Featuring on Friday - Chris Ward

This week I am featuring Chris Ward.

I was introduced to Chris through a read and review site. He had written several books in other genres and wanted to try his hand at a mystery. He sent out two chapters a week for those that signed up to read his latest creation. It was a work in progress so we had to wait until the next week for the next installment. He is really good at cliff hangers so it was hard to wait. It turned out great! I have since read a book in another genre that Chris wrote and really liked it also. (I will post about it soon).
Talk about something for everyone...



About Chris:

"Chris Ward is a native of Cornwall, England, but currently lives and works in Nagano, Japan. He is the author of The Tube Riders Trilogy, The Man Who Built the World and Head of Words, as well as numerous short stories and collections.

He spends his time snowboarding, writing, playing guitar in his rock band, Steampunk Unicorn (www.reverbnation/steampunkunicorn), and generally having too much to say about just about everything."

His most recent series, which introduced me to Chris, is the Slim Hardy Mystery series. Book one is The Man by the Sea and written under the pen name of Jack Benton. It is described as a psychological thriller. I have read this book and really liked it. I wrote about it in a previous post. Chris is currently working on Book Two in the Series, The Clockmaker's Secret. 



"John "Slim" Hardy, heavy drinker and disgraced soldier turned bumbling private detective, is hired to investigate Ted Douglas, an investment banker who slips out of work every Friday to visit a desolate cove on the Lancashire coast. There, he walks to the shore, opens an old book, and begins to read aloud.

His wife thinks he's having an affair.

Slim thinks he's insane.

The truth is more incredible than either could imagine.

The Man by the Sea is the sensational debut novel by Jack Benton, a classic story of love, betrayal, murder, and intrigue." 


The Tube Riders - Dystopian Science Fiction four book series

"Beneath the dark streets of London they played a dangerous game with trains. Now it is their only chance for survival... Britain in 2075 is a dangerous place. A man known only as the Governor rules the country with an iron hand, but within the towering perimeter walls of London Greater Urban Area anarchy spreads unchecked through the streets. In the abandoned London Underground station of St. Cannerwells, a group of misfits calling themselves the Tube Riders seek to forget the chaos by playing a dangerous game with trains." All five star reviews!"

Benjamin Forrest: Endifinium Series. Three book series, YA



School at the End of the World, Bay of Paper Dragons, and Lost City of the Ghouls.
From Book One: 

"At the end of everything ... there is a new beginning.

Benjamin Forrest wakes up on a strange beach. Two suns shine in the sky, and a couple of miles out from the shore, the sea drops off the edge of the world.

Where is he? How did he get here? And most importantly, how can he get home?

As he begins to encounter the unusual characters of Endinfinium, he finds himself at the centre of a battle for a secret world, one in which he will play a decisive role …"

Tokyo Lost Series - three book series.





"At first Miyu can't stand Jack, the spoiled delinquent from Britain sent to college in Japan to keep him out of trouble.

Then her ailing father dies, leaving behind a mystery which turns everything she knew about herself on her head.

Pushed into an uneasy alliance with Jack, together they travel from the seedy underbelly of Tokyo to the rice fields of Nagano, searching for the truth about Miyu’s mother, who abandoned her sixteen years before." 

Tales of Crow - 4 book series also set in Japan



From Book One: 
"For Jun Matsumoto, a school trip to the remote study camp of British Heights is hardly his idea of a good time. Akane Yamaguchi, the love of his life, hates him, and he’s rooming with Ogiwara, the school bully.

Things get even worse when most of the students become violently sick, and Jun and a handful of survivors are left cut off from civilization as the snow closes in. Soon the power has gone off, and a strange, birdlike creature begins terrorizing the guests.

As the students group together with the other remaining guests, suddenly their understanding of danger turns on its head.

There are creatures out in the woods, and they’re hungry for human flesh…

They Came Out After Dark is the first in Chris Ward's Tales of Crow series, an exciting blend of horror, fantasy and dystopian science-fiction with a heavy dash of black humour."

Chris has also written some standalones and short stories. Whew!

Here is his website. He has a readers group and you can sign up to read and review for him. I really enjoy his newsletters and his books. He likes to receive questions and feedback.

http://www.amillionmilesfromanywhere.net/