Q & A with Michelle Davies

Michelle Davies is a freelance journalist and novelist. Gone Astray (coming out in Hardback on 24th of March, Pan Macmillan) is the first novel in her new crime series. This is the story of a family whose circumstance drastically change, and due to this, their child is abducted. What sets this apart from other missing persons novels is DC Maggie our protagonist. DC Maggie is assigned to the family as their Family Liaison Officer and as a result gets unprecedented, unfiltered access to them while they are living through the most traumatic time in their lives. This is the first novel form the perspective of an FLO and brings a really fresh and interesting perspective to a missing persons case.

What made you decide to write a crime novel?

My favourite book as a child was Enid Blyton’s Secret Seven Win Through; it’s a terrific mystery about an intruder sneaking into the cave where the children hold their meetings and them setting up traps to catch whoever it is. Then in my first year at secondary school my English teacher set our class the task of writing a three-chapter story – so I wrote a mystery story of my own. I was thrilled to get top marks and I think that was what planted the seed of me writing crime fiction as an adult. I’ve never seen myself writing anything else.

What inspired you to give FLOs a voice?

I once worked for a brilliant magazine editor who drummed it into me that if you’re going to do something, make sure it hasn’t already been done. So it was always my plan to focus on a police role that hadn’t featured as the main character in a crime novel before and I got the idea for a Family Liaison Officer (FLO) after interviewing Kerry Needham. Her son Ben went missing on the Greek island of Kos in 1991 and during our conversation Kerry talked about how much she’d come to rely on her FLO and how she credited them for keeping her going when the sheer horror of having her little boy disappear became too much to bear. Once I started researching the role I realised there was far more to it than just ‘tea and sympathy’, which tends to be how family liaison is depicted. I was particularly interested in the theory that, because FLOs are first and foremost investigating detectives, they can solve crimes from the inside out if the police suspect the guilty party is within, or close to, the victim’s family. I’m very happy to be able to throw the spotlight on what is presently an underrated role.

Who is your favourite crime author?

Ruth Rendell. I love her Wexfords and her standalones equally. What makes her novels so peerless is that the humanity of her characters is always as important as the crimes they commit or witness. She can dissect a person’s psyche like no other.

What can we expect for the rest of the series

My main character, DC Maggie Neville, is committed to continuing her specialism as a Family Liaison Officer, even if it means forgoing promotion. Unfortunately constraints on police budgets mean FLOs are becoming overstretched nationally and that will be reflected in the series as we see Maggie having to juggle some cases simultaneously. She’s also facing uncertainty on a personal level – an oversight on her part will have major repercussions for her and the people closest to her for some time to come.

Gone Astray by Michelle Davies (£12.99, Pan Macmillan)

When a Lesley Kinnock buys a lottery ticket on a whim, it changes her life more than she could have imagined ...Lesley and her husband Mack are the sudden winners of a GBP15 million EuroMillions jackpot. They move with their 15-year-old daughter Rosie to an exclusive gated estate in Buckinghamshire, leaving behind their ordinary lives - and friends - as they are catapulted into wealth beyond their wildest dreams. But it soon turns into their darkest nightmare when, one beautiful spring afternoon, Lesley returns to their house to find it empty: their daughter Rosie is gone. DC Maggie Neville is assigned to be Family Liaison Officer to Lesley and Mack, supporting them while quietly trying to investigate the family. And she has a crisis threatening her own life - a secret from the past that could shatter everything she's worked so hard to build. As Lesley and Maggie desperately try to find Rosie, their fates hurtle together on a collision course that threatens to end in tragedy ...Money can't buy you happiness. The truth could hurt more than a lie. One moment really can change your life forever. 

You can find her on FaceBook and also follow her on Twitter @M_Davieswrites

Breaking News - TV Deal for Ragnar Jónasson’s Dark Iceland series

Orenda Books is delighted to announce that On the Corner, the UK production company responsible for the Academy Award-winning Amy, has acquired the TV rights for Ragnar Jónasson’s Dark Iceland series. The deal was negotiated by Luke Speed at Curtis Brown.

The series, currently comprised of five books, including the bestselling Snowblind and Nightblind, with Blackout to follow this July, features Icelandic police officer Ari Thor, who is based in the northernmost town in Iceland, Siglufjörður. Rights to the series have been sold in ten countries to date, and Snowblind has been a number one bestseller in both the UK and Australia.

On the Corner is a multi-award-winning independent production company, producing original, high-quality drama and documentaries. They were responsible for Senna, which won two BAFTAs, and Amy, the most successful British documentary of all time.

Ragnar says, ‘I am thrilled that we have finalised this deal with On the Corner. They have set out very ambitious plans to bring my books to the screen and I am confident that my characters and stories are in very capable hands.’

David Headley, of DHH Literary Agency, Ragnar’s literary agent says, ‘Ragnar is a talented, brilliant

author and the Dark Iceland series will make great TV. We couldn’t be happier for him.’

Karen Sullivan, publisher of Orenda Books, says, ‘It is beyond exciting to know that such a prestigious production company will be bringing this fabulous series to the small screen. Ragnar’s books are atmospheric, chilling and evocative, and he cleverly weaves together the very best aspects of Nordic Noir with all the elements of a Golden Age mystery. TV is a natural home for them, and I know that On the Corner will do them proud.  Beautifully translated by Quentin Bates, Ragnar’s books have attracted a new legion of fans to the genre, and I’m sure the TV series will do the same.’

Ian Rankin announces new Rebus novel for 2016

Great news from Orion Publishing

Ian Rankin today revealed the title and details of his new novel RATHER BE THE DEVIL which will feature his curmudgeonly old rogue John Rebus, one of crime fiction’s most beloved characters.

Rankin’s most recent Rebus novel EVEN DOGS IN THE WILD spent an amazing four weeks at #1 in the SUNDAY TIMES bestsellers’ charts and also hit the top spot on Amazon’s Kindle chart. But fans will have to wait another six months for their Rebus fix when the Orion Publishing Group publishes RATHER BE THE DEVIL on 3 November.

Ian Rankin announced the title on Twitter and Periscope at 3.00pm on Thursday 17 March just before going on stage at Orion’s annual sales conference where he shared more details with an appreciative audience.

John Rebus, now a couple of years into his retirement finds himself drawn into a cold case from the 1970s involving a female socialite, found dead in a bedroom in one of Edinburgh’s most luxurious hotels. It’s a crime over forty years old, but no one was ever found guilty. Now, Rebus has his own reasons to investigate . . . but it is going to set him against some very dangerous people.

Ian Rankin said:
“Rather Be The Devil is the title of a song by John Martyn, from one of my all-time favourite albums, 'Solid Air'. There are demons aplenty in this new book, not all of them faced by Rebus. I've not finished writing it yet, but I'm sure fans will enjoy being back in the old devil's company...'

Jon Wood, Group Publisher at Orion, commented:

 “Like the finest of whiskies, Ian Rankin – and John Rebus – just keep getting better every year. There is no more entertaining or interesting partnership in crime fiction today. It’s an absolute joy to reveal that they will be both back in our bookshops this year”

JOHN REBUS is one of crime fiction’s most popular and iconic characters. Public affection for the irascible ex-cop grows unabated and has sent the Rebus novels soaring to the top of the bestsellers’ charts again and again since his return in STANDING IN ANOTHER MAN’S GRAVE in 2012.

IAN RANKIN is the internationally bestselling author of the Inspector Rebus and Detective Malcolm Fox novels, as well as a string of standalone thrillers. His books have been translated into 36 languages and are bestsellers on several continents. Ian is the recipient of four CWA DAGGER AWARDS and in 2004, won America's celebrated EDGAR AWARD. He is also the recipient of honorary degrees from the universities of Abertay, St Andrews, Hull and Edinburgh and received the OBE for services to literature. He was recently made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 

Find out more at www.ianrankin.net. Follow Ian on @beathhigh

RATHER BE THE DEVIL is published on 3 November 2016, hardback (£19.99), eBook (£10.99) and unabridged audio CD and Download.

Deadly Pleasures Barry Awards 2016

The Shortlists are out from George Easter and his team at Deadly Pleasures Magazine, so it’s now up to the subscribers to cast their votes and the winners will be announced at Bouchercon New Orleans

Congratulations to all the nominated / and see you in New Orleans

Best Novel

C. J. Box, BADLANDS (Minotaur)
John Connolly, A SONG OF SHADOWS (Emily Bestler/Atria)   
Owen Laukkanen, THE STOLEN ONES (Putnam)
Michael Robotham, LIFE OR DEATH (Mulholland)
Jeff Siger, DEVIL OF DELPHI (Poisoned Pen Press)
Don Winslow, THE CARTEL (Knopf)
                                           
Best First Novel

John A. Connell, RUINS OF WAR (Berkley)
Glen Erik Hamilton, PAST CRIMES (Morrow)                   
Elsa Hart, JADE DRAGON MOUNTAIN (Minotaur)
Paula Hawkins, THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN (Riverhead)
Ausma Zehanat Khan, THE UNQUIET DEAD (Minotaur)
Brian Panowich, BULL MOUNTAIN (Putnam)                   
                       
Best Paperback Original       
       
Kristi Belcamino, BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO WEEP (Witness Impulse)
Lou Berney, THE LONG AND FARAWAY GONE (Morrow)
Max Allan Collins, QUARRY’S CHOICE (HardCase Crime)
Sarah Hilary, NO OTHER DARKNESS (Penguin)
Ragnar Jonasson, SNOW BLIND (Orenda)
James W. Ziskin, STONE COLD DEAD (Seventh Street)

Best Thriller       

Marc Cameron, BRUTE FORCE (Pinnacle)
Chris Holm, THE KILLING KIND (Mulholland)
M. A. Lawson, VIKING BAY (Blue Rider)           
Stefanie Pintoff, HOSTAGE TAKER (Bantam)
Taylor Stevens, THE MASK (Crown)
A. J. Tata, FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC (Pinnacle)

Eric Ambler Evening 6 May 2016

To coincide with the British Library’s publication of new editions of several of Eric Ambler’s novels, which marks a resurgence of interest in his work, leading authors and critics will discuss Ambler’s life and works.  They will cover his influences and his impact on later writers of British spy thrillers to discover how he came to be regarded as the father of the modern British spy thriller. Tickets include entry to a post-discussion reception at which you will have opportunity to meet the panellists and continue the discussion with them.

Tickets can be bought here.

Callan Complete

Ostara Publishing’s Top Notch Thrillers imprint has now completed its republication of the five-volume series of novels by the late James Mitchell which feature his iconic secret agent hero Callan.  

Originally created for a one-off television drama in 1967, the character of David Callan – the surly but vulnerable and ferociously downbeat professional hit-man working for a very dirty section of British Intelligence – struck an instant chord with the viewing public. As portrayed by actor Edward Woodward, Callan went on to feature in highly successful television series (1967-1972), a film and a TV movie, some 40 short stories syndicated worldwide in newspapers and five novels.

 Top Notch Thriller editions of the Callan novels began to appear in 2013 and now the long out-of-print fourth and fifth volumes – Smear Job and Bonfire Night – are available as trade paperbacks and eBooks.

First published in 1975, Smear Job is the longest and most densely-plotted of the Callan novels, featuring all the characters Mitchell created for ‘the Section’ – his fictional (one hopes!) department which deals in surveillance, blackmail and even assassination of anyone deemed a threat to national security.

Callan’s sidekick Lonely – the cowardly and often pungent professional burglar – play a key role, as do Spencer Purceval FitzMaurice, Toby Meres and even Hunter finds himself ‘in the field’ as the action moves, at Mitchell’s typically lightning pace, from Sicily to London gangland, to Las Vegas and Mexico, from Cold War West Germany to the deserted Suffolk coast.

Bonfire Night, the fifth and final book in the series, was written more than 25 years later and published in 2002, the year of James Mitchell’s death. It has been out of print for 13 years and, with no previous paperback edition, this rapidly became the most sought-after of the Callan novels. The new Top Notch Thriller edition comes with a specially-written Introduction by the author’s son, Peter Mitchell, describing the extraordinary circumstances under which Bonfire Night was written, towards the end of his father’s life.

Series editor Mike Ripley said: “Since the Top Notch Thrillers imprint was established in 2009 to revive and republish great British thrillers, we have had many requests from readers to reissue Bonfire Night – ‘the lost Callan’ – far more than for any other title and we are now proud to so.  After long consultation with the author’s son Peter, I have kept editing to the bare minimum so that dedicated Callan fans can read this final coda to the Callan saga as the author intended. It is something of a ‘difficult’ book as Mitchell tried to merge a typically serpentine plot with major developments in the lives of his main characters. Callan is now rich, in danger of falling in love, and living in retirement in his own personal castle in Spain and the new Hunter heading the Section, is a woman. The seismic character change, though, is for Lonely, who has (thanks to a prison education course) become a computer genius and software millionaire!

“But if the world of Callan seems to have turned upside down, he still finds himself having to deal with old enemies (including a vicious ex-Stasi villain who tortured Callan in East Berlin back in the day) and treacherous former allies, but he does so with all the ruthless efficiency of the Callan of old.

“In his Introduction, Peter Mitchell describes, sensitively and poignantly, how Bonfire Night came to be written and I strongly recommend his account to readers.”

Smear Job (£12.99) and Bonfire Night (£10.99) are now available as Print-On-Demand trade paperbacks.

Other Callan titles by James Mitchell from Ostara Publishing are:

A Magnum for Schneider

Russian Roulette

Death and Bright Water

Callan Uncovered*

Callan Uncovered 2*

[* short stories and scripts]

For further information visit www.ostarapublishing.co.uk.