The start of something beautiful? Spicer joins the CTU

As part of the #SpicerIsBack blog tour Chris Simms ponders whether it is the start of something beautiful with Detective Constable Spicer joining the CTU!

Lovable big lunk or stubborn old sod, you can’t miss Jon Spicer. At six feet four and over fifteen stone, he believes in making an impression – especially with those who break the law. The days of falling down police station stairs might be over, but Jon still knows ways to make scrotes suffer.

Unfortunately for him, this uncompromising attitude – so useful when confronting violent criminals – is less effective when dealing with fellow officers. And so, at the start of Death Games, we find Spicer has finally been thrown out of Greater Manchester Police’s Major Incident Team. With only the Counter Terrorism Unit prepared to take him in, Jon has had to accept a demotion in rank to Detective Constable and the humiliation of a probationary period.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. 

Having completed his training as a Specialist Firearms Officer, Jon gets to power round the city in an unmarked car with one major item in its boot: a weapons box. Inside are lots of shiny toys.

Weaponry isn’t the only thing that’s new to Jon. He also has to gain acceptance from a fresh set of colleagues, many much younger than him. His physical presence and fearsome reputation impresses a lot of them, but not all. Especially a particular female detective called Iona Khan.

I wrote DC Khan to be the polar opposite of DC Spicer. While Jon is tall, she is short (just over five feet tall). He likes to wade in without waiting; she likes to step back and assess. He enjoys sparring with his colleagues in the police station gym; she’s more likely to challenge them to chess.

And what they do have in common isn’t necessarily a recipe for friendship either: both are determined characters who hate to give up. Fine if they can agree on the best way forward...

Away from work, the two officers are very different. Married with kids, Jon is the father-figure of his family. Iona is the baby of hers. A career in the police isn’t something her academic parents approve of, especially not in the male-dominated, testosterone-fuelled CTU.

In Death Games, evidence has emerged that some kind of terror attack is about to be launched in the north-west. Spicer and Khan are part of the team trying to track an elusive figure that fled from the scene of a car crash. They soon realise it’s a chase where the price of losing will be the loss of life – including theirs.   

When it occurred to me that Spicer and Khan could make an interesting pair, part of me wondered why I hadn’t realised that before. Now their paths have crossed – and I hope you enjoy seeing how things work out.  

Death Games is by Chris Simms and is out now.

Death Games : Will your next move be your last?

Manchester: an injured survivor from a motorway pile-up flees the scene, leaving behind evidence that a terror attack is being planned… . Jon Spicer, newly trained as a Specialist Firearms Officer, has joined Manchester police’s Counter Terrorism Unit. Thrown out of his previous department and demoted to Detective Constable, he is being kept in the force only because he’ll take on the most dangerous of jobs.  Iona Khan is struggling to find respect and recognition in the male-dominated Counter Terrorism Unit. Her mind might be sharp, but many of her colleagues value physical strength above anything else.  As the investigation quickly snowballs, Spicer and Khan are thrown together. The two officers must learn to trust each other – and fast. Because in this chase, any wrong move could be your last. 

#SpicerIsBack

Chris Simms has worked in airports, nightclubs, post offices and telesales centres. He now lives in Marple, near Manchester, with his wife and four children. He still works as a freelance copywriter for advertising agencies in the city.  Along with nominations for the Theakston’s Crime Novel of the Year award and Crime Writers’ Association Daggers (for his novels and short stories), Chris was selected by Waterstones as one of their ‘25 Authors For The Future’.  More info about Chris and his writing can be found at http://chrissimms.info/

 You can also find him on Facebook.

Chris Simms talks Sleeping Dogs with Nick Quantrill

Chris Simms is the acclaimed author of the Manchester-based DI Spicer series, and more recently, the DC Khan series, set in the same city.  Chris was named as one of Waterstone’s 25 authors of the future.  His novels continue to win awards and gather critical acclaim.  Chris talks to Nick Quantrill about his work.  Nick Quantrill is a Hull based author whose Joe Geraghty novels are published by Caffeine Nights.

Nick - “Sleeping Dogs” is your seventh in the DI Spicer series.  Can you tell us a little about it?

Chris - The action is split between Jon Spicer’s stomping-ground, Manchester, and a community out in the wilds of Galway, Ireland.  Events are sparked by the appearance of a huge fighting dog in Spicer’s local park.  Only the intervention of the family’s pet Boxer, Punch, saves Jon’s young daughter from being horrifically mauled.

Jon then finds evidence of a link to Ireland and realises the attack had been carefully planned by people who know exactly where he lives.  It’s every policeman’s worst nightmare.

In previous Spicer novels, I’ve built up Jon’s back-story – including the fact his great grandfather, Padraig, was an Irish navvy who fought his way out of the slums of 19th century Manchester through bare-knuckle fighting.  I wanted to explore Jon’s family history in Sleeping Dogs – and disturbing long-buried secrets seemed the ideal way to do it. 

Nick - Was taking Spicer out of his home city of Manchester a deliberate decision to test

him even more that you have previously?  His personal life, always a strength of the series, seems to be particularly tested.

Chris - Yes, I purposefully took him out of his comfort zone to see how he fared in a foreign country with all sorts of cultural issues to contend with.  What I didn’t want to do is take the easy option and give his enemies paramilitary links: it had to be more subtle – and personal – than that.

Nick - After setting the first six books in the series in Manchester, did you find it a challenge to write about a different place, or did it enable you to find new aspects of Spicer’s character?

Chris - The part of Ireland Spicer ends up in is rugged and raw.  I love landscapes like these and, during the course of the novel, found myself painting parallels between the terrain and Spicer.  Galway’s coast is regularly battered by vicious storms; Spicer gets similar treatment at one point from the locals he’s tangling with. 

Nick - You’ve published “Sleeping Dogs” yourself, but Severn House publishes your latest series starring DC Iona Khan.  Are you officially a hybrid author?

Chris - I suppose so – though it wasn’t planned this way.  Until recently, the publishing industry giveth, and the publishing industry taketh away.  As an author, you did as you were told if you wanted to keep writing.  Now, if an author and publisher don’t see eye-to-eye, the author has the option of going it alone.  I knew “Sleeping Dogs” was a cracking read – possibly the best Spicer yet – so I couldn’t bear to abandon it.  That’s why, for me, the emergence of independent publishing has been a lifeline.  Only a few years ago, “Sleeping Dogs” would never have seen the light of day.  Obviously, this all represents a huge loss of power for publishers. 

Nick - What were the challenges and pleasures of publishing “Sleeping Dogs” yourself?

Chris - Being with a publisher is like having a security blanket.  Things, you like to believe, are all being taken care of.  Whip that blanket away and you feel exposed.  It’s just you.  But you know what?  It was just me when I wrote my first novel over 12 years ago.  Gritting my teeth and sending if off to agents.  Waiting for weeks, then seeing the rejection slips trickle in.  Gritting my teeth and sending if off to more agents.

Independent publishing lets you rediscover all of that.  It’s hugely exciting.  Yes, it forces you to do things like marketing and publicity you previously hoped the publisher was attending to.  Yes, you have to agonise over what price to charge.  But unlike publishers, I’m not trying to protect my book printing business: so my eBooks cost just £2.99.  What’s so liberating is that more people are buying copies of my eBooks now than ever before.  As a result, I’ve been able to bring out print copies too.   

Nick - What’s next for Spicer?  Can we expect more of his investigations, or is his race run?

Chris - I’ve given up trying to predict events in this game!  “Sleeping Dogs” ends with the door wide open for more DI Spicer.  DC Khan - as a female struggling in the macho environment of the Counter Terrorism Unit - continues to intrigue me.  But I’ve also written a novel-length ghost story; “Sing Me To Sleep” launches soon – and it combines the pace of a crime novel with the suspense of a supernatural thriller.  Ideally, I’ll find a way to continue with all three types of book.

More information about Chris Simms and his books can be found on his website.  You can also find him on Facebook.

Sleeping Dogs is available now at Amazon.  For more information, see www.chrissimms.info

Chris Simms talks about Scratching Deeper!

Today’s guest blog is from author Chris Simms.  Chris is the author of eight Manchester based crime novels his most recent (and ninth) Scratch Deeper is released today.  He is also the editor of the CWA’s sister site the Crime Readers Association.  He has written six books in the DI Jon Spicer series.  His second book in the DI Spicer series Shifting Skin was nominated for the Theakston’s Crime Novel of the Year.

The action in Scratch Deeper begins after the Unit receives a tip-off about a planned attack on the city. It’s tense, it’s fast moving and it takes you into the dark and forgotten tunnels that run beneath the streets of Manchester.

I watched the TV with fear in my eyes. On screen, the conference in Manchester played itself out. I didn’t care about what was being said. I just stared apprehensively at the politicians on stage thinking, if a bomb goes off beneath them, how long before the Counter Terrorism Unit arrive at my house?

I got up and anxiously paced the room, pausing to check the street outside. No anonymous van parked opposite, its dirty windows concealing an observation team. No engineer appearing to fix a streetlight while really rigging up a camera.

Of course, that was the obvious surveillance stuff. I knew they also sent people into suspect’s homes. Ten minutes. That’s all a CTU operative needed to attach listening devices in plug sockets, miniscule cameras behind skirting boards.

I thought I was being followed the other day. A blue car that seemed to be mirroring my route through the city. So when I reached a roundabout, I didn’t come off: I just kept circling the central island and glancing back, knowing no vehicle could do the same without me spotting it.

What if something did happen and they came storming up the drive? Should I shout through the letterbox, ‘It was only a book! I write crime novels! How could I have known?’

Or should I keep my silence and wait for a solicitor? Trouble was, I knew that under the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005, they could spirit me away for several weeks before accusing me of anything.

During which time, they’d break into the garden shed I use for an office. They’d find the files on my computer; the information I’d gleaned from the internet on how to make a bomb. Christ! I squeezed my eyes shut: they’d come across my interviews with police officers who preferred to remain anonymous. Interviews containing snippets about security operations. Things, which no member of the public should know.

Even worse was the stuff on the mysterious network of tunnels that run beneath the city – including a particular one located directly below the centre where the Labour party conference was taking place. They’d want to know how I knew so much about it. After all, if ordinary civilians were denied access, how come I was able to describe it in such precise detail? I wanted to groan. They’d find the answers for themselves pretty fast. As soon as they stumbled on the emails from the secretive group who like to break into the tunnel network and explore it during the dead of night, in fact. They’d even have the dates of when we’d agreed to meet...

So I sat through the conference with sweaty hands. And, after three days, was able to slump back on the sofa with relief. The conference had passed off without incident. And copies of my book – Scratch Deeper – which describes a terror attack on an event attended by a Prime Minister-in-waiting weren’t seized, shredded and incinerated. In fact, the book’s out this Friday...

Chris Simms’ latest novel, Scratch Deeper, is out on Friday, 26 October. Published by Severn House.  

More information about Chris Simms and his work can be found on his website.