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Why you must read David Atkinson’s Flowers For Dying

flowers for dying

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Flowers for Dying is a crime thriller set in the UK – in a nut shell it is about a serial killer who is targeting professional & semi-professional footballers (soccer players).

The first victim Lenny Jackson, a young Premiership footballer is shot dead on a seedy South London housing estate. Initially the Detective Chief Inspector Charlie Miskin who takes charge of the investigation is baffled as the murder doesn’t conform to any of the normal patterns he’s become used to policing that violent and dangerous part of the city. The only clue is a bunch of flowers sent anonymously to the victim before his death.

Given the high profile nature of the case Miskin realises it is likely to generate negative publicity for the Met and in turn put additional pressure on him and his team. Two weeks after the first murder two more footballers are murdered at the opposite end of the country and the search goes nationwide.

Christened ‘THE SNIPER’ by the media when all three killings are linked, Miskin and his attractive Detective Sergeant, Morgan Collins, desperately try and pull together the pieces of a complicated case but with murders being committed all across the UK this proves almost impossible, until Jimmy Dunn an Accrington Stanley full back, suddenly appears and requests police protection fearing that he will be the next victim of ‘The Sniper’. Armed now with additional information they are able to narrow down their search – but still THE SNIPER keeps outwitting them and the book reaches a fast and unexpected climax after a dramatic car-chase across London.

Wow, that sounds really exciting.
It will appeal to those that like a fast-paced story that keeps you guessing, and where the ultimate outcome is unexpected. I also like the fact that the readers opinion of the killer is likely to change as the story unfolds, so that everything is not quite as black and white as it first appeared to be.

Oh really? How’s that even possible?
Without giving too much away, ‘THE SNIPER’ initially comes across as callous and cold-hearted but once the reader eventually discovers the motivation behind his actions it is not so easy to condemn him and some people might even end up rooting for him to finish his task!

Tell us about Miskin.
The main detective in the story Chief Inspector Charlie Miskin is still nursing the wounds of losing his wife to cancer and has to balance the tricky tasks of parenting and running a high-level investigation and it becomes obvious which one loses out as the investigation progresses.

Will we see Miskin in future novels?
I have a follow up to ‘Flowers’ which hopefully will be out by the end of 2014/early 2015 and I have a romantic comedy due out this summer.

We can’t wait.  Tell us a bit about yourself.
I am married with 2 young girls (2&5) at the time of writing and currently live in Edinburgh. I started out initially writing & editing scripts when I was at College but now enjoy working on longer projects like novels. I tend to have 3/4 things on the go at once which stops me from getting bored/stale and also avoids me developing any kind of ‘writer’s block’ as I simply switch projects if I find that happening.

Do you have a website?
Yes
www.davidatkinsonauthor.com

And Twitter?
@Datco2009.

What’s next for you?
I have loads of stuff on the go and spreadsheets full of ideas so I have the potential to write dozens of books in the next few years, but I take my time as I want the quality to be excellent – rushing tends to compromise that quality.

How easily do new storylines come to you? If we give you four random words – Man, Woman, Airport, Darkness – can you give us a brief storyline?
The woman came out of the toilet to find the airport completely deserted and in darkness. She slowly walked across the vast empty terminal, her high-heeled footsteps echoing eerily as she gazed around at the abandoned suitcases, hand-bags and assorted luggage that were still arranged in almost straight lines at the check-in desks. It was as if their owners had simply been vaporised. The question crossed her mind, ‘Am I the only person left on the planet?”

Suddenly she got her answer as she was roughly grabbed from behind. A hand covered her mouth and the end of a gun was thrust into the base of her skull, the man’s voice was gruff and insistent, “Don’t make a sound – don’t even move or they will come and kill us both.”

 

 

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