McHale, Reacher, and sending serial killers to Hell with no return ticket...

Everybody loves a hero.

Everybody loves a lone wolf who pits himself against a whole gang of bad guys and beats the shit out of them using his wits and his fists. With seemingly no thought for his, or her, own safety.

Crime fiction is full of individuals who battle against the odds and walk away at the end of the day, bruised, but victorious.

I’ve collected my own favourites through the years. It’s a short list. You could probably do the same.

One of my all-time favourites is a tall, ex-US Army copper called Reacher. Constructed like a brick-built shithouse and with all the morality of a saint, and intelligence and cunning of a devil. You might have heard of him…and his creator author Lee Child.

But my own personal favourite is a serial killer’s worst nightmare called D.I. Tom McHale. Hero of my debut crime fiction novel…A Time for Dying. And it’s sequel A House for Monsters…and the rest of the series.

Serial killer hunter extraordinaire…copper with a lifelong burning ambition …sufferer of a serious medical complaint…no spring chicken…jazz lover…leader of a team of unconventional crime-fighters.

Together, they hunt the kind of killers that slip through the cracks of traditional police forces.

Together, they use their brains and, occasionally, their firepower to send the worst serial killers to hell with a mountain-full of pain and no return ticket. And sometimes they smile while they’re doing it.

A Time for Dying is available now from my publishers Northodox Press, from Amazon, from Waterstones, and from all good book shops. A House for Monsters is available to PRE-ORDER now from Northodox, and will be on the shelves next February.

If you like a different kind of crime fiction, with blood and brains, you’ll love them both…