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16/09/2016

** BLOG TOUR ** Matching the Evidence by Graham Smith

Carlisle United are playing Millwall and the Major Crimes Team are assigned to crowd control as punishment for their renegade ways. Typically DI Harry Evans has other ideas and tries to thwart the local firm’s plans to teach Millwall’s notorious Bushwhackers an unforgettable lesson.
Meanwhile an undercover cop is travelling north with some of the Millwall contingent. His mission is to identify the ringleaders and gather evidence against them.
Three illegal immigrants have been transported to Carlisle and are about to meet their new employers.

Nothing is as it seems for Evans and his Major Crimes Team as they battle to avoid a bloodbath while also uncovering a far more heinous crime.


My thanks to the author and publisher for inviting me on to the blog tour and for sending me a review copy.


My Thoughts:

I was really pleased to be invited to do this blog tour as I really enjoyed the first outings for Harry Evans and you can read my thoughts about that here.

This book, well novella really picks up where we left off and I love the fact that it feels as if we have never been away. There is an atmosphere around the Police Station. Harry Evans is somewhat of a renegade, someone who also goes out on a limb but is ironically a little anti establishment. He likes to do things his own way and unfortunately after last time, himself and his colleagues are feeling the heat. They need results and they need to do the job the right way. 

With a strong sense of location, I love these stories. This one revolves around football hooliganism and illegal immigration. The author is not afraid to tackle bold themes and weaves them expertly into a taut plot. 

Harry is now on the way to retirement but I can't wait to read more about him. He is a vibrant character who breathes the life into these stories, whilst having an amazing supporting cast who are all great in their own ways.

Graham Smith has delivered again, a fast paced and thrilling story whilst keeping it realistic and me on the edge of the seat.

More please!
                                                            


I am delighted to welcome Graham to the blog today and he has written a great guest post on the location of his Harry Evans stories, thanks for stopping by:


Location Location Location

Apologies for the somewhat cheesy headline, but for this guest post I thought I’d talk about the locations I’ve chosen for my DI Harry Evans novels, novellas and short stories.

I’ve set them in Cumbria which includes the fantastically beautiful Lake District, the Northern Pennines and hundreds of miles of coastline. Cumbria is home to the city of Carlisle, countless small towns and villages, a plethora of wide open spaces consisting of moorland, rolling fells, deep lakes and small forests. (Many of these are good places to dump a body which is always important for us crime writers.)

Stepping outside the City of Carlisle, the towns and villages are tourist traps, ports, market towns. Tourism is huge business in the Lake District, but Cumbria also plays home to a nuclear power station, a naval base and factories which produce everything from crisp packets to biscuits via tyres. Farming is a huge part of the community and there are many dairy, sheep and cattle farms throughout the region although the hills do mean there’s a distinct lack of arable farming in the area. (This diversity of location gives me the opportunity to write a rural or city based story without having to move my characters away from their usual stomping ground as the whole of Cumbria is their patch.)

The M6 motorway and countless A and B roads afford access around the county, but there’s also many single track roadways when you get off the beaten track. (For a crime writer these are great for allowing speedy progress or causing tension inducing displays as required by the story.)

Cumbria has an amazing history which includes the Romans, the reiving families of the borders and the many wars between Scotland and England. All of this makes for a landscape which is rich in varied influences and ancient cultures. (West Cumbria had its own unique language which still shows in the speech patterns of those local to the area.)

Another governing factor in my choosing Cumbria and the Lake District as my location of choice is the fact it is an area which many readers from the north of England and Scotland are likely to have visited. Most readers like to read about places they know and as such it was something of a no-brainer for me to choose to write about and area I’m local to and fairly familiar with. (Don’t tell anyone, but one of the main reasons I chose Cumbria is so I can have a nice day out in the Lake District and call it research.)

A lesser but still important consideration was that very few people are setting crime stories in Cumbria. All the other cities close to me have already been claimed by those who know them far better than I
With all these attributes available in a location so close to my home in Scotland (I live just three miles from Cumbria) I’d have had to have been very brave or foolish to choose anywhere else.

I might be a coward, but I’m not an idiot!

About the Author:

Graham Smith is married with a young son. A time served joiner he has built bridges, houses, dug drains and slated roofs to make ends meet. Since Christmas 2000 he has been manager of a busy hotel and wedding venue near Gretna Green, Scotland.

An avid fan of crime fiction since being given one of Enid Blyton’s Famous Five books at the age of eight, he has also been a regular reviewer and interviewer for the well-respected website Crimesquad.com since 2009

He is the author of four books featuring DI Harry Evans and the Cumbrian Major Crimes Team.

Matching the Evidence

Snatched from Home

Lines of Enquiry

I Know Your Secret – Out October 2016


Please do have a look at the others stops on the blog tour:




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