Today, it’s my great pleasure to hand the blog over to Val Penny, talking about her latest novel, Hunter’s Revenge.
Val Penny has an Llb degree from the University of Edinburgh and her MSc from Napier University. She has had many jobs including hairdresser, waitress, banker, azalea farmer and lecturer but has not yet achieved either of her childhood dreams of being a ballerina or owning a candy store.
Until those dreams come true, she has turned her hand to writing poetry, short stories, nonfiction, and novels. Val is an American author living in SW Scotland. She has two adult daughters of whom she is justly proud and lives with her husband and their cat.
Val, the floor is yours.
Thank you so much for inviting me onto your blog today, David. I am delighted to have a chance to tell you and your readers about Hunter’s Revenge, the new novel in my series of DI Hunter Wilson Thrillers.
I have been writing and telling stories all my life. When I was a child, I used to make up stories for my little sister after our Mum put the light out and told us to go to sleep. Later, I wrote documents, contracts, and courses as part of my job, but my time was well accounted for, so I did not create any fiction.
However, I took early retirement when I was diagnosed with breast cancer, and there were times when I suffered severe side effects from my treatment. I could not go out, spend time with friends or indulge in many of my favourite hobbies, but watching daytime television got very old very fast, so I turned to reading. It was the only thing I had the energy to do and could do safely.
I read voraciously, as I always have. I particularly enjoy reading crime fiction and thrillers. I indulged this interest with many novels including those by Peter Robinson, Ian Rankin, Linwood Barclay and Kathy Reichs.
After a while, I began to feel a little better and decided to start reviewing the books I read in a blog www.bookreviewstoday.info I enjoyed doing that. Then, as I began to feel better still, I got restless, but was not well enough to do very much and I complained to my long-suffering husband about getting bored. It was then he challenged me: ‘If you know so much about what makes a good book, why don’t you write one?’ I did laugh. However, the challenge set, I have been writing police procedural crime thrillers set in Scotland ever since.
In fact, my publishers, SpellBound Ltd, will publish the second book in The DI Hunter Wilson on St. Andrew’s Day, 30.11.2022. The main character is Detective Inspector Hunter Wilson, in Hunter’s Revenge.
I particularly enjoyed writing Hunter’s Revenge and hope that your readers will enjoy the novel too. SpellBound plan that the next novel in this series, Hunter’s Force, will appear early in 2023. It will take place just after the unification of the regional police forces in to form Police Scotland. I’ll let your readers know more about that in due course!
Thank you again for hosting me, David.
So what’s the story behind Hunter’s Revenge? Here’s the blurb.
Hunter by name – Hunter by nature.
Detective Inspector Hunter Wilson is a loyal friend and a fair leader. He is called to the scene of a murder in Edinburgh where the corpse has been fatally shot. He is dismayed to find the victim is his friend and colleague, George Reinbold. Hunter must investigate Reinbold’s murky past in Germany to identify George’s killer.
At the same time, Hunter is tasked with looking into a previously undetected criminal gang supplying drugs from Peru. There seems to be no connection between the murder and the drug supply until Hunter unexpectedly secures help from inmates of the local jail.
Hunter’s investigations are hampered by distracted members of his team and unobservant witnesses.
Reinbold was not the quiet, old man Hunter believed him to be and his killer bore their grudge for a lifetime.
Thanks Val, a pleasure to rap with you again.
And our readers want to know where they can pick up the book don’t they?
Hunter’s Revenge is published by Spellbound Books and is available HERE
