Writing Hunter's Rules

I am delighted to have a chance to tell you about Hunter’s Rules, the new novel in my series of DI Hunter Wilson Crime Thrillers.

I have been writing and telling stories all my life. When I was a child, I used to make up stories for my little sister after our Mum put the light out and told us to go to sleep. Later, I wrote documents, contracts, and courses as part of my job, but my time was well accounted for, so I did not create any fiction.

However, I took early retirement when I was diagnosed with breast cancer, and there were times when I suffered severe side effects from my treatment. I could not go out, spend time with friends or indulge in many of my favourite hobbies, but watching daytime television got very old very fast, so I turned to reading. It was the only thing I had the energy to do and could do safely.

I read voraciously, as I always have. I particularly enjoy reading crime fiction and thrillers. I indulged this interest with many novels including those by Peter Robinson, Ian Rankin, Linwood Barclay and Kathy Reichs. After a while, I began to feel a little better and decided to start reviewing the books I read. Then, as I began to feel better still, I got restless, but was not well enough to do very much and I complained to my long-suffering husband about getting bored. It was then he challenged me: ‘If you know so much about what makes a good book, why don’t you write one?’ I did laugh. However, the challenge set, I have been writing police procedural crime thrillers set in Scotland ever since.

Hunter’s Rules is unique in that its prequel is a short story, Cats and Dogs, which appears in my collection of short stories, Hunter's Christmas. Of course, both the novel and the short story can be read completely independently, but those who have read both may enjoy the conceit.

I particularly enjoyed writing Hunter’s Rules and hope that my readers will enjoy reading this novel. Let me know if you do.