Graham Hurley - Author
About the Author
Graham Hurley is an award-winning TV documentary maker who now writes full time. He lived in Portsmouth for 20 years. He is married and has grown up children. He now lives in Exmouth, Devon.
Maxim Jakubowski's view on JOE FARADAY...
The investigations of a Portsmouth cop and a fascinating look into crime on the British coast. If you like Ian Rankin’s Rebus, this should be your next step. NO LOVELIER DEATH is the 9th book in the Faraday series.
A Q & A with Graham Hurley
Who’s your favourite author?
The Alan Furst of The Polish Officer and The World at Night.
Where do you live? And why?
Portsmouth. Because so many people ask me why.
What’s the greatest influence on your writing?
Lin Rowden.
What is your philosophy for life?
Check the tide tables and watch for eddies.
Have you had any formal tuition in creative writing? If so, where and what? Did you find it useful?
BA/MA Cambridge University (English – no help at all). No formal tuition in creative writing except a pathological nosiness and a fascination with story. Profound doubts about collective literary endeavour. Why? Because, in the end, writing is a solitary business.
Did you always want to be an author? If not, what did you originally want to be and when and why did you change your mind?
Yes. And like most authors, I’m not sure why. But – emphatically – yes.
Who do you most admire and why?
My mum (seriously). Because she’s never failed to make the very best of an occasionally dodgy hand. Huge fortitude.
What jobs did you have before you started writing?
Ice cream salesman, deckchair attendant, lifeguard, prep school teacher (scripture and cricket), Radio Victory reporter, TV promotion scriptwriter, TV researcher, TV documentary director/producer, Oz TV cop series writer.
If your house was burning down what would you save?
Lin Rowden, the cats, a framed photo of the Otter estuary, me.
What do you do when you are not writing? How do you relax? What are your hobbies?
Sailing, cycling, nosing around, tussling with French, dreaming of the day Tony Blair resigns.
Featured books by Graham Hurley
Touching Distance
Three random killings. Or something much, much worse? DS Jimmy Suttle is trying to get his life back on track. His marriage has fallen apart and he rarely sees his young daughter, Grace. But then a murder shuts the door on the chaos of his personal life...The victim was shot through the head at the wheel of his car on a lonely moorland road. The only witness? His two-year-old son, strapped into the rear child seat. Within days, two more killings, equally professional, equally without motive. Meanwhile, Suttle's estranged wife is embarking on an investigation of her own in the world of journalism. But the story brings her to the question at the very heart of Jimmy's case - what does it take to make a man kill?
The Sins of the Father
A Maxim Jakubowski selected title. Despite twelve sterling titles in his Faraday and Winter gritty and atmospheric Portsmouth-set cop series, Graham Hurley is still a sorely under-appreciated crime writer, whom I would personally place on as high a pedestal as Ian Rankin, Val McDermid or Stuart MacBride. His new series features troubled DS Jimmy Suttle, a family man whose life has been shattered by the abduction and death of his daughter in an earlier volume and his ensuing estrangement from his journalist wife. Following the savage death in a West Country mansion haunted by the past of a rich old man whose complex, extended family still live under the same roof, the search for the truth leads Suttle to Africa and the Kenyan bush and uncovers uncomfortable truths. Strong emotional stuff and a gripping read. Sarah Broadhurst's view... Sadly Jim and Lizzie Suttle, police officer and journalist respectively, split after the kidnapping and death of their beautiful 2-year old daughter. Jim becomes involved in investigating the brutal murder of a wealthy ex-colonial gentleman hacked to death with his own machete. Lizzie becomes obsessed with finding a motive for her daughter’s killer. The two stories run parallel but hold a single theme, mental illness. This is an unusual tale, very clever and Hurley is one of the best in the police procedural area. Highly recommended.
Western Approaches
December 2013 Book of the Month. Creator of the Portsmouth-based Joe Faraday police procedural novels takes a bit character from that long series, one Jimmy Suttle, and moves him, his wife and two-year old daughter to Dartmoor. Fans need to be patient to let this series build and to warm to the new characters, certainly Jimmy’s wife doesn’t take to the move. So we have half the book setting place and being fascinated by rowing and then we switch into what we’re used to, an intricate plot with several strands. It will be interesting to see how the series develops. In addition to our Lovereading expert opinion for Western Approaches a small number of Lovereading members were lucky enough to be invited to review this title. Scroll down to read their reviews.
Happy Days
This is the 12th and final Faraday and Winter Portsmouth-based police procedural mystery. As the book opens with the discovery of DI Faraday’s body this really is the end of an era. The series of books with their compelling and realistic characters makes them perfect for fans of Ian Rankin’s Rebus.
Borrowed Light
December 2011 Book of the Month. Set in Portsmouth this series, with D I Joe Faraday and ex cop Paul Winter, gets better and better. Well plotted, compelling and realistic characters make it a guaranteed great read. Perfect for fans of Ian Rankin’s Rebus.
Beyond Reach
A brutal hit-and-run killing opens the path to another 25-year-old crime. The brilliant new novel in the acclaimed Faraday series, from the author of NO LOVELIER DEATH.
Cut To Black
The fifth Portsmouth-based DI Joe Faraday thriller gives further insight into this developing character as his son J-J faces a manslaughter charge. The publishers tell me Hurley’s sales’ position is higher than Ian Rankin’s Rebus novels when he delivered his fifth. I mention this only because I feel Faraday has the same appeal as Rebus and his Portsmouth a similar feel to Edinburgh’s dark side.Comparisons: Ian Rankin, Colin Dexter, Reginald Hill.Similar this month: Donna Leon, Hilary Bonner. Maxim Jakubowski, a Lovereading expert voice says: Joe Faraday; the investigations of a Portsmouth cop and a fascinating look into crime on the British coast. If you like Ian Rankin’s Rebus, this should be your next step. NO LOVELIER DEATH is the 9th book in the Faraday series. Joe Faraday series:1. Turnstone (2000)2. The Take (2001)3. Angels Passing (2002)4. Deadlight (2003)5. Cut to Black (2004)6. Blood and Honey (2006)7. One Under (2007)8. The Price of Darkness (2008)9. No Lovelier Death (2009)
No Lovelier Death
January 2010 Book of the Month. The latest instalment from Graham Hurley sees Faraday and Winter pitted against each other in another fantastic police procedural. Gruesome murders and crime lords with grudges bring more crime to the city of Portsmouth. Hurley is so convincing and so descriptive you will never want to visit the seaside town for fear of what might happen to you! Joe Faraday series:1. Turnstone (2000)2. The Take (2001)3. Angels Passing (2002)4. Deadlight (2003)5. Cut to Black (2004)6. Blood and Honey (2006)7. One Under (2007)8. The Price of Darkness (2008)9. No Lovelier Death (2009)
Blood and Honey
A Portsmouth/Isle of Wight police procedural tale, the sixth in the Joe Faraday series, jumps the reader from one crime to another eventually linking them, but for most of the time it could almost be two books. The rather strange relationship between a hooker and an old, unwell PC adds interesting colour to a fragmented tale that keeps you on your toes and is surprisingly unputdownable.Similar this month: Ann Cleeves.Comparison: Simon Kernick, John Harvey, Reginald Hill. Maxim Jakubowski, a Lovereading expert voice says: Joe Faraday; the investigations of a Portsmouth cop and a fascinating look into crime on the British coast. If you like Ian Rankin’s Rebus, this should be your next step. NO LOVELIER DEATH is the 9th book in the Faraday series. Joe Faraday series:1. Turnstone (2000)2. The Take (2001)3. Angels Passing (2002)4. Deadlight (2003)5. Cut to Black (2004)6. Blood and Honey (2006)7. One Under (2007)8. The Price of Darkness (2008)9. No Lovelier Death (2009)
Deadlight
A twenty-year-old crime throws DI Joe Faraday into the violent legacy of the Falklands War... Freshly promoted to the elite Major Crimes Team, DI Joe Faraday is thrown into the deep end with the investigation into the murder of prison officer Paul Coughlin. Was the violent Coughlin killed by a recently released con he brutalised in prison? Or is his death a legacy of a wider, more savage violence from twenty years before? Coughlin was an ex-petty officer in the Royal Navy. Not much liked, he served on HMS Accolade, a Type 21 frigate sunk during the Falklands war with the loss of 19 men. If Faraday is to solve the murder, he must first penetrate the wall of silence thrown up by the Navy. But as he digs deeper, he uncovers a disturbing connection to a crime that has waited twenty years to be avenged...
One Under
Two crimes, two tangles of emotions and thwarted love...From the author of LAST FLIGHT TO STALINGRAD A man is chained inside a tunnel and then dismembered and scattered along the tracks by the early morning train from Portsmouth to London. The beginning of DI Joe Faraday's most gruesome case yet, but is it a bizarre suicide or the cruellest of murders? Checking the list of missing persons as the police attempt to identify the body DC Winter comes across a missing man, someone who stepped out of his ordered life with no hint of leaving. He's not the man in the tunnel, he's simply disappeared. The only person he can find who knew him works in the city morgue...
Angels Passing
Another gripping case for DI Joe Faraday. A young girl falls to her death, and the shadowy figure of a young boy is caught on CCTV... DI Joe Faraday is on the case, but his investigation is hampered when resources are switched to a murder enquiry prompted by the discovery of the body of a small time crook on wasteland north of the city. Faraday plunges into Portsmouth's bleak netherworld of wrecked families and children cast adrift in a society too fragmented to care. But as he tracks down the boy, he is faced with a crisis much closer to home.
The Price of Darkness
Graham Hurley's acclaimed crime series takes a step into the dark side as DC Winter wonders whether crime might pay...From the author of LAST FLIGHT TO STALINGRAD. DC Winter, sacked from the police, has joined the city's premier drug baron, Bazza Mackenzie. Adrift in a world of easy money and brutally hard-won respect, Winter appears to be in his element. Worryingly so... DI Faraday, meanwhile, is deeply involved in two high-profile murders - but when one enquiry is taken out of his hands, he begins to uncover a web of evidence with profound implications for both investigations...and for the disgraced Paul Winter. The relationship between the two men has never been easy but now might be the time to bury their differences.
Last Flight to Stalingrad
'Historical fiction of a high order ... Hurley's descriptions of the cauldron of Stalingrad, and of Shakespearean vengeance are well worth relishing' The TimesBerlin, 1942. For Werner Nehmann, a journalist at the Ministry of Propaganda, the dizzying victory of the last four years has felt like a party without end. But the Reich's attention has turned East, and as winter sets in, the mood is turning. Werner's boss, Joseph Goebbels, can sense it. His words have propelled Germany towards its greater destiny and he won't - he can't - let morale falter now. But the Minister of Propaganda is uneasy and in his discomfort has pulled Werner into his close confidence. And here, amid the power struggle between the Nazi Chieftains, Werner will make his mistake and begin his descent into the hell of Stalingrad...
Other books by Graham Hurley
Estocada
In Graham Hurley's blockbuster historical thriller, ex-marine Tam Moncrieff must take desperate steps if war is to be avoided. 'Historical fiction of a high order' The Times1937. Flying for the infamous Condor Legion over the battlefields of Spain's civil war, Merz has been able to unleash the fearsome potential of the Luftwaffe's newest weapon against his opponents. In Dieter's hands, the Messerschmitt Bf-109 is as graceful as a matador's killing strike: la estocada. Scotsman and ex-marine Tam Moncrieff is recruited by a nameless intelligence agency in London to go to Germany and sound out Hitler's resolve. Does he really intend to invade Czechoslovakia? Do his generals support him? Can the march to war be stopped? As duty collides with conscience, fate will bring both men together. In a world wedded to violence and ambition, desperate steps must be taken. To avoid war a killing strike is needed. The question is, who is the matador, who is the bull?
Raid 42
The cost of peace is high in Graham Hurley's blockbuster World War II thriller. 'Historical fiction of a high order' The TimesSpring, 1941. The war in the West is as good as won. Nation after nation has fallen before the Reich's armies. Only Britain endures, her cities under nightly bombardment from the Luftwaffe. Berlin would happily call off the bombers in exchange for a peace treaty. Hitler would like to persuade Britain to turn her back on Europe, to attend to her precious Empire instead, to allow Germany a free hand to deal with the real enemy in the East. Peace, perhaps, but at what cost? For Churchill the price is too high; but for others within the British establishment, it is a price worth paying. On both sides of the channel, advocates of total war or peace-at-all-costs are at each others' throats - all unaware that Rudolf Hess, Hitler's quiet, contemplative deputy, has already taken radical steps to change the fortunes of the war...
Kyiv
'Historical fiction of a high order' The Times 'Original and compelling ... The fear enveloping Kyiv as the Soviets flee radiates from every page' Financial Times On Sunday 22nd June 1941 at 03.05, three-and-a-half million Axis troops burst into the Soviet Union along a 1,800-mile front to launch Operation Barbarossa. The southern thrust of the attack was aimed at the Caucuses and the oil fields beyond. Kyiv was the biggest city to stand in their way. Within six weeks, the city was under siege. Surrounded by Panzers, bombed and shelled day and night, Soviet Commissar Nikita Krushchev was amongst the senior Soviet officials co-ordinating the defence. Amid his cadre of trusted personnel is British defector Bella Menzies, once with MI5, now with the NKVD, the Soviet secret police. With the fall of the city inevitable, the Soviets plan a bloody war of terror that will extort a higher toll on the city's inhabitants than the invaders. As the noose tightens, Bella finds herself trapped, hunted by both the Russians and the Germans. As the local saying has it: life is dangerous - no one survives it.
Last Flight to Stalingrad
An intelligent, intricately plotted, and fabulously readable foray into The Second World War from a German perspective. Three men, Werner Nehmann from the Ministry of Propaganda, Georg Messner aide to Generaloberst Richthofen, and Wilhelm Schultz from the Military Intelligence Service, find themselves in the thick of the German attempt to capture Stalingrad. This is the fifth book in Graham Hurley’s Spoils of War series, featuring historical and fictional characters from different countries. Here the focus is Germany and we delve into the minds of such historical figures as Goebbels and Richthofen. It is however, the three fictional characters, in particular Werner, who take centre stage. In the main the story remains at a distance from direct fighting, nonetheless I was left in no doubt as to the reality of conflict. The mysteries of propaganda and intelligence wield their shadowy magic. This an intimate story set on a huge scale, the personal stories of the characters really highlights the struggle of the individual during war. Last Flight to Stalingrad is a dynamic, commanding slice of historical fiction that I highly recommend as one of our LoveReading Star Books.
Estocada
1937. Flying for the infamous Condor Legion over the battlefields of Spain's civil war, Merz has been able to unleash the fearsome potential of the Luftwaffe's newest weapon against his opponents. In Dieter's hands, the Messerschmitt Bf-109 is as graceful as a matador's killing strike: la estocada. Scotsman and ex-marine Tam Moncrieff is recruited by a nameless intelligence agency in London to go to Germany and sound out Hitler's resolve. Does he really intend to invade Czechoslovakia? Do his generals support him? Can the march to war be stopped? As duty collides with conscience, fate will bring both men together. In a world wedded to violence and ambition, desperate steps must be taken. To avoid war a killing strike is needed: la estocada. The question is, who is the matador, who is the bull? Tense, absorbing and faultlessly plotted. SUNDAY TIMES
Aurore
Barely half of the Bomber Command's aircrews survive a full tour, but wireless operator Billy Angell has beaten the odds and completed his 30th - and final - mission. Now, Billy is due two-weeks leave, a posting to a training squadron and a six-month exemption from active duty. Except that MI5 need an airman to drop into Nazi-occupied France. MI5 are interested in Helene Lafosse, a Frenchwoman keeping unusual company in her small family chateau in the depths of the Touraine. Helene has begun an affair with a senior Abwehr intelligence officer, who, in return, has turned a blind eye to the succession of Jews, refugees, resistance fighters and downed Allied airmen to whom she offers shelter. MI5 believe they can exploit this relationship and plant a false lead about the anticipated allied invasion of northern France. It falls to Billy, playing a downed airman, to find Helene, to win her confidence and to plant a lie that will only make sense to her German lover. But this time, Billy isn't flying at 20,000 feet and he won't be able to escape the incendiary consequences of his actions. Hurley's capable and understated characterization makes his lead's story plausible and engaging PUBLISHERS WEEKLY. A Cracking thriller. THE TIMES
Aurore
'Liked this. Went someway to plugging the ginormous hole that Philip Kerr's sad passing has left in my life' DERMOT O'LEARY. Barely half of the Bomber Command's aircrews survive a full tour, but wireless operator Billy Angell has beaten the odds and completed his 30th - and final - mission. Now, Billy is due two-weeks leave, a posting to a training squadron and a six-month exemption from active duty. Except that MI5 need an airman to drop into Nazi-occupied France. MI5 are interested in Helene Lafosse, a Frenchwoman keeping unusual company in her small family chateau in the depths of the Touraine. Helene has begun an affair with a senior Abwehr intelligence officer, who, in return, has turned a blind eye to the succession of Jews, refugees, resistance fighters and downed Allied airmen to whom she offers shelter. MI5 believe they can exploit this relationship and plant a false lead about the anticipated allied invasion of northern France. It falls to Billy, playing a downed airman, to find Helene, to win her confidence and to plant a lie that will only make sense to her German lover. But this time, Billy isn't flying at 20,000 feet and he won't be able to escape the incendiary consequences of his actions. 'Hurley's capable and understated characterization makes his lead's story plausible and engaging' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY.
Finisterre
'Liked this. Went someway to plugging the ginormous hole that Philip Kerr's sad passing has left in my life' DERMOT O'LEARY. Germany, October 1944: Dozens of cities lie in ruins. Enemy armies are at the gates. For the Thousand Year Reich, time is running out. Desperate to avoid the humiliation of unconditional surrender, German intelligence launch Operation Finisterre - a last-ditch plan to enable Hitler to deny the savage logic of a war on two fronts and bluff his way to the negotiating table. Success depends on two individuals: Stefan Portisch, a German naval officer washed ashore on the coast of Spain after the loss of his U-boat, and Hector Gomez, an ex-FBI detective, planted by Director J. Edgar Hoover in the middle of the most secret place on earth: the American atomic bomb complex. Both men will find themselves fighting for survival as Operation Finisterre plays itself out.
The Order of Things
The fourth novel in the Jimmy Suttle series, from 'one of the UK's finest crime novelists' (INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY), author of LAST FLIGHT TO STALINGRAD 'There is no-one writing better police procedurals today' Sunday Telegraph D/S Jimmy Suttle is called to a brutal murder in the picturesque Devon village of Lympstone. Harriet Reilly, a local GP, has been found disembowelled in the bedroom of her partner, climate scientist Alois Bentner. Suttle's estranged wife, Lizzie, has abandoned Portsmouth, moved to Exeter and returned to journalism, hearing rumours of a local GP offering mercy killings to patients meeting certain criteria. The name of the GP is Harriet Reilly. So begins two investigations of the same crime. Operation Buzzard, with D/S Suttle at its heart, and Lizzie, piecing together her own version of the events that led to Harriet Reilly's death. The fourth novel in the Jimmy Suttle series is a story of ultimate betrayal, reaching much further and wider than its Devon roots.
Sins of the Father
DS Jimmy Suttle investigates a murder in a house haunted by the past in the latest from 'one of the UK's finest crime novelists' (INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY), author of LAST FLIGHT TO STALINGRAD A rich old man, Rupert Moncrieff, is beaten to death in the silence of his West Country waterside mansion, his head hooded and his throat cut. His extended family are still living beneath his roof, each with their own room, their own story, their own ghosts, and their own motives for murder. And in this world of darkness and dysfunction are the artefacts and memories of colonial atrocities that are returning to haunt them all. At the heart of the murder investigation is DS Jimmy Suttle who, along with his estranged journalist wife Lizzie, is fighting his own demons after the abduction and death of their young daughter, Grace. But who killed Rupert Moncrieff? And what secrets is the house holding onto that could unravel this whole investigation? The enquiry takes Suttle to Africa and beyond as he slowly begins to understand the damage that human beings can inflict upon one another. Not simply on the battlefield. Not simply in the torture camps in the Kenyan bush. But much, much closer to home.
Strictly No Flowers
A writer attempts to find out the truth about a war crime and forgets the truth about himself. A witty and fast-moving thriller from the author of the Faraday and Winter novelsScott Plenty (not his real name) writes crime thrillers. His gruesome serial killer novels have taken him to the cusp of the big time. There is a massive new contract in the offing, glory (and the Late Review) beckons. But Scott wants more. He wants the truth. And when he reads about the death of 5,000 French civilians at the hands of Bomber Command in WWII he thinks he's found a truth it would really be worth writing about.He travels to France and begins digging. And finds himself in the midst of a passionate affair with a French woman. Even as the truth about the war crime proves more elusive the affair becomes more intense until he loses himself in it.And then, out of the blue, he is set up in a drugs bust, stopped by the police in possession of 2 kilos of cocaine. In prison on remand he wakes to a nightmare. The drug dealers in the prison see him as a crazy 'anglais', an amateur, foolish enough to try and invade their patch. He's a marked man. Easy meat. Until he is befriended by a killer,a French gangster entranced by the idea that here is a man who can tell his story.So, chapter by chapter, day by day, Scott's account of his search for the truth becomes a realtime literary quest for survival. If he's to survive until the trumped up charges are overturned he has to keep writing. But who set him up and why? And does Scott really want to know the truth about the sort of man he is?
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