WELCOME MARK ELLIS
MARK ELLIS
Mark Ellis grew up in Swansea, Wales, and is a former barrister and entrepreneur. For many years
he lived and worked in the USA in New York, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh and now divides his time between Kensington, London, Gigaro in the south of France and Sotogrande in Spain. Mark’s fascination with the Second World War inspired his extensive research for The Frank Merlin Series; his first novel in the series Princes Gate was incredibly well-received.
Connect with NAME at these sites:
Q&A with Mark Ellis
Writing and Reading:
Do you draw from personal experiences and/or current events?
My books are based on historical research and imagination but sometimes elements of my own experience or of characters I have known creep in.
Do you start with the conclusion and plot in reverse or start from the beginning and see where the story line brings you?
I start from the beginning with a firm idea of people and place and historical period but normally do not work out where the plot is ultimately going until at least half way through the book.
Your routine when writing? Any idiosyncrasies?
Writing in the morning, editing and research in the afternoon. Sometimes I write at my desk at home, sometimes in the library and sometimes I like to have an intensive week or two writing abroad. No particular idiosyncrasies that I am aware of.
Is writing your full time job? If not, may I ask what you do by day?
Writing is pretty much my full time job although I have a couple of non-executive company board positions in the US.
Who are some of your favorite authors?
Patricia Highsmith, Simenon, Michael Connelly, Robert Harris, Agatha Christie, Allan Massie, Dickens, Trollope, Tolstoy, Le Carre, PG Wodehouse, Jo Nesbo, Henning Mankell and many more.
What are you reading now?
The Honourable Schoolboy by Le Carre
Are you working on your next novel? Can you tell us a little about it?
I am researching Frank Merlin 3 which will be set in 1941(Princes Gate is set in January 1940, Frank Merlin in September 1940).
Fun questions:
Your novel will be a movie. Who would you cast?
I think Dominic West would make a good Frank Merlin.
Manuscript/Notes: hand written or keyboard?
I hand write manuscripts and notes and have them typed up by my friend and former secretary Audrey
Favorite leisure activity/hobby?
I like tennis and golf, reading of course and lying in the sun.
Favorite meal?
A full English breakfast
ABOUT THE BOOK
December 1938, in snowbound Moscow, Josef Stalin has learned that a fortune in Spanish gold has gone missing en route to the Soviet Russian Treasury. Furious, he instructs his vicious henchman Beria to get it back.
September 1940, and the Battle of Britain rages in the skies above London. On the devastated streets below, Chief Inspector Frank Merlin and his officers are investigating the sudden disappearance of
Polish RAF pilot Ziggy Kilinski while also battling an epidemic of looting across the capital, unleashed by the chaos and destruction of the Blitz. Among those caught up in Merlin’s enquiries are Kilinski’s fellow pilots, a disgraced Cambridgedon, Stalin’s spies in London, members of the Polish government in exile, and a ruthless Russian gangster. A violent shoot-out in Hampstead eventually leads Merlin to the truth…and Stalin to his gold.
Stalin’s Gold is the riveting second novel in author Mark Ellis’s detective thriller series, following the wartime cases of the enigmatic Chief Inspector Frank Merlin. Stalin’s Gold delivers a fast-paced yet deftly woven narrative, in which parallel story lines and emotive flashbacks blend to provide an arresting and authentic insight into some of the complex events that preceded the war, and into the extraordinary world of the Blitz and Britain’s desperate battle for survival. Historically accurate and rich in detail, Ellis paints a vivid picture of a European landscape ravaged by war. By charting the intimate lives and the domestic difficulties faced by those caught up in the conflict — such as the rampant looting during the Battle of Britain — he offers a powerful portrayal of the human reality of life consumed by an ever present threat of attack.
BOOK DETAILS:
Number of Pages: 312 pages
Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
Publication Date: February 24, 2014
ISBN-10: 1783062460
ISBN-13: 978-1783062461PURCHASE LINKS:
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