There aren’t many places left where a man can enjoy a cigarette these days – but at least fictional characters can still light up in books. Jack Nightingale – a former cop turned private eye and the hero of my new book Nightfall – is a forty-a-day man. He’s a Brit but he prefers to smoke Marlboro. I’m a non-smoker – unless you count the half dozen or so I tried at school. I never liked it, never saw the point in it, and could never afford the habit anyway. Now that I can afford it I know the dangers and wouldn’t dream of smoking. But when I started writing Nightfall I knew that Nightingale had to be a smoker. It’s something to do with the fact that smokers are the new underdogs, hounded by all and sundry because of their habit. Smoking has been banned pretty much everywhere and the anti-smoking lobby has pretty much forced smoking off movies and television. I get emails from people complaining about Nightingale’s love of nicotine but I like the fact that Nightingale smokes. It makes him an outsider, and a bit of a rebel. The only downside is that when I’m writing about Nightingale I get a craving for a cigarette myself. It’s been forty years since I last held a cigarette, but when I write about Nightingale the urge kicks in. So far I’ve managed to resist! In Nightfall Nightingale inherits a mansion that used to belong to his father. But with the windfall comes bad news – Nightingale’s father was a Satanist who had made a deal with a devil. On Nightingale’s thirty-third birthday, just weeks away, that devil is coming to claim his soul. The more Nightingale looks into his past the more secrets he discovers. And when everyone he talks to about his father dies horribly, he realises that perhaps devils do exist and that he faces an eternity in the fires of Hell. Nightfall is the first book in a trilogy – the further adventures of Jack Nightingale will follow in Midnight and Nightmare. And as the series continues, Nightingale will continue to smoke. I just hope that I can resist the urge to smoke myself!

False Friends Hardback Cover

Hodder are working on the hardback cover of False Friends, the new Spider Shepherd book which should be out in July. I think it looks great.

Midnight In The States

Amazon are preparing to publish Midnight - the second book in the Jack Nightingale series - in the States. They are doing the final edit and already have the cover.

The first book in the series - Nightfall - was published by Amazon's 47 North imprint last week and is already in the Kindle US Top 200.

Top 10 Amazon eBook Writers - And I'm Number Two!

Amazon.co.uk has just announced that Lee Child is the most successful British Kindle book author worldwide, followed by me and Ken Follett.

The company has released a list of the top-10 bestselling UK-born Kindle e-book authors, based on purchases from 1st January 2011 onwards in the US, UK, France, Spain and Italy.

Lee is great but truth be told he's way behind me in terms of UK sales. The bulk of his eBook sales have been in the US, where I don't sell that many.

Anyway, here's Amazon's top 10 of British authors.





SEE THE FULL STORY HERE

The New Spider Shepherd Book - False Friends

I finished the first draft of the new Spider Shepherd book last week and Hodder have already come up with a cover. I think it's a cracker. There's still some work to be done but if all goes to plan it will be in the shops in July.

Nightmare Is Published Tomorrow!

Nightmare, the third book in the Jack Nightingale series, is published tomorrow. Hodder have already commissioned two more, which is good news. Sadly it won't be sold in the supermarkets, which isn't such good news. So you'll have to buy it on Amazon or (gasp) in a book shop! Amazon will be publishing the three Nightingale books - Nightfall, Midnight and Nightmare - in the United States later this year.

Nightfall - the US edition

Nightmare - the third book in the Jack Nightingale supernatural detective series will be published by Hodder and Stoughton in the UK next week - following on from Nightfall and Midnight.

It rounds off the trilogy but sets the scene for a continuing series based around Jack - solving crimes and battling the forces of darkness. I have great fun writing the Nightingale books and the research is a blast!

Meanwhile, Amazon is preparing to publish the first book - Nightfall - in the United States. They will be using their 47North imprint and will have the book out in March, followed soon afterwards by the other two. It's going to be exciting seeing them launched onto the American market!