Digging Deeper with Evonne Wareham

Digging Deeper with Evonne Wareham

Many thanks to Lorraine for inviting me onto her blog to talk about my latest book,  A Wedding on the Riviera, and to dig a little deeper into my characters for you.

I write in the genre romantic suspense, which means that you get a fully fledged love story along with the crime and dead bodies. Both sides have to be balanced, so the outcomes are equally satisfying in romance or mayhem, but all that I write is escapism, pure and simple. As you might guess from the title and cover, A Wedding on the Riviera is at the lighter end of the romantic suspense spectrum, although I do write at the grittier end as well. 

This book centres on a group of friends setting up a sting to catch a runaway groom - a con man who leaves successive brides at the altar, absconding with a lot of money. The book has its dark moments - the con itself is devastating for the women involved, and the ending... Well I mustn’t give too much away. 

In contrast, I had a great deal of fun researching and creating the wedding to end all weddings, at a glitzy villa in the South of France. That was the lure to bait the sting, and I got to indulge my love of glamour and sunshine.  

Did I mention I like to write escapism? Alongside the crime thread, my heroine and hero, Nadine and Ryan, have baggage and barriers to overcome before they get to their happy ending. And there does have to be a happy ending. For me, that’s a given.

My con man villain, Thackeray, talking about my hero, Ryan

Let’s face it – the man is a loser. An actor – which means out of work most of the time. Good looking, if you like the big brute, long haired, forgot to shave look – and I know some women do - but basically, he’s just a lout. He met Nadine through the dating agency where she met me and he’s still hanging around, although she’s with me now. How he afforded the fees I don’t know. He has to be looking to hit on a woman with money. I have to say he needs to smarten up his act if that’s his plan. I should know. You need a certain style... He really isn’t any kind of a threat. I’ve told Nadine what he must really be up to, and she understands. She already relies on me. I like a woman who listens.

Ryan on Thackeray

Smooth – that’s John Thackeray. Everything about him is designed to impress – clothes, grooming, car. All tasteful, well chosen and expensive – and none of it paid for. He has got style – I’ll give him that. He’s the sort of guy a successful woman like Nadine should be with – if any of it was real. It’s job of work to him, convincing a woman the he’s the man of her dreams. He does it well, but it’s all a facade. Underneath he’s just a manipulative thief. Nadine knows that. She’s not going to be convinced by anything he does, but that doesn’t mean she won’t see the contrast between us. He thinks I’m a lout, I know that too. When he saw me, I was playing a part, and he didn’t recognise me from before. That was a good thing, but the contrast is real. It’s still there. Will Nadine remember that, when this is over?

Casting hero and heroine

I know a lot of authors mentally cast their characters when they are writing, but it’s not something that I usually do. In this case, when the first draft for A Wedding on the Riviera was  finished, which was some time ago, I was walking through the cosmetic hall of a big department store and saw posters on the Lancôme counter advertising their Tresor perfume, with Penelope Cruz and Noah Mills – and they were a perfect image for Nadine and Ryan.

Disposing of a body

I’ve never actually concealed a body. All my deaths so far have been visible – including one involving an express train out of Paddington station. As I am an academic as well as a writer, I have always thought that those individual desks - carrels - in a library or archive had distinct possibilities. Late at night, low lighting, the body propped up in its seat...

***

Bio

Evonne is an award winning Welsh author of romantic suspense - more crime and dead bodies than your average romance. She likes to set her book in her native Wales, or for a touch of glamorous escapism, in favourite holiday destinations in Europe. She is a Doctor of Philosophy and an historian, and a member of both the Romantic Novelists’ Association and the Crime Writers’ Association.

Twitter  https://twitter.com/evonnewareham

Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/evonnewarehamauthor/

Website  www.evonnewareham.com

Blog  www.evonneonwednesday.blogspot.com

Book Description

A return to the Riviera on the trail of a runaway groom ...

When out-of-work actor Ryan Calder attends a wedding as the plus-one of successful businesswoman, Nadine Wells, he doesn’t expect to get in a scuffle with the groom.
But Ryan has a good reason. He recognises the groom from another wedding where the same man made a quick getaway, taking the wedding money and leaving a heartbroken bride in his wake. It seems he's struck again, and Nadine's poor friend is the target.
Ryan and Nadine decide they can’t let it happen to another woman, so with a group of friends they hatch a plan that will take them to the French Riviera, hot on the heels of the crooked groom. But could their scheme to bring him to justice also succeed in bringing them closer together?

 Buy links for A Wedding on the Riviera

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3mYZKRC

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/a-wedding-on-the-riviera

Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/a-wedding-on-the-riviera/id1527067169?itsct=books_toolbox&itscg=30200&at=11lNBs

Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-wedding-on-the-riviera-evonne-wareham/1137460211?ean=2940162842545

 

 

 

 

 

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Digging Deeper with Jenny O’Brien

Darkest Night by Jenny O’Brien

Darkest Night is the second in my Welsh-set crime series featuring second-generation Italian detective, Gaby Darin.

 

About Darkest Night

Christine De Bertrand wakes up to her worst nightmare: rather than the man she went to bed with, lying beside her is her housemate, Nikki – dead. With no memory of the night before, Christine can’t explain what happened, and the police are baffled.

For DC Gaby Darin, newly arrived from Swansea after her last case ended in tragedy, it’s a mystery she’s determined to solve. When another woman goes missing, Gaby faces a race against time to uncover the link between the two victims and find the man who vanished from Christine’s bedroom. But as Gaby gets close, the killer gets closer – and soon one of Gaby’s own team is in unimaginable danger…

Two short passages where each describes the characteristics of the other – good and bad

DC Gabriella Darin was annoyed at the persistent ringing of her doorbell. She’d switched off her phone the night before and, after a long luxurious bath filled to the brim with her favourite bath oil, she’d towelled and plaited her hair before climbing into bed with her Kindle and a plate of rice cakes in preparation for the lie-in she’d planned – her first in ages. The rice cakes were the only discordant note in her ideal evening, that and the lack of a man to share both her bath and her bed. But her life was a work in progress. After being forced out of her last job for nearly causing the death of a civilian, she was determined to focus on her career before tackling any of the other issues.

The sound of a key turning in the lock had her stepping forward, a weak smile on her lips at the kindness of the tall, handsome man pulling the door open and gesturing for her to follow.

 

Who would you choose to play each of them in a film or TV series?

An interesting question and one I find impossible to answer.

For Gaby Darin it needs to be someone who isn’t too glamorous, someone normal looking if there is such a thing. A cross between a young Judi Dench with the colouring of Nigella Lawson.

It’s even more difficult to choose a baddie! Maybe someone like Jason O’Mara

 

What is the weirdest disposal of a body in any of your books?

The use of a junior hacksaw to do what junior hacksaws were never intended to do.

Jenny O’Brien social media accounts

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ScribblerJB

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JennyOBrienWriter/

Website: https://jennyobrienwriter.wordpress.com/

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Digging Deeper with Damyanti Biswas

Digging Deeper into You Beneath Your Skin by Damyanti Biswas

You Beneath Your Skin starts with Anjali Morgan, one of the protagonists, losing her autistic teenaged son at a shopping mall in cold, smoggy New Delhi. We’re soon introduced to her complex life. The fact that she’s carrying on a clandestine affair with the much-married brother of her best friend, Jatin, who is a police commissioner. Her struggles as a parent, and as a psychologist in New Delhi. And then, the chilling serial killings.

Slum women are found naked, stuffed into trash-bags, their faces disfigured with acid, making them very difficult to identify. Anjali begins to help Jatin with the case, given that he doesn’t want to involve a forensic psychologist for reasons of his own.

In some ways, besides being a crime novel, this is Anjali and Jatin’s love story. In another, it is a story about parenting—each of them with their sons—in modern, urban India.

When a horrific incident upends their lives, Jatin and Anjali must stand by each other despite the odds and their conflicting realities.

How did you come up with the idea?

You Beneath Your Skin  started with Anjali Morgan. She began to haunt my writing exercises, and then my dreams in 2011. She’s American, an outsider to New Delhi, despite having lived in the city for twelve years, and I began asking questions about her.

What does she long for? What is she afraid of? What does she value the most? What if it is taken away from her? Who is this man she’s sleeping with? What does she think of that relationship? What’s her equation with her autistic son like? How does she look at the city she has adopted?

The cast of characters began to take shape, after which the story came in, and then the culprit. It turned into a whydunit, and I hope everyone gets as much out of reading as I did writing it!

Blurb: You Beneath Your Skin 

Lies. Ambition. Family.

It’s a dark, smog-choked New  Delhi winter. Indian American single mother Anjali Morgan juggles her  job as a psychiatrist with caring for her autistic teenage son. She is  in a long-standing affair with ambitious Police Commissioner Jatin Bhatt  – an irresistible attraction that could destroy both their lives. 

Jatin’s  home life is falling apart: his handsome and charming son is not all he  appears to be, and his wife has too much on her plate to pay attention  to either husband or son. But Jatin refuses to listen to anyone, not  even the sister to whom he is deeply attached.

Across  the city there is a crime spree: slum women found stuffed in trash bags,  faces and bodies disfigured by acid. And as events spiral out of  control Anjali is horrifyingly at the centre of it all.

In a sordid world of poverty, misogyny, and political corruption, Jatin  must make some hard choices. But what he unearths is only the tip of the  iceberg. Together with Anjali he must confront old wounds and uncover  long-held secrets before it is too late.

Bio: Damyanti Biswas lives in Singapore, and works with Delhi's underprivileged children as part of Project Why, a charity that promotes education and social enhancement in underprivileged communities. Her short stories have been published in magazines in the US, UK, and Asia, and she helps edit the Forge Literary Magazine. Her debut crime novel You Beneath Your Skin has been optioned for screen by Endemol Shine.

Amazon buy link: You Beneath Your Skin 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/damyantig/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DamyantiWrites/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/damyantig/

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Digging Deeper with Eoghan Egan

Digging Deeper into Hiding in Plain Sight by Eoghan Egan

Back in 2012. I read a newspaper article about a spate of disappearances and wondered how people could vanish, literally, in broad daylight, and that gave me an idea for a crime fiction novel. I set the story in a rural community, because cities, I feel, can be soulless. People go about their lives, hardly knowing or acknowledging their neighbour. A person can remain anonymous, or vanish for long periods without being missed. In small communities, however, people look out for each other, talk on a daily basis and rely on one another. It was going to be more difficult to have someone disappear from a small town because they’d be missed much quicker, and when they did vanish, the consequences would be all the greater, affecting the whole community. After setting early drafts of Hiding in Plain Sight in the U.S. initially, and then in the U.K, I moved the characters to an area I know best: the Irish Midlands. Adding in an actual January date, heavy snowfalls and treating the location and weather like other characters, gave me a perfect panorama for a crime novel. 

Blurb

A vicious serial killer roams the Irish Midlands, with his sights set on the next victim. 

A successful businessman has found the perfect recipe for getting away with murder.

No bodies, no evidence.

No evidence, no suspect.

High art and low morals collide when graduate Sharona Waters discovers a multi-million euro art scam in play. She delves in, unwittingly putting herself on a direct trajectory with danger as the killer accelerates his murder spree.

When Sharona gets drawn into the killer’s orbit, she peels away his public persona and exposes the psychopath underneath. Suddenly, the small town has no hiding place… 

This extract is a scene at a charity ball, and it’s the first time we meet the art dealer (serial killer) in a group setting, when he’s introduced to other individuals...   
A tall, lean, broad-shouldered man stood, straightened and fastened the bottom button on a tailored charcoal-coloured dress suit jacket. He had a high forehead, piercing Dresden-blue eyes and blond hair slicked into a businessman’s cut.

‘Good evening. I understand you solved the mystery. Much ado about naught. So easy to misplace items.’

‘Do you find that happens often?’ Hugh asked.

The art dealer stared. ‘Every other week. Collectors forget they’ve locked pieces away for protection, and the initial reaction is: “stolen.” In reality, that’s rare. Nowadays, even ordinary houses have too much security for criminals.’

‘Unless it’s an inside job,’ Sharona said. ‘No quantity of high-tech security can hold out against that.’

‘Indeed.’

Hattinger’s are a well-established company.’ Hugh broke the silence.

‘Yes.’

‘Are you involved in the business long?’

‘Sixteen years.’

‘Any advice for a novice?’ Ferdia reeled forward, slapped the art dealer’s shoulder, then grasped his arm and shook hands with his wrought-iron grip.

Hugh watched the man wipe his palm on a trouser leg. ‘It depends,’ he said. ‘If you’re in the market to buy and you find a piece that fills a void in your life, grab it. Drop in to one of our galleries and talk to a consultant.’

‘Argh, to you, it’s another day, another Dali,’ Ferdia staggered back a step. ‘Me? I’m not great around the whole arty lark.’

‘Our consultants will be happy to guide you.’

‘A fool and his Monet, eh? Still, might take you up on that offer. Chances are I’ll need a birthday present sooner or later. But none of this modern shi … stuff, though. It’s gotta be … recognisable. Can I tell you a secret?’ Ferdia leaned closer and belched. ‘The few galleries I’ve been in, half the time I don’t know what the feck I’m lookin’ at.’

‘I see. Well, galleries aren’t for everyone. As I said, our consultants—’

‘Gotta business card handy?’

The gallerist paused. ‘Of course.’ He drew out an engraved Burberry leather card holder and handed Ferdia a gold-embossed card.

Ferdia searched pockets, hadn’t one of his own to exchange, but found a dog-eared envelope and he tore off a piece. ‘Anyone got a pen?’ He asked Hugh to write the mobile number.

Hugh handed over Ferdia’s number and the man doubled the square of paper and folded it again. ‘Nice to meet you.’ His smile was as brief as the nod. He moved away and Hugh watched him flick the wadded-up phone number into a corner. 

                                                            …..

In this next piece we follow Hugh Fallon as he goes to confront the killer…

Wispy clouds clothed the moon.

Hugh shuffled along the lane, struggling to walk in the tyre track groove. Above him, a canopy of sagging tree branches arched and joined. The timber creaked and groaned under the weight of snow and ice. Slivers of moonbeams filtered between the gaps, giving faint shape to objects. Underfoot, frozen snow and rough ice crunched like crisp cornflakes. Hugh craned his neck, forcing his eyes to adjust. Except for the distant growl of a Harley with its modified pipes and kamikaze rider puttering along the main road, the night was still. The cold penetrated his bones. He shuddered. What had seemed bright from the comfort and warmth of the car, now became dingy and menacing.

Something rustled in a hedge.

A fox howled. An owl hooted a rejoinder. Icicles dripped from naked branches, their plops, eerie whispers. The hair on Hugh’s head bristled with tension, as mangled nerves and stress ramped up his heartbeats. Eyes wide open, searching the tree-line, a snow pellet dripped on his face, making him jump. He didn’t see the pothole. Ice splintered, a gunshot in the stillness. His left ankle twisted and bolts of pain rippled up his leg. The runner acted as a sponge, soaking in weeks of slush.

Hugh shuffled on, each step producing a paroxysm of agony. He’d lost all feeling in his toes. To his right, through the trees, he made out the shape of a large structure. On the left, a machine sat hunched in a gateway. The invasive, cloying stench of silage hung in the air. It clung to clothes and stuck in his throat. The tree-line ended. A two-story house materialised out of the gloom, a grim and cheerless dark silhouette. The muted glow of an artificial light shone from the rear of the building and bounced off the glistening snow.

Every fibre in Hugh’s body hummed with fear. His heart rattled against ribs, thumping trip-hammer fast, and nerves jangled, screaming at him to turn and run. The thin light beam hindered rather than helped lessen the intimidating atmosphere. He crouched and crab-walked to the house, inched around the gable end, and sensed movement behind him. He straightened, spun, and raised his arms for protection. A faint buzz. The side of Hugh’s neck burned and he got hurled backwards by an invisible force. His skull drummed against the concrete wall. A ball of white pain flashed. Then, like a blown fuse, everything faded to black.

Who would you choose to play each of them in a film or TV series?

Quick story… A few years back I was at a Bruce Springsteen concert, and 6 or 7 rows ahead of me, a girl turned abound, and I said to myself, “that’s exactly how Sharona Waters looks.” I wanted to take a photo of her, but that would be creepy. She looked a little like singer Carrie Rodriguez ... but different. Isn’t it amazing where we get inspiration from? Anyway, to answer your question. As it’s set in Ireland, I’ll have to go with Irish actors: Hazel Doupe or Lara McDonnell would play Sharona. Lee Cronin would be a fantastic Hugh, and I’d cast Aisling Franciosi as Ruth. I believe Michael Fassbender (grew up in Ireland) would make a great antagonist. There is another character in the book called Ferdia Hardiman (who you met briefly in one of the extracts, and he plays a major role in one of the storylines that’ll get teased out more in the next novel) and Brendan Gleeson is a dead ringer for Ferdia. The role, the man, the dialogue is made for him. Whenever I’m writing Ferdia into a plot, Brendan Gleeson is the person I have in mind. In fact, Brendan’s son, Domhnall Gleeson would also be perfect for Hugh…    

What is the creepiest action taken by your antagonist?

He’s a psychopath, so we’re dealing here with a two-faced individual. One day he humiliates and destroys an employee’s reputation in front of a roomful of people, just because he can. Next day he can be nice as pie, before staking out a house and invading the owner’s personal space. He uses a cattle prod (Taser/stun gun) to kill people.  

Many thanks for the great questions, Lorraine, and for allowing me an opportunity to introduce your readers to Hiding in Plain Sight.  Available now at:

UK https://amzn.to/2F6nCS3

US https://amzn.to/2FdSIH4

Next time y’all are on social media, pop by and say hello.

https://www.facebook.com/eoghaneganwriter/

https://twitter.com/eoghanegan          

https://www.instagram.com/eoghanegan/

Take care and stay safe,

Eoghan

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Digging Deeper with Claire Sheldon

Today we are digging deeper into Claire Sheldon’s Perfect Lie …

My main character has two important men in her life her husband James and her former boss Max Collins…

Max was always the father I never had; he noticed me when I joined the Police Force as a trainee when I was at the lowest point in my life. Though I never noticed him he was always behind the scenes watching me progress, but whenever I was struggling, he was on hand to offer his assistance. When I graduated, he recruited me into the MET and the specialist department he was running. From there on in he became a mentor and a father figure, stern when I did something wrong but supportive. He was nothing like my real father; he cared about me, when I was out in the field and when I was in the office. We had such a bond I hated lying to him when I decided to leave because I had met James.

I didn’t expect to fall in love with James, I was out clubbing with my friend and having a good time, letting my hair down when he came over and asked us if we wanted a drink. I was so used to guys hitting on me so I just lapped it up. Once we left the club I just assumed we’d have sex and he’d vanish but James was different. I wasn’t a piece of meat to him, I was a woman. 

I laughed when he made me drink a pint of water so I didn’t suffer the next day. He was gentle and caring and when we parted the next day I gave him my real number. I wanted to spend time him with, I wanted to know more about him to him I was a real person and not a conquest. I had to work hard to keep him away from my job and my friends but when he asked me to move in with him it was like he’d asked me to marry him. I had found someone who loved me, took care of me and wanted to spend every waking minute with. So I left my job, packed up and moved to Nottingham because I was in love; a feeling I had never experienced before and I threw myself into it head on.

Who would you choose to play each of them in a film or TV series?

Jen would be played by Eliza Dusku, DI Chris Jackson would be Danny Pinto, James would be James Van der beek, Max would be Simon Rouse (the bill) and Hannah would be Miranda Raison (Spooks)

What is the weirdest disposal of a body in any of your books?

The dead body in my first book was dumped in a pool of water under a railway bridge near a disused air raid shelter. It’s on the route I regularly walk in my home town. I am sure I’m going to find myself searching out more weird places to dump people.

Blurb:

What is ‘perfect’ trying to hide?

Jen Garner tries her best to be ‘wife and mother of the year’. She helps organise school plays and accompanies her husband to company dinners, all with a big smile on her face. But Jen has started to receive strange gifts in the post ... first flowers, then a sympathy card. It could just be a joke; that’s what she tells herself. But then the final ‘gift’ arrives, and Jen has to question why somebody is so intent on shattering her life into pieces ...

https://twitter.com/ClaireEESheldon

https://csheldonblog.wordpress.com/

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Digging Deeper with Louise Mangos

Her Husband’s Secrets by Louise Mangos

Art college dropout Lucie arrives in a Swiss ski resort looking for work – but instead finds Mathieu.

Handsome, charismatic and from a good family, Matt seems like the perfect man. But as Lucie soon discovers, he has a dark side – one that will drive their relationship to a dramatic conclusion, and tear the life she has built for herself and their son apart.

Left fighting for her freedom in a foreign prison, and starting to lose her grip on reality, Lucie must summon all her strength to uncover the truth, and be reunited with her son before it’s too late.

The clock is ticking… but who can she trust?

Previously published as The Art of Deception.

The following is an abridged conversation the protagonist and the antagonist have part way through the novel. It highlights the subtle coercive nature of a pathological liar and how a victim can never be sure whether they themselves are being too suspicious, too wary, too un-trusting. The tool the perpetrator uses is guilt to turn the table on the innocent victim. This sadly happens every day in relationships, sometimes at a level that goes undetected until the damage is beyond repair.

Her Husband’s Secrets

Extract

‘There’s something I have to ask you.’

‘What is it? What’s up?’

‘Are you . . . are you seeing someone else?’ My voice caught. ‘It’s just that I’m not sure what’s been going on over the last couple of months. I never see you. You seem to be avoiding me and I get this feeling I’m missing something.’

I waited with dread, expected to see him break down, admit his wrong, ask for forgiveness, or beg me to understand.

But none of these happened. He turned slowly towards me, his face at first neutral, then reddening, eyes sparking.

‘How can you ask me such a thing? Our relationship has always been based on a deep trust of each other. How can you doubt that? What are you thinking?’

‘I need to know, that’s all.’ I paused. He hadn’t directly answered my question. ‘So, are you? Seeing someone else?’

‘Of course not, you silly woman! Didn’t I just talk about a breach of trust? I would never do that to you! I am shocked you feel you have to ask that question. It makes me think something is going on with you here, how can you abuse my – no – our confidence?’

‘I’m so sorry, my love,’ I said. ‘I’m so sorry I doubted you. I guess it’s because of all the evenings you’ve been away, all those times I didn’t really understand why you had to stay at school. The individual student tutorials. I’m so sorry.’

I lay in bed later, begging for the relief of sleep, to stop the turmoil going on in my mind. The mattress sank as he sat on the bed, and he gently peeled back the duvet. How could he even think about sex when we had set each other at such unease a short time ago?

‘It’s okay. It’s okay, sweetheart,’ he said as he stroked my back.

But do you still love me?

I couldn’t ask the question – I had already caused so much angst.

‘Everything will be okay,’ he continued. ‘You’re my baby, you know that. We’re here for each other. I forgive you.’

My heart froze.

I forgive you?

***

I could see my protagonist, a young and naïve Lucy, being played by Emma Watson – not that Emma is naïve at all, but I think she would play the part well.

The antagonist, a handsome, rugged ski instructor with the hint of a French accent could be played by Gaspard Ulliel (best known for his role as the young Hannibal Lecter in Hannibal Rising)

The creepiest action anyone takes in my books is the stalker in my latest novel (currently on submission to publishers via my agent), who steals an item of underwear from his victim. He sneaks into the room where my protagonist is staying and purloins a pair of her knickers. He keeps the item as a trophy, reassuring himself constantly that he still has it in his possession, like a child’s comfort blanket. He later does something far creepier and menacing than this, but that would be a complete spoiler, so you shall just have to wait until the novel is published!

Author bio:

Louise writes novels, short stories and flash fiction, which have won prizes, placed on shortlists, and have been read out on BBC radio. Her suspense novels Strangers on a Bridge and Her Husband’s Secrets (previously entitled The Art of Deception) are published with HQDigital (Harper Collins). Her short fiction appears in more than twenty print anthologies. You can connect with Louise on Facebook www.facebook.com/LouiseMangosBooks/, Twitter @LouiseMangos, and Instagram as louisemangos, or visit her website www.louisemangos.com where there are links to some of her short fiction. Louise lives in Switzerland with her Kiwi husband and two sons.

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Digging Deeper with Tony Forder

I am delighted to kick off my new series of digging deeper into crime with a great post from Tony Forder talking about his DI Bliss series.

My DI Bliss series has now reached book #7, and I am delighted to say that early ARC reviews are exceptional. Although the books fit neatly into the police procedural niche of the wider crime genre, they could also easily be considered crime thrillers, some of which have that hard-boiled edge to them. Set in Peterborough, UK, DI Jimmy Bliss and DS Penny Chandler work as part of the Major Crimes Unit, and it is their journey together as much as anything that has helped develop the series into something relatively successful.

Bliss on Chandler

I would describe Pen as a nag, one who irritates me beyond all reason at times because she has the nasty habit of being able to read me, and for being right more often than she is wrong. I hate to admit this, but at work she is the Yin to my Yang. She plays Devil’s advocate when I step out of line, or when I’m not seeing an investigation as clearly as I’d like. Since moving beyond what was once a bit of a flirtatious stage, our relationship now has a more sibling feel to it. She’s the buffer I need, but also an important friend and inspiration.

Chandler on Bliss

He’s old and grouchy, but often misunderstood. He hates it when things don’t go according to plan – which they rarely do. Jimmy’s not quite so quick to anger as he once was, but you can sense it when he starts bottling it up inside. It’s like waiting for a dormant volcano to erupt, and you want to be anywhere else other than beside him when he explodes. But the old codger is a thoroughly decent human being, loyal to a fault, and is as driven as any man I have ever known. He no longer believes justice is alive and well, but he seeks it every single time, no matter what it costs him personally. It’s why he’s always in trouble – he wants answers and he’ll find a way to get them. That’s also why he’s a great cop and a dear friend. If only he didn’t insist on calling me Pen…

Q&A – Tony J Forder

The question of who I see playing Bliss and Chandler on TV has come up a couple of times recently, and my choices were well received by my readers. I think Sean Pertwee would make a great Bliss, and for some reason Claire Goose has always stuck in my head as a perfect Chandler.

 

The creepiest actions taken by any of my antagonists would have to be those of my bad guy in The Scent of Guilt, which were as cold and unfeeling as they were visceral. But by far the most horrific would be the one in my new book, Slow Slicing, with the title and blurb saying it all, really.

 

Slow Slicing (DI Bliss #7) Blurb

WHEN DEATH BECOMES THE KINDEST CUT OF ALL

When slices of flesh and body parts are discovered in different areas of the country, DI Bliss and his team are tasked with running the operation. After Bliss realises the victims have been subjected to a specific form of torture, it leads him to a cold case involving the brutal and bloody murder of a woman in London twenty-six years earlier.

As the team discover links between their victims, the murdered woman, and gangland crime, they begin a dangerous investigation into both the past and the present. But Bliss is stumped, unable to decide if the current spate of mutilations are acts of revenge or the result of ageing criminals seeking to hide their despicable actions. Following a leak to the media, Bliss’s reaction may have dire consequences.

With the hunt for the victims at fever point, Bliss uncovers evidence steering him in the direction of one particular individual. The only problem being, his prime suspect is the one person it cannot possibly be. When Bliss orders a sting operation, the astonishing truth is revealed. And that’s when things really start to go wrong… 

 

BIO

Tony J Forder is the author of the bestselling crime thriller series featuring detectives Jimmy Bliss and Penny Chandler. The first six books, Bad to the Bone, The Scent of Guilt, If Fear Wins, The Reach of Shadows, The Death of Justice, and Endless Silent Scream, will be joined on 10 August 2020 by Slow Slicing, and in December by the DI Bliss prequel novella, Bliss Uncovered.

Tony’s dark, psychological crime thriller, Degrees of Darkness, featuring ex-detective Frank Rogers, was also published by Bloodhound Books. This is a stand-alone serial-killer novel. Scream Blue Murder, an action-adventure thriller, was published in November 2017, and received praise from many, including fellow authors Mason Cross, Matt Hilton and Anita Waller. The sequel, Cold Winter Sun, was published in November 2018.

In November, Tony will release a new standalone suspense thriller set in California, called Fifteen Coffins.

Tony lives with his wife in Peterborough, UK, and is now a full-time author. He is currently editing a new novel, and has also started on Bliss #7, Slow Slicing.

Links

Website: https://www.tonyjforder.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tonyjforder/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TonyJForder @TonyJForder

Amazon Author: https://www.amazon.co.uk/l/B01N4BPT65

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16166122.Tony_J_Forder

Fantastic Fiction: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/f/tony-j-forder/

Tony can also be found on Instagram.

 

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