“Stone Bruises isn't
part of a series, it's a standalone thriller, the first I've
written since before the David Hunter series.
I've always tried to keep a sense of freshness and unpredictability
about the David Hunter books, because I think that's important for any
thriller, whether it's a standalone or not. The Calling of the
Grave was the fourth in the David Hunter series, and I wanted to
take time to decide where Hunter would go next.
It wasn't my intention at first to write a completely different
novel, but while I was planning the fifth Hunter I found that ideas kept falling
into place for Stone
Bruises. It felt like the book I
should write next, and that's what happened.
Although Stone
Bruises doesn't
involve forensics, I think it's a tense and gripping story that will keep
people on the edge of their seats. So I
hope David Hunter readers will enjoy it and I'm very excited about it.
Will
there be more David Hunter novels in the future? Yes, there will be.
In fact
I've already started work on the next one.
Stone Bruises -
‘Somebody!’ I half-sob and then, more quietly, ‘Please.’
The words seem absorbed by the afternoon heat, lost amongst the
trees. In their aftermath, the silence
descends again. I know then that I’m not
going anywhere... Sean is on the
run. We don’t know why and we don’t know
from whom, but we do know he’s abandoned his battered, bloodstained car in the
middle of an isolated, lonely part of rural France at the height of a
sweltering summer. Desperate to avoid
the police, he takes to the parched fields and country lanes only to be caught
in the vicious jaws of a trap. Near
unconscious from pain and loss of blood, he is freed and taken in by two women
- daughters of the owner of a rundown local farm with its ramshackle barn,
blighted vineyard and the brooding lake.
And it’s then that Sean’s problems really start...
