Favourite Things About My Protagonist by Iain Colvin

Hi All!
Today is my stop on the blog tour for The King’s Prerogative and I am here today with a fantastic guest post from the author!

Title: The King’s Prerogative
Author: Iain Colvin
Publisher: Clink Street Publishing
Published: 30th July 2019
Pages: 349
Format: Paperback
Source:: N/A
Add It: Amazon UK Goodreads.
Summary: Scotland, 1983.

Craig Dunlop is bored. Bored of his job, his town, his life.

After a family bereavement, Craig inherits an old heirloom; a wallet given to his grandfather during the war by none other than the deputy leader of Nazi Germany, Rudolf Hess.

The wallet has hidden a secret for forty years, and when Craig stumbles upon it, a chain of events is set in motion that lead to him becoming a hunted man.

Finding himself in a race to unravel a mystery that could shake the very foundations of the British establishment, Craig must find answers before the police catch up with him, or worse still, he is made to disappear forever, along with the secret of The King’s Prerogative.

Favourite Things About My Protagonist

By Iain Colvin

First of all, I’ll get out of the way the things that I don’t like about him. Craig Dunlop is a bit lazy, he is vain, he is emotionally constipated, and quite frankly it’s ridiculous that at the age of twenty-five his get-up-and-go has already got-up-and-gone. The story is as much to do with how the events that unfold change him as it is to do with the events themselves.

He is very much the product of his environment. He grew up in a big city but has spent his teens and early twenties in a small rural town miles from what he would describe as civilisation, and it’s fair to say that many of his shortcomings are born out of frustration. He’s stuck in a rut and he knows within himself that he needs to make changes. The kicker is that he hates himself because his inertia has become so ingrained. Something needs to jolt him out of his lethargy and he doesn’t have long to wait before the hands of fate apply the defibrillator!

What do I like about him? Well, he’s a good guy. He tries to do the right things, he’s a good son, brother, colleague, friend. The sort of guy who’d be first on your shortlist to invite to a party. He’ll bring far more drink than he intends to drink, he’ll offer to help get the food organised, he’ll get the right music on to get everyone dancing, he’ll help tidy up when it’s time to go. He’s funny (or likes to think he is, but that’s part of his charm). He’s the kind of guy who takes his supermarket trolley back to the trolley park when he’s finished. Treats others as he would like to be treated. He would always have your back, he’d give you his last fiver if you needed it.

Craig’s also a clever guy. He’s a thinker. A ponderer even. He has the knack of being able to work through the detail but can also stand back and see the bigger picture. Not in his love life it has to be said, but that’s another story.

He also has a very – VERY – strong sense of right and wrong. I like that about him and it’s one of his defining characteristics. He finds much of his motivation from his sense of injustice – how DARE they think they can get away with that?! Coupled with his perseverance (or is that stubbornness?), this feeling of indignance sees Craig tap into a hidden vein of tenaciousness that drives him forward with a burning energy that surprises him and those around him.

Craig is also suspicious of others’ motives, or more accurately, the reader sees how he becomes more suspicious through bitter experience. It becomes a survival instinct and he learns not to judge a book by its cover, or to accept the offer of help from a stranger without first probing and prodding and sizing up the pros and cons. If something looks too good to be true, it’s because it usually is.

So that’s Craig Dunlop. A pretty average kind of a guy overall, with some flaws and some redeeming qualities. And that’s kind of the point. I can relate to him. Hopefully the reader

will relate to him too. He’s human. Completely unprepared for what’s going to happen to him, but able to summon up the strengths he has – and some he didn’t know he had. Will they be enough though?

About the Author

Born and raised in Glasgow, despite now residing in Edinburgh, Iain Colvin will always consider himself a Glaswegian. He started his career by working at his local bank in Stranraer. He now works full time as an IT specialist in Edinburgh. He is a father to four children, whom help to remind him of what is important in life and helped him while he was writing this novel. Outside of work and family, he enjoys watching football (yes, Scottish football!), and has been trying to play more tennis. He is also very competitive when it comes to the local pub quiz and if you’re buying, he’ll have an IPA or a glass of chilled Chenin Blanc, please.