Escape to Perdition--a gripping thriller!
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Regular visitors to Prague will be familiar with the plethora of jazz and blues bars lining the streets and the many talented musicians plying their trade within them. Smokin’ Hot is an homage to one such establishment, sadly no longer with us but still alive in the memories of many. My thanks to my wonderful wife, Miroslava and to Jamie Marshall, Phil Speat, Michael Lechaciu and others, all so very intertwined with that place, for permitting me to reference them, obliquely or otherwise and, hopefully, capture a little of what it used to be like, back in the day. Rasti Vojtovic too deserves my thanks for allowing me to turn him from an Isle of Wight based Slovak Chef to a Prague based Czech one. To the best of my knowledge he has never been a Priest. And thanks, of course, to the real Peter Lowe, a chap who couldn’t be more unlike the character if he tried, but who is blessed with quite the most perfect name I could have asked for.
In one of life’s coincidences, a new campaign has begun to be noticed in both Republics, with the intention of bringing a referendum on reunification to coincide with the planned 2018 elections. It will be interesting to see how this develops and whether fact mirrors fiction. For Miroslava Svobodova, the future is a blank canvass on which to draw the shape of the newly rejoined country while she works towards her own redemption and the betterment of her people, although I’m sure The Institute has other ideas. Mirushka, Czechoslovakia’s new Phoenix, will most certainly rise again. For Peter though, the journey is over, at least in this world, and any tales of his now lie in the past; and I hope that one day we will learn exactly how he found himself in Prague to influence those famous events of 1989; a young British killer, trying to survive in a strange land of falling Iron Curtains and Velvet Revolutions.
James is an HR professional and former DJ for modradiouk. net, with a neglected talent for the harmonica. Hailing from the North, he read Politics & Modern History at the University of Manchester before embarking on a career which has taken in retail management, high level technical recruitment, and a plethora of public sector roles. After making a reluctant peace with the fact that he probably won’t be the next Doctor, James indulged his passion for story-telling, encouraged by his regular trips to the Czech and Slovak Republics and his delving into the rich history of the region.
Those trips, and that history, helped inform Escape to Perdition, James’s first novel which (he hopes) reflects his love of Prague and all its highs and lows. He is happy to leave further speculation of its motivations to the reader.
A fan of God bothering, rum and Manchester City, James possesses the skill of always pulling into traffic behind a bus and still loves spending as much time as possible in Prague and Bojnice.
When not writing, James flirts with the idea of a return to internet radio and educates his two spectacular kids in the irrelevance of most forms of 21st Century music. He has a day job, dreams of writing full time and composes a regular column for Doctorwhoworldwide.com.
He very much hopes you enjoy this book and he might, just might, still be the next Doctor.
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