CROOKED CAT AND DARKSTROKE AUTHOR OF THE WEEK - DAY ONE: HOW IT ALL BEGAN
Crooked Cat Books and Darkstroke publishing have been putting one of its authors in the spotlight every week lately. This week, starting today, it's my turn. As I’ve been lucky enough to have had seven books published by them, it seems appropriate to remember one each day.
Is writing a way of releasing our past?
Book 1.
It was 2013 and Him indoors and I had been living in a tiny medieval village in SW France. Ever since I’d taken early retirement from the University of Birmingham after thirty years of blood, sweat and tears, I’d wanted to write a novel using some of my experience of working behind the scenes in the corridors of power. For a novel in the crime genre to be successful, I knew that it needed to comprise action, believable characters, a familiar setting – such as a university campus - and hopefully a page-turning story. This story would especially appeal to alumni, current students and their families.
So, 3rd Degree Murder was born. A prestigious vice-chancellor receives two formal complaints just before he’s due to retire. The underlying theme weaves a potent, cultural mix between a Muslim PhD student and a Jewish secretary. They both work for the same hated professor. Also embroiled in the intrigue are a family at war with modern society, two disgruntled lecturers, a vice-chancellor with a secret and a crazy office cleaner. So, in the end, who actually killed Professor Axel Sloan?
But how in the French countryside was I to find a good publisher? A friend told me in 2014 that Crooked Cat Books were just about to have an ‘open window’ for manuscript submissions. Fortunately, their website was easy to find, I attached my precious mss and, before long, I received a lovely email from them with the wonderful words “We’re delighted to offer you a contract….”
Readers can now buy this second edition of 3rd Degree Murder here: mybook.to/3rddegree
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