Good morning everyone I’m on the blog tour for Stoned Love by Ian Patrick today and I have a great guest post to share with you.
Stoned Love is available in ebook and paperback now. The ebook is currently only £2.49 but you can purchase a copy of both here.
Before I share my guest post with you here is a little bit about the book.
Book Synopsis:
Detective Sergeant Sam Batford has been lying low at a remote safe house in the highlands of Scotland. He’s doing his best not to attract the attention of the enemies he made, on both sides of the law, during his last under-cover operation but Batford knows he’s just killing time until he’s called to account.
Inevitably the sharks begin to circle and as Batford is called back to front-line action in London he’s thrown into a deadly game of cat and mouse where it seems everyone is out to get him.
After having to endure a frustrating resolution to their previous undercover operation together DCI Klara Winter from the National Crime Agency is determined to prove that Batford has crossed the line into criminality and finally bring him to face justice.
All Sam Batford wants is to outwit his enemies long enough to stay alive and come out ahead of the game.
Ian Patrick’s previous Sam Batford novel, RUBICON has been optioned by the BBC.
Guest Post:
Inspiration
This is a strange one for me to answer, as my protagonist, Sam Batford, isn’t your average DS! For a start he’s corrupt. I guess most writers / readers would think that writing crime as a retired cop or anyone with a background knowledge of policing would be easier. I’d argue It’s somewhat harder. The reason being is that we have to make the story entertaining. The realities of police work are far from this. There can be many days of waiting around on surveillance where your target doesn’t leave home.
My books explore the world of covert policing and the same can be said of this area of police work. As I wrote the first in the series, Rubicon, the strangest thing occurred. My protagonist became corrupt. My mind clearly wanted more of a challenge than writing the thing in the first place!
A key part of covert work is to be vigilant to corruption. This is why there’s security vetting you must pass before you can enter the command and random drug testing is the norm too. On occasions you could be handling significant sums of money. That money must be accounted for. It’s not the officers but ultimately yours, the taxpayer.
With this awareness you begin to see how those officers with a criminal intent could exploit the system. I’m not saying they’d succeed but the potential is there. I had a small team to manage and we were a tight unit. If there was a sniff of corruption then we would have happily nicked each other and ensured a conviction. So the inspiration happened and I ended up turning my own beliefs upside down to get the character that is DS Sam Batford.
Writing characters’ like him has its moments. I often ask myself, how can he get away with this? That’s also why I enjoy him as he provides the challenge through writing I miss from policing.
I’m so grateful to be included on your blog and thank you for all the support you give to so many authors. Without good people like you my writing wouldn’t be getting the recognition of readers that it is.
IP
My pleasure Ian! Thanks for a great guest post, I wish you all the best with your new book!
About The Author:
Over The Rainbow Blog 