Tuesday, September 01, 2015

Please Welcome Mystery Author Ian C. Simpson

Omnimystery News: Guest Post by Ian C. Simpson

We are delighted to welcome author Ian C. Simpson to Omnimystery News today.

Ian visited with us last year, when he shared a very entertaining interview with his series character Bagawath Chandavarkar, and now he has a new stand-alone golfing mystery out, Sons of the Fathers (DB Publishing; July 2015 trade paperback and ebook formats). We asked him to tell us more about his new book.

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Ian C. Simpson
Photo provided courtesy of
Ian C. Simpson

Do you remember the TV series Hardcastle and McCormick? A maverick judge and a "nice" criminal combined to bring to justice villains whom the courts had not convicted. That was one of the original influences on the plot of Sons of the Fathers. I also knew that a golf tournament would "frame" a crime novel well; at the end the circus would leave town, so the murderer had to be unmasked by then. Where better to put such a story than St Andrews during an Open Championship? And why not incorporate an authentic account of an Open won by my golfing hero, Bobby Jones, a remarkable gentleman as well as a supreme sportsman? So the tale is set in 1927, when Jones won the British Open at St Andrews, which just happens to be my home town.

As the golfers arrive, a boy is brutally murdered. His father is the local sheriff's gardener (a sheriff in Scotland is the local judge). Believing that the police have arrested the wrong man, the sheriff starts his own investigation, aided by a youth he has saved from borstal (a tough penal institution). A variety of father/son relationships are featured in the book, hence the title.

I wrote this a few years ago and punted it round without success. Then I published my light-hearted series (Murder on Page One, Murder on the Second Tee and Murder in Court Three) which attracted many good comments. Earlier this year I got an e-mail from publishers I had approached: was Sons of the Fathers still available? The answer was yes and now it is on sale, published by DB Publishing and available on Amazon and at some bookshops. We have a launch planned at J & G Innes in St Andrews on Saturday, September 5th.

When it came to the cover, the publishers produced a well-composed image of a golfer with trees and a fine sunset; but the golfer was too modern and there are no trees on the course at St Andrews. My wife solved the problem by taking a photo of a painting, by an amateur artist now dead, of the iconic view of the course and adjacent buildings. It was on the wall of my study! The publishers' designer tweaked it and I am delighted with the book's arresting cover.

Unusually for a crime novel it is "faction", but I hope lovers of a good mystery will enjoy it, particularly if they are keen on golf. I describe it as "Golfing history and murder mystery". It's a more substantial book than my others, with less humour. Although I say it myself, I'm proud of it and I hope it will find a place in many golfers' Christmas stockings!

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Ian C. Simpson QC was brought up in St Andrews and held a handicap of three. His legal career included sitting as a judge in High Court murder trials. Shortlisted for the Debut Dagger in 2008, he is also the author of three Flick Fortune and Bagawath Chandavarkar mysteries.

For more information about the author, please visit his website at IanSimpsonAuthor.co.uk and his author page on Goodreads, or find him on Facebook and Twitter.

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Sons of the Fathers by Ian C. Simpson

Sons of the Fathers by Ian C. Simpson

A Murder Mystery

Publisher: DB Publishing

Amazon.com Print/Kindle Format(s)

Is one of the world’s top golfers a child-killer? Or is it a camp follower, or a local?

Sheriff Hector Drummond's gardener's son is murdered — so for him it is personal. It is 1927 and Bobby Jones arrives in St Andrews. He is favourite to retain his Open crown but can he win the hearts of the people of St Andrews?

More murders follow but Hector believes the police have arrested the wrong men. Meanwhile his step-son has a crisis of identity …

Sons of the Fathers by Ian C. Simpson

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