Today I’m delighted to feature internationally best-selling Kindle author Graham Smith He’s the author of six books featuring DI Harry Evans and the Cumbrian Major Crimes Team, and four novels, featuring Utah doorman, Jake Boulder. His ‘Lakes’ series which has three novels featuring DC Beth Young has received much critical acclaim. More recently, writing as GN Smith he introduced a series featuring PC Fiona MacLeish. He also writes as John Ryder.
Graham Smith is a time served joiner who has built bridges, houses, dug drains and slated roofs to make ends meet. Since Christmas 2000, he has been manager of a busy hotel and wedding venue near Gretna Green, Scotland.
An avid fan of crime fiction since being given one of Enid Blyton’s Famous Five books at the age of eight, he has also been a regular reviewer and interviewer for the well-respected website Crimesquad.com since 2009
Graham is the founder of Crime and Publishment, a weekend of crime-writing classes which includes the chance for attendees to pitch their novels to agents and publishers. Since the first weekend in 2013, sixteen attendees have gone on to sign publishing contracts.
Over to Graham :
Which five pieces of music/songs would you include in the soundtrack to your life and why?
Sweet Child O’ Mine by Guns N Roses – For a teenager into rock, Guns n Roses breathed a dangerous new life into hard rock and the intro to Sweet Child O’ Mine still raises the hairs on the back of my neck when I hear it.
Thunderstruck by AC/DC – Like Sweet Child O’ Mine, the intro always gets my blood pumping and it’s just a classic banger of a stadium rock song.
Sunshine on Leith by The Proclaimers – At first listen it sounds like something of a dirge, but the more you listen to the lyrics the more it becomes a song about the redemptive and healing powers of falling in love again after having your heart broken.
November Rain by Guns N Roses – An absolute classic that is accompanied by one of the best, if overly exuberant, rock videos of all time. That bit where Slash walks out of the church and plays his guitar in the wilderness the same way he would on stage in front of thousands always get me.
Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen – Rock and opera fused together in one of the best songs ever written. I’m old enough to remember head-banging to this with Wayne and Garth as well as loving the song beforehand. The video of a Green Day crowd singing Bohemian Rhapsody before the band took the stage is a regular watch.
What five things (apart from family and friends) would you find it hard to live without.
Books – The ultimate way to chill out in another world.
My phone – I’m connected to it for my work, my writing and daft games I play to unwind.
My job – I love being the manager of a busy hotel and wedding venue. Yes, it’s hard work and very stressful at times, but seeing all the happy faces when my team has done their stuff is truly rewarding.
My bath – I much prefer taking a soak in a bath than a dash through the shower. It’s just so relaxing.
Pizza – Because things that are bad for you always taste better than healthy food.
Give five pieces of advice to your younger self?
Don’t do it – The stupid stuff I’ve done and regret
Do it – There are things I wish I’d done and now regret not doing
Be patient – What you desire will come your way in time, you just have to wait until you’re ready for it.
Be calm – As I’ve aged, I’ve learned how to manage stress much better and can now accept things I cannot change much more easily
Look forward, not back – Every day presents new challenges and opporchancities, embrace what’s in front of you as what’s behind you is history.
Tell us five things that most people don’t know about you
I have sports trophies in my house that are only there because I was lucky enough to play in teams with much better players.
I love to cook, albeit in the sanctity of my own kitchen, although I only ever cook for people who are too polite to complain if the meal is rubbish.
I’m not religious at all, but I do follow the teachings of William and Theodore who state “Be excellent to each other” which is what the world needs more of.
I still have a scar on the back of my hand from a motorcycle brake lever. It was earned while doing a risky overtaking move at the age of eight.
I played for the first Dumfries and Galloway school rugby team to beat both the Borders and Ayrshire in the same season.
Tell us five things you’d still like to do or achieve.
I’d love to see one of my novels become a proper bestseller with copies everywhere.
I’d like to visit more of the world. So far my travel has been sorely limited.
I want to set up home with my girlfriend as we currently live many miles apart.
I’d love to be in a better position to help those less fortunate than myself
I’d love to see one of my novels made into a film or TV show
Many thanks for joining me today Graham. You certainly brought some classic rock anthems with you, but I’m delighted to see that one of my favourite tracks by The Proclaimers managed to sneak in. As I’m also sure everybody knows Bohemian Rhapsody I opted to include the Green Day audience version. I think I’m almost persuaded to agree with you that things that are bad for you always taste better than healthy food – I think I’d pass on pizza though and go for chips! I like the idea of ‘opporchancities’ and would like to think I take them when I can. In reality I know that will depend on how brave I’m feeling on any given day. The world could definitely take some extra lessons in being excellent to each other, sadly I don’t think it’s about to happen any day soon, but never, say never. I really hope to get to achieve your dreams and as someone who is reading far more romance than crime these days I’m certainly rooting for you setting up home with your girlfriend.
Graham’s Books
(NB This post features Affiliate links from which I earn a small commission on qualifying purchases)
PC Fiona MacLeish series – writing as GN Smith
The Flood
As Fiona read the last line of the dead woman’s diary, her chest tightened.No one in this valley is safe.
After her last case brought back nightmares of her parents’ murders, police officerFiona MacLeishis on leave at her childhood home when a terrifying storm rips through the isolated Scales Valley in the Scottish Borders. The body of local womanIsla Edwardsis pulled from the raging waters. But she’s not a victim of the flood…
Fiona is shocked to see a knife wound beneath a tear in her bright floral dress. Isla has been a fixture of the village for as long as anyone can remember –why would someone rob her of the life that once filled her eyes?
Isla’s diary, Fiona’s only clue, confirms her hunch that a member of this tight-knit village had a score to settle. But it doesn’t mention a name. And when everybody must gather at the highest-standing farm to escape the rising floodwater, the simmering tension is clear. Fiona may have grown up here, but locals still view her as an outsider. And they don’t talk to outsiders…
With a killer among them and no escape, Fiona must try to figure out who used the cover of the storm to get rid of Isla once and for all.Can Fionacatch the killer before more of this isolated community become victims?
The Island
Her hands bang desperately on the window of Fiona’s car door as the wind flaps her pink hair sideways. Through the glass the distraught mother shrieks, ‘Please, you have to find her! You have to find my little girl.’
When eight-year-oldCait Yorkegoes missing on a remote island off the coast of the wild Scottish Highlands, police officerFiona MacLeishis quickly sent to investigate. But a gale is gathering force, and Fiona becomes increasingly concerned for a little girl braving the strong winds alone. As Fiona questions the locals, she soon realises that they are hiding many secrets. What is this island, and who really lives here?
Then a boat violently crashes off the coast of the island. On board, Fiona discovers the body of a man who has clearly been murdered. But the killer is nowhere to be found. The only place they can be is on the island with no way out.
Realising a killer is trapped on their island, tensions amongst the locals and Fiona begin to rise. As the gale rages on and the body count continues to rise, will Fiona find the young girl and the killer before they strike again?
The Shelter
An agonised scream cuts through the roar of the snowstorm. Horrified, Fiona twists around to look at the group of hikers behind her. There are four people, where there should be five…
When police officerFiona MacLeishstumbles upon a group of fellow hikers in dire trouble in the dramatic peaks of the Scottish Highlands, she has no choice but to help. One of the party has fallen off the path, lying below with the crisp white snow around his head starting to turn scarlet.
Fiona soon learns the potential accident is actually a deliberate murder. But who would want to hurt this man and why? With visibility worsening and the snowstorm getting worse, Fiona and the group of hikers make it just in time to a nearby shelter. As Fiona questions those in the party, she realises that everyone is keeping secrets about their relationship with the victim. Any one of these hikers could be the killer…
When another brutal attack happens, it is clear that the murderer is still among them.
Trapped in a shelter at the top of a mountain, Fiona must move fast and identify the killer before they strike again. When her role as a police officer is revealed, Fiona herself becomes a target. With tensions rising and food running out, she knows she doesn’t have long until more people die. But can she find the killer and save herself and the innocent hikers in time?
Detective Beth Young series
Death in the Lakes
The body was suspended, lifeless, arms spread out with thick, black cable ties binding them to a horizontal timber. But her eyes went first to the folded black wings attached to the victim’s back.
When a body is found posed in a ritualistic manner at the crumbling Arthuret Hall in the stunning hills of the Lake District,Detective Beth Youngimmediately recognises the signs of a serial killer.
Beth quickly establishes the victim’s ID as forty-two-year-old local,Angus Keane, who leaves behind a distraught wife and two young daughters. Beth and her team must investigate disgruntled clients and bumps in his marriage, yet she knows the story is bigger than this.
As each suspect claims to have an alibi, Beth prays she’s wrong, but the post-mortem reveals a killer with unusual skills to match a twisted mind. With her leads running dry, Beth digs into the history of Arthuret Hall, once a home for evacuee children. And she thinks she might be getting somewhere, when a dog walker finds two more bodies in the dank cellar of derelict Highstead Castle. Both bodies have birds’ wings glued to their backs.
As the newest recruit to the Cumbrian major crimes team, and with a past she’d like to forget, Beth was always under pressure. But with her serial killer theory confirmed, the clock is ticking and she must pull her team together for long, sleepless nights. Beth is certain there’s a clue hidden in the staging of the bodies, and where their scenes are set, but, as she gets closer, she begins to wonder – is she walking into a trap?
Can Beth get inside the killer’s sick head before they take another victim, or is she next?
A Body in the Lakes
The woman’s limbs were so thin; the skin on her arms as translucent as tracing paper. Around her neck lay a faint string of purple bruises. In one so frail, darker, angrier marks might be expected but Beth knew the bruising would have stopped the moment her heart stopped beating.
When a hiker findsthe body of a woman by the shores of Lake Ullswater, the police are put on high alert. Felicia Evans was known to be a tough character, but who would have strangled her?
Detective Beth Young quickly spots the links to three cold cases. Three women strangled and discarded in the stunning, wild hills of the Lake District.
As Beth begins tracking down witnesses, the team receives an anonymous letter claiming the charming mayor of Carlisle is behind the murders.There’s pressure from the top to clear his name. But Beth is determined to find the truth no matter whose feathers she ruffles in the process.
Beth knows the clock is ticking. The killer is hunting again. Andit’s down toher to find who’s responsible before another woman becomes his prey…
Fear in the Lakes
A case with no leads.
A victim with no enemies.
A killer with no conscience…
WhenDetective Beth Youngis called to investigate a victim with multiple broken bones, nothing prepares her for what she finds.James Sinclairis fighting for his life, andBethcan’t shake the idea that the nature of his injuries suggest someone with a personal grudge against him.
But James’s devastated wifeLaurainsists that her kind, softly-spoken husband is a man with no enemies. She was the one with the fiery temper, but James was so calm, she’d never once managed to provoke even a cross word from him in their eight year marriage. And he was the same with everyone – she can’t name one person who might want to hurt him.
But she knows virtually no details about her husband’s childhood or his life before he moved to the Lake District as a young man, and Beth feels sure that the key to finding James’s attacker is hidden in the secrets of his past. Who was he really? And what is the significance of the coded messages that Beth finds hidden on his laptop?
Then two more bodies are found in one of the deep, picturesque lakes that the area is so famous for, exhibiting similar injuries to the ones James Sinclair suffered. How are they connected? And how many more people are at risk?
Beth knows she is in a race against time to hunt a vicious killer who is both elusive and incredibly dangerous. A killer who knows what James did in the past. Who likes to be one step ahead. But who – if they realise they’re being hunted – might come for Beth next…
The Jake Boulder Thrillers
Watching the Bodies
A bouncer at a Utah bar takes on a killer far more frightening than his usual rowdy clientele…
Jake Boulder, a tough transplanted Scotsman, makes his living throwing aggressive drunks out of a bar in Utah called the Joshua Tree. It may be a dangerous job sometimes, but it’s nothing compared to what he’s about to take on. His friend Alfonse—who also stands out a bit in this small Utah town, as a bookish, tech-savvy African-American PI—has asked for his help investigating the vicious murder of a local party girl. Soon, he finds himself tracking a serial killer who selects his next victim in a most unusual manner .As the body count rises, Boulder has to work with the police to identify the heinous killer before more lives are taken. What ensues is a twisted game of cat and mouse that either Boulder or the Watcher can survive, but not both…
The Kindred Killers
After a family of four is crucified and burned alive, Jake Boulder is determined to help out his best friend and sometime-employer, a private detective related to the victims. But as Boulder tries to track the heinous killer, a young woman is abducted and found dead—and Boulder realizes these murders have something unusual in common.
With virtually no leads for Boulder to follow, he strives to find a clue to the killer’s identity, but he’s not even sure if he’s hunting for one perpetrator or more. Then, after a young couple is snatched in the middle of the night, the FBI comes to Colorado to help with the case and Boulder is warned off. Still, he feels he has no choice but to press on when incendiary mobile-phone footage is sent to every major US news outlet—though it won’t be easy with the authorities against him—in this intense crime thriller by a #1 bestselling author.
Past Echoes
Tasked with finding a beneficiary and revealing a dead woman’s secret, Jake Boulder travels from Colorado to New York with his girlfriend Taylor. He also has a personal mission: to find his estranged father. The old man may not be good for much, but he could be source of a life-saving transfusion for an ailing family member.
Once there, Boulder becomes embroiled in a web of mystery, deceit, and violence that sees him pitted against a professional assassin known only as The Mortician. Boulder will have to use every drop of his courage and cunning to survive the chaos that envelops him . . .
Die Cold
Scottish transplant Jake Boulder is tending bar at an exclusive Vermont ski resort on New Year’s Eve when armed terrorists hold up the lodge and take all the customers and guests hostage.Trapped with the others, Boulder watches in horror as the female terrorist leader disfigures a singer to make her point. He wants to fight back—but he’s unarmed and being held at gunpoint.
But finally, Boulder finds a way to escape from the terrorists and searches for a way to raise the alarm. And after he discovers the terrorists’ plan to leave no witnesses to their crime, he knows he has a race against time to save as many innocent people as he can . . .
The Jake Boulder Thrillers Books One to Three: Watching the Bodies, Kindred Killers, and Past Echoes
DI Harry Evans
Snatched From Home
What would you do to save your children?
Middle-class parents Victoria and Nicholas Foulkes are distraught when their children arekidnappedagainst Nicholas’gambling debts. Penniless anddesperatethe couple turn tocrimeas a way to raise theransom.
Hot on their heels isrecently bereavedDI Harry Evans and his Major Crimes team. Evans is fighting againstenforced retirementand his replacement – DI John Campbell – is foisted upon him along with other cases. If he must leave thepolicethen he wants one last big case before he goes.
In a race against time Victoria and Nicholas mustevadethe police while continuing to add to the ransom fund. If they don’t pay up on time thekidnappershave threatened toamputatetheir children’s limbs with anoxy-acetylene torch.
Can they save theirchildrenbefore time runs out?
I Know Your Secret
When Father Peter Paterson is discovered crucified to the stone floor of his church, DI John Campbell leads the investigation in his first case in charge of the Cumbria Major Crimes Team, while, DI Harry Evans spends the last week of his police career attending the trial of his wife’s rapist. With the Priest seemingly killed for no reason, the pressure on the team increases when a rape case and a con trick are added to their workload. Unknown to the police, members of the public are receiving blackmail demands. Fearing more attacks on the clergy, Campbell does everything he can to solve the case, while Evans spends his evenings dispensing his own brand of supposedly helpful interference.
When the Waters Recede
When a car is pulled from raging floodwaters with a dead man in the front and the decapitated body of an evil woman in the boot, Cumbria’s Major Crimes Team are handed the investigation.
The woman is soon recognised, but the man cannot be identified and this leads the team and their former leader, Harry Evans, into areas none of them want to visit.
Before they know it, they’re dealing with protection scams and looking for answers to questions they didn’t know needed to be asked.
Noir from the Bar
This anthology, consisting of 30 stories by crime and mystery writers from all over the world has been conceived, created, and published in a month.
All stories have been donated free-of-charge by the authors, with the vast majority of them written specifically for this very special book. Originating fromVirtual Noir at the Bar,a weekly online gathering where authors — best sellers, award winners and up-and-coming — join together to read sections live from their works to the public, the organisers of that event put the word out to writers who had appeared to submit a story to help raise funds for NHS charities. The result is this book. Inside you’ll find short pieces that have nothing in common other than their quality and a general tale-from-the-bar theme.
So whatever sort of crime and mystery fiction you enjoy, you’ll find something to appeal:
Writing as John Ryder
The Hostage
Jerome Prentice has never been a guy to back down and sure as hell today’s not going to be the day he becomes one…
He goes to bed thinking tomorrow will be a normal day at work.
Not going to happen.
When his wifeAliciais snatched from their bedroom, right before his very eyes, he knows he’s not going to stop hunting her kidnappers down until she’s back safely in his arms. And if they’ve hurt even one hair on her head, he will make them regret it, that’s for damn sure.
They want $50 million for her safe return. They say he can steal it from the company he works for. They think that he’ll do exactly what they want. But, boy, do they know nothing at all…
The Witness
“Find my daughter in twenty-four hours. Or she’s dead.”
Kyle Rocheis a man whose job it is to stay invisible. Dark, mysterious, and only sometimes on the right side of the law, only a lucky few know how to reach him: Kyle can fix their problems, however dangerous.
Now he’s been hired to save a woman in Witness Protection, one who doesn’t officially exist anymore. But before he can keep her safe, he has to find her. And he has less than twenty-four hours to do it…
Savannah Nichollsis in hiding because of a tragic mistake. Her mother insists her daughter is just a nice girl, from a good family, that she’s never gotten in trouble in her life. But she also says someone knows where her daughter is. And they want to kill her.
If he’s going to keep Savannah safe, Roche needs to know who is after her, as well as what she witnessed, who her enemies are, and if they have really been able to find her. But how can he protect a woman who is as invisible as he is?
Because the clock is ticking…
First Shot (Grant Fletcher #1)
When girls go missing here, no one says a word…
Twenty-four-year-oldLilahas disappeared without trace. It’s the kind of case that ex-military lonerGrant Fletcherwould normally be happy to take on—he will always seek justice if someone has the money to pay him. But this one he’s doing for free. This one’s personal.
Because Fletcher owes his life to Lila’s father. And Fletcher knows that returning Lila safe and sound is the only thing that matters to his wheelchair-bound friend.
She last called her father from a small town in rural Georgia. Arriving there, Fletcher’s feet barely touch the ground before he finds trouble. He also discovers that his friend’s daughter wasn’t the first girl to go missing there. Not the first by far.
Then the last person to have seen Lila before she disappeared is murdered. As an outsider, Fletcher becomes the local deputy’s only suspect, leaving him no choice but to go on the run.Because Fletcher knows someone’s abducting girls in this town. And he also knows he’s the only person who can find them…
Final Second (Grant Fletcher #2)
Sometimes it takes a stranger to find a killer…
In a small farming town in rural Wisconsin—where generations of families have lived in peace for decades—no one expects trouble to come calling.
But then a farmer’s beautiful young wife is found brutally murdered, with a chilling calling card that suggests she’s just the first victim of a serial killer. And the FBI elect not to send one of their own. Instead they send a stranger to town—former Royal Marine turned mercenary,Grant Fletcher. And they’re giving him no choice.Find the killer. Because we know what you’ve done.
With the threat of the executioner’s chair hanging over him, Fletcher finds himself in an impossible situation—and a race against time. Catch a murderer whose killings are escalating with every day that passes. Or face certain death…
Third Kill (Grant Fletcher #3)
In a city of sinners, a killer is hunting…
Las Vegas, Nevada: a killer is on the hunt.
When the two of the city’s crime bosses are found brutally murdered within days of each other, the fragile balance of Sin City threatens to collapse. It’s exactly what the killer wants…
But there is one thing this killer hasn’t counted on…
Grant Fletcher has been sent to Vegas by a shady government agency. He has one job: find the killer, and stop them before more people die. Stop them, by any means.
Would you send a desperate man to find a vigilante killer?
It looks like a dangerous gamble. But what neither the killer nor the government agency know is that the odds are never good unless you’ve got Fletcher on your side.
