Welcome back to author Alex Dunlevy!
Alex
abandoned a career in finance at the age of forty-nine and spent a few years
staring at the Mediterranean, contemplating life and loss. Finally, he accepted
what his heart had always known. So, he joined a local writing group and he
began to write.
He has now completed three novels in a
series of crime thrillers set on the island of Crete and featuring British
protagonist Nick Fisher. The Unforgiving Stone was the
October 2020 debut. Beneath the Stone followed in 2021. Both were
awarded B.R.A.G. medallions and rated 4.5 out of 5 by Amazon readers. The
Stone Skimmers is the third in this series, released in May 2022.
Alex has also published a collection
of short stories, The Late Shift Specialist. These are quite
different from his crime writing. Uniquely personal - they are quirky, funny or
sad - and written straight from the heart.
He has also been toying with other
ideas which will now receive more serious attention. These include a black
comedy set in the world of corporate finance and a bitter-sweet coming-of-age
story set in the 1960s.
Born in Derbyshire, England, Alex now
divides his time between Wiltshire, England and Crete, Greece, where he has an
old, stone house in the central south of the island, between the Amari Valley
and the Libyan Sea.
Website:
www.alexdunlevy.com
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/Alex-Dunlevy-583302162346450
Twitter:
www.twitter.com/@AlexDunlevy
Instagram:
www.instagram.com/alexdunlevyauthor
Latest Release
I am about to release (May 16) the third
novel in my Nick Fisher series. These are intelligent (I hope!) crime thrillers
set in and around the island of Crete, Greece, and featuring British
protagonist Nick Fisher. The latest one is titled The Stone Skimmers and
follows The Unforgiving Stone and Beneath the Stone. It is
topical, absorbing and exciting.
Working On Now
After launching The Stone Skimmers,
I will be taking a break. Then, I intend to focus on something different for a
while: a darkly comic novel set in the world of corporate finance which I will
probably call Dead Cat Bounce. There will be more Nick Fishers in due
course, I’m sure.
Who Encouraged Me?
There have been four major sources of
encouragement. Since I was a teenager, my late brother David encouraged me to
write. He was an artist and a songwriter and was keen for me to develop my
creative side, even as I insisted on pursuing a career in business. Sadly, he
didn’t live to see my books - just some bad poetry! Also, my former partner and
long-time friend Stevie Brown was always a burr under my saddle. Every time we met,
she would ask me pointedly when I was going to start writing. More recently, it
has been the members of the writing group I joined in Wiltshire and my good
friend Leonie, a Kiwi who has ambitions herself to be a published writer.
Strengths as an Author
·
Readable and engaging;
readers find my books easy to read and hard to put down
·
Good quality prose with
few errors
·
Good scene setting
·
Original stories and
strong characters
Writing Routine
I try to write most weekdays and to write
1,500 words, however long that takes. On the rare occasions when it takes less
than four hours, I carry on until the four hours are up. Once in a while, I might
write well over two thousand words in that time. I normally start at ten and
write till two or later. A carrot and stick approach works best for me. I live
in Crete much of the time, so I can promise myself a trip to the beach once
I’ve done my work. I will write at weekends, too, if I get behind. For any
book, I have a day-by-day, week-by-week programme through to launch. This isn’t
set in “stone” but is only changed with great reluctance and much guilt (even
though it’s only for my benefit!) There were four changes to the programme for
The Stone Skimmers - it was a tough one...
Five Years Hence
I would like to have extended the Nick
Fisher (series of crime thrillers set in Crete) to at least five novels, but I
would also like to have written at least two novels in different genres. I have
solid ideas for these and have already written 50k words of one of them. One is
to be a black comedy set in the world of corporate finance and the other a
bitter-sweet, coming-of-age story based around a European tour in 1964. I also
enjoy writing short stories, even though they are a tough sell, and would like
to release a second collection. If I achieve all this, I will have nine books
published, five years from now. In my dreams, one or more of these would have
been picked up by a mainstream publisher or spotted by a TV or film producer!
THE UNFORGIVING STONE
Nick Fisher and his son have not
spoken for years.
But, when the boy brings the girl he
is about to marry to the island of Crete, Nick is persuaded to travel to the
remote south-west coast, seeking a reconciliation.
Instead, he discovers that a body has
been found on the beach. His son has disappeared and is now prime suspect in a
murder case.
In a race against time, ex-cop Nick
must call upon his old skills and instincts to find his son, then convince the
Greek police of his innocence. To do that, he must seek out other suspects and
track down the one who was driven to kill. The one who reached their breaking
point.
Only
success can save his son. It might even restore Nick’s own self-belief.
https://www.amazon.ca/Unforgiving-Stone-Nick-Fisher-Novels-ebook/dp/B08KTN2MK5
BENEATH THE STONE
When Nick Fisher agrees to work with Leo’s
feisty, young protégée Náni Samarákis, he doesn’t bargain on facing death or
finding love or hurting his son again.
A missing person case morphs into a grisly
murder when a body part is found in the sea. But who would carve up the body
and why? Were they the killers or was it that mysterious, hooded man, if he
even exists? And why does the tracker dog lead them to a stone wall?
In a dark village with a tortured past where
resentment festers, Nick and Náni must work together, despite their
differences, to peel back layers of complex relationships, some leading back to
wartime Crete.
Only then will they find out why a young man
had to die.
https://www.amazon.ca/Beneath-Stone-Alex-Dunlevy-ebook/dp/B0913H88KP
THE STONE SKIMMERS
When fishermen find the body of a young African off the coast of Crete,
local police are stumped. But Bel Saidi, an investigative journalist, thinks it
validates her theory: migrant smugglers are using a new route.
Nick Fisher is recruited to an elite team tasked with verifying the
route, identifying those involved and bringing them to justice. But, after more
tragedy, things become complex and dangerous. They need to grasp the true
motives of the shadowy figures operating from Turkey and Albania and the
ruthless owners of that powerful motor yacht, ploughing its way across the
Mediterranean.
Nick must watch himself with old flame Bel. And he needs to control his
anger and sharpen those technology and firearms skills. They might get one
chance to bring these guys down. Will intuition, a nose for a scam and good,
old-fashioned guts be enough, this time?
https://www.amazon.ca/Stone-Skimmers-Nick-Fisher-Novels-ebook/dp/B09YP2KB7X
THE LATE SHIFT SPECIALIST
A collection of seventeen short stories. These are not crime writing.
Uniquely personal, they are funny, sad or quirky but always written straight
from the heart.
https://www.amazon.ca/Late-Shift-Specialist-Alex-Dunlevy-ebook/dp/B08PPQN1M7
