RINGER
RATING: Violence and very strong language. No explicit sex, but some sexual references. (On a par with my Gears of War books, if you need a benchmark.)
An original series about private military contractors, politics, transgenic research that goes too far, and money. Lots and lots of money. Titles to date: GOING GREY and BLACK RUN. Next up: SACRIFICIAL RED.
Available in paperback, Kindle, and Audible.
Book 1: GOING GREY
Ian isn't crazy. Life would be a lot simpler if he was.
He's eighteen, on the run, and scared – the shape-shifting delusions he's had since childhood have turned out to be real. He's the result of a dynamic mimicry project intended to help undercover agents "go grey" and blend in unnoticed. Now the biotech company wants its property back, and the only people he can trust are the private military contractors sent to find him – Rob, a former Royal Marine who's struggling to adjust to Civvie Street, and Mike, heir to a wealthy American political dynasty, who only ever wanted to be an ordinary guy. While the company hunts Ian, the two contractors try to help him harness his disturbing ability. But first Ian's got to work out what identity really means – and Mike and Rob have to decide how far they'll go to give him the chance of a normal life.
Audiobook narrated by Euan Morton
Paperback:
ISBN: 978-1499713046
Book 2: BLACK RUN
The past doesn't forgive. The past doesn't forget. And it knows where to find you.
Rob Rennie's life hasn't got any quieter since he left the Royal Marines and teamed up with an American vet, Mike Brayne. Mike – eccentric, idealistic, and enormously wealthy – can't resist righting wrongs. He's rescued a genetically-engineered teenager on the run from an experimental defence programme, brought down the head of the biotech corporation hunting the boy, and now he's waiting for the company to make another move, if it dares.
But Rob lives by the maxim that there's no such thing as over. And something's certainly not over for him. An unknown, unseen enemy is stalking him, with tragic consequences for his son and ex-wife. As Rob and Mike close ranks to protect their families, they find themselves up against industrial espionage, two warring scientists, and a blood feud that won't end until somebody pays with their life.
The buried past has been biding its time to explode beneath them. Now their best hope of putting it to rest forever could lie in the unique genetic skills of a runaway teenager.
Audiobook narrated by Steven Pacey
Paperback:
ISBN-13: 978-1543035230
A BIT OF BACKGROUND
What if you really could create a shape-shifting human? Superpowers are ten a penny in the movies, but when it’s for real and it’s happening to you, daily existence is the biggest challenge. Ian Dunlop, raised by his grandmother on an isolated ranch, thinks he’s crazy because he’s seen different faces in the mirror since childhood. But when he discovers that it’s really happening, that his gran is a complete stranger tasked to keep him hidden, and that he’s a billion-dollar biotech research asset, his world is upended. He’s rescued from an uncertain future by Mike Brayne, an idealistic billionaire who just wants to be an ordinary soldier, and Rob Rennie, a former Royal Marine who’s always up for the right fight. The two combat vets draw Ian into a world of serious money, high stakes, and the kind of military work he was born for – designed for. He’s got the perfect skill set for covert ops and now he wants to put it to good use.
Ian has the specialised cells and structures that enable cephalopods to change colour, shape, and texture, and also gives them speed and strength. With his learned skills in mimicry, that all makes him a formidable undercover operator. But he’s also a kid in his late teens who’s been raised in isolation, has never had a girlfriend, and now has a staggering amount of money thanks to ultra-wealthy Mike. How does a guy stay grounded when he’s got all that? And how does he find his way in life when he can never tell anyone beyond his small circle exactly what he is?
The Ringer series is set in the real world of today, not an alternate Earth, and the science on which the series is based is potentially real. The books started life as a modern allegory about identity and how we see ourselves, but when I did more research, it turned out that the wilder ideas I’d come up with had more than a little basis in fact; they were actually a lot less astonishing than what was happening in the real world of transgenic research. I was lucky enough to have the professional advice of a real-life geneticist who’d worked on cloning, transgenic embryos, and human fertility, and when she nodded and said my story wasn’t as impossible in theory as I’d thought, I felt a little nervous about the brave new world ahead. Fiction always has to sprint to catch up with reality. For example, I’d never have thought up a scenario where a human could be produced from two transgenic mice – technically feasible, apparently. Eat your heart out, Stuart Little.
Ian has the specialised cells and structures that enable cephalopods to change colour, shape, and texture, and also gives them speed and strength. With his learned skills in mimicry, that all makes him a formidable undercover operator. But he’s also a kid in his late teens who’s been raised in isolation, has never had a girlfriend, and now has a staggering amount of money thanks to ultra-wealthy Mike. How does a guy stay grounded when he’s got all that? And how does he find his way in life when he can never tell anyone beyond his small circle exactly what he is?
The Ringer series is set in the real world of today, not an alternate Earth, and the science on which the series is based is potentially real. The books started life as a modern allegory about identity and how we see ourselves, but when I did more research, it turned out that the wilder ideas I’d come up with had more than a little basis in fact; they were actually a lot less astonishing than what was happening in the real world of transgenic research. I was lucky enough to have the professional advice of a real-life geneticist who’d worked on cloning, transgenic embryos, and human fertility, and when she nodded and said my story wasn’t as impossible in theory as I’d thought, I felt a little nervous about the brave new world ahead. Fiction always has to sprint to catch up with reality. For example, I’d never have thought up a scenario where a human could be produced from two transgenic mice – technically feasible, apparently. Eat your heart out, Stuart Little.