Sam Turner is trying to turn his life around. Newly divorced, he's kicked the habit of his wife and now he's working on the booze. Introducing himself at a group meeting one night, he succumbs to a sudden impulse to say he's a private detective, and the Sam Turner Detective Agency is born. Terry, one of the men from the meeting, comes to Sam because he thinks his wife is having an affair. Can he hire Sam on retainer? Piece of cake, Sam thinks. Follow her, snap a few photographs, pocket the money - how hard can it be? The case starts out so smoothly, Sam's convinced that life is really looking up. But then Terry is brutally stabbed to death, and the police begin to think they have a serial killer on their hands. Suddenly Sam's career as a private detective is taking off by leaps and bounds.

With his second novel Baker takes more risks than many writers would dare and triumphs. Val McDermid, novelist, Manchester Evening News. Baker’s second novel is strong, dark and discursive. There’s no doubt that – with his York setting and up-from-the-gutter hero – Baker has added something new to the crime scene. Philip Oakes, Literary Review. The supporting cast work splendidly, and York itself is evoked in an effective series of settings. Dark and seedy, leavened with ample wit, I enjoyed this book and can imagine it making an entertaining television series. Martin Hughes, Crime Time.

Sam Turner is helping the woman from Scottish Widows track the murderer of her husband and is investigating the death of a teenage runaway. As a look at the seamier side of the underlife in a prosperous city, the author spares no-one. Indeed he suggests the police force is a corrupt body taking bribes and turning a blind eye to many crimes. This is not a book for the squeamish but has its own moral tale. Baker gets better with every book. CADS. Steeped in the hard-boiled genre of Chandler and Elroy. Brilliant. Peterborough Evening Telegraph. I took King of the Streets away with me and enjoyed it immensely. The best of anybody’s I’ve read in a long time. Well done. Stuart Pawson, novelist.

When Edward Blake's wife is kidnapped he doesn't trouble the police, just pays out the twenty-five grand. But three months later she finally turns up - in a box. The police are interested now, especially when they hear about the two and a half million pounds' worth of insurance Blake had taken out on her life... “One of those wonderful books in which the reader is pulled into the story no matter how unwillingly. The characters force you to read on. (Baker is) a novelist who combines a light humour with a viciously sharp penetration into how our minds work.” G. Lock, Shots. “A really fine book. Splendid writing, very convincing characterization, a plausible crime, and central relationships that really work. Dora is a marvellous character, wonderfully developed.” Michelle Spring, novelist. “The over-riding force in the book is Dora, the relationship between her and Sam, the unspoken messages that convey to the reader the strength of their love, and the power of the mind, as Dora reflects on her past, and sees truths that had previously eluded her. A terrific book. Highly recommended.” Lizzie Hayes, Editor, Mystery Women Magazine.

Angeles Falco seemed like something straight from a 1950s detective movie when she walked into Sam Turner's office. All she would say was that she and her sister were being followed - by whom or for what purpose she didn't know - and she feared for their lives. Sam would be only too happy to help Angeles... but soon he finds himself up against a serial killer whose dark fantasies will try to destroy his attempt at a new life. A tale of obsession, loneliness and occasional depravity... This is the fifth Sam Turner novel. It’s about being blind and sometimes looking too hard. It’s about not being able to see the wood for the trees and sometimes seeing things that simply could not be there, watching and being watched. I wanted to write about voyeurism and readers and writers and to discuss the enigma of the different ways we all choose to see the world we share. “John Baker is a very classy writer. He has got the telling of this story down to an art form. The pieces of the puzzle we are allowed to see are intriguing and pull us into this intelligent novel. “The villain is seriously bad and creepy, he would give Hanibal Lecter pause for thought. and the hero and his colleagues are real people, when you read about them they do not seem to be fiction in any way. This is way, way above run-of-the-mill crime fiction. Pure Class.” Ottaker’s The Verdict – Issue 2

Sam Turner is doing his best to bury his past, but it’s hard when his mistakes keep coming back to haunt him. First his ex-wife is brutally murdered in her own home. Then, when another of Sam’s exes is murdered, the police are convinced they need look no further to solve the crime. Sam goes on the run, dodging not only the police, but the real killer, and finds himself embroiled in a terrifying mystery where he’s both fugitive and detective. To protect the women who used to love him, he must anticipate the moves of a murderer—and the killer shows no sign of being satisfied. This is the sixth Sam Turner novel. It’s about magic and talismans and charms and the stuff of dreams. I wanted to write about sleight of hand and escapes and the idea of enchantment and personal illusions. “I actually fell asleep with only a chapter or so to go and woke up at 2:30am. Couldn’t get back to sleep because I hadn’t finished the book, so I went into my office and did so. Everyone should be jealous that I’ve read it already.” Barbara Franchi, Reviewing the Evidence.