James A Jones Books

A wartime Liverpool thriller

Sawdust
and Orange Paper

A novel by James A Jones

Liverpool, 1941. The Atlantic lifeline is under attack—and the enemy may already be inside the docks.

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Available for Kindle and in paperback

Cover of Sawdust and Orange Paper by James A Jones
1941Wartime Liverpool
322Pages
2Investigations converge
1Port under threat

The story

Every ship matters.
Every secret costs.

In 1941, Liverpool is Britain’s essential gateway for American equipment, munitions and food. The Luftwaffe pounds the city while Atlantic convoys face a sudden, deadly increase in U-boat attacks.

Injured Royal Navy Swordfish pilot Bob Taylor is ordered to discover why. Another injured serviceman, John Cross, is tracing the black market flourishing amid the chaos. Their separate missions collide as evidence points towards a highly organised German cell intent on destroying the port from within.

Grounded in historical detail and local knowledge, Sawdust and Orange Paper follows two men navigating sabotage, divided loyalties and the stubborn social life of a city determined to survive.

New history archive

Beneath wartime Liverpool

Explore the real Wapping, Victoria and Waterloo freight tunnels, the vast Edge Hill Gridiron, Jim Jones's childhood memories, and a sourced interactive map of the railway system behind the novel's Liverpool setting.

Open the tunnel archive
01

The pilot

Bob Taylor survives the skies only to inherit a mystery on the ground: why have the U-boats become so successful?

02

The investigator

John Cross follows wartime contraband through a city where scarcity creates profit—and useful cover.

03

The city

Bombed, watched and indispensable, Liverpool is more than the setting. It is the prize.

The complete catalogue

More worlds.
More threats.

From political conspiracy and international missions to social history and MH370, explore every title on James A Jones’s verified Amazon page—plus the Jones family’s books about world travel, the Dakar Rally and the Morgan CX-T.

Tom Copeland thrillers

3 books

Stewart Phillips thrillers

3 books

Major Mark Stirling assignments

3 books

True stories, travel, motoring and social history

5 books
Cover of Dakar: The Challenge of the Desert by Dot and Jim Jones
By Dot & Jim Jones

Dakar: The Challenge of the Desert

Inside the 2003 Dakar Rally—the world’s greatest motorsport endurance event.

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Cover of Splinter from the Designer's Eye: Morgan CX-T Project by Dorothy and Michael Jones
By Dorothy & Michael Jones

Splinter from the Designer’s Eye

The Morgan CX-T project from concept to limited production, illustrated with more than eighty images.

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For readers of

History with a pulse

The author

James A Jones

Born in Liverpool and now living in Cheshire, James A Jones brings technical curiosity, wide travel experience and a strong sense of place to his fiction and non-fiction.

His catalogue ranges from wartime Liverpool and political conspiracy to international assignments, social history and the disappearance of flight MH370. Across the thrillers, recurring investigators Tom Copeland, Stewart Phillips and Major Mark Stirling face threats shaped by power, technology and divided loyalties.

James’s wife, Dot Jones, is also represented here. In Journeys with Jim, she tells stories from the couple’s travels through more than eighty countries. Dot and Jim co-authored Dakar: The Challenge of the Desert, their illustrated account of the 2003 rally, while Dot and Michael Jones documented the Morgan CX-T’s journey from concept to limited production in Splinter from the Designer’s Eye.

Visit the Amazon author page

Book clubs

Carry the conversation beyond the final page

A spoiler-light starting set for reading groups, history societies and anyone reading together.

  1. 01How does Liverpool function as a character as well as a setting?
  2. 02Where does necessity end and profiteering begin during wartime?
  3. 03How do Bob and John’s injuries shape the way they approach danger?
  4. 04Which details most vividly connect the thriller to real history?
  5. 05How does ordinary social life change the atmosphere of the investigation?

Enter Liverpool, 1941

The docks cannot afford another secret.

Discover the book on Amazon UK