Forthcoming books from Atlantic Books

January 2026

Diary of A Murderer is by Kim Young-Ha. It's been twenty-five years since I last murdered someone, or has it been twenty-six? In his prime, Kim Byeongsu was one of the best murderers around. But he gave it all up to become a dedicated father. Despite suffering from dementia, he decides to come out of retirement for one final target: his daughter's boyfriend, who he suspects is a killer too. In other dark, glittering tales, an affair between childhood friends questions the limits of loyalty and love; a family disintegrates after their baby is kidnapped and recovered years later; and the pursuit of creative fulfilment may come at the expense of all reason...

You think you're safe. But somebody's watching... Irish estate agent Rosie Kinsella loves her job selling high-end properties in London. But when she's targeted by a mysterious stalker her amazing life is turned upside down. Who is 'Michael', and why does he seem to think he and Rosie are in relationship? How does he know where she lives and where she works? And how has he managed to take photos inside her house? Rosie's colleagues and friends rally round to protect her. But who can she really trust? Your Every Move is by Sam Blake.

The Grapples of Wrath is by Alice Bell. This mystery will leave you in a chokehold. Medium turned private investigator Claire Hendricks is excited to embark on her first official case. Pro-wrestling manager Ken King is convinced that his late father, Eddie, is haunting the gym and show venue in Brighton. Ken hires Claire to help, unaware that her ghost best friend, Sophie, comes as part of the package. But Eddie is adamant he did not die of natural causes, and tasks Claire and Sophie with bringing his killer to justice. In the world of pro-wrestling, can they work out what's real, who's faking and unmask the killer once and for all?

February 2026

The Final Problem is by Arturo Pérez-Reverte. To catch a killer, one must act the part. When ageing actor Ormond Basil arrives on the Greek island of Utakos he hopes only for a holiday and perhaps finally to shed the mantle of his most famous role: world-renowned sleuth Sherlock Holmes. But when a body turns up in his hotel, the other guests, accustomed to seeing Ormond as the greatest detective of all time, pressure him to solve the mystery. With Paco, a jaded writer of pulp detective fiction, he has his very own Watson at his side. But even with their combined encyclopaedic knowledge of plots and killers, this case turns out to be anything but elementary...

Everybody knows the story, nobody knows the truth. Lucy Golden is a true crime icon, infamous for killing someone as a teenager while escaping a California cult led by her father. Twenty years later, still coasting on the original success of the memoir she wrote after her acquittal, Lucy knows that her story is always just one news cycle away from obscurity, even as online trolls ask questions that threaten to tear her life apart. So when a hot-shot documentary filmmaker decides to make her case his next subject, Lucy sees a chance to silence her doubters once and for all. But just how far will Lucy go to protect the story she's been telling - and selling all along. Paper Cut is by Rachel Tuff

March 2026

The Savage Death of Babs Dionne is by Ron Currie. Babs Dionne, doting grandmother and vicious crime matriarch, rules her small town with an iron fist. She controls the flow of drugs into its borders with the help of her loyal lieutenants, girlfriends since they were teenagers, and her eldest daughter, Lori, a former soldier struggling with addiction. When a drug cartel discovers that its numbers are down in the area, they send a malevolent force, known only as The Man, to investigate. At the same time, Babs's youngest daughter, Sis, has gone missing, which doesn't seem at all like a coincidence. In twenty-four hours, Sis will be found dead, and the whole town will seek shelter from Babs's wrath...

Harriet Smith investigates... The tyrannical Mrs Churchill is convinced someone is trying to kill her. As if she didn't have enough to vex her, she's concerned that Jane Fairfax has won the heart of her nephew, Frank.  She has hired the talented and devious Harriet Smith to break up this nascent relationship as well as uncover who might want her dead. With the help of her long-suffering, sensible best friend, Robert Martin, Harriet's list of suspects soon grows - Frank Churchill, Jane Fairfax, Mrs Elton and Wakefield the butler all have means, motive and opportunity. Will Harriet prevent the worst from happening? And will she avoid falling for the charming Frank Churchill herself? A Very Vexing Murder is by Lucy Andrew.

April 2026

Sorry For Your Loss is by Georgia McVeigh. The moment I catch eyes with Jack at grief group, I just know. This is my second chance at love. He's charming, good-looking and newly available. In fact, his wife died the very same day I lost my partner. Coincidence? Maybe. Fate sounds more romantic.Unfortunately, I do possess qualities that aren't always desirable. Usually, I can mask them, but sometimes the darkness slips through. And when it does, I wonder if I see that same darkness in Jack. Could he also be hiding parts of himself? Perhaps we really are perfect for each other. Perfect lovers. Perfect enemies. It's all the same in the end, right? 

June 2026

Girls learn from what the world teaches Them. A smart girl uses those lessons to her advantage... Evie is alone in New York. But not for long. Because Evie can be whoever you want her to be. And therein lies the temptation. Evie isn't just a pretty face. She's a test that rich and seemingly untouchable men take and fail. Such a failure has a price that evil extracts with skill and increasing success. Until the day she comes face to face with a man who crossed her childhood and family. The man whose actions set up on chosen path... But which of them will try and, and survived to tell the truth? The Temptation Test is by Rachel North.

Forthcoming Books from Atlantic Books (Incl Corvus and Grove Press)

 January 2024

Three Little Birds is by Sam Blake. Two decades of secrets. One shocking discovery... When a skull is found in Lough Coyne, facial reconstruction expert Dr Carla Steele is drawn into a fourteen-year-old case - but not all cases are cold, as Carla discovers when she and DS Jack Maguire find the brutally murdered body of a local woman close to the water's edge. Together with Carla's partner, criminal psychologist Grace Franciosi, Carla and Jack uncover a tragic story with very dangerous and current implications. Since the disappearance of her best friend, Carla has dedicated her career to bringing the dead home, but this time it's the living who are counting on her. In a race to save another woman, will they be able to stop the killer in time?

Murder Book is by Thomas Perry When a sudden crime wave hits several small midwestern towns, the U.S. Attorney for the region calls on Harry Duncan to investigate. An ex-cop known for his unorthodox methods, Duncan is reluctant to go up against a widespread criminal organization - but the attorney in question is Ellen Leicester, the wife who left him fifteen years earlier, and to her, he can't say no. Initially brought in as a consultant to determine if the racketeering is severe enough to require an all-out investigation by the FBI, Duncan quickly finds himself in conflict with a syndicate far more violent than first suspected. As the investigation develops, he begins compiling a 'murder book,' the notebook in which a detective keeps records, interviews, photos - everything he needs to build his case. But his scrutiny of the gang soon makes Duncan a target. And Ellen, too.

February 2024

Hazard Light is by Laura Vaughan. Cleeve College is not for everyone... When Eve's husband is appointed housemaster at his old boarding school, Cleeve College, she gives up her life in London to join him. But the isolation and loss of autonomy threaten both her happiness and her marriage. The arrival of Fen, an enigmatic artist and wife of the new Classics teacher, is a welcome distraction. Fen doesn't play by the rules, and she and Eve enter into a game of escalating dares, disrupting the delicate balance of school life. Then, the morning after Hazard Night, a tradition that allows the students to run wild and play pranks for one day, a body is found. Someone has been murdered. And it seems everyone has something to hide...

May 2024

A detective duo with a difference... Professional medium turned detective Claire, her best friend Sophie (a 17-year-old ghost) and their pals are enjoying a much-needed cheap holiday in an unfinished hotel on Spike Island off the West Coast of Ireland. Claire is flattered to be asked by the local ghost of a pirate captain to investigate the theft of treasure from the shipwreck that stranded him there several hundred years ago. But just when she thinks she is closing in on the culprit, a murder takes place, and Claire and her friends quickly become the chief suspects. Can they recover the treasure, solve the murder and clear their names before all is lost? Displeasure Island is by Alice Bell.

June 2024

Welcome to Samsara, a world-class spa nestled in the Indian Himalayas where all your wishes are just a gilded notecard away. Ro Krishna has just checked in. With his rakish charm, Oxford education, perfect hair, he has it all - well, until he loses his job at the hands of a white woman with a vendetta. It's stressful, and Ro decides it's time for some much-needed R&R. At Samsara, he's free to explore the wealth of yoga classes, wellness treatments and guided meditation sessions on offer among the rest of his exclusive, kurta pyjama-clad guests. It's the pinnacle of relaxation. Until, that is, Amrita - gorgeous, charismatic, well-connected - is found dead among the trees. As the guests and Mrs. B, Samsara's all-seeing matriarch, scramble to figure out what happened, Ro is pulled into an investigation that endangers them all and threatens to spiral beyond the hotel walls. Because it turns out it's not just heiresses and Bollywood stars-to-be that have checked in: cocktail hour is over, and death is on its way... Bursting with wit, glamour and smarts, Death in the Air is by Ram Murali and is a murder mystery like no other: at once a love letter to Agatha Christie and a razor-sharp exploration of colonialism and class.

Books to Look Forward to From Corvus and Atlantic Books

 

January 2022

Remember my Name is by Sam Blake. If she'd turned off her phone, instead of listening in, perhaps no one would have died... When Cressida Howard catches her entrepreneur husband playing away from home, she hires security expert Brioni O'Brien to get the evidence she needs for a speedy and financially rewarding divorce. But what Brioni uncovers goes beyond simple infidelity. Because Laurence Howard is also in bed with some very dangerous people. Bribery and blackmail are the least of his worries as someone comes after the women in his life - someone who is out to destroy Laurence and his empire, whatever the cost. And Cressida and her teenage daughter could soon be collateral damage, if she and Brioni don't act fast.

'Tomorrow I'm going to begin my novel...' A would-be author has taken time out from life in the city to live in a cabin by a river and write a novel. And not just any novel. A novel that will avoid all the pitfalls and limitations of other novels, a novel that will include everything. At first these new surroundings are so idyllic that it's hard to find the motivation to get started. And then, in all its brutality, the outside world intervenes... Ranging constantly backwards and forwards in time and space, Tomorrow becomes a restless search for meaning in a precarious and elusive world. Tomorrow is by Chris Beckett. 

February 2020

Mouth to Mouth is by Antoine Wilson. A struggling author is stuck at the airport, his flight endlessly delayed. As he kills time at the gate, he bumps into a former classmate of his, Jeff, who is waiting for the same flight. The charismatic Jeff invites the author to drinks in the First Class lounge, and there, swearing him to secrecy, begins telling him the fascinating and disturbing story of his gilded life, starting with a pivotal incident from his youth...Alone on the beach one morning, Jeff notices a swimmer drowning in the rough surf - and so he rescues and resuscitates the unconscious man, before leaving him to the emergency services. But Jeff can't let go of the events of that traumatic day, and he begins to feel compelled to learn more about the man whose life he has saved, convinced that their destinies are now somehow entwined. Upon discovering that the man is the renowned art dealer Francis Arsenault, Jeff begins to surreptitiously visit his Beverly Hills gallery, eventually applying there for a job. Although Francis doesn't seem to recognize him, he nevertheless casts his legendary eye over Jeff and sees something of worth - and so he initiates him into his world of unimaginable power and wealth, where knowledge, taste and access are currency, and the value of things is constantly shifting, constantly calling into question what is real, and what matters. As Jeff finds himself seduced by the lifestyle, he pursues a deeper connection with Francis, until morals become expendable and their relationship becomes ever darker, leaving him to wonder... should he have just let Francis drown?

March 2022

Reptile Memoirs is by Silje Ulstein. Liv has a lot of secrets. Late one night, in the aftermath of a party in the apartment she shares with two friends in Alesund, she sees a python on a TV nature show and becomes obsessed with the idea of buying a snake as a pet. Soon Nero, a baby Burmese python, becomes the apartment's fourth roommate. As Liv bonds with Nero, she is struck by a desire that surprises her with its intensity. Finally she is safe. Thirteen years later, in the nearby town of Kristiansund, Mariam Lind goes on a shopping trip with her eleven-year-old daughter, Iben. Following an argument Mariam storms off, expecting her young daughter to make her own way home . . . but she never does. Detective Roe Olsvik, new to the Kristiansund police department, is assigned to the case of Iben's disappearance. As he interrogates Mariam, he instantly suspects her - but there is much more to this case and these characters than their outer appearances would suggest.

April 2022

When you fake it for a living, the truth is hard to find... Former child star Lily Thane is now a struggling thirty-something actress. Her old stage-school buddy, Adam Harker, is on the brink of making it big, but he needs an appropriate red-carpet companion to seal the deal, and Lily fits the bill. Soon after signing on the dotted line, Adam's dark side starts to surface and their perfect fauxmance turns toxic. But when Adam winds up dead in a swimming pool, Lily is the only person who cares enough to find out why. She's convinced someone was out to get Adam - and now they're after her... Let's Pretend is by Laura Vaughan.

The Rebel's Mark is by S W Perry. Elizabeth's reign is reaching its winter and England's old adversaries are fading. But in a world on the brink of change, showing any weakness can be fatal... 1598. Nicholas Shelby, unorthodox physician and reluctant spy for Robert Cecil, has brought his wife Bianca and their child home from exile in Padua. Welcome at court, his star is in the ascendancy. But he has returned to a dangerous world. Two old enemies are approaching their final reckoning. England and Spain are exhausted by war. In London, Elizabeth is entering the twilight of her reign. In Madrid, King Philip of Spain is dying. Perhaps now is the time for one last throw of the dice. Elizabeth has seen off more than one Spanish attempt at invasion. But still she is not safe. In Ireland, rebellion against her rule is raging. And if Spain can take Ireland, England will be more vulnerable than ever. When England's greatest living poet, Edmund Spenser, sends Robert Cecil an enigmatic and mysterious plea for help from his Irish fastness, Cecil dispatches Nicholas to investigate. Soon he and Bianca find themselves caught up not just in bloody rebellion, but in the lethal power-play between Cecil and the one man Elizabeth believes can restore Ireland to her, the unpredictable Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex.

June 2022

Nights of the Lingering Ghost (The Fever of The World) is by Phil Rickman. It called on Darkness – but before the word Was uttered, midnight darkness seemed to take All objects from my sight....' William Wordsworth. England's ost famous poet once thought himself as a modern druid and found his deepest inspiration on the banks of the River Wye, were Celtic magic can still be found and old darkness lingers. Now, as the world is at the mercy of the coronavirus pandemic, diocesan exorcist Merrily Watkins learns that the ghosts of the lower Wye Valley still need some attention.

Night after Night with Phil Rickman

Today’s guest blog is by Phil Rickman who talks about his new book Night after Night and haunted houses.  Phil Rickman lives on the Welsh border where he writes novels and presents the book programme Phil the Shelf on BBC Radio Wales. He is the acclaimed author of The Heresy of Dr Dee, The Bones of Avalon and the Merrily Watkins series. 

So last year, my publisher asked me how I felt about doing a haunted house novel.

I said OK.  Warily.  Ghosts have not been kind to me.  Nor, in fact, to virtually anyone who purports to be some kind of crime writer.

It doesn’t matter how silly your murder-mystery novels are or how unlikely your detective, there’s a lobby inside crime-writing - and crime-reading and crime-reviewing - circles that will always respect you more than somebody who lets a ghost in.

This goes back at least to the 1920s when Dorothy L Sayers & co. set up the Detection Club and members were made to swear an oath.

Do you promise that your detectives shall well and truly detect the crimes presented to them using those wits, which it may please you to bestow upon them, and not placing reliance on nor making use of Divine Revelation, Feminine Intuition, Mumbo Jumbo, Jiggery-Pokery, Coincidence, or Act of God…  

Nowadays, very few people who have heard of this oath remember the actual wording, but they do recall the sense of it, which - as they see it - is that serious crime fiction and the paranormal not only do not mix but also must not mix.

This has always been a problem for me.  I always wanted to be a crime writer.  Or, to broaden it out a bit, I wanted to be a mystery writer. 

Now, mystery is a big, liberal word that was devalued in the 20th century, mainly by American publishers for whom a mystery was a whodunit.  All I wanted was to jog the parameters of the crime novel to include mystery in the original sense… which would mean allowing a crime to be solved but other areas of the story to remain inexplicable. 

Come on, that’s realistic, isn’t it?  Not everything in life gets solved, either by cops or scientists.

I try not to use words like ‘supernatural’ or ‘paranormal’ because they’re all over the kiddie vampire genre.  But the thing is I have a completely open mind.  I think Richard Dawkins is, on one level, an extremely clever man and, on another, in the same bag as fundamentalist religious zealots. 

But in between the two there’s an ocean of things we don’t understand which, at some stage, to a variable extent, infiltrate all our lives.  And I’ve always loved the peripheral area where nothing is quite what it seems.  Where sometimes there’s a psychological explanation, but occasionally there isn’t. 

What really annoy me are those crime novels that struggle to provide a rational explanation, however ridiculous, for glimpsed phenomena.  Far from being Conan Doyle’s best Holmes novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles is, for me, an unconvincing tale of animal abuse.

However, if you try to deal with this stuff in a fairly serious way, even if you relegate it to the periphery, your books are almost certain to wind up in that literary abyss known as The Horror Shelves.

As a novelist, I squeezed in at the end of the great horror boom which began well with The Exorcist and went on to create valid superstars like Stephen King and Peter Straub before drowning itself in a sewer of bad fantasy. 

My idea was to allow the folklore connected with a particular area to leak into a fairly character-led story with crime-novel construction.  However, my publishers at the time didn’t want to mess around on the periphery.  They were looking for The New British Stephen King.  Which would, if I’d gone for it, have made me one of approximately seven New British Stephen King’s that year alone. 

I played along for a while, producing five books, all of which wound up on the horror shelves and sold respectably, one shifting nearly half a million in the States before the genre slid into what looked like terminal decline.  When I said I hated fantasy and wanted to do something more authentic, the words ‘just shut up and write another horror novel’ were never actually used, but you get the idea.  And when I wrote a carefully researched novel about a woman diocesan exorcist (yes, of course they exist), which was ninety-five per cent crime, it still wound up on the horror shelves.

This went on for several years.  Once, I even rang an executive of a bookshop chain and said, please, please file me under crime.  He got the point and he did… and then the chain got taken over.  Getting it right involved a change of publisher and eventually I did crawl on to the crime shelves in bookshops, even though Amazon (or its computer) still doesn’t get it.

But the thought of writing ‘a haunted house novel’ made me very uneasy.  Even as I agreed, I could smell foetid breath as the jaws of hell re-opened.  And it’s a lower chamber of hell now the horror shelves are full of teenage vampire and zombie novels.  As if to underline this, Amazon has been intermittently listing my haunted house story as Young Adult. 

Which it isn’t, of course, nor is it horror.  While it might have too many shivery bits for the purists, crime is still the category that fits it best, although the murder doesn’t happen until very near the end.

Anyway, it’s called Night after Night and it is, as ordered, a haunted house novel.  It’s about a British reality TV show entitled Big Other - satirical title masking serious intent.  A group of believers and an equal number of sceptics are paid to spend a week in an allegedly haunted Elizabethan country house with cameras behind the oak panelling to record the conflict.  To cut a long (528 pp, to be exact) story short, Night After Night is a mystery.  Yes, it has a certain amount of mumbo jumbo, jiggery-pokery, and even feminine intuition. 

But - and this is the crucial point - it does not rely on any of them for the resolution. 

Dorothy Sayers has no cause to haunt me.

----

Night after Night

Leo Defford doesn’t believe in ghosts. But, as the head of an independent production company, he does believe in high-impact TV.

Defford hires journalist Grayle Underhill to research the history of Knap Hall, a one-time Tudor farmhouse near the idyllic Costwold town of Winchcombe that became the ultimate luxury guest house, until tragedy put it back on the market. Its recent history isn’t conducive to a quick sale, but Defford isn’t interested in keeping Knap Hall for longer than it takes to make a reality television show that will run night after night...

A house isolated by its rural situation and its dark reputation. Seven people, nationally known, but strangers to one another, locked inside. But this time, Big Brother may not be in control.  

More information about Phil Rickman can be found on his website.  You can also follow him on Twitter @philrickman and on Facebook. 

Night after Night by Phil Rickman is out now (£18.99) Corvus.

Crime Fiction News

According to Charlotte Williams at the Bookseller, Orion is publishing an exclusive trilogy of short stories by crime writer R J Ellory, called Three Days in Chicagoland. The first e-exclusive novella, The Sister, will be released on 15th March, followed by The Cop on 5th April and finally The Killer on 26th April. Each will be priced 99p. The stories are set in Chicago between 1956 and 1960. They are inter-related but can also be read as standalones. The first is from the point of view of the murder victim's sister, the second from the detective in charge of the case, and the third from the man accused of the murder as he waits on death row.

The publisher also reports success digitally with Michael Connelly, with his exclusive e-books Suicide Run and Angle of Investigation selling more than 51,000 and 31,000 copies respectively, according to Orion. The publisher also plans an exclusive e-book by crime writer Graham Hurley, called Strictly No Flowers, for publication in August 2012

According to the Metro, BBC’s Sherlock has caused the sale of Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel to double since the recent incarnation of the character played by Benedict Cumberbatch.

Corvus has acquired the rights to two books by debut adult fiction author, Mark Roberts. Sara O'Keefe, Editorial Director of Corvus, bought the UK and Commonwealth rights to The Herod Killings and an untitled second book by debut thriller writer Mark Roberts, from Peter Buckman at the Ampersand Agency. Peter Buckman has sold German rights to Rowohlt and Longanesi won Italian rights in a pre-empt. The Herod Killings is the first in a gripping thriller series starring DCI David Rose.

For Fans of George Pelecanos and if you are like me looking forward to reading his new book What it Was then the Independent have produced the Blaggers Guide to George Pelecanos.

Interesting and well-written article in the Telegraph by Henning Mankell on Charles Dickens and why his greatness lies in channelling the defiant spirit of the poor.

Tony Hays - A Tennessee Rebel in King Arthur’s Court

Today’s guest blogger is Anthony Hays who is a journalist and novelist. As the former he has covered topics as varied as the American Civil War, narcotics, political corruption and the War on Terror. As the latter he has found an outlet for his passion for British history. To research this series he spent six months living in Glastonbury, exploring the beautiful British scenery in which his characters roam. Hays searched local archaeology sites and befriended some of England’s finest academics to source the historical accuracy that brings this story alive. Having lived all over the world, he is now settled in Tennessee but will be in Glastonbury for the month of publication, and looking for his next adventure.

From the time that I began to write in my high school years, I did the oddest thing for a child born and raised in Tennessee. I spelled words in the British way. Honour. Saviour. Humour. To this day, no one can explain why. Even today, three decades later, I occasionally spell words that way. But I am not an Anglophile, not in the real sense of the word. So, you might ask, how did I end up writing a mystery series set in a 5^th century Arthurian context? The short answer is – I came to it honestly.

The truth is, I’m more English than anything else. Only two lines of my family did not originate in the British Isles. From Hays to Welch. Harrison. Mayo. McGee. Mathews. Smith. Jones. I could go on. Research indicates that I am descended from several of Edward I’s children. Some preliminary research suggests that I am the 18^th great grandson of Geoffrey Chaucer. DNA studies show that I have numerous distant cousins spread throughout the UK to this day. When I visit Britain, I feel as at home as I do in the hills of Tennessee. Go figure.

I came to Arthur as many of us did, through The Sword and the Stone. But I was never much of a fairy tale kind of guy. I wanted something I could hang my hat on, something that I could grasp and relate to the real world. (At this point, I realize that numerous scholars are grimacing, saying that the myth of Arthur has no connection to reality, but stick with me.) I remember in early adolescence, coming across an article in Time Magazine about an archaeological dig at a place called South Cadbury in Somerset. The article indicated that British archaeologist Leslie Alcock was looking to find some evidence of Camelot. That was when I became aware that the reality of Arthur was in question. That was when I first became aware of Arthurian author Geoffrey Ashe, who was secretary of the Camelot Research Committee. It was fascinating, but I had high school to get through and university. I read the occasional article about it, but my history professors directed me towards other time periods and other historical questions.

Jump to 1995. Returning to Kuwait, where I taught English for the Kuwait Air Force, from my brother’s funeral in the states, I had a short layover at Gatwick. In a bookshop there, I discovered a book titled The Quest For Arthur’s Britain, edited by Geoffrey Ashe. By that time, I had had two well-received historical mysteries published. It occurred to me that, at that time, no one had set such a series in an Arthurian context. Note that I said “series.” Certainly, over time, there has been the occasional mystery with an Arthurian setting or Arthurian connections, but there had been no sustained series.

I went back to Kuwait and devoured the book. I sat down then, in that exotic and sometimes desolate landscape, and wrote the first ten pages of what became The Killing Way (Corvus, 2011). The rest, if you’ll pardon the pun, is history.

Sixteen years later, and the world of The Killing Way has become as familiar to me as my own. Geoffrey Ashe and his wife, Patricia, have become dear, dear friends, as my thirst for all things Arthurian has driven me to numerous trips to England and a six month stint living and writing in Butleigh near Glastonbury.

Still, the question arises, why an Arthurian novel from a Tennessee farm boy? The simple answer is that King Arthur is universal; the concept of a king who seeks justice and equality for all is one that all the peoples of the globe can grasp. He is a tragic hero, betrayed in many versions by his best knight and his lady love, and therein lies my interest. Shakespeare taught me that tragic heroes have flaws that lead to their downfall. But real people are flawed; it is a constant of life. And that led me back to the quest for Arthur’s Britain. What was at the heart of the legend, of the myth? Was there a real man behind the symbol, a flawed man, but an actual person? And could I create something that added to the story of Arthur?

I approach research the way it is supposed to be done – without preconceived notions, as much as I am able. Skepticism has always bothered me because skeptics enter into research already disbelieving. I do my best to let the evidence lead me. I started my publishing life writing local history, and I am ever impressed by how often folklore and legend can be incredibly long-lived and more accurate than not. I cannot and will not arbitrarily consign folklore to the trash heap. So, I sought out the earliest stories of Arthur, the earliest sources. I read scholars from both sides of the equation.

And I came to these conclusions. There was someone who sparked the legend of King Arthur, a man who had been remarkable in his own right, a man who was thought worthy to be sung about around the fire on brisk British evenings. Added to over the years? Certainly. But there was a man, a seed, and from that seed sprouted one of the most enduring stories we have in literature.

As to the second question – could I add something to it? Well, that’s for the reader to decide.

More information can be found at:- www.tonyhays.com.