We are delighted to announce that we have signed the eleventh book in the Charles Holborne Legal Thrillers series: gritty, hard-boiled mysteries featuring maverick barrister Charles Holborne.
In Simon’s words:
“As regular readers of the Charles Holborne Legal Thrillers will be aware, every book has been set in a different year, tracking the corrupt Metropolitan Police force and the gangs like the Krays’ ‘Firm’ through the 1960s. I’m afraid I’ve never had much patience with writers whose formulaic books never allow their characters to grow up (or old). There’s one particular tough guy (you may remember him being portrayed on film by a certain very famous diminutive actor) who, thirty books in, should now be approaching the ripe old age of sixty-six. Yet, chained to a steel table with a broken wrist, he is still capable of choking a big guard into unconsciousness.
“I prefer realism. If the Charles Holborne books are based on real cases, real political events and real people, my hero barrister should also be real: he must get older and, one hopes, wiser. In The Brief, set in 1960, he was thirty-five years of age. By the time we get to book 11, he’s a decade older. And what did most good looking, easy-going, solvent professional men do in 1970? They got married, maybe started a family and … went on holiday.
“The playful title I had in my head as I wrote the book was ‘Charlie Holborne Goes to France’. Sapere Books have been wonderful publishers (evidence: this will be my eleventh book with them) but even I knew their patience might be stretched by such a title. Wrong vibe altogether. In any case, this holiday turns nasty. Charles and Sally find themselves embroiled in a vendetta in the heart of stunning rural Gascony, a vendetta with its roots in the war between those who resisted and those who collaborated with Vichy. Their Gascon idyll turns dark, putting their lives and that of their daughter at risk. And, because no Charles Holborne novel can omit a courtroom drama, Charles finds himself on a busman’s holiday, fighting the good fight as always.
“I have enjoyed writing this book because it is set in a beautiful part of the world that I know and love well. In addition to action, mystery and courtroom drama, there’s magnificent countryside and wonderful food to go with the true historical facts. I can’t wait for you to read it.”
Visit Simon’s website to stay up to date with his news, events and latest releases.
Congratulations to Simon Michael, whose exciting legal thriller, Death, Adjourned, is published today!
Death, Adjourned is the ninth crime novel in the Charles Holborne Legal Thrillers series — gritty, hard-boiled mysteries set in 1960s London.
London, 1969
The Kray twins, the nemeses of Charles Holborne, barrister, are finally convicted of multiple murders and sent away for the longest prison terms ever imposed by a British court.
But with London in the grip of a housing crisis and unscrupulous landlords hiking rents, there are new ruthless enforcers terrorising destitute East Enders.
When a tenant dies during a violent altercation with bailiffs, Charles is instructed to represent the businessmen charged with conspiracy to murder. There is motive, an eyewitness and a confession – seemingly an open and shut case.
But Charles suspects his clients are pawns in a much more dangerous game being played by shadowy Establishment figures.
But are his instincts wrong this time? Is he being manipulated into defending a guilty man?
And as dark secrets are revealed, will he have to choose between moral integrity and professional success?
Congratulations to Simon Michael, whose page-turning gangland thriller, Nothing But The Truth, is published today! Nothing But The Truth is the eighth book in the Charles Holborne Legal Thrillers series.
London, 1967
The psychopathic Kray twins rule London’s underworld, aided by their government connections, corrupt police and extreme violence.
Finally, Detective Superintendent “Nipper” Read’s taskforce has a chance to take them down.
The catch: Read needs barrister Charles Holborne to testify against them, while the Krays have evidence against him which would end his career and send him to prison.
Caught in the middle, and with his pregnant partner’s life and his career at stake, this time Charles has no choices left.
Can Charles put his past behind him once and for all? Will the Krays twins’ criminal hold over London finally be put to an end?
Or will everything come crashing down for Charles Holborne…?
