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Next To Die

 

"Down and dirty authenticity reeks from every page . . . all helping to make this hypnotic, troubling crime writing with a superb villain and a distinctive atmosphere"

Daily Mail

"Thrilling mixture of a legal thriller and police procedural"
Catholic Herald

"Compulsive but disturbing .... we can't wait for the next instalment"
Bella Magazine

"Well-plotted page turner"
Choice magazine

 

NEXT TO DIE

A KILLER TO MAKE YOUR BLOOD RUN COLD

"Superb"
Daily Mail

Next To Die is the first book in the Parker brothers series, and as with most of the pages on the website, I'll start with a cover blurb.

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Joe Parker is a Manchester defence lawyer. Sam Parker is a Manchester detective. As brothers they are close, with both bearing the burden of the murder of their sister fifteen years earlier.

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Ronnie Bagley is accused of the murder of his girlfriend and baby, and claims that there's only one lawyer he wants to defend him: Joe Parker. Little does Joe Parker know that Bagley is smarter than anyone has given him credit for, and soon Joe finds himself pitched against his own brother, Sam, in a race to outwit the most terrifying serial killer the city has ever seen. It isn't long before Joe and Sam's shared past comes crashing into the present in a pulse-pounding race to find out who is NEXT TO DIE.

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The  Parker brothers series was another new departure for me, this time with a new publisher, Sphere, and a whole new location and set of characters.

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What has always interested me when writing fiction is the conflict between two characters. This is something I exploited with the Jack Garrett series, as his girlfriend, Laura McGanity, was a detective. As a crime reporter, Jack wanted to find out about her cases. As a detective, Laura wanted Jack to keep the hell away.

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I returned to this theme with the Parker brothers.

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As a criminal lawyer, both for the defence and for the prosecution, I have had many disagreements with police officers, but despite this there was always as working relationship and I have enjoyed the work I've done with the police. But conflict is at the heart of the criminal justice system, which is why I thought it was an ideal background for a trilogy about two brothers on opposite sides of the criminal justice system.

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I hope you enjoy the trilogy.

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Next To Die was published in 2013 by Sphere, available in hardback, paperback and ebook.

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