Authorpreneur Dashboard – Jaycee Brown
The Machair Crow
Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
The remote Isle of Lewis has only had three murders in over forty years. When Helen Riley is asked to investigate a suspicious death on the peaceful island, no-one intends to help her uncover a fourth murder. As she gets closer to the truth, she faces threats to herself, her client and her family. Riley is confronted by assassination drones plus a powerful international network of collusion and conspiracy that threatens her job, her family and her life. Cut adrift, she embarks on a fight for justice and revenge. The Machair Crow is a novel that features one woman’s battle against the illicit use of killer drones and how she overcomes the conspiracy to silence her. It is a thriller, a detective story on the one hand, but also a novel about drones, covert surveillance and the development of secret kill-lists. Helen Riley is a feisty combination of Jack Reacher, Mitch Rapp and Lisbeth Salander. She’s a private investigator based in Newcastle upon Tyne and army trained as an undercover surveillance officer with the army’s special forces. After she leaves the forces, she works as a police detective in Newcastle before turning private. She doesn’t do demure and compliant.
Book Bubbles from The Machair Crow
Developing Helen Riley
I was inspired to write THE MACHAIR CROW after reading Lee Child’s novel ‘Nothing to Lose.’ It was the idea of the police being in the pocket of an evil secret organization and then moving Jack Reacher out of town in order to stop him asking questions. That's what got me started in creating Helen Riley's character. Then I wanted to throw into the mix some of the characteristics of Stieg Larsson's Lisbeth Salander. You’ll see shades of that mixture of characters in Helen Riley – someone who refuses to take ‘No’ for an answer. Helen Riley gets the most coverage as the heroine. Helen Riley’s character drew on the autobiography of Jackie George called ‘She Who Dared.’ Jackie was the first woman in the SAS and she worked on covert surveillance in Northern Ireland. The next step for me in developing her character was to ask, ‘what if she (Helen Riley) left the SAS and worked as a PI?’
