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Chris Simms comes to Sale, Manchester
By 
1stAngel | June 20, 2008
Chris Simms, a well known and excellent crime writer, based in Manchester, came and gave a talk at my local library at Coppice Avenue this evening! Good? You better believe it! Chris has been named by Waterstone’s as one of their ‘25 Authors For The Future and his excellent novels include;
Outside The White Lines
Pecking Order
Killing The Beasts
Shifting Skin
Savage Moon
and the latest, the fourth in the highly acclaimed Jon Spicer series, Hell’s Fire. I was very lucky to have had the opportunity to read this before meeting him thanks to Debbie, beloved leader of our Killer Thriller Group.
Chris is a quiet, well spoken man, who chatted about his university years, (studying social psychology at Newcastle), through to working at a battery hen farm, which lasted all of three hours and became the thought behind his superb book, Pecking Order, a rather disturbing psychological thriller.
He told us of the rejections he received when he first started sending his first book to agents and I wonder what they think now, seeing how successful he is. He led us through the difficulties of having work published but, you have to feel looking at him, that he loves what he does now and that it was well worth the time and effort it took him to get seen.
He researches his books thoroughly before writing and you can see that as you read through them. Every subject is brought to life cleverly and with a feeling that you have learned something as well as read a gruesome thriller.
He has a very loving, supportive wife, and he works his writing time into a busy family life, having four lively children.
Two actors accompanied Chris and played an act from Savage Moon, a dark and gory novel, in which the body of a woman with her throat ripped out is found on Saddleworth Moor, near Manchester. She is discovered in an area where numerous sightings of a mysterious big black cat have been made. When analysis shows the hairs caught under her nails are those of a panther, it’s assumed the animal has killed its first human victim. But then a man DI Jon Spicer is investigating as part of an entirely different case is murdered in exactly the same way. Only this time the body is found in a secluded car park - a popular gay rendezvous far closer to the city centre. Soon DI Spicer finds himself hunting a killer dubbed The Monster of the Moor, a creature whose stealth and savagery strike terror into the local population and way beyond.
The actors brought to life the scene in which Jon Spicer visits the murdered woman’s farmer husband. Jon Spicer dressed stiffly in a suit instead of the rugby shirt he seems to find more comfortable, Grief and anger from the farmer and perhaps something else…..ah read the book! (Thanks guys, it was great)
Chris is busy writing a fifth novel that includes DI Jon Spicer and Hell’s Fire, a book with a highly charged religious theme, is already in reprint so get your copy as soon as you can! In Hell’s Fire, the deliberate torching of a church creates outrage across Manchester. And when a charred corpse and satanic symbols are found in the smoking ruins, DI Jon Spicer and the city’s Major Incident Team are called in.
Soon DI Spicer finds himself drawn into the depths of a horrifying underworld he didn’t know existed. With fresh killings comes the realisation that those responsible are prepared to commit unspeakable acts of evil in homage to their God.
DI Spicer knows the atrocities must be halted, but even in his worst nightmares he could never imagine how close to home the investigation will take him. As the case threatens to engulf Manchester in fires of hatred, can Spicer and those he loves escape unharmed?
You can read more about Chris, and see sample extracts from his books at, http://chrissimms.info and I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you very much to him for visiting Sale and giving us a lovely, memorable, evening.
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