Val Penny is one of the authors most supportive of bloggers and it gives me enormous pleasure to welcome her back to Linda’s Book Bag to celebrate the audio version of her thriller Hunter’s Chase today. My thanks to Lynsey at Reading Between the Lines PR for inviting me to participate in this blog tour. It’s a real honour to help start if off.

It’s far too long since Val last appeared on the blog when I reviewed her super book Let’s Get Published here.

The audio book of Hunter’s Chase is available for purchase here.

Hunter’s Chase

Hunter by name – Hunter by nature: DI Hunter Wilson will not rest until Edinburgh is safe.

Detective Inspector Hunter Wilson knows there is a new supply of cocaine flooding his city, and he needs to find the source, but his attention is transferred to murder when a corpse is discovered in the grounds of a golf course.

Shortly after the post-mortem, Hunter witnesses a second murder, but that is not the end of the slaughter. With a young woman’s life also hanging in the balance, the last thing Hunter needs is a new man on his team: Detective Constable Tim Myerscough, the son of his nemesis, the former Chief Constable Sir Peter Myerscough.

Hunter’s perseverance and patience are put to the test time after time in this first novel in The Edinburgh Crime Mysteries series.

The Audio Version of Hunter’s Chase

an Edinburgh Thriller

A Gust Post by Val Penny

Writing Hunter’s Chase was an exciting challenge, and now it is available on audiobook too. I have wanted to produce an audio book for a long time because one of my friends lost his sight during a military conflict and I wanted to be able to share my books with him. Other friends told me how much they enjoyed listening to books as they walked during lock-down and yet more just prefer to have a story read to them than to sit down with a book, so I was thrilled to arrange for Edinburgh man, Sean Pia to narrate the book for me. He even went to Leith Academy as DI Hunter Wilson did!

But let me start at the beginning, because before I could even create the story, first I had to choose a setting for my novel.

I toyed with the idea of creating an imaginary town for DI Hunter Wilson to inhabit, as Peter Robinson has done with DCI Alan Banks and the town of Eastdale in Yorkshire. However, after much consideration, I decided there was no more beautiful setting than Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland in which to set Hunter’s Chase.

The story is set in late 2012, shortly before the Police Forces in Scotland were united into one national force. Hunter and his team are based in the Headquarters of the Lothian and Borders Police Force at Fettes, in the north-west of Edinburgh.

Much of the action in the story, Hunter’s Chase, takes part in and around the south-west of the city. DC Tim Myerscough lives there with his girlfriend, Lady Sophie Dalmore, in a first-floor flat at the edge of Tollcross and Bruntsfield, while his father Sir Peter Myerscough has a house at East Steils on the outskirts of Morningside.

The young lovers, Annie and Frankie do not live together. Annie lives at home with her family in Steele’s Place near the Morningside Clock. Her father, Joe, frequents a local pub, Bennett’s Bar. Annie and Frankie often walk through the beautiful area of parkland known as the Hermitage of Braid to meet each other, as Frankie lives with his parents in Liberton.

However, the principal character, DI Hunter Wilson, following his divorce has moved to a second floor flat on the east side of the city, at Easter Road. He enjoys the company of the regulars he knows in his local pub, the Persevere Bar.

I hope those of you who are familiar with Edinburgh will enjoy listening to Sean Pia telling the story of the mystery led by Hunter Wilson and his team in Hunter’s Chase. Those of you who have not yet visited this historic and beautiful city will be persuaded to do so after listening to the new audio version of the book, read by Sean Pia.

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I’m sure we will Val. I can’t wait to visit the Edinburgh of your series of books.

About Val Penny

Val is an American author living in SW Scotland with her husband and their cat.

Val Penny’s other crime novels, Hunter’s Chase Hunter’s Revenge, Hunter’s Force, Hunter’s Blood and Hunter’s Secret form the bestselling series The Edinburgh Crime Mysteries. They are set in Edinburgh, Scotland, and published by Darkstroke.

Her first non-fiction book Let’s Get Published is also available now and she has most recently contributed her short story, Cats and Dogs to a charity anthology, Dark Scotland.

For more information about Val, visit her website or blog.  You’ll find Val on Goodreads, Twitter @valeriepenny, and Facebook.