Welcome to ILR, this week we have an new author for you to try, well new to me. I'm liking the sound of these books and have been informed they are very good. I have treated myself and bought the first book ready to read, so watch out for my review over the next few weeks.
Author info from authors website.
www.michaelknaggs.co.uk I was born in Hull, East Yorkshire, in December, 1944. At the age of twenty-two, armed with a Higher National Certificate in Chemistry, I moved to Thurso, Caithness, where I worked for the UK Atomic Energy Authority at their Dounreay plant on the north coast of Scotland for two years, before moving to Salford in 1968 to complete a degree in Applied Chemistry at the city’s university. Following that, I worked for thirty-five years for Kellogg Company, the global breakfast cereal manufacturer, latterly in the role of Human Resources Director with responsibility for Pay and Benefits policy across the company’s European operation. I retired from the company in December 2005, just a couple of weeks after my sixty-first birthday. This new freedom provided me and my wife, Carol, the chance to indulge our passion for hill-walking and we have undertaken one long-distance walk each year for the past seven years, with more already planned for the future. Even so, retirement from such a fulfilling job dumped me well and truly outside my comfort zone and left a significant gap in my life. My motivation for writing the story of Hotel St Kilda was an attempt to fill that gap. My choice of subject originated from a short story I wrote over fifty years ago whilst at Hull Grammar School. The story drew critical acclaim from my peers in the third form (I guess that’s year nine in modern English) and was included in a school magazine. I’m not sure whether this fact already established me as a published author. I think probably not. That short tale, spanning a few hand-written pages, is essentially the basis of Chapter 2 of the first book, Catalyst, and from there the story developed as I wrote it around the skeleton of the plot. In fact, my intention was to produce a single book, until the words ran away with seemingly lives of their own, multiplying as they went, to produce a surprisingly long saga. The climax of the third book, Lost Souls, is based on another short story which I have had in my mind – though never put down on paper – for a good many years. For the last forty-seven of my seventy-one years, I have lived in Manchester, forty-five of them married to Carol. We have two children, and two grandchildren. Incidentally, Carol is an artist and is responsible for the cover design of all three books. The booksCatalyst: Hotel St Kilda When three brothers, the leaders of a brutal gang, are lured to an isolated street and shot dead by a mysterious stranger, the subsequent euphoria on the estate where they lived is picked up by the national press. Tom Brown, an MP for the Opposition Party, whose constituency includes the estate, seizes the opportunity to exploit the story. Having built a reputation as a champion of law and order, he leads the crusade to implement a New Justice Regime with several supporters in tow, including local campaigner George Holland who embarks on a tour of the country to rally support for radical change. There are those who steadfastly oppose these reforms, one individual being Tom’s wife Maggie, a high-profile Human Rights activist. Their relationship suffers badly during his campaign, a situation which pushes him closer to Grace, his assistant. When the killer is eventually caught and sentenced to life imprisonment, the gang sets out for revenge, targeting George for his outspoken condemnation of their activities and uncompromising proposals for their demise. They descend in large numbers on the quiet village where he lives, armed and ready to kill, and the resulting event is dubbed 'The Meadow Village Massacre' across the national papers. Meanwhile, Party Leader Andrew Donald is pursuing his own agenda… This intriguing novel, the first of the Hotel St Kilda books, contains themes of politics, crime and the military with family drama at its heart, creating a wide appeal for readers both young and old. Get your signed copy!£8.99 + £2.00 P&P
Heaven's Door: Hotel St Kilda, Book Two The events of these past few months can be likened to the destabilising of a mountain top, creating a political and social avalanche of awesome, overwhelming power. As it cascades, unstoppable, in its devastating surge, it now seems certain that everything in its path will be either swept along with it or buried irretrievably beneath. The public demand for radical change in law and order in the wake of a catalytic event on a tough East London estate featured in Catalyst, the first book in the 'Hotel St Kilda' Trilogy. Now with the second instalment, Heaven’s Door, we re-join the story as the new government, who swept to power off the back of the public’s appetite for reform, start to assert their control. The new measures for addressing street crime include lifetime banishment for worst offenders, a popular development which receives widespread support, and which Tom Brown, the Home Secretary, decides to extend to cover other serious crimes. Although he meets strong opposition to this change, he steadfastly pushes it through. Then, at the zenith of his political achievement, and just when he seems reconciled with his family, his decision backfires. His private and political lives collide dramatically and Tom is faced with a devastating choice which, either way, will lead to personal tragedy.. Meanwhile, Detective Inspector Jo Cottrell and a former colleague, David Gerrard, begin looking into the circumstances that led to this situation and uncover unexpected liaisons which raise a number of questions… Get your signed copy!£8.99 + £2.00 P&P
Lost Souls: Hotel St Kilda (Hotel St Kildar 3)
Lost Souls is the third thriller in the Hotel St Kilda trilogy by Prestwich author Michael Knaggs. Michael's second book, Heaven's Door, published in November 2014, described how Tom Brown, on his appointment as Home Secretary, introduced the New Justice Regime, which included new methods for addressing street crime involving lifetime banishment for worst offenders. When this extreme measure receives widespread public support, Tom decides to extend it to the next serious crime on his hit-list - Class A drug dealing. Then, at the zenith of his political achievement, his decision backfires, causing his private and political lives to collide dramatically...'Lost Souls' picks up the story of Tom's struggle to come to terms with his personal loss as he sinks ever deeper into a drunken world of lost nights and half-remembered days. Concern grows in government circles over his outspoken condemnation of the New Justice Regime, his own brain-child and the prime vehicle for getting the party elected. Then the killing begins; a series of apparently unconnected loners, chillingly executed. A missing drug trader and a tenuous link to a mysterious stranger set the police off on a trail they have no wish to follow as the stakes are raised and the body count rises... Get your signed copy!£8.99 + £2.00 P&P
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