#BlogTour Kill Me Twice #GuestPost @simonbooker @BonnierZaffre

‘They think he’s dead.

They’re wrong….’

Simon Booker is back with his second book in a series of psychological thrillers featuring Morgan Vine, a single mother and investigative journalist, who specialises in miscarriages of justice.

Kill Me Twice is published on 24th August by Bonnier Zaffre. I am delighted to be joining Simon Booker on tour today with quite a personal guest post entitled ‘In Praise of Single Mothers‘.

Book Blurb:

Karl Savage is dead.

He must be. His ex, Anjelica, is in prison for murdering him in an arson attack. Multiple forensic experts testified to finding his charred remains.

So when Anjelica begs investigative journalist Morgan Vine to prove her innocence, it seems an impossible task. It doesn’t matter that Karl was abusive. That Anjelica has a baby to care for. That she’s petrified of fire. The whole world knows Karl is dead.

Then he turns up outside Morgan’s window….

Purchase Link ~ Kill Me Twice

Guest Post 

In Praise of Single Mothers

by Simon Booker

Why did I make the lead character in my thrillers WITHOUT TRACE and KILL ME TWICE a single mother?

To be clear: Morgan Vine is not necessarily a conventional single mum.

She’s a kickass investigative journalist who lives in a converted railway carriage on Dungeness beach and is obsessed with miscarriages of justice. Her beautiful eighteen year-old daughter, Lissa, is trouble on legs with terrible taste in (older) men and an ankle tattoo of the devil to prove it.

But in deciding to make my heroine a single parent, maybe I was subconsciously trying to pay tribute to my late mother – a remarkable woman who carved a career as a film publicist in the UK and Hollywood, working with superstars including Elizabeth Taylor, Bette Davis and Michael Caine, and on iconic movies such as 2001: A Space Odyssey and James Bond films like The Spy Who Loved Me.

After divorcing my father, she raised me in the Mad Men era, when ‘career women’ were a rarity, and with the support of my grandparents and a stream of au pairs. It’s to her great credit that I never felt the absence of a father figure, and never once considered myself in any way disadvantaged by the lack of a dad around the home.

A list of those raised by single parents would have to include all kinds of people who didn’t have a great start in life, and who wrestled with all manner of difficulties. But it would also have to include many success stories, such as Barack Obama, Angelina Jolie, Marilyn Monroe and Jodie Foster. (Incidentally, Jodie’s conman father, Lucius, was sent to prison for ripping off people in a property scam in Los Angeles. Those people included my own mother, who lost her life savings, but that’s another story…)

The vast majority of single parents are single mums, but single fathers face tricky times too, of course. And yet the vast majority are, in my view, unsung heroes and heroines, unfairly demonised in sections of the tabloid media.

Morgan Vine is one such heroine. She’ll do whatever it takes to protect her daughter but she’s no angel, and her judgement is as flawed as anyone else’s – especially when it comes to pmen. Which makes her human, of course, and that, above all, is what I want my series character to be. Not perfect, but relatable. In book #1 WITHOUT TRACE Morgan must find out if her childhood sweetheart, convicted of murder, is the innocent she believes him to be; in book #2 KILL ME TWICE she’s trying to prove the innocence of a woman convicted of murdering her abusive husband. The world believes the man to be dead. Then he walks past Morgan’s window…

If you’d like a FREE 26-page short story in which kickass single mother Morgan must outfox an escaped prisoner who takes her hostage in her own home please go to simonbooker.com

About Simon Booker:

Simon Booker is an author and screenwriter who has written prime time TV drama for BBC1, ITV and US TV. His UK credits include The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Holby City and The Mrs Bradley Mysteries.

He has written seven plays for BBC Radio 4, worked extensively as a producer in television and radio, and as a journalist.

Booker lives in London and Deal. His partner is fellow crime writer MJ McGrath.

They often discuss murder methods over breakfast!!

Website ~ http://simonbooker.com/

Twitter ~ @simonbooker