I’m pleased to announce the release of my new novel, ‘Dark Oaks.’ This is a standalone thriller set in Monaco and England.

As with my previous books, characters and locations are of great importance to me. I hope you enjoy the lively cast of heroes and villains, as well as the glamorous Mediterranean and rural Hampshire setting. There are a number of action sequences I spent a long time working on, including a chase scene through a forest and a couple of shoot outs. Being a long time practitioner of Krav Maga, I’ve also added in a fight scene for good measure. Action aside, there is also a mystery element to the novel and an exploration of a man’s family history and redemptive journey.

Much like my first book, ‘Adam & Evil,’ I start with an interest in grand themes and ideas, but these tend to get diluted and almost disappear by the time the finished product is completed. It is, after all, a good story I’m trying to tell, not an insight into what’s occupying my mind. For what it’s worth, the theme of decadence was what was interesting me at the time of writing. Decadence is generally associated with opulence and luxury, but it has a number of other meanings that are intertwined. One of them is exhaustion; the sense that a society or even a family has reached the end of its story. This is something that the central character is battling against, but it is never mentioned explicitly or explored to the detriment of what I wanted to achieve here – a tense and exciting read.

A great deal of this new book was written during the pandemic and over the course of lockdown. There was only so much television I could watch over the weekend, so I used a lot of the time to write. You’ll be pleased to know that there is no mention of the pandemic or contemporary sociopolitical events in ‘Dark Oaks.’ It has been written to entertain, nothing more. I hope you enjoy it. If you do, please write a review on Amazon and / or Goodreads – I always take the time to read reviews and thoroughly appreciate them.