Hello again!
I hope you enjoy my site. There are lots of things to discover. If you click on BOOKS, you’ll get a list of my novels, cover designs, blurbs and reviews. If you want to review one of my books, you can do that as well. There’s a way of contacting me too. So, if you’re trying to get hold of one of my older hard-to-find books, you can check if I’ve got a copy for sale. Or you might just want to ask me a question. If lots of you ask the same question, I’ll put it – and my answer – in the FAQs section.
Before you write and ask me a question, please check if the answer is already in the ABOUT MALCOLM, FAQs or BOOKS sections of this site. That way, you’ll find the information much quicker.
I try to respond to all messages but occasionally someone’s email provider refuses my reply. Either some filters are a bit too protective or there’s a spelling mistake in your email address. So, if you want a reply, make sure you enter your email address correctly.
I’m thrilled to say that FORBIDDEN ISLAND is on three shortlists for book prizes. It’s up for the Coventry Inspiration Book Awards – in the ‘Read It Or Else!’ category. Fantastic. I’m particularly chuffed because Coventry is where I was born and grew up. Check it out on http://myvotes.coventry.gov.uk/51/ where you can vote for your favourite in an exciting knock-out competition. Makes the X Factor look cheap and unimportant. Every week, two books are booted out of the competition with a splat sticker. FORBIDDEN ISLAND is still hanging on in the Top 4, but you’d better vote for it if you want to keep it in the running. And, yes, you can vote even if you do not live in the Coventry area.
FORBIDDEN ISLAND is also up for Nottinghamshire’s Brilliant Book Award and the Bolton Children's Book Award. I am deeply chuffed with these too – both quite close to me here in Sheffield. I’ll let you know how it goes with both.
I’ve also published the third of my short thrillers. ASTEROID is a threat to every higher life form on the entire planet! The stakes could not be bigger.
By the way, you can click on the latest covers in the Books section and go through to Amazon where you can buy the books. Yeah, I know it’s a bit commercial but some of you might appreciate it.
JORDAN STRYKER is coming in May!
I’m writing like crazy on my new thriller series probably called JORDAN STRYKER: BIONIC AGENT. If all goes well, the first book, PAYBACK, will make its appearance in 2010. I’m very excited by this series featuring a boy who is hideously injured in an explosion. Actually, the force of the blast kills him but he is resuscitated. Modern medicine - and robotics – give him a new life, but how does he pay back the secret organization that looks after him? He uses his enhanced body to investigate unsolved crimes, terrorism and bad guys who are beyond the reach of normal policing.
While you’re waiting for PAYBACK, you might like to try FORBIDDEN ISLAND. It’s a creepy mystery story set on a small Scottish island that does not appear on any map. I really like the story. Of all my books, this one probably has the most twists and turns, revelations, conspiracies and cover-ups. It’s quite shocking in a way and it’s based on some real science.
I’ve written two more novels in the SHADES series. SHADES is a series of short books that are strong on drama, pace and style. The SHADES books are ideal for readers who find traditional novels too long, but still want exciting plots, strong characters and a fast pace. In other words, they’re designed for readers who prefer their stories to be a snack rather than a gut-busting feast.
My second SHADES thriller is ANIMAL LAB, on the theme of animal experiments, animal rights – and animal wrongs. Imagine you’re ill. You want a cure. There’s a medicine in development that will help. But, before it can be given to you, it has to be tested on animals. For some of those tests, animals will suffer and be sacrificed. Do you still want the cure? Are you more important than rats and monkeys? ANIMAL LAB is all about this controversial part of science and medicine.
The third book for this series is ASTEROID. For years, I have put individual characters under threat in thrillers and crime stories. In ASTEROID, I decided to threaten the whole of humanity with extinction through an asteroid strike on Earth. Nature is far more powerful than us humans (just think of devastating earthquakes, severe storms, viruses, volcanoes and the like) and this novel shows it!
The sixth TRACES book is BLOOD BROTHER. There’s a serial killer operating in York Hospital and it’s Luke’s job to track him or her down. He also has to figure out a motive for murdering patients. The book contains a fascinating collection of real diseases, like stone man syndrome. But which are natural sicknesses and which have been caused deliberately? The exotic poisons, plants, medical treatments, and research on human body parts are all authentic as well. The Institute of Biomechanical Research is fictional but its gruesome experiments have all been carried out in actual laboratories. And that includes the catapulted human head.
