When an old friend disappears, Martin learns nothing is what it seems…
Martin Russell can barely face the future. With dismal life prospects and an estranged family, he is at the end of his rope. When an old friend, Hannah, elbows her way back into his life, Martin’s luck begins to turn around.
Hidden within the shadows of evil, there must be some good…
Ex-policeman Bobby Tanner lost everything one rage-filled night. Now he runs a reading group for alcoholics where he meets a young drug dealer, Zack, who disturbs him in a way that’s hard to define. Bobby soon discovers the teenager is in over his head and has been dealing with a despicable individual known as The Chemist.
The roots of evil run deeper than we imagine…
Martin’s lucky streak begins to unravel when Hannah suddenly goes missing, and he turns to a friend of a friend, Bobby, for help. Thrust into an underworld empire of corruption and half-truths, he learns his friend may not be who he thought she was.
In a shadowed world of deception, stalkers, and despicable drug dealers, Bobby and Martin must uncover the truth, and fast…
Several lives depend on it.
Excerpt
At three minutes past nine, Bobby pulled up outside the Jacksons’ house where Zack was sitting waiting on the doorstep. Zack jumped up, walked briskly over to the car, and slid inside.
“Come on, let’s go.”
Bobby was pleased that Zack did not want his mother to know about their arrangement. He was not going to make it easy for Zack. He liked the lad, but drug dealers were the scum of the earth.
“Hang on, where’s the envelope?”
Zack rolled his eyes and passed over a wad of notes held together by a rubber band. While Bobby counted the money, Zack kept glancing up to his mother’s bedroom window. Bobby carefully wound the band around the notes again and turned slowly to face the boy.
“Zack, you obviously take me for an idiot. Have the money back and the best of luck!”
With that, he turned the ignition key of the Fiesta. The ex-copper had caught Zack off guard.
“Wha…wha…what d’you mean?”
“Zack, we both know this is not all of it. Forget it. You’ve made your bed.”
He pushed the gear stick into first. It had the desired effect.
“All right, all right. Wait there. No. Go around the block once, and I’ll bring you the rest. All of it.”
Bobby nodded and put the car into gear. It was a double bluff that had paid off. Firstly, he had no idea if there was any more money, and secondly, he wasn’t even sure if the Fiesta was going to start again when he turned the key. The car really was a piece of shit. By the time he had driven round the block, Zack was already walking down the street towards him out of sight of his mother’s window.
“Here we are. That’s everything.”
Bobby pulled over, started counting and gave a low whistle.
“That’s more like it! Fourteen hundred pounds! Let’s go. We should get something decent for me for that.”
Guest Post
A little bit about me and my background.
I was self-employed from the age of nineteen, and in retrospect I was, what is called nowadays, an entrepreneur. I owned a finance company, an art gallery, an antiques centre, I was a director of a PLC, and of a professional football club, and several car sales sites and workshops. My businesses turned over close to $500m in my lifetime. Before a bloody divorce I was a millionaire, after the divorce I was insolvent. In an eighteen month period my life went to sh*t.With virtually no money left I was forced to leave city life behind ne and move to the Welsh Valleys where property prices were less than a third of city prices.
I went to a creative writing course out of nothing more than vague interest – the lady running the course, Bella, was inspirational and a new direction in my life had started. From writing short stories and winning a few small competitions, writing has now taken over my life. I write at least five days a week and my new environment is perfect for this life I like to walk my dog Wolfie around the hills near where I live, and think about my stories without interruptions. My partner is a professional musician and she hates music being on in the house, so I have got used to writing with no background noise.
I have three more books coming out this year, on July 26, a feel-good romance Chasing What’s Already Gone, with which I am really excited, it is by far the most commercial story I have written. There is a follow up novel to Hand Over Fist in November, entitled Out Of Hand, and somewhere in between a new short story anthology, Another Twenty Short Stories.
It was a strange and twisting road that led to the publication of my first novel. From my humble beginnings, as an office clerk, to ownership of a multi-million dollar business I always maintained my love for literature.
Born and raised in Bristol, England. I spent most of my life in business, my companies turning over in the region of $500 million. The majority of that time marketing cars, eventually owning the largest Saab specialist in the world, before a bitter divorce forced me rethink my priorities. Particularly between 2003 and 2005 when I had to accept that I was no longer a millionaire but literally penniless. I avoided bankruptcy by the skin of my teeth and slowly rebuilt my life.
This led me to the life changing decision to leave the bustling city and move to live halfway up a mountain in the Welsh valleys. At the same time I started a part time six year English Literature course at Bristol University, and attended creative writing classes at Cardiff University. I left school at sixteen and this was my first taste of further education and an immense challenge.
I eventually adjusted my thinking to the academic life, and on 30 June 2015 had confirmation of my 2.1(Hons) degree from Bristol University. At the same time I also won the prestigious Hopkins Prize for my essay on Virginia Woolf and the unsaid within her text. Now the university courses are finished it will, with any luck, gives me plenty of extra time that I can devote to my fiction writing.
Thanks to the university experiences, my interest in English literature has flourished over recent years. Hopefully I have evolved as a writer from my earlier work in short stories (over ninety of them.) Although interestingly my first three novels have all been developed from a long forgotten short story.
Life is, once again, very good, and I live very happily halfway up a mountain, in the Welsh Valleys, with my wonderful partner Mari, and our rescue dog Wolfie.
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Giveaway
Michael will be awarding a $10 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
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