Real News

Oh Lordy.

It’s 2017. It’s May. And we are a little bit excited here at Blowfish.

Why?

Because the widely anticipated sequel to Bad Blood Part One is out next month. It’s dark and ugly and its takes no prisoners. It’s told from both Ben and Sophy’s points of view. Ben’s in China, imprisoned in an illegal cage-fighting joint, Sophy’s back in the UK, and has given up all hope of seeing Ben again. Besides, she’s got other things on her mind. The western world is in the grip of a deadly epidemic – a weaponised virus that is killing hundreds of thousands. Towns and cities are in lock-down and people are turning on each other in fear. There’s no vaccine for this thing and it’s killing indiscriminately.

The vaccine – or the means to make it – is in Ben’s blood, and he has to get home, and quickly.

I’ve loved writing Bad Blood. I always fall head-over heels with my characters. They just get inside my head and make themselves at home. You’ll know by now, if you’ve read it, or heard me talking about it, that it was the mysterious death (one of many of senior defence scientists) of my own father, back in the 80’s that was, in part, a catalyst for writing it. A lot of people have asked me about it since the book came out, and it’s generated, and perhaps reignited, some of the questions raised at the time these deaths happened.

The world is looking pretty toxic at the moment. We’re living with the increasing realisation that what we’re told is The News, might not be – that we’re being played in some way by shady ‘hackers’ and foreign powers intent on corrupting and disrupting what we trust. The flip side is, it’s all delicious grist for someone who writes of YA thrillers that start with ‘what if…?’

I’m working on a dystopian trilogy set in a post-apocalyptic London, and I’m enjoying the freedom to just imagine, and to go wherever my dark and mischievous mind leads me.