A young author has released his debut novel achieving a lifelong dream.
A Fatal Crossing is described as a fresh take on the Golden Age locked-room style of mystery, and is suitable for Agatha Christie fans.
Tom Hindle, from Didcot, wrote his first novel during his free time while working a nine to five job at a PR agency.
He said: “This is definitely a dream come true. While I was writing the book I thought, if it doesn’t get published, that’s ok. This is something that I’m doing for myself, and I’m doing it for fun.”
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Mr Hindle first thought about the story when he was around 17 years old, but he initially wanted to write a comedy play not a murder mystery novel.
He said: “I was going to write it up and perform it with my friends, but I massively underestimated how much work it would be to write a play.”
He stopped writing for a short time while at university, but in 2018 he decided to start writing again, but this time, it would be a novel.
The 28 year-old said: “I dug out all the old notes I wrote when I was 17 and spent about six months doing research into the setting and revisiting the story. Then I started writing it in Summer and finished the first draft the in November 2019.”
The novel, published at the beginning of this year, follows two detectives who, in a ship full of suspects, try to find the man who killed one of the passengers before their journey finishes.
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