A Night To Remember

Well ‘The Hammer’ WHSmith Scottish tour is well and truly on and already we are two signings in at hugely contrasting venues.

As always I start my tours in my home city of Stirling where I was lucky enough to sign 47 books and meet several people who came to get their hands on a copy of the latest DS Thoroughgood book three years after I had last seen them on my previous tour for ‘The Blood Acre’.

Especially in your home patch that is always a nice feeling and it was a very good start with the picture below detailing the very first sale of the tour to Agnes!

Next up for me was a trip to Wigtown for a pop-up book signing that was arranged almost ad hoc and to coincide with the Wigtown Book Festival on Wednesday 28 September.

This all came about as the son of a good friend and former colleague of mine, David Harvey had opened up The Machar’s Farm Shop and he was kind enough to set aside a part of his property, complete with a sherry cask as my desk for a signing!

                                                     

Yet that is not why it was to prove a night to remember!

I had arrived the day before on the Tuesday, as making your way to Wigtown is neither easy or quick, and after a couple of refreshments at the Festival’s quaint bar, which is a converted Antiques Shop, we adjourned to the most fabulous accommodation I have ever been put up in!

Monreith House, a Georgian Mansion no less, which is pictured below.

My young ghost, sorry host (!), insisted on providing me with a guided tour around the stately home which was fascinating at it was almost completely untouched since it had been inhabited by the Maxwell family.

However when we made our way along the third floor I started to notice a marked drop in the temperature and felt an unseen presence, I subsequently enquired about this and was advised that the property was indeed haunted!

It turns out that approximately 100 years back it played host to a tragedy that saw a nanny suffering from depression throw a child from the top floor nursery room.

Needless to say this tragic tale occupied more than an hour or two in front of a blazing fire a couple of floors down in the drawing room accompanied by a suitably full bloodied glass of red wine – or three!

Yet as you can see from me engaging the two ladies below the day after the night before went well and a further 33 signed copies of my books left the premises.

So my trip to Wigtown was memorable for more than one reason!

But it’s back on the road again for me tomorrow as I head to Ayr and of one thing I am sure and that is this signing is sure to prove less ‘ayrraising’!

Adios!

RJM

Hammer Time – At Last!

IN many ways this is a blog I was beginning to think I would never write but I am delighted to be doing so at last.

This Thursday, September 22, will see the publication of the sixth book in my DS Thoroughgood crime fiction series: ‘The Hammer’ just over two years after I had written it.

While two days later I will commence my sixth Scottish signing tour with WHSmith, starting as always in my home city of Stirling at the retailer’s Thistles Centre store at 11am, two years after I was originally hoping to hit the road.

Such has been the impact of the COVID pandemic and while all that has been very frustrating I know for sure that there are plenty other authors out there who will have suffered similar vexation but at last things are back to normal.

Now I am really looking forward to travelling the length and breadth of Scotland to meet book lovers and share with them the inspiration behind ‘The Hammer’ and so much more.

Below I’m pictured with WHSmith Stirling manager Janice Forson ahead of Saturday’s opening signing The Hammer Scottish Tour.

In this regard the five-stop promo tour I did for the novel in May and June, when armed with my back catalogue books and a superb three-chapter taster booklet of ‘The Hammer’ which my publishers Matthew James created, has been very important from many aspects.

First of all just getting out there and meeting people again was a big step forward as I was really unsure how folk would be given what everyone has been through in the last two years and in this respect it was wholly positive.

Secondly it had been nearly three years since I toured my previous title in the series: ‘The Blood Acre’ and I truly wondered if there would be any real interest yet the amount of people I met who I’d bumped into back in 2019 was one of the huge positives from the spring outing.

Also all 200 copies of the taster booklet were off-loaded, and more importantly happily received, with almost 200 of my back catalogue books sold which was way above and beyond anything I expected.

I’m grateful for the support of Chris & Hilbert at my local coffee shop Chester’s!

Now, at last, it is indeed ‘Hammer Time’!

So, for this Thoroughgood outing set in 1990, we have all the ingredients that will make for what I believe is the most explosive plot in the series so far.

There will be a new location with 90% of the novel, after a breathless and suitably crimson dipped opening sequence, set in Manchester.

There will be new characters with a particularly strong female cast of both good and bad femme fatales involved.

While an old Thoroughgood nemesis will haunt Gus once more.

That said perhaps my favourite character in the book is indeed a new one, DCI Marty Ferguson, for whom I particularly enjoyed writing the dialogue!

In terms of locations from 1990 Manchester and the musical backdrop I also got a lot of enjoyment researching and writing The Hammer.

As you will know if you have read any of Gus’ previous adventures I like a dramatic ending.

In this respect I promise a climax to die for…the big question is who will survive?

Adios!

RJM

A Not So Positive Experience!

It is with great frustration that I am having to cancel Saturday’s WHSmith signing at The Gyle Centre, Edinburgh, due to testing positive with COVID.

A case of sod’s law you might say given that over the last two book signings at Stirling Thistles Centre and Glasgow Argyle Street I have sold just under 70 books, handed out almost 90 taster booklets promoting my new title in the Thoroughgood series: The Hammer and talked to a lot of very nice people.

But actually it would appear that my not so positive experience came from Saturday’s post signing curry and beer catch-up with old colleagues from Strathclyde Police whom I have not seen since December 2020….and now three of us have the lurgy!

Yet rest assured it has not stopped me cutting a troublesome hedge which was beginning to get completely out of control and the fact that my symptoms are so minor mean I owe our NHS a huge thanks for my vaccinations.

The good news however is that WHSmith Scotland Area manager Craig Sinclair has already kindly rescheduled the signing for Saturday June 18, the day before Father’s Day…so every cloud has a silver lining!

Also as a Hearts supporter I am pleased that I will be able to watch my team at Hampden on Saturday in what will be the first Jambos Scottish cup final of my adult life I have failed to make.

Looking back on Saturday’s trip to Argyle Street it was a funny day out. Celtic were about to be crowned Scottish Premiership champions at a party in the Merchant City which is just up from Smith’s Argyle Street store.

But this did not deter a man in a heart shaped union jack t-shirt, his jacket unzipped to let the flag show, dropping into the store, and buying a copy of The Blood Acre. Of course as he did so, as was my civic duty, I cautioned him that he was taking a chance and maybe wanted to zip up his jacket for the reasons already stated!

Yet he was adamant that would not be happening, thanked me for my signed copy and the last I saw was of the fellow striding out of shop from Smith’s counter with a smile on his face.

10 minutes later I heard a familiar voice on the end of a microphone coming from outside the store and craned my neck to see the same man addressing some startled shoppers from under a fluttering group of Union Jack flags with two chums flanking him.

With Argyle Steet awash with those sporting green and white colours the opportunity for disaster was obvious when, as if by magic, two members of Her Britannic Majesty’s Police Service arrived and began a deep and earnest conversation with my former patron.

At that point I became engaged with another book lover and when I looked up the man, his friends and their flags were no more!

Only in Glasgow!

Adios!

RJM

                                       

Glasgow A Go Go!

AFTER a good start to my spring signing tour with WHSmith in Stirling last week it’s on to Glasgow on Saturday with a signing at the retailer’s Argyle Street store.

I always look forward to signings in Glasgow mainly because often at some stage in proceedings I meet a face from my former career as a Glasgow cop and that can be a good thing or a bad thing!

In Dundee four years back I had the ‘pleasure’ of signing a book for a customer who then revealed to me that he was a convicted armed robber and our conversation became somewhat full and frank although all ended amicably…I am delighted to say!

I have been touring with WHSmith for around seven years, minus the two years of the COVID shutdown, and so far the faces from my past in Glasgow have all been friendly, so fingers crossed it stays that way at Argyle Street on Saturday when we kick-off at 11am.

One thing is for sure I will be heading to old Glasgow town a bit more relaxed about proceedings than I was ahead of my first signing of the tour at the Thistles Centre last week.

It was a concern of mine how people would react to being engaged by me from behind my signing table, at which I am pictured below, yet whether they were in masks or indeed unmasked everyone was very friendly, although I must have gone through half a container of hand sanitiser over the course of the signing!

Stirling Montage!

I also wanted to say a big thank you to Patricia Forsyth, the ‘Voice of Scotland’ for UKCBC Facebook group who took the time to come along and meet me at Stirling last weekend and also has been very supportive via the group’s fb page in highlighting my tour. This kind lady’s help is much appreciated.

But with 38 copies of my previous titles sold and 45 editions of the excellent three-chapter taster booklet of my forthcoming book in the DS Thoroughgood series: The Hammer (pictured below), which has been brilliantly produced by my publishers Matthew James Publishing, handed out it, was a very good start to the tour.

Hammer Time!

This Saturday’s signing won’t be the only place I am likely to bump into a familiar face! As I’m pleased to say I’m meeting up with an old ‘neebs’ who was the role model for Thoroughgood’s sidekick DC Kenny Hardie along with some other amigos for a post signing shandy and curry in Glasgow’s West End later on.

Anyway if you are at a loose end this Saturday May 14 then feel free to drop in at WHSmith Argyle Street between 11am and 3pm and I will make sure you are rewarded with a free copy of ‘The Hammer’ taster booklet.

Which of course I can guarantee will mean you will be back in Autumn for the real thing when the novel itself is published!

Adios!

RJM

                                                          

At Long Last!

After almost three years I will finally be heading out on book signing duty with WHSmith this weekend as I start a short promotional tour for my new title in the DS Thoroughgood Series: ‘The Hammer.’

As the poster below reveals I will be out and about at four of the retailer’s stores in May and June, starting at the Thistles Centre, Stirling this Saturday, May 7 from 11am to 3pm.

WHSmith Spring Signing Dates

WHSmith Tours

Over the years I have done quite a few tours with WHSmith and back in 2017 my Scottish tour in support of ‘The Shadow of Fear’ set a sales record for the retailer for such a tour with 1388 books sold from a marathon 30 dates.

While last time out in 2019 my tour in support of the previous Thoroughgood title: ‘The Blood Acre’ also broke the 1000 sale mark in just 18 stops.

Safety First

But as you know things have changed an awful lot since 2019! At long last we are just getting back to a new normal with many people still electing to wear face masks and understandably nervous about engaging with other folk.

So that is a big consideration ahead of this taster tour which will see me, thanks to Matthew James Publishing, provide every customer who purchases a copy of my back catalogue books with a free three-chapter taster booklet of ‘The Hammer.’

In this respect, while I don’t intend to sport a mask, I will be sanitising my hands before I sign a book, while I very much intend to remain seated as much as possible…except when I need to stretch my legs to stop rigor mortis setting in!

Below is a picture from this week’s Stirling Observer with myself and Dee, the CM for Stirling WHSmith, promoting the signing and I’d just like to thank my local paper for their continued support in this respect.

WHSmith Stirling Up First

Hammer Time

So what can we expect of ‘The Hammer’? Well the book and especially the taster booklet picks up from the end of The Blood Acre…so in many ways you get the answer to the previous cliff-hanger…almost…before embarking on the new adventure which my good friends at MJP have confirmed is likely to be out at the very end of September.

Without giving away too much ‘The Hammer’ will see the newly promoted DC Thoroughgood seconded to an undercover unit in Manchester as he looks to play his part in bringing a notorious Scottish criminal, who has gone to the Northern Powerhouse to broker a multi-million drugs deal, to justice.

But as usual with Gus…things get complicated…and crimson soaked while you have my personal guarantee that doubleX, betrayal and, naturally, heartbreak are all present!

I hope to see some of you on Saturday!

Adios!

RJM

Hope Springs Eternal

WITH the January blog tour of my first three titles in the DS Thoroughgood series now a distant – but happy – memory the ensuing period has been busy on a number of fronts not least but due to the fact that my family and I are moving to a new house next week!

But before I go any further, I’d like to thank the folk who have been in touch via this website asking when the next book in the DS Thoroughgood series is coming out.

What will be the sixth outing in the series, ‘The Hammer’, is tentatively scheduled for a release later this year by publishers MJP, yet there are many factors that impact on the timing of this and of course the ongoing COVID pandemic is principal among them.

Publication will be tied in with a WHSmith tour and of course right now it is hard to work out just where we will be in terms of people coming into shops and feeling safe enough to linger and chat with a hapless scribbler like the one in this pic below back in the good old, bad old, good old days!

So, from that point of view, I guess all I can say is watch this space!

Returning to the first three titles in the DS Thoroughgood series, all of which can be bought at matthewjamespublishing.com, I am pleased to say that the first book, ‘Parallel Lines’, is under consideration by a major UK TV production company for adaptation.

Throughout my writing career I have been told that my writing style is very visual and would be ideal for TV or film but despite a couple of very near misses early on it has been a case of close but no cigar…so, just maybe, this time I will be able to enjoy that Hamlet moment!

However, while I wait and see how the wind blows this spring and summer with regard to Thoroughgood’s next outing, I have plenty to be busy with on other fronts!

For the last four years in between writing the Thoroughgood adventures and the first in my other series ‘The Shadow of Fear’ revolving around the disgraced but decorated ex-SAS soldier Ludovic Fear, I have been working on a Second World War epic entitled ‘Operation Parsifal’.

This is inspired by the greatest conspiracy theory of the last great global conflict…the suggestion that Hitler escaped from the bunker.

Well this process has finally reached the editorial stage thanks to my friends at ‘Read Panda Editing’, which will lead to the synopsis and sample chapters going out to respected publishers who specialise in this thriving area of fiction.

Scribbling Parsifal on top of my other writing projects has been a challenge not just because of the juggling of different genres but also the intensive level of research required.

Clearly, for once I have no first – hand experience to draw upon as I wasn’t around in Berlin in early 1945…. hard as my daughter Ava finds that to believe!

But the biggest challenge has been centring the novel around a hero who is conflicted like no other character I have developed or written about.

For Dieter Wolff is a Lutheran Christian by birth and upbringing but a member of the Waffen-SS by profession and from this conundrum stems an almighty internal conflict and his overwhelming feelings of guilt become a key part of the plot.

Could a member of the SS serve in such an organisation and yet disagree with the atrocities his organisation perpetrated and ultimately attempt to atone for them on the grandest scale imaginable?

Wolff is soldier first and a Nazi second and time will tell if his inner angst is his undoing or if indeed his part in Operation Parsifal ever sees the light of day!

Like I say hope springs eternal…especially when the sun shines in Scotland!!

Adios!

RjM

The Write To Reply!

AS some of you may know the last three weeks have been a very interesting time for me with my first three titles in the DS Thoroughgood series, which have been recently rereleased by my publishers Matthew James Publishing, having been treated to a blog tour.

The tour, which was organised and run expertly by Emma from Damppebbles.com, saw Parallel Lines, The Hurting and The Longest Shadow each subject to a week of reviews from a cast of expert crime fiction bloggers.

I admit having written these books over a decade ago I was a bit trepidatious about how they would stand up to what has been a period of quite seismic social change in terms of attitudes and perceptions towards life in general and literature in particular.

The Thoroughgood series, which is based heavily on my experiences as a Glasgow cop, by definition must be police procedural and I hope, that while license is applied to those experiences which inform and are the backbone of my writing, they provide an authenticity to it that really comes across. Otherwise, what would be the point?

Yet the reviews from these lady bloggers proved positive beyond my wildest dreams and to @scintilla_info, @book_problem, @ramblingmads, @machinsharronm1, @hanlovestoread, @booksbybindu and @shazzierimmel I extend a heartfelt thank you!

Reading through each review at the end of the day the thought dawned on me that it would be nice to review the reviews and provide an author’s perspective on the bloggers thoughts which I guess is something different!

So here we go my top reviews for each title and why that is the case. I hope that you might take the time to read the reviews in full as the ladies all put in a lot of thought to their work.  

Parallel Lines:

At No.1 my favourite review is from @shazzierimmell and can be read in full at: buff.ly/2LIRB69 and here is a snip:

The characters along with the story have been so well fleshed out they jump out of the page. The realism is further cemented with all the flaws and complexities that come naturally with human beings.

I was fascinated with them, even the gangsters have their own issues, and these little details draw you in a little bit more and before you know it you are knee-deep in the shady side of Glasgow with them.”

Great job Sharron I couldn’t have summed up everything I wanted to achieve from my debut thriller better!

The Hurting:

Top of the Pops here is @BooksbyBindu and in full at buff.ly/3pu9Xqe. This review had one very big advantage over the six other excellent blogs on the second in the DS Thoroughgood Series…the blogger had actually sat in the seats of one of the key locations/events in the book!

Here’s a taster:

I need to explain why I found this so personal to my life. The first terror event happens at Braehead shopping centre and during a Davis Cup tennis event. Now I go to every single event in Glasgow for the Davis Cup and where the bomber picked his seat is exactly where I sit every single time. Due to this it just resonated to me that terror events can happen anywhere.

All the events in the book don’t seem unrealistic as all of them have been employed by terror groups as a means to further their cause. It’s due to this that the book can make uncomfortable reading but also more enthralling at the same time.

It’s a fine line an author has to take to take on subjects like this as you want to make it seem believable as a means to educate people as well as entertain them and I think RJ has done that in this case.”

Lynsey’s words here offer unbelievable insight, sum up the challenges I faced in writing ‘The Hurting’ and also what I hoped to achieve. It doesn’t get any better.

The Longest Shadow:

Finally, to the last in the first Thoroughgood trilogy and take a bow @scintilla_info & in full at: buff.ly/3puNEAB.

Here’s the taster:

“Often, “action packed” and “intelligently thoughtful” are incompatible descriptions of a thriller. When R.J. Mitchell is the author, the two descriptions can be safely juxtaposed.

DS Thoroughgood novels are complex and sometimes philosophical, but they are also heart-pounding and filled with dizzying and often violent twists.

They are books that satisfy both your mind and your need for an adrenaline rush.”

Really, I think Scintilla has cut to the very essence of what I hope to achieve from my writing.

Well, there you go and once again a huge thanks to all of the bloggers.

The good news is that there are two other outings for Thoroughgood and Hardie!

If you care to purchase copies of The Shift and The Blood Acre you will be returning to 1989 and 1990 where the horrific two years of my spell as a rookie probationary cop will make for some very interesting life and times for the young Gus Thoroughgood…I promise!

And there is more good news the next instalment in the series: ‘The Hammer’ is already written!

Adios!

RjM

Back To The Future!

IT’S amazing that almost 13 years since I used the recovery from an appendix operation to write my debut novel ‘Parallel Lines’, the first DS Thoroughgood outing, has been released once again along with books two and three in the series ‘The Hurting’ and ‘The Longest Shadow’.

For this, a huge thanks to my publishers Matthew James Publishing.

Perhaps not surprisingly this has all caused a bout of introspection and flashbacks to the events that first made me think about using my experiences as a young Glasgow cop to scribble a crime fiction series.

Definitively I can say that an armed robbery in an Argyle Street jewellery store I walked into was the moment that first spawned the #DSThoroughgoodSeries, which I am delighted to say will be the subject of a Blog Tour, as below, over the next three weeks.

Indeed, the robbery I spoke of soon provided the basis of the first three chapters of my debut novel, Parallel Lines, a classic crime thriller featuring two men on the opposite sides of the law, firmly on a collision course, which I hope brought the streets of the Glasgow I policed alive.

I guess most ‘readers’ are all too well aware of what a Blog Tour is, but just in case, let me explain it thus:

Blog tours are an easy and effective way to spread the word about a new book on social media. 

The tours are normally organised by the publisher or a freelance ‘Blog Tour Organiser’ and expert book bloggers are invited on the tour to review the book on a specific day on or around publication date. 

The tours can run from three days to a month and all bloggers involved post unique content from Q&A’s and extracts to reviews. In this respect my thanks to Emma Welton of damppebbles.com and to the seven fantastic bloggers reviewing my first three titles one week at a time starting from tomorrow.

But on the eve of the #DSThoroughgoodSeries blog tour I must confess to trepidation as well as excitement!

Yet I have faith in the quality of the three very different plots awaiting you and the strength of the relationship between the main protagonists, Gus Thoroughgood the youthful, headstrong detective sergeant and his gnarled world – weary counterpart DC Kenny Hardie and those other characters drawn from my 12 year ‘stretch’ as a Glasgow cop in such salubrious areas as Blackhill, Springburn and Easterhouse.

The great news is that should you wish to order a signed copy of any of these three books you can get it via my website at:  rjmitchell.bigcartel.com and also at https://www.matthewjamespublishing.com/search/mitchell.

Looking back over the last year it has been as if the whole world has been put on one torturous long pause because of the Covid-19 Pandemic but now with the New Year dawning and more than one vaccine being rolled out, perhaps at last we can look forward with optimism.

In that respect I’d just like to finish by wishing everyone out there all the very best for 2021!

Adios!

RjM

Splendid Isolation

I guess if ever there was a good time to write a book it’s right now!

As the government enforced Coronavirus lock down pushes on towards the end of it’s first month my work on the first draft MS for ThoroughgoodVI, ‘The Hammer’ is hitting the 80,000 word mark, which means I am fast entering the final furlong of Gus’ latest adventure.

I know that every author will have his or her own way of doing things and over the last few years my year has roughly evolved in two halves.

I tend to write for the first part with an average MS of between 85-10000 words taking around 4-5 months.

While the second half of the year tends to be dominated by my tours with WHSmith.

When I finished last year’s tour with Thoroughgood V, The Blood Acre, in Perth on Christmas Eve, with 1018 sales after 22stops, I was most definitely all signed out!

For previous books I have tended to do my writing between 6am and 8am and aimed for around 1000 words a session but this time I have adopted a more flexible approach.

Clearly being confined to barracks isn’t a bad thing when you are trying to write a book, but it is also vital to burst out of your bubble and enjoy a bit of social interaction, exercise and the odd pint!

Not being able to enjoy a coffee at my favourite haunts of The Jam Jar in Bridge of Allan or Stirling’s Caffe Nero is a pleasure I miss sorely as is a game of squash and a pint of Guinness at Bridge of Allan Sports Club!

Instead my old bike has been dusted down and thankfully in deepest, darkest Stirlingshire, I am not short of scenic routes on my doorstep!

Returning to The Hammer I have found this particular Thoroughgood outing a challenge to write as its 90% set in 1990 Manchester… a place I am not familiar with at a time when I was otherwise engaged pounding the streets of Glasgow’s Blackhill and Springburn areas!

But I find that locations can help shape and inspire my writing and thanks to the internet I have uncovered some very interesting places which play key parts in the novel like The Lass O’Gowrie Pub, the famous enchanted forests of Cheshire’s Alderley Edge, and the Hacienda night club which I have appropriated and renamed for my own purposes as ‘Reds’

If you catch my regular tweets on @spitfiremedia or facebook posts on rjmitchell, you will be aware that music is massive for me in my writing!

I am an unashamed fan of Radio2 legends Johnnie Walker, Tony Blackburn and Gary Davies!

But particularly when I write action scenes the soundtrack in the background is always metal while the Motorhead song entitled ‘The Hammer’ is where I got the idea for the title of my new novel!

All things being equal I hope publication will be in August or September thanks to my friends at Matthew James Publishing.

It is my plan to blog regularly over the coming months and until next time #StaySafe!

Adios!

RjM

The Blood Acre Stirling Launch

IT’S amazing to think that today in my home city of Stirling I will be kicking-off my fourth tour with WHSmith in support of the launch of my new DS Thoroughgood crime thriller ‘The Blood Acre’, which is the fifth in the series and set in 1990.

It seems like yesterday when I wrote the first in the series ‘Parallel Lines’ way back in 2008, when an appendicitis caused my career as a sportswriter with the Glasgow Evening Times to come to a juddering halt and forced a prolonged period of recovery and so allowed DS Gus Thoroughgood to escape from my mind and onto the written page.

Since then Gus, in his first incarnation as a Glasgow detective sergeant, has found himself locked in a deadly battle with his personal nemesis Declan Meechan, thwarted a gang of crazed Jihadists and solved a wartime cold case that was in fact a destabilising national cover up.

All of that allowed me to go back to 1989 with ‘The Shift’, the previous outing for a callow Constable Thoroughgood set in 1989 and based on the unhappiest year of my life as a probationary cop in a not so salubrious ‘suburb’ of Glasgow called Blackhill.

But now Gus is back, slightly older, slightly wiser and facing a whole new set of challenges!

He will lock horns with a corrupt DI, form an unholy alliance with a young Meechan in order to bring down one of Glasgow’s deadliest criminals ‘The Widowmaker’ and, naturally, Constable Thoroughgood’s love life is a minefield of emotional torment.

So, The Blood Acre is, in essence, a Molotov cocktail of bullets, blood, betrayal and heartbreak with a French kiss of a cliff hanger ending….and I guess I’m quite pleased with it!

Over the summer I have also been hard at work on my new work, the second world war epic ‘Operation Parsifal’ based on the premise that Hitler escaped from the bunker….and as you can see from the holiday pic above taken on my balcony in Spain that was thirsty work!!

But write now (!) I need to say a few thank yous!

First to James and Anthony of Matthew James Publishing for helping bring Gus back to life, to Susan Mears my literary agent for her help and support, David Alexander for his advice and patience and Mike French for a fine edit.

At WHSmith a huge ‘gracies amigos’ to Craig Sinclair and Brian ‘Silver Fox’ McIntyre for their meticulous help in planning the tour which will also take me south of the border to Newcastle, Manchester and London.

I am planning to write a regular tour blog as I travel the length and breadth of Scotland and beyond over the next four months sharing some of the interesting experiences and tales that always unfold on the road.

But for now if you are in Stirling today between 11am and 3pmish please drop into WHSmith where I can guarantee you the best crime thriller you will read this summer is waiting for you….but then I guess I would say that!

Adios Amigos!

RjM