I'm a fan of the noir novels of writers such as Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, in which self-destructive protagonists swim in a sea of corruption towards lose-lose situations on a distant dark shore. However, I'm far more optimistic than that: I add humour and the hope of love to my thrillers. Don't expect pat endings—I've noticed that life doesn't serve them up very often.
Influenced by the Philip Kerr's hard Berlin detective, Bernie Gunther, Robert Wilson's fixer and debt collector, Bruce Medway, and Len Deighton's insubordinate spy, Harry Palmer, I paint morally pragmatic protagonists, such as the witty Milo Marchetti, into fast-paced thrillers with memorable characters, including disturbing women for love interest.
I grew up in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, and after obtaining a PhD in neurophysiology at the University of Sheffield worked in research at the University of California. I became a professor at the University of Toronto, Canada, before settling into teaching for thirty years at a college in British Columbia. Retired, I reside with Janet on Vancouver Island.
Well-travelled, I love the thrill of visiting foreign countries (about fifty so far) to experience their geography and cultures and write them into his stories. Blood Rain in Trieste (2015) was written after an exciting trip through Slovenia, Croatia, Italy, Bosnia and Serbia. Recycled Love (2017) is based upon a trip across the fabulous mayhem of India to the calm of the sherpas in Nepal, including a trek up to Everest Base Camp.
I began serious writing in 2010 after visiting Trieste in Italy. I knew little about the craft but I believe in learning by doing. Blood Rain in Trieste is really a project that evolved over five years into the story of an anti-hero in a doomed romance. I wanted to write something entertaining along the noir lines of Chandler and Hammett but in the more modern style of Philip Kerr—with more romance. After visiting India and Nepal, Recycled Love was a detour into a story less noir with more romance and a spiritual twist. Currently, I'm finishing a sequel (Trieste Series #2) to Blood Rain in Trieste which attempts to not only entertain but educate in the Philip Kerr style of his Bernie Gunther novels. Trieste Series #3 is planned for 2024 and a new thriller set in Vancouver and the West Indies for 2026.
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