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Crime Writing Star Back with New DCI Ryan Thriller

Bestselling crime author LJ Ross is delivering an extra special spine tingling treat for fans of her fictional detective, DCI Ryan.

The Queen of the Kindle has chosen the spookiest day of the year - Hallowe’en - to pre-release her latest DCI Ryan murder mystery.

Dark Skies - the seventh book in the million-selling DCI Ryan series – is due to be published on December 10 in both e-edition and paperback.

But the thriller set around Kielder in Northumberland, is being made available to pre-order on Amazon as an e-edition on October 31.

And, if past form is anything to go by, Dark Skies looks set to follow the success of its literary predecessors and race straight to the top of the Amazon eBook charts on pre-orders alone.

All but one of LJ’s back catalogue is currently sitting in Amazon’s best-selling crime, thriller and mystery chart, with the last outing for DCI Ryan, Cragside, still riding high on the main eBook list nearly four months after publication.

LJ said: “Dark Skies takes its name from Kielder’s international gold standard dark sky status, offering as it does an awe-inspiring cosmic panorama of millions of stars in an age when light pollution denies this magical spectacle to so many people.

“The area really starts to come into its own now the nights are getting darker and longer, and Hallowe’en seemed the perfect time to pre-release Dark Skies as it not only deals with a particularly haunting murder that has lain hidden for decades, but it also throws the spotlight on what a magical and unique place Kielder is.

“All my DCI Ryan books have been deliberately set in picturesque locations across Northumberland and County Durham, as I love North East England, and I want my readers to as well.

“I know that many have been inspired to visit the North East by the DCI Ryan books, and I would love to think Dark Skies – the odd murder aside - would encourage them to discover Kielder for themselves and the breath-taking sight that awaits in the heavens above.”

Fans of DCI Ryan, who made his debut appearance in January 2015 in Holy Island, which knocked Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train off the number one spot on the Amazon charts, have been dying to get their hands on Dark Skies.

But despite the worldwide interest in her work, LJ says it is always a nervous time when she pushes the button to release another book.

This time, DCI Ryan is investigating a decades old death when the preserved body of a young man who went missing in the early 1980s as Kielder Valley was being flooded to form what is the UK’s largest artificial lake, is discovered by scuba divers exploring a drowned village.

Against the backdrop of the reservoir, Europe’s largest man-made forest, and the night sky shimmering with billions of stars and planets, DCI Ryan finds himself battling against a dangerous protagonist hovering between madness and sanity who will do anything to hide the truth as dark, long buried secrets are brought to light, old wounds reopened, and childhood friendships tested to breaking point.

But is this a case of murder or a teenage prank that went tragically wrong?

DCI Ryan must once again skilfully sift the fact from the fiction in this latest fast-paced poisonous puzzle from the pen of LJ Ross.

Dark Skies is sure to be one of winter 2017’s most popular and gripping reads, as LJ further cements her place as a leader among the new wave of young, female crime authors invigorating the whodunit genre with their original and bold writing.

Originally from Ponteland, Northumberland, but now living in Bath, LJ worked as a regulatory lawyer in London before turning her hand to writing post-mortem fiction in her late 20s.

She was offered a traditional publishing deal, but decided to take charge of her own career and go down the self-publishing route instead.

Her six DCI Ryan books to date have now sold more than 1.2m copies worldwide, with the long-awaited Dark Skies set to be the seventh when it is published on December 10.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Jessica Adams .