In both Sea of Gold and particularly in Dark Ocean I wrote of Angus McKinnon’s backstory: his childhood trauma in Hong Kong. Today is the 50th anniversary of that tragedy, described in grim and graphic detail here: The...

A spy swap in the Syrian desert, a pirate attack in the Sulu Sea, a devastating confrontation in the Balkans … Beirut 1963: Kim Philby defects to Moscow. As he boards his Soviet escape ship, a young ship’s officer passes him,...

Of all the dreadful stories that fill the news daily, the death of those thirty-nine young Vietnamese folk found in a trailer in the south of England recently, has stuck in my mind. Call them refugees, illegal immigrants,...

Each book in my trilogy of Angus McKinnon thrillers owes a small part of its plot to the fate of three ships. I thought it may be of interest to present a few bare facts on each case, courtesy of Wikipedia whose terms and those...

Hi there, For those of you who don’t know BookBub, it is the top book promotion site, worldwide – by a mile. It’s well worth subscribing to (free to readers) and you can choose your favourite authors, genres,...

A SHIP’S CAPTAIN IS FOUND HANGED IN HIS CABIN: SUICIDE OR MURDER? Marine claims investigator Angus McKinnon is assigned to the case, but when he discovers a falsely declared cargo of military equipment in the ship’s holds, alarm...

Hello from Scotland – and especially welcome to those who have subscribed to this newsletter recently. Black Reef The third Angus McKinnon thriller, provisionally entitled Black Reef, is currently under construction. I’m...