When maverick police sergeant Jolly Macken is banished to the sleepy 1950s Irish border village of Blackwatertown, he vows to find the killer of his brother - even if the murderer is inside the police.
But a lot can happen in a week.
Over seven days Macken falls in love, uncovers dark family secrets, accidentally starts a war and is hailed a hero and branded a traitor.
When Blackwatertown explodes into violence, who can he trust? And is betrayal the only way to survive?
Blackwatertown by Paul Waters was published on 23 July 2020 by Unbound Digital.
As part of the #RandomThingsTours Blog Tour, I'm delighted to welcome the author here today.
Ten Things About Paul Waters
1. Paul is from Belfast. He’s lived and worked in Dublin, Poland, USA, England and Wales.
2. His book Blackwatertown is based on secret stories from a little-known 1950s border war in Ireland.
3. Paul played in a band called Tree Party. They played music from places beginning with i – Ireland, Iceland, Israel and Italy – and a cover of These Days by Jackson Browne.
4. He co-presents with fellow author Stevyn Colgan the We’d Like A Word books and authors podcast. They have fascinating and funny guests like Graham Norton, Tony Kent, Dr Erica McAlister, Isi the Scribe and Anthony Horowitz.
5. Paul once cooked the world’s second best footballer, the legendary Pele, his dinner. He was working as a nightclub cook in New York at the time. (Paul, not Pele.) Paul also met the footballing world’s Best – George.
6. He had contrasting walks across the Iron Curtain before the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. The guards at the crossing into East Berlin could have come from an old James Bond film. Walking from Austria into Hungary was different. Miles of sunflowers, lines of barbed wire and watchtowers straight out of The Great Escape. But the Hungarian border guards were so friendly and hospitable.
7. Paul has made radio shows in Jamaica, Zimbabwe and Cuba. He smuggled a satellite dish into Cuba. Didn’t get caught. Phew!
8. His favourite bookshop is No Alibis on Botanic Avenue in Belfast. It’s a modest but mighty engine of literary culture in Ireland – and linked to the Noireland International Crime Fiction Festival. Paul’s new discovery is the small but beautifully formed Little Bookshop in Cookham on the river Thames.
9. The Drakensberg between South Africa and Lesotho is a place Paul would like to revisit – for the majesty, the vistas, the views and the friendly locals.
10. His strong memories are of taste – the shocking intensity of freshly squeezed passion fruit juice at a trackside stall in Venezuela and the revelation that aloo parathas in northern India are even better than Irish potato bread.
PRAISE FOR BLACKWATERTOWN
“Beguiling writing with an underlying sense of menace that keeps you reading.”
Peter May, author of Lockdown and the Lewis trilogy
“Evocative and compelling, Blackwatertown announces Paul Waters as one to watch in Irish crime fiction.”
Brian McGilloway, author of The Last Crossing
“Beguiling writing with an underlying sense of menace that keeps you reading.”
Peter May, author of Lockdown and the Lewis trilogy
“Evocative and compelling, Blackwatertown announces Paul Waters as one to watch in Irish crime fiction.”
Brian McGilloway, author of The Last Crossing
“A black, compelling journey into the crimes of a past
forgotten. An absolute must-read for any crime fan.”
Tony Kent, author of Killer Intent, Marked for Death
and Power Play
“Extraordinary, abundant, dazzling.”
Rev Richard Coles, BBC Radio 4 presenter
“Dark enough to punch you in the gut. It’s a fantastic book. I urge you to get a copy as soon as you can.” Gerard Brennan, author of Disorder and Undercover
“Extraordinary, abundant, dazzling.”
Rev Richard Coles, BBC Radio 4 presenter
“Dark enough to punch you in the gut. It’s a fantastic book. I urge you to get a copy as soon as you can.” Gerard Brennan, author of Disorder and Undercover
Paul Waters is an award-winning BBC producer and co-presenter of the We’d
Like A Word books and authors podcast, shortlisted for 2020 Books Podcast of
the Year. Paul grew up in Belfast during ‘the Troubles’ and went on to report
and produce for BBC TV and radio.
His claim to fame is making Pelé his dinner. Paul has covered US politics, created a G8 Summit in a South African township, gone undercover in Zimbabwe, conducted football crowds, reported from Swiss drug shooting-up rooms, smuggled a satellite dish into Cuba and produced the World Service’s first live coverage of the 9/11 attacks on America.
He also taught in Poland, drove a cab in England, busked in Wales, was a night club cook in New York, designed computer systems in Dublin, presented podcasts for Germans and organised music festivals for beer drinkers.
He lives in Buckinghamshire and has two children.
www.paulwatersauthor.com
Twitter: @paulwaters99
Facebook: @paulwatersauthor
Instagram: @paul_waters_author
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