Nightshade - almost done!

I'm flat out on the new Jack Nightingale book at the moment - it has to be done by the end of October.  Should be okay as I'm in full flow!  It's got a much higher body count than the previous books, which always helps!

Hodder have come up with a cover idea but it's not quite right - mainly because Jack rarely uses a gun and is more at home in cities than fields.  I also think the guy with the gun has a beard, which is very un-Nightingale. And Jack isn't a fan of bomber jackets.  I should get another cover in the next week or so - hopefully with Jack's trademark raincoat and satanic symbols!

I am having great fun with Nightshade, there's a fair bit of real police stuff in it but some very nasty black magic, too. If all goes to plan it'll be in the stores next April.  As I'm writing Nightshade I'm also researching the new Spider Shepherd book - more on that later!

Drury Lane Theatre - A Warning

If you're thinking of buying tickets for shows at the Drury Lane Theatre, whatever you do don't buy them through this company -

They have a website at www.royaldrurylanetheatrelondon.com and it's a con - they are nothing to do with the theatre and charge you over the odds for any tickets.

They pretend to be the theatre box office (or at least they did with me) but they aren't. I reckon that's fraud.

If you do want tickets for the Drury Lane Theatre - they did Shrek The Musican and Charlie And The Chocolate Factory - then the website to visit is www.reallyuseful.com/

It's Andrew Lloyd-Webber's company and you should always buy your tickets direct from him.

Click HERE for tickets.

Sometimes words fail me....

Seriously.

Brilliant Review In The Sun

The Sun has just given my book False Friends a brilliant review.  False Friends got to Number 4 in the Sunday Times hardback bestseller list, too, which also cheered me up no end!

False Friends - And True Heroes

False Friends is out, and selling well.  It’s already in the Top 100 on Kindle and is in all good bookshops and supermarkets.

There are two new characters in the book that I’m really pleased with. Harveer “Harvey” Malik and Manraj “Raj” Chaudhry, British-born Pakistanis who have infiltrated an al-Qaeda cell on behalf of MI5.

Because they are innocents in the undercover business, Dan “Spider” Shepherd is brought in to babysit them.

Harvey and Raj are great characters and I’m thinking of bringing them back in a novel of their own.  I’ve written Muslim characters before, but generally they’ve been terrorists planning to cause mayhem in the UK.  In False Friends, Raj and Harvey are true heroes, putting their lives on the line for their country.  It was something getting inside the heads of characters so different from me in terms of ethnicity and religion, but I was helped by a pal who is a UK-born Bangladeshi Muslim who gave me an insight about what it’s like to be a British-born Asian Muslim in the UK post 9-11.

I’m already plotting the Spider Shepherd book for 2013 – based on the Russian oligarchs who now call London their home.  There have been a number of Russian assassinations taking place in London and I’m going to involve Spider!

New Video For False Friends

This is the video for the new Spider Shepherd book - False Friends - out on August 2. I think it's amazing!

Me In The Bookseller Magazine