An Isle of Wight author has released an exciting new thriller filled with claustrophobia, resentment, paranoia and murder.
Born in Malta in 1952 and brought up in places including Beirut, Damascus, Basra and Madrid, author Crispin Keith has spent most of his life on the Island.
As a history teacher for 37 years, he will be remembered by many a former student but may be more familiar to others as a driving force behind the local shanty group The Brighstone Barnacles and as a member of Freshwater Bay Golf Club and West Wight Bridge Club.
A keen writer, Crispin began his first novel aged 10, followed by plays, teaching materials, biographies, short stories and songs.
His new book, Shadow of a Shadow, is a classic whodunnit thriller with a contemporary edge, exploring the deepest depths of the government's most secret agencies.
On his inspiration for the book, Crispin said: “In 1983, I was part of an Apollo Players cast that performed a play in Parkhurst Prison.
“The ‘dirty protests’ were taking place in the adjoining Albany Prison, and the prison officers in Parkhurst said that our play, the first live entertainment in Parkhurst for over a decade, headed off similar protests in their prison.
“The story that they told us over drinks about one of their inmates and a prominent politician is what inspired this story.
“It got me thinking, where would evidence that could implicate a powerful figure seized from a burglar be stored? And how would people who wanted to destroy the evidence go about it?”
Expect a cross between Line of Duty and Spooks, between John le Carre and Agatha Christie, available from Amazon, Waterstones, WHSmith and Blackwell’s.
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