About

I grew up in Sheffield and, following a degree in law from the University of Nottingham, became a newspaper reporter, doing my NCTJ training on Sheffield’s Morning Telegraph.

After qualifying, I quit and went to Italy to write a novel, my rucksack largely filled with paper and a small portable typewriter (yes, it was that long ago). I rented a room in Venice – what appeared to be a converted broom-cupboard with a tiny window looking out onto a mouldy brick wall – and started work on a story about the lives and loves of the members of a café orchestra in St Mark’s Square.

Two months on, with Venice filling up with summer tourists and my money running out, I decamped to Rome and got a job as a sub-editor on an English-language newspaper. A year later, my novel completed, I returned to England and submitted the book to publishers. All rejected it – those that replied, that is; most didn’t even respond. So I wrote another book, and another, and another… all rejected by publishers.

Finally, wondering whether I should abandon my writing ambitions altogether, I followed that hoary old advice to aspiring authors: write about what you know. So Mike McLean, tenacious freelance investigative journalist based in Sheffield, was born, resulting in three thrillers set in South Yorkshire and the Peak District: An Exceptional Corpse, A Nasty Dose of Death and Toxin. (See my Blog Page How I Got Published)

Another ten novels for adults have been published since, most thrillers with a slant towards political and topical subjects. The first, Unholy Trinity, draws on my time living in Rome with a dense plot about corruption in the Vatican and the search for Mussolini’s wartime-lost treasure. Other books have dealt with EU fraud-busters tackling cigarette-smuggling organised crime cartels (Shadow Chasers); a group of Tibetan monks searching for the reincarnated next Dalai Lama, pursued by hostile Chinese agents (Oracle Lake); the twenty-first century surveillance society in which we live (Enemy Within); and – highly topical, given recent world events – a thriller about a dangerous avian flu virus jumping species to humans (Genesis II).

In addition, I’ve written three murder-mysteries about a Cremona violin maker named Gianni Castiglione and his detective friend, Antonio Guastafeste. Captivating and colourful, they draw on my love of Italy and classical music, featuring stories about the search for a priceless missing violin, sister to the famed “Messiah” Stradivarius (The Rainaldi Quartet); a long-lost composition by Paganini and a fabulous stolen jewelled violin (Paganini’s Ghost) and the hunt for a killer and a mysterious, exquisitely-decorated Hardanger fiddle in the mountains and fjords of Norway (The Hardanger Riddle).

My three books for children are gripping thrillers, with a strong environmental theme. They centre on Max Cassidy, a teenage escapologist known as the ‘Half-Pint Houdini’, his fight against global corporations that are destroying the environment, and his quest to bring his broken family back together again. The first book in the series, Escape from Shadow Island, was shortlisted for five awards and won the Salford children’s book prize.

Continuing my interest in the environment, I’ve also written, produced and directed a feature-length documentary – Quiet Flows the Don – about the regeneration of the River Don, in South Yorkshire, charting its transformation from Europe’s most polluted river into one in which life has returned.

Outside writing, I enjoy hill-walking, gardening, pottery and music.