Long Midnight Publishing – förlag

From the creator of the cult Barney Thomson crime series, comes a darker and more sinister novel. The government is watching. 4 million names on the DNA database and counting; CCTV cameras on every street corner; telephone records available to any agency which requests them; restrictions on movements around Westminster; ID cards and spy satellites. All in the name of freedom. When his latest book is shelved due to government interference, Lake Weston -- international best-selling, Bob Dylan-addicted children's author -- decides that it is time to stand up for personal rights. He writes and anonymously publishes a scathing Animal Farm-esque diatribe against a government which seeks to restrict civil liberties under the guise of protecting democracy. The book quickly achieves notoriety and within a month is banned under an obscure paragraph of anti-terror legislation. The media is animatedly curious about the author of the book; the government, however, already knows. As the security services close in, Weston finds his name dragged through the gutter press, and suddenly he must run for his life, not knowing who he can trust and with nothing in his pocket except a few pounds and an iPod loaded with 1256 Bob Dylan tracks.

The king of barbershop death junkies is back, in another novel of blood, murder, ghosts, terror and downright stupidity. As Barney Thomson is closing up the barbershop for the night, an old man enters looking for a Cary Grant cut and a bit of a chat. The following day, Barney discovers that his late night customer was the captain of a fishing trawler which had been found mysteriously abandoned on the Clyde over one hun-dred years previously. In a sinister echo of that old legend, that morning a trawler is found drifting in a flat calm just off the island. Of the three trawlermen known to have been on board the Bitter Wind, one is found dead on the vessel, two are missing. The police arrive, led by DCI Frankenstein and an officer from Barney's past, Detective Sergeant Proudfoot. As the ghosts mount up for Barney Thomson, could it just be that he is in an episode of Scooby Doo, featuring a lot of vil-lains in masks? Or is it a real, dark and menacing evil which haunts the small seaside town, and haunts what could be the final days of Barney Thomson?