The Missing - Available now.

Well I was going to do a piece today in reply to an article I read in the Guardian about Waterstone's and the problem it has around the changing book landscape. Many moons ago, whilst trying to make ends meet at university and for a short period afterwards, I worked for Waterstone's as a book seller. I enjoyed it, and even though the pay was crap, just being around books all day and many like minded people was a joy. That said, the store went through many changes whilst I was there and you were always under the threat of closure as new stores moved into the area and year on year the book buying public dwindled.

Waterstone's needs to change, it needs to stay vibrant but it also needs to stay close to modern advances in technology. Things are going to change but the desire to buy good quality hard back editions of books won't go away completely, but people will want digital and audio versions of those same books.

Anyway I could go on about that but it seems I should really mention that 'The Missing' has now appeared on Amazon for pre-order at the not unreasonable price of £8.99 a copy.

Please feel free to order a copy and if you want to me to sign or inscribe it, contact me and I'll be happy to do so.

I will be having a opening night for the book somewhere in Edinburgh probably in December or early January. I'll let you know the dates as soon as possible.

Also if any one reading this posts reviews for magazines or websites again contact me and I'll sort out review copies.

I don't really know what else to say about it. I'm happy that it's here, but it's taken far too long and I'm already on to new things and ideas. Writing and publishing seems to be like keeping several balls in the air at the same time, you have the work you're currently writing in one hand and work that makes it to print (often several months or years after you've finished it) in the other. Strange and dislocating.

Below is the blurb from the back of the book.

A girl vanishes from a crowded shop.

A wife awaits a husband who will never arrive.

Parents mourn a daughter who never existed.

They are the missing, lost souls, the disappeared.

Nick Stuart wakes to find his girlfriend gone, not just from his bed but from the minds and memories of friends and family. Convinced he is to blame for her disappearance he seeks help but all evidence of her existence has been wiped away. Has she left him, or is something more sinister at work? What happened the night she vanished? And who is the man with eyes that burn like a desert?

The police have their own worries as the heat wave builds and turns the city into a melting pot of violence and frustration, all brought to a head by the mysterious 'Missing Man', who snatches woman from the streets leaving no clues.

As they investigate the two cases become linked, but who is behind the crime - a man, a monster or a myth?