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RUINS OF MIDNIGHT: ITW Q&A

The following Question and Answer session was generated by International Thriller Writers (ITW) and was featured on Down & Out Books website.

• ITW: Which took shape first: plot, character, or setting?
“I am going to go completely off piste here, since this is a reissue of a previously published book. I wrote, Through the Ruins of Midnight over 20 years ago, back when I had a fondness for elaborate titles. I have reduced it because even I used to stumble over it when discussing the book. So, plot, character or setting? They all came fully formed. The plot is real life squeezed into a single night shift. The characters are real, with a few minor tweaks and a change of name. And the setting is the police division where I worked, with a bit of creative licence.”

• ITW: What do you hope readers will take away from this book?
“A feeling of what being a police officer does to your life. I think it was Joseph Wambaugh (a great inspiration to me) who said his books aren’t about the police working the case, but how working the case affects the police. This book does both.”

• ITW: What attracts you to this book’s genre?
“Write what you know. I know this.”

• ITW: How does this book make a contribution to the genre?
“Not so much a contribution to the genre as a tribute to the boys in blue. Uniform police who are the front line of defence against chaos. This is for them.”

• ITW: No spoilers, but what can you tell us about your book that we won’t find in the jacket copy or the PR material?
“Nothing. It’s all on the page.”

• ITW: What authors or books have influenced your career as a writer, and why?
“This answer will never change because my past is set in stone. As a reader I was influenced by C S Forester, Stephen King and Ian Fleming. Then I found Joseph Wambaugh and my direction was set. As a retired police office how could I not write crime fiction? My first crime books were in support of The Boys In Blue but then I slipped into thriller territory and my inspirations changed. Lee Child, Michael Connelly, Reed Farrel Coleman, Nick Petrie and Ace Atkins. Everything you read and watch influences your choices. Everywhere you go filters into your choice of location. I suppose the simple answer is, I’m influenced by everything.”

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It’s Back: Reissue of Ruins Of Midnight

Reissue of RUINS OF MIDNIGHT is available to pre-order now. Coming from Down & Out Books on November 6th 2023.

Mick Habergham enjoys working the nightshift; patrolling the midnight hours when the world is asleep and police work is simple. Sunday night should be quiet but, as his mind wrestles with divorcing Angela, it will prove to be anything but. From the mad knifeman of Hill Top Hostel to the most inept suicide attempt at the House of Pain, Mick will face all manner of obstacles to a peaceful night. If it isn’t Marak Vargo or Booger Smith, it will be the tragic pensioners of Maple Court or the battle of The Alex Public House. Midnight ruins so many lives. Tonight, one will threaten Mick’s own. If he wants a happy retirement he will first have to walk through fields of heartache and survive the ruins of midnight.

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First Look: Ruins Of Midnight cover

Here is a first look at the cover of Ruins Of Midnight, previously published as, Through The Ruins Of Midnight, an Ecclesfield Division novel, coming in November 2023 from Down & Out Books.

Fourteen Books

Fourteen Book Deal – Level Best Books

Level Best Books, near Washington DC, have signed a fourteen book contract with Colin Campbell. The deal includes eight YA novels and six standalone crime thrillers. Titles, in no particular order, are;

YA:
Silent Flight Holy Night, The Early Grave of Sophie Laville, The Boy Who Burgled Hartley's, Occluded Front, Three Into Two Will Go, and the Gargoyles trilogy; Skylights and Roofscapes, Stoneheart and Bloodline, and Return of the Krol.

STANDALONE CRIME:
Devil's Coast, Night Delivery, Burgos, Silent Coast, Return To Silent Coast, and Darkest Blue.

Silent Flight Holy Night will be released March 24th 2024. Devil's Coast is due, October 24th 2024.

Covers Poster 2023

It’s Business Card Time Again

Updated version of the business postcard has been released. It includes all the books published by Down & Out Books and the August and December releases of Ruins Of Midnight and Operation Snow Queen. Get your Jim Grant fix here.

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Pre order is here: Double Exposure

DOUBLE EXPOSURE is available to pre-order now. Coming from Down & Out Books on April 24th 2023.

“You do know this whole cops and donuts things is a fiction, right?”
Larry Unger gave his technical advisor a sideways glance. “Is this where you tell me that John Wayne Syndrome’s not about liking westerns?”
Vince McNulty returned the look. “It’s not about John Wayne either. The donuts. That’s an American thing not a cop thing.”
“You remember what they said in Liberty Valance?”
“Yeah. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”
“Well, donuts is the legend.”

CORONA, RIVERSIDE COUNTY
Titanic Productions is filming on a movie ranch near Los Angeles when Jim Grant pays a visit. A drug cartel that both Grant and McNulty have crossed paths with has tried to kill Grant’s brother in Shelter Cove and is now after McNulty’s sister. And her daughter. After a shootout at Nantasket Peninsula, Grant and McNulty decide to take the fight to the cartel. Their tactics include a pizza truck, a prison break and the FBI. And one last chance to print the legend.

Buy if from Amazon.co.uk here

Buy it from Amazon.com here

Buy if from Barnes & Noble here

Covers Poster 2023

2023 Release Update

The journey continues with Down & Out Books. Grant & McNulty Thriller, Double Exposure is due out April 21st. Reissue of Campbell's first crime novel, Ruins Of Midnight is due in the summer. And the latest Jim Grant Thriller, Operation Snow Queen is scheduled for December. More details and cover art as soon as it's available. Clear space on your bookshelf. This guys a keeper.

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