Remote Control!

          My daughter just sent me this provisional cover for Remote Control. I like it so much I think we should just stick with it. So I've just written the product description, or the blurb as it used to be called when books still had them inside the covers and at the back maybe.  I really don't like writing blurbs and I put this one together in five minutes, paraphrasing the review Gregg Ward gave the play in Scotland on Sunday. The book was adapted and produced to some acclaim at the Traverse Theatre about 1989. On stage it was called Bomber.

          I re-wrote the novel for more modern times and finished it about fifteen months ago. Sphere Books didn't want it, but Dan Mallory gave it a brilliant knock back. Serpent's Tail, who published Are You Boys Cyclists for me, didn't get back to me about it, and Luath here in Edinburgh still haven't got back to me about it either though they wanted to see it after reading what Dan Mallory of Sphere said about it. Great not to have to wait for book publishers anymore!!

                 Here's the blurb that'll go with the book on Amazon Kindle.

               Remote Control is a compelling multi-layered thriller which once it's grabbed you never lets you go. Jimmy McGovern,  a petty criminal and drug dealer, learns while in the middle of a three day drink and drug binge that his girlfriend has been killed in a police raid on a terrorist hide-out. Hauled in for questioning, he is released without charge only to find himself stalked by a top ranking counter terrorism officer who eventually gives him no choice but  to construct a remote controlled explosive device. Is he trying to bolster the case against the terrorist cell, or is he really going to assassinate the Prime Minister? Will Jimmy McGovern kill him first?

                 Fast paced and tinged with violence, Remote Control rushes forward at great pace, but what makes the novel so intriguing is the continual emotional switchbacks and wealth of hidden agendas. This is an intricate novel which compels the reader's attention with it's almost classic use of horror movie makers tension and release techniques, but by diving deep in Jimmy McGovern's personal agonies it brings a deeply human element to the story which keeps us from dismissing the action as so much filmic pap. In short, a thoroughly unique and satisfying novel.

                Here is the rejection the consigliere got from Dan Mallory of Sphere.

                Following up on Remote Control. Short version: I’m going to pass. Longer version: I do so fully aware that you’ve got a very talented author on your hands. The writing is crisp and clean, the dialogue distinctively edgy, and the plot very smoothly engineered. That said, I wasn’t especially taken with the protagonist, who seemed to me rather difficult to like, and I worry that some of the book’s more serrated edges would rub a broad readership the wrong way.

While I’m going to pass, I wish you much luck with the project, and I can’t wait to see where John lands. Thanks again very much for letting me take a look.

Yours    

Dan