Favourite Thriller Books by Paul Hughes
Favourite Thriller Books by Paul Hughes
Hey All!
Today is my stop on Beginning to End blog tour and I am here today to share with you all a guest post by Paul Hughes!
Title: Beginning to End
Publisher: Self-Published
Published: 21st May 2019
Format: Paperback
Source:: N/A
Add It: Amazon UK. Goodreads.
Summary: The real story of ‘swinging’ London in the wild and crazy 1960’s as seen through the eyes oftwo New Scotland Yard detectives-D I Andy Spearing and D S Kevin Devlin. (Book 1 in theseries)-Drugs and boozeflow like rivers resulting in depravity and corruption from thehighest levels in the UK establishment down to the common working man. For some the1960’s were their halcyon days, but for so many others it was the start of a fall intodepravity and those were the lucky ones who survived!
Favourite Thriller Books
By Paul Hughes
- Michael Conelly
Like half the world my favourite author is Michael Connelly – I love both of his main characters; Detective Bosh and lawyer Mickey Haller – They are real characters with everyday problems – never supernatural powers, always having to slog through with gut feelings and intuition.
I do have a sneaky preference for Bosh because of his gritty attitude and always battling with his personal problems.
It was a wonderful surprise that I have had the honour of having one of my main characters; DI Andy Spearing – a hard and gritty Yorkshire man with lots of personal problems – compared to the Bosh character. I can honestly say I had not read any Michael Connelly books when I originally had the concept of Detective Spearing and his sidekick Devlin in 2000 during the writing of my first book titled; ‘HEADS.’.
My two favourite Michael Connelly books has to be; ‘The Last Coyote’ featuring Bosh and ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ featuring of course lawyer Mickey Haller.
- Craig Russell
Most recently I have got into a fellow Scottish Author; Craig Russell and his series of Crime Thrillers books featuring the character Lennox. Set in Glasgow, initially during the 1950’s, Craig Russell captures the atmosphere of the grime and dirt of Glasgow with its fair share of ‘hard’ men in the 1950’s and a lot of the traditional Glasgow patter.
It is the Glasgow I remember as a youth during visits in the 1950’s and early 60’s.
One of the reasons I love Craig Russell stories is; like Michael Connellys’ two main character’s, Lennox is believable and like us ordinary human beings he is vulnerable carrying a lot of package from his army life in the war. The stories are full of realism, although at times parts of the plot do stretch the imagination. – Overall; though my kind of writing and reading!
I have to admit I have not read any of the Craig Russell series featuring Jan Fabel, but these are now on my ‘to do’ list.
- David Nivens
One of the few, but the best memoirs I have ever read is David Nivens; ‘The Moon’s a Balloon.’ The story almost immediately transported me to what it must have been like in Hollywood during the 1940’s and 1950’s. The stars, so many legends in their own lifetime, just fell from each page.
David Nivens writing was so full of wit and old English gentlemen charm I was entertained from the beginning to end.
Thinking of the 1950’s, we ordinary everyday working people especially country people, were still so naïve. Hollywood was still that glamorous place where fantasies were made and we sort of believed the stars were like the characters they played. Of course we never saw them as ordinary everyday people, never seeing past the glitz. It was not until the 1960’s that we began to realize that the glitz was created and protected by the studios they worked for and there was a whole big sleazy world behind many of their created Image’s.
- Wilbur Smith and Dennis Wheatley
Through the years there are many writers, like Wilbur Smith and Denis Wheatley, I have loved their stories, but have gone off for one reason or another.
The reason for going off Wilbur Smith stories was the preoccupation of many of his characters for hunting and killing wild animals with powerful ‘cannot miss’ guns just for the sake of hunting. With Denis Wheatley it was to me the preoccupation with the supernatural which to me at times was unbelievable, or at least my mind was, and still is, closed to these things.
Likewise many of todays Thriller Writers I have gone off because their characters alone, or at best with a few friends, suddenly go on to be some sort of supernatural beings. They take on the police, sometimes an army is included and the Mafia or some other such like so called ruthless criminal gang is thrown into the melting plot. Yet the Hero or the few, still come out on top, at times even if they start out with no guns or a limited number of bullets!
Sorry, but as soon as I see this sort of plot materialising, I give up and go onto trying to try and find another realistic read. While I started out enjoying some of these stories quite frankly they are now so boring and unbelievable.
About the Author
Born in a small village in Scotland, Paul Hughes got involved in the Scottish music scene in the 1960s. His career saw him promoting artists such as Stevie Winwood and ‘The Spencer Davies’ group, ‘Them’ with Van Morrison, The Bay City Rollers (before they hit the big time!), Johnny Kidd and The Pirates, Alex Harvey, etc. Paul then moved to London to join his brothers’ band 1-2-3 who played with some large name s such as David Bowie. He was also an editor, writer and chief bottle washer for an entertainment newspaper in Scotland titled ‘Nightlife.’ During this time, he interviewed Billy Connelly, Gerry Rafferty (Just before they madethe big time) and Status Quo in addition to hundreds of ‘On Stage’ reviews.
Paul Hughes now residesin Northampton, England and holidays abroad in Asia every year, usually writing and having a good time during the dreary cold UK winter months.
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What are your favourite thrillers?
