. This interesting fellow is a self-employed investigator of all things quirky. These four short stories held a fascination in that they sounded like they COULD ALMOST HAVE BEEN WRITTEN IN A DIFFERENT ERA, but they are replete with cars, cell phones, and computers of our modern times. Oscar seems to be A LITTLE BIT OF POIROT, A LITTLE BIT OF SHERLOCK, AND PERHAPS A PINCH OF SHAGGY FROM SCOOBY-DOO and I mean those things in the best of ways. These are light-hearted mysteries without gore, enjoyable and easily read in short order. The reader can't help but wonder what Oscar Tremont will find to occupy his curiosities with next."
- Bob, five-star Amazon review of Oscar Tremont, Investigator of the Strange and Inexplicable
"Oscar is NOT YOUR TYPICAL PRIVATE DETECTIVE. He's more interested in satisfying his own curiosity than letting justice have its way. That, to me, makes him A FLAWED CHARACTER but also gives a different and UNPREDICTABLE EDGE TO THE STORIES. You never know what the final outcome of each case will be."
- Dalton Fisk, three-star Goodreads review of Oscar Tremont, Investigator of the Strange and Inexplicable
"Dead on the Dolmen is rooted in a way that feels increasingly rare, and THE SOIL IT DRAWS FROM IS ANCIENT, stony, and steeped in story. Brittany is not used as postcard scenery, but as lived-in geography. You can feel the damp in the air, the weight of centuries pressing beneath the grass; a sense that folklore hasn’t vanished so much as learned to wait. At the heart of the novel is the Ankou, that skeletal ferryman of Breton legend, rattling through the night on horse and cart, his scythe in hand. Cameron is careful with this figure. He does not overexplain or modernize the myth into something slick. Instead, he allows it to retain its strangeness, its rural terror, and its ambiguity. The dolmen itself becomes a locus of unease: a place where history, superstition, and violence overlap. STONES REMEMBER. THIS BOOKS UNDERSTANDS THAT. The narrative pairing of father and son, David and Rowan, serves as an emotional crux. Their relationship feels unforced, lived-in, and quietly affectionate. This is not a story that relies on melodrama to manufacture stakes. The fear grows organically, seeded in concern, curiosity, and the realization that something old may not be content to remain symbolic. When Oscar Tremont enters, he does so not as a disruptive force but as an extension of the novel’s temperament. An investigator of the strange and inexplicable, yes, but one who listens as much interrogates. This was my first encounter with Oscar Tremont, and what struck me most was his restraint. In a genre sometimes populated by outsized personalities, TREMONT FEELS REFRESHINGLY HUMAN. COMPETENT WITHOUT ARROGANCE, CURIOUS WITHOUT CONDESCENSION. Trost resists any urge to turn him into a gimmick. Instead, our Investigator becomes a lens, someone through whom the uncanny can be examined without being diminished. There is a BRITISH COZINESS to the structure, recalling MIDSOMER MURDERS or FATHER BROWN, yet filtered through a continental sensibility that gives the book its European verisimilitude. Dead on the Dolmen is not interested in reinventing the mystery genre. As an alternative, IT POLISHES WELL-WORN STONE UNTIL IT SHIMMERS. Atmospheric, the novel reminds us that the most persistent horrors are rarely the ones that announce themselves … but those that have been quietly occupying the landscape all along."
- Matthew Tait, four-star Amazon review of Dead on the Dolmen
"A COMPELLING MYSTERY STORY THAT REMINDS THE READER OF SHERLOCK HOLMES. Filled with MYSTICISM AND WONDERFUL WORDPLAY, with an OLD-FASHIONED SENSE OF COMFORT that I found most compelling. Definitely recommended for a read in a comfy chair and before a fireplace."
- Immaree, four-star Amazon review of Dead on the Dolmen
1 comment:
Cameron, I am going into Amazon to see what I can see, as they say. Your descriptions intrigue me, and I know my mother may be interested in some of these also. Mom is a fan, too, of the stories about Sherlock and his wife Mary. Anyway, off I go, and thank you.
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