I’ll let you into a secret. I’ve been hankering after reading Colin Garrow’s writing for a while now and so, even though I’m trying not to take on too much new material for the blog whilst life is busy, I couldn’t resist signing up to this blog tour organised by Rachel of Rachel’s Random Resources and I’d like to thank Rachel for inviting me to participate.

Today Colin has agreed to stay in with me to chat about one of his books.

Let’s find out more:

Staying in with Colin Garrow

Welcome to Linda’s Book Bag Colin and thank you for agreeing to stay in with me.

Tell me, which of your books have you brought along to share this evening and why have you chosen it?

I’ve brought along the first book in my Relic Black Thriller series, Terminal Black, which came out in June 2020. (I’ve just finished Deadly Black, book 3 in the series.)

What can we expect from an evening in with Terminal Black?

I wanted to write something that would entertain readers as well as give them a different type of hero. Most of my books are about amateurs who solve murders – i.e. good guys, so with this series I decided to turn things upside down and make the hero a villain. I wasn’t sure if this would work or if readers would think I’d somehow glorified crime, so the writing presented a few challenges. The story is set in Inverness, Scotland, and revolves around Relic Black, a petty thief who gets himself into bother when he accidentally kills a hitman and then tries to put things right.

How did this change affect your writing?

There’s a lot of strong language and more violence in this book than with anything else I’ve written, but I’ve tempered this with humour, so it doesn’t get too heavy handed. Another new feature of this series is the way it’s written. I abandoned the usual chapter-type format and instead split the book into days and locations, with scenes of different lengths – some are very short, while others go on for several pages.

In some of my books – such as the Terry Bell Mysteries series, the main character is a Geordie (north of England), so has a Geordie accent. With Terminal Black, some characters, naturally, are Scottish, so some of the dialogue may be difficult to grasp for non-British readers. (I included a glossary at the end of the book which helps with phrases like Help ma boab, and words like Teuchers.)

Did this affect the time you spent?

The writing process proved challenging, too – although the second book in the series (Crucial Black) only took me a month to write, Terminal Black took seven years. About halfway through the writing process, I realised I’d written an ensemble piece, with each character allotted a similar amount of ‘screen’ time. This can confuse readers, as we jump around a lot from place to place, following each different character. These include Relic, the hitman, his bosses (Chrissy and Magnus), hospital workers Fat Frank and Mandy, private investigator Jim Morrison, a bent cop (DI McKenzie), and her nemesis (DI Swinney), as well as their boss, DCI Dirty Barry Callaghan.

You’ve made Terminal Black sound very intriguing!

What else have you brought along and why?

I’ve invited the city of Inverness, in Scotland, as this is the setting for most of the story (although we also visit Aberdeen and Nairn and a few locations on the outskirts of Inverness).

Crikey – a whole city is going to take some space!

Each section of the book takes place in a particular location, so readers can follow the action around the city. In books 2 and 3, I’ve added in a time slot for each scene, too. While some of the buildings/addresses in the book are fictional, they’re all situated in real locations. This meant that most of my research for the book involved spending time on Google Maps, although I also had to look up details of Glock 19 9mm Lugers, GPS trackers, seismic buffers on the Kessock Bridge, and the technical specifications of the Audi 8.

I bet your internet history would make for interesting viewing Colin! Thanks so much for chatting with me about Terminal Black. I’ll just give readers a few more details:

Terminal Black

A stolen identity. A hitman. A bent cop.

Relic Black takes things that don’t belong to him—credit cards, golf clubs, toothbrushes. But when a hitman mistakes him for someone else, Relic lands himself in a difficult situation. With a dead man on his hands and a guilty conscience, he sets off to save the life of the man whose identity he has stolen. And that’s when the real trouble starts…

Terminal Black is available for purchase here.

About Colin Garrow

Colin Garrow grew up in a former mining town in Northumberland. He has worked in a plethora of professions including: taxi driver, antiques dealer, drama facilitator, theatre director and fish processor, and has occasionally masqueraded as a pirate. All Colin’s books are available as eBooks and paperback.

His short stories have appeared in several literary mags, including: SN Review, Flash Fiction Magazine, Word Bohemia, Every Day Fiction, The Grind, A3 Review, 1,000 Words, Inkapture and Scribble Magazine. He currently lives in a humble cottage in North East Scotland where he writes novels, stories, poems and the occasional song.

He also makes rather nice cakes.

For more information, visit Colin’s website, follow him on Twitter @colingarrow, or find Colin on Facebook.

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