The Best Things In Life Are Free … Books

Michael Joseph / Penguin are the metaphorical Magwitch-style benefactors of this week’s giveaway comp, and they’re offering you – yes, YOU! – the chance to win one of three copies of Kevin Lewis’ latest novel, FALLEN ANGEL. First, the blurb elves:

DI Stacey Collins has seen the darker side of humanity all too often. A single mum and former child from the grim Blenheim estate, she knows only too well what terrors the world can hold. But even her jaded eyes have never witnessed a crime of such unspeakable horror. A body, broken and lifeless, is found in the gloom of a London church. Kidnapped and horrifically murdered, young Daniel Wright never knew his tormentor. And it is only the beginning. Soon Collins finds herself both haunted by the demons of her past and battling in the name of innocence itself. Some angels never find their path to heaven ...

  So there you have it. To be in with a chance of winning a copy of FALLEN ANGEL, just answer the following question.

Is the best movie ever made with ‘angel’ in the title:
(a) Angels With Dirty Faces;
(b) Angel Heart;
(c) Der Blaue Engel;
(d) Tupac Shakur: Thug Angel;
(e) The Angel, The Bicycle and The Chinaman’s Finger?

  Answers via the comment box, please, leaving a contact email address (using (at) rather than @ to confuse the spam-munchkins), by noon on Tuesday, August 26th. Et bon chance, mes amis …

“Ya Wanna Do It Here Or Down The Station, Punk?”: Kevin Lewis

Yep, it’s rubber-hose time, folks: a rapid-fire Q&A for those shifty-looking usual suspects ...

What crime novel would you most like to have written?
THE LADY IN THE LAKE by Raymond Chandler and TIGER IN THE SMOKE by Margery Allingham.
What fictional character would you most like to have been?
It’s not crime but definitely Indiana Jones.
Who do you read for guilty pleasures?
Viz.
Most satisfying writing moment?
Finishing my first crime novel, KAITLYN.
The best Irish crime novel is …?
THE KILLING OF THE TINKERS by Ken Bruen.
What Irish crime novel would make a great movie?
THE KILLING OF THE TINKERS.
Worst / best thing about being a writer?
Worst – the loneliness. Best – Seeing my work in book form ready for the readers.
The pitch for your next book is …?
I wanted to keep writing about what I know best – the sprawling and nasty urban estates, the crime and brutality of the gangs and the harsher realities of London life. My new novel, FALLEN ANGEL is the first novel in a new series featuring DI Stacey Collins – a single mum in her 30s, and a gritty hard-nosed detective in the Metropolitan Police.
Who are you reading right now?
A FAREWELL TO ARMS by Ernest Hemingway.
God appears and says you can only write OR read. Which would it be?
Write, because then I can read what I’ve written.
The three best words to describe your own writing are …?
Fast. Paced. Thrillers.

Kevin Lewis’ FALLEN ANGEL is published by Penguin Books