Anthony Addis's Blog

A crime Thriller’s Changing Titles

My new crime thriller No Way To Live is out on Kindle Unlimited. But No Way To Live wasn’t always it’s title.

No Way To Live – The Origin Story

In October 2020, I found myself locked down in Riyadh. I was teaching there, but the international school had closed and all lessons were delivered via live video links from my small, dark apartment. My family were in the UK. I’d accepted the job thinking I’d be able to travel home every school holiday, but Covid made that impossible.

With none of the usual excitement of Christmas around me, I decided to write a Christmas crime thriller about Tom, a gangster who walks away from his gang to help one of its intended victims. ‘After all,’ the blurb of the novel would eventually say, ‘it’s the season of good will.’

Christmas Lights – a working title

There’s a running joke in the novel about Tom hating Christmas songs, so I gave it the working title of Christmas Lights, after the Coldplay song. It seemed apt. Metaphorically, by leaving the gang, Tom walks into the light. More prosaically, he has the song in his head when he is nearly killed at the start of the novel.

A Slow Evolution Begins

But the story is darker than Christmas Lights suggested, so I opted for Christmas Shadows. So much of Tom’s former life is shadowy, but also, there’s a scene where he sees a motivational quote on a wall:

‘Keep facing the sun and the shadows will fall behind you.’

This prompts Tom to reflect that in his world, it’s best to keep your eye on the shadows.

Next Title, Please!

But I was never entirely happy with Christmas Shadows. It felt too dark. It’s a crime thriller, sure, but it’s not bleak. Casting around, I thought about my favourite Christmas thrillers of all time: The Long Kiss Goodnight, Die Hard, obviously, and also Lethal Weapon. But for me, they are trumped by David Morrell’s excellent book The Spy Who Came For Christmas.

Trying out a more quirky feel, Christmas Shadows morphed into The Gangster Who Came For Christmas, an intentional homage to Morrell, who is one of my favourite authors.

Except, in my case, The Gangster Who Came For Christmas sounded too cutesy, like one of those frenemies novels, and it didn’t really reflect the characters. Anyway, the story takes place in the run up to Christmas. The Gangster Who Came For Christmas felt misleading. Besides, I didn’t really want to tie it in with Christmas alone. Like Die Hard, it’s set during Christmas, but is it really a Christmas book? I’ll let you decide.

No Way To Live…At Last!

I decided the title needed to reflect the journey of the three main characters, Tom, Billie and Katie.

By this stage, my quest for a title reminded me of the ordeal I had in naming Do Not Keep Silent, my first novel, which is about a Hong Kong protest leader. Then I remembered that Mae, the main character, uses the phrase ‘Do not keep silent,’ during one of her rallies, and that seemed like the perfect title.

And that was it. The title had been staring me in the face all along. Somewhere over the halfway point of No Way To Live, Billie uses the phrase. ‘No way to live,’ when talking to another character. One way or another it applies to the character she is addressing, and also to Tom, Katie and herself. The phrase was perfect.

And so, from Christmas Lights to Christmas Shadows, to The Gangster Who Came For Christmas, the book finally became No Way To Live. In all honesty, it was easier finding this title than Do Not Keep Silent’s!

Have you had a similar battle to find the perfect title? If so, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.

No Way To Live is available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited.

Connected reads

How my antagonist became the star of the show

How my thriller series was born

How my Christmas thriller was born in a flat in Riyadh

The post appeared first on anthonyaddis.co.uk.

How The Antagonist Took Over

I wrote a Christmas thriller, something closer to Die Hard than Love Actually, with a smattering of the latter thrown in. But it turns out that like Hans Gruber in Die Hard, my antagonist took over.

Locked Down With No Christmas Trappings

I was living in Riyadh, without any Christmas trappings. Locked down during Covid, away from my family, I felt homesick.

With time on my hands and nothing else to do, I wrote ‘No Way To Live’s’ first draft in six weeks. At that point, the book had the working title of Christmas Lights, and it was about Tom, who never wanted to be part of the gang life he grew up into.

At first, the easiest chapters were the ones from Tom’s point of view. Sickened when Billie says the gang is to target Katie, the daughter of a shop owner who she wants to put pressure on, Tom finally walks away from the gang and travels to the Isle of Man to warn Katie and her father. Like me in Riyadh, he was a stranger in a stranger land, forced away from his home.

The Antagonist Has a Mind of her Own!

But the chapters I found I enjoyed writing most featured Billie, Tom’s ex-boss, partly because she was something of a mystery to me. Even when she wasn’t in scenes, she occupied other characters’ thoughts, like Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca. At one point, Katie, Tom’s love interest, even alludes to that.

In the first chapter written from Billie’s point of view, she throws a Christmas decoration that Tom once gave her over the side of her penthouse apartment’s balcony. But why?

At that point, I didn’t know – and neither did Billie. But I was keen to find out if it symbolised the end of their relationship or something entirely more mysterious.

Relationships are Key

No Way To Live ended up being about Tom, who never wanted to be part of the gang life he grew up into, and Billie, who did. She muscled in on the novel and made it at least half about her, if not more. Tom and Billie grew up together, were practically brother and sister…except they weren’t. Their relationship is more complicated than that. By walking away, Tom betrays Billie just when she needs him most.

Including Katie as Tom’s interest meant his relationship with Billie grew even more more complicated, because neither Tom or Billie understand how they feel about each other. Or do they?

The Standalone Thriller becomes a series

Billie wasn’t just content to take over No Way To Live (to the point where she gave the book it’s title). Her story really didn’t feel finished by the end of No Way To Live. After all, what would someone like her do after her actions in No Way To Live? In terms of getting a job, she’s really not the 9 – 5 type, and besides, I can’t imagine her tolerating a boss.

And so No Way To Live, which was only meant to be a standalone novel, became the first book in a series: Angel of the South. The series will explore Billie and Tom’s relationship, and all the people they help and harm as they at turns attract and repel one another.

No Way To Live

No Way To Live is available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited.

Further readingNo Way to Live Christmas PlaylistsHow My Thriller Series was bornHow No Way To Live was born in a flat in Riyadh

The post How My thriller Novel’s Antagonist became the star of the show appeared first on anthonyaddis.co.uk.

Ian Fleming’s James Bond books provide a masterclass in thriller writing. His Bond books give aspiring thriller series writers the blueprint for how to create their own series. Indie thriller authors can extract practical lessons from them, especially when building a thriller series.

Here are five lessons for indie thriller authors take from Ian Fleming’s Bond books (plus one bonus lesson). In each one, I’ve shown how Fleming applied it, what indie authors can take from it, how I’ve applied it in my own thriller series and included a reflection question.

Lesson 1: Readers return to a series for a strong, consistent character

Image by James McKelvie

007: James Bond is consistent across all twelve novels and all nine short stories—his appearance (cruel mouth), personality, skills, flaws, and even quirks (drinks, cars, scrambled eggs etc.) create familiarity.

Indie thriller authors takeaway: Through your series, the plots will change, but maintain your protagonist’s voice, habits, and moral code. This builds loyalty and brand recognition.

Angel of the South: Tom Adams wants to escape his violent upbringing. Billie Brindley embraces it. Billie is harsh and caustic. They attract and repel one another. That dynamic fiuels every scene.

Reflection: What defining traits, habits, or values will remain consistent across your entire series so readers always recognise your protagonist?

Lesson 2: Setting is another character in a thriller series.

007: Ian Fleming used Jamaica, the Bahamas, Venice, and London with rich detail, drawn from personal travel and research. This makes the world immersive.

Indie thriller authors takeaway: Travel or research your locations; readers love feeling they’ve been somewhere vivid. Unique settings also help differentiate your series in a crowded market.

Angel of the South: Each book is set partly in South London, but the characters visit other places, from the Isle of Man to Brighton. Eventually, the series will go international, but will always retain its South London roots.

Reflection: What specific qualities make your setting feel alive—and how will they shape the tone and events of your series?

Lesson 3: Perfect, invincible heroes are boring; flaws create tension.

007: Bond is talented but makes mistakes, misjudges enemies, and struggles with addiction or emotions. His vanity – as when he falls for a SMERSH honey trap in From Russia With Love – is a constant problem. This keeps the stakes high and makes victories satisfying.

Indie thriller authors takeaway: Let your hero make mistakes or be emotionally vulnerable—readers will care more and the suspense will feel earned.

Angel of the South: Billie’s major weakness is Tom. She loves him, and always has. Yet for his own good, she’s pushed him away. But that love still makes her vumnerable in ways her enemies can exploit.

Reflection: What flaw or vulnerability repeatedly creates problems for your protagonist and drives tension in your story?

Lesson 4: Recurring Allies and Villains build Continuity

007: Characters like M, Bill Tanner, and Felix Leiter recur across novels, as do villains like Blofeld. Seeing Bond’s relationship with them is one of the pluses of the series, because at times he’s rather implacable. His loyalty to M, coupled with an awareness of M’s flaws, is intriguing.

Indie takeaway: Introduce a supporting cast and recurring adversaries early; they give your series continuity and allow long-term plot arcs.

Angel of the South: Billie hurts people who get in her way. At times, she’s borderline sociopathic. This creates a jetstream of characters with grudges. But she also helps people. There’s also characters from the gang – Billie’s embittered, betrayed father, her estranged mother and gangland enforcers.

Reflection: Which supporting characters or antagonists can return across the series, and how will their ongoing relationships deepen or complicate the story?

Lesson 5: Combine Realism with Escalating Stakes

007: Plots often start with small intelligence missions or crimes and escalate to global threats (e.g. from a detox treatment in a health clinic to nuclear weapons in Thunderball). Fleming’s blend of technical detail, spycraft, and high stakes keeps readers hooked.

Indie thriller authors takeaway: Start believably, then increase tension, danger, and stakes while keeping the story internally consistent. Don’t rely on implausible twists—ground them in the world you’ve built.

Angel of the South: Book 1, No Way To Live starts small, with an Isle of Man shopkeeper who needs protecting, but develops into a London gangland war. Book Two, Good Deeds and Charity, starts with a stabbing on a Southwark council estate and develops into an MI5 plot to take down the British wing of an international drug cartel.

Reflection: How will each book’s conflict escalate from something grounded and believable into higher, more intense stakes while staying consistent with your world?

Bonus Lesson: Keep Chapters short and include action

007: Fleming’s pacing and style were concise, sensory-driven, and cinematic. In a time when long chapters were more popular, he kept his chapters short. He wanted Bond to be on the screen – either cinema or film, and Thunderball was written originally as a screenplay.

Indie thriller authors takeaway: Use short chapters, and include visual action and immersive descriptions.

Angel of the South: No Way To Live has an average of 6.5 pages per chapter. But in the rush of writing the first draft of Good Deeds and Charity, I forgot this lesson and had only seventeen chapters by the end of the novel. My second draft is now all about shortening chapter lengths.

Reflection: How can you structure your chapters and action scenes to keep the pace fast, visual, and irresistible to readers?

So How did Fleming’s Blueprint work for?

If you’re curious to see if I pulled it off, you can read No Way To Live, the first book in the Angel of the South series, on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited.

No Way To Live

James Bond Posts

10 Lessons I’ve learnt about Ian Fleming’s fictional world

REVIEWS

Octopussy and the Living DaylightsFor Your Eyes OnlyOctopussy and the Living DaylightsThe Man With The Golden GunYou Only Live TwiceOn Her Majesty’s Secret ServiceThe Spy Who Loved MeThunderballGoldfingerDr NoFrom Russia With LoveDiamonds Are ForeverMoonrakerLive and Let DieCasino RoyaleFurther reading

James Bond Dossier

The post Five Lessons for Indie Thriller Authors from Ian Fleming’s Bond Books appeared first on anthonyaddis.co.uk.

Christmas thrillers are different from Christmas mysteries. In thrillers, people try to stop something from happening – or cause it to happen. In mysteries, people try to solve how or why the event happened.

Yet whenever I search for Christmas thrillers, I’m directed to undoubtably excellent murder mysteries, often set in snowbound mansions in the countryside.

So I’ve put five Christmas thrillers in a category of their own, tales driven by tension, action and the ticking time bomb of the season. Full confession, one of them is mine:

The Spy Who Came For Christmas by David MorrellNo Way To Live by Anthony AddisThe Ice Harvest by Scott PhillipsThe Usual Santas by Various AuthorsThe Christmas Appeal by Janice HallettThe Spy Who Came For Christmas by David Morrell

For me, this is almost an annual read by one of my favourite authors. He also introduced Rambo to the world in First Blood, and wrote a terrific, game-changing espionage thriller. In The Spy Who Came For Christmas, Kagan, an undercover agent, attempts to save the so-called child of peace, who symbolises how the Middle East could come together in harmony. But his enemies are ruthless, and follow him through the snowy streets of Santa Fe in New Mexico.

The setting is great, the villains believable and everytime I read it, the spy’s version of the Nativity is an absolute delight.

No Way To Live by Anthony Addis

She’s the most dangerous person he knows. And now he’s betrayed her.

Tom Adams is the son of a notorious London gangland enforcer. He tried to leave the life, but Billie, the boss’s daughter, dragged him back when she took over. When she decides to target an innocent shopkeeper and his daughter, Tom walks away again, betraying Billie and the complicated past they share. It might be the season of good will, but Billie isn’t the forgiving kind.

I wrote No Way To Live in a small, dark flat in Riyadh in the run up to Christmas 2020. Everything was locked down, I was away from my family and there were no Christmas trappings around. I decided to write the kind of Christmas book that I would want to read. A Christmas thriller with characters you care about. As a fan of Die Hard, I wanted the antagonist to be just as sympathetic as the protagonist. After all, who doesn’t secretly want Hans Gruber to win?

No Way To Live is available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited.

the Ice Harvest by Scott Phillips

The Ice Harvest was made into a film with John Cusack, which I have yet to see. The book is described as ‘white noir.’ Charlie Arglist has nine and a half hours to get out of Wichita, Kansas. But first, he has a few things to do…

It’s a bleak read, full of bleak, unpleasant characters, but it does feel like Christmas in gangland.

The Usual Santas by Various Authors

The Usual Santas is a short story collection featuring stories by a huge variety of writers, including Mick Herron and Peter Lovesey. There’s a whole host of different stories here, ranging from noir to historical fiction to heists. I read this one in the flat in Riyadh in 2020 and really enjoyed it for the variety and different takes on how to include elements of christmas in a story.

The Christmas Appeal by Janice Hallett

I’ve made one exception to the rule I mentioned in the introduction, because really The Christmas Appeal is a murder mystery. But like The Appeal, it is so clever and original I felt I had to include it. It’s a modern epistolary novel, written in emails and texts, with the variuous events being summarised every so often for the benefit of the reader. It’s cracking good fun, but I can’t help wondering if the idea of setting it within an amateur dramatics group that is putting on a pantomime might alienate it to non-British readers.

Further Reading

How No Way To Live was born in a flat in Riyadh

5 Great Thrillers Set in Hong Kong

5 Thrillers with an Opposites Attract Trope

The post Five Great Christmas Thrillers appeared first on anthonyaddis.co.uk.

Photograph sourced from BBC

This year, I’ve been reading Ian Fleming’s James Bond books. It’s been interesting. At times, I wanted to give up on them because some of the attitudes make for uncomfortable reading. However, something about them kept drawing me back. Here are ten things I learned about the secret service world Ian Fleming created.

1. Badass Women

Fleming, could write about strong, badass women with the best of them. Honeychile Ryder (Dr. No) and Judy Havelock (For Your Eyes Only) are perfect examples. Honeychile killed her would-be rapist as a child and Judy goes after her parents’ killers with a bow and arrow.

As well, Gala Brand (Moonraker) was a Special Branch undercover officer assigned to spy on Hugo Drax. In Thunderball, Domino Vitali kills the villain, Largo, with a speargun.

2. “Of It’s Time”

The homophobia, mysogony and racism that Fleming displays are all often excused as being of a certain time. But to modern sensibilities, it’s unpleasant, and a conscious effort has to be made to pigeonhole it. The racism makes for particularly unpleasant reading. Also of note is the way Bond ‘turns’ Pussy Galore from being ‘a confirmed lesbian’ in Goldfinger.

3. Jamaica was the centre of Fleming’s universe

Fleming loved Jamaica. It’s amazing how many villainous plots took him to the Caribbean, a relatively small area in world geopolitics. Overall, the tiny island nation appears in five stories:

Live and Let DieDr NoThe Man with the Golden GunFor Your Eyes Only (short story)Octopussy (short story)

In addition, two more stories took place in the Bahamas: Thunderball and Quantum of Solace.

In twelve novels and nine short stories, a third of them took place in the Carribean.

4. A Lousy spy

At times, Bond was a terrible spy. He was capable of making very basic mistakes as in The Man With the Golden Gun, when he refuses to. Sometimes, it was because he was reluctant to use deadly force, others because he misread a situation.

And sometimes, he was just too damn vain – such as when he fell for SMERSH’s honeytrap in From Russia With Love. Also when he refused to downplay his skills in front of Scaramanga. Bond knew that having his oppnent underestimate him would have been strategically sensible, but he couldn’t help himself.

5. The short stories reveal Interesting Character facets

Octopussy, Quantum of Solace and The Living Daylights are short stories that are among the best of all of Fleming’s Bond stories. The Living Daylights shows a Bond weary of killing who is not above romantic fantasies that lead him to make a surprisingly compassionate decision.

Octopussy and Quantum of Solace are not really about Bond at all, but still reveal interesting facets about his character.

6. Scrambled egg pedantry

Bond was very particular about his scrambled egg recipe (007 in New York – short story)!

7. A Ruthless agent

Bond could behave with extreme ruthlessness when he wanted. The action when he breaks out of the gangsters’ lair in Diamonds Are Forever is shocking for its matter of fact ruthlessness. His fight on the train with Red Grant is another good example, with Bond killing the traitor with his bare hands.

8. Where are Monneypenny and Q?

Moneypenny is a tiny part of the Bond book-universe, and Q is barely present.

Bond has two secretaries who take the Moneypenny role: first, Loelia Ponsonby, and then after she gets married, Mary Goodnight, who goes onto a more central role in The Man With the Golden Gun.

Q does exist in the books, but we never really meet him, and he is often referred to as the Head of Q Branch. Bill Tanner, M’s Chief-of-Staff is the closest thing to Q, but he’s no armourer, just Bond’s friend.

9. A Loyal friend

Despite the terrible injuries he suffered in Live and Let Die, Felix Leiter remains a true and steadfast friend to Bond. Often, he risks his life to help get Bond out of one scrape or another, including Bond’s final outing in The Man With The Golden Gun. We even learn that when Bond visits New York, he and Felix often meet up.

10. From romantic to heartbreaker

In the earlier novels, Bond is more of a romantic than an intentional heartbreaker. In fact, he gets let down or downright heartbroken himself several times. During the third book, Moonraker, Gala Brand reveals she is engaged, and does not end up with Bond. 

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service provides the best example, when Tracey di Vicenzio dies. It is her death that seems to harden Bond’s heart; by the end of The Man With The Golden Gun, he concludes thathe wants an ever-changing view, not the same vista for the rest of his life.

My Next Step

I’ve already read the first two of Kim Sherwood’s Double 00 books – Bond makes an appearance at the end of the second – and think I’m going to read some of the more recent Bond books by Anthony Horowitz etc. But after reading all Ian Fleming’s James Bond books in one year, I’ll give Bond a break for a while. At least until I’ve mastered his scrambled egg recipe…

Until then, there’s a lot to think about: lessons from Fleming’s series that I can put into Angel of the South, my own thriller series, and also some pitfalls to avoid. But one things for sure – Angel of the South will be better than it might have been if I hadn’t read the Bond books.

James Bond Book ReviewsOctopussy and the Living DaylightsFor Your Eyes OnlyOctopussy and the Living DaylightsThe Man With The Golden GunYou Only Live TwiceOn Her Majesty’s Secret ServiceThe Spy Who Loved MeThunderballGoldfingerDr NoFrom Russia With LoveDiamonds Are ForeverMoonrakerLive and Let DieCasino RoyaleNo Way to Live

My own thriller series, Angel of the South, kicks off with No Way To Live:

She’s the deadliest person he knows. And now he’s betrayed her.

A ruthless London gang targets an innocent shopkeeper and his daughter, prompting Tom Adams to walk away from the criminal life he never wanted. After all, it’s the season of goodwill. When he warns the shopkeeper of the danger he’s in, Tom betrays Billie, the gang’s boss, and the complicated history they both share.

For Billie, Tom’s desertion comes at the worst possible time. Surrounded by enemies, she’s fighting a war on two fronts and can’t afford to look weak. If Tom had known the full story, he might have stuck around. Fatally, he isn’t even the gang’s only traitor. And the ‘innocent’ shopkeeper’s past might be darker than anyone’s.

Caught in a clash of love, loyalty and revenge, Tom must choose between Billie, the woman he once trusted, and the possibility of a life worth living.

No Way To Live is available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited.

Further Reading

James Bond’s scrambled egg recipe.

10 Facts about James Bond from the books

The post Ten Facts I learned from reading Ian Fleming’s James Bond Books appeared first on anthonyaddis.co.uk.

Octopussy and the Living Daylights

Octopussy and The Living Daylights is the second James Bond short story collection, but it’s slimmer and lighter (of interest) than For Your Eyes Only. Which isn’t surprising, as there are only four stories, and one of them barely counts.

That said, the two ‘title-track’ stories are among the best of Fleming’s Bond adventures.

Octopussy

James Bond travels to Jamaica – for the fifth time in Fleming’s stories.

There, Dexter Smythe has become something of a marine enthusiast, and is cultivating an octopus – as well as a serious drinking habit. Smythe was a British Special Forces officer during World War Two. But he also killed a guide and stole Nazi gold – and up until now thought he had got away with it.

When Bond confronts him with evidence of his crime, Smythe confesses. We learn something about Bond’s backstory that has not previously been alluded to. As an adolescant, Bond needed a father figure. The man Smythe murdered was that figure.

Octopussy is a really good short story, with Fleming showing sympathy and compassion towards Smythe, despite the villainy of his act. This gives credence to Bond’s decision to allow Smythe time at the end to put his affairs in order. Unfortunately for Smythe, that time that will ultimately proof fatal…

Rating: 85%

The Living Daylights

Bond is assigned to protect a defector who intends to cross from East to West Berlin. A KGB sniper will be waiting to kill the defector. Bond’s mission is to kill the sniper so the defector can cross safely. However, the KGB sniper is a beautiful blonde cellist he’s been admiring through his sniperscope. And if there’s one thing Bond has a weakness for, it’s beautiful blondes. And all women.

The Living Daylights is full of Cold War tension and also Bond’s bitterness and self-disgust about his license to kill. It’s enough to make you wonder if all the way through the series, he drinks so much to forget.

Rating: 85%

The Property of a Lady

Flemming returns to the info-dumping of some of the novels as we learn about a priceless Fabergé egg that is about to be auctioned. Bond plots to identify a KGB spy during the auction so he can be sent back to Russia. There’s some insights into spy tradecraft and auctioneering, but little action.

Rating: 70%

007 in New York

This is a lighter, slightly quirky story. Bond has been sent to New York to warn a former secret service agent that her boyfriend is a KGB operative. It’s more of a vignette, with Bond pontificating about New York as he waits in line at customs, wondering how to spend his time.

More credence is given to Bond’s preferred recipe for scrambled eggs then the actual spy element of the story, which could have been intriguing. His botched meeting with the former agent is humorously dealt with, but feels like an add-on.

Rating: 65%

Bond’s hidden facets

Although only two of the stories in Octopussy and The Living Daylights are really good, we get glimpses into Bond’s character in all of them that we rarely see in the novels. From his juvenile years to his disillusionment with his work, his compassion and how he spends his spare time, Fleming uses the stories to flesh out Bond’s character.

Overall Rating: 75% (with Octopussy and The Living Daylights doing most of the heavy lifting.)

James bond Book reviewsFor Your Eyes OnlyThe Man With The Golden GunYou Only Live TwiceOn Her Majesty’s Secret ServiceThe Spy Who Loved MeThunderballGoldfingerDr NoFrom Russia With LoveDiamonds Are ForeverMoonrakerLive and Let DieCasino RoyaleNo Way to Live

My own thriller series, Angel of the South, kicks off with No Way To Live:

She’s the deadliest person he knows. And now he’s betrayed her.

A ruthless London gang targets an innocent shopkeeper and his daughter, prompting Tom Adams to walk away from the criminal life he never wanted. After all, it’s the season of goodwill. When he warns the shopkeeper of the danger he’s in, Tom betrays Billie, the gang’s boss, and the complicated history they both share.

For Billie, Tom’s desertion comes at the worst possible time. Surrounded by enemies, she’s fighting a war on two fronts and can’t afford to look weak. If Tom had known the full story, he might have stuck around. Fatally, he isn’t even the gang’s only traitor. And the ‘innocent’ shopkeeper’s past might be darker than anyone’s.

Caught in a clash of love, loyalty and revenge, Tom must choose between Billie, the woman he once trusted, and the possibility of a life worth living.

No Way To Live is available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited.

Further reading

James Bond’s recipe for scrambled eggs

The James Bond Dossier

The post Octopussy and The Living Daylights: Reading 007 appeared first on anthonyaddis.co.uk.

There are three main characters in No Way To Live. If they had Christmas playlists, this is what would be on them. I’ve included the video of each character’s Number 1 song.

Katie

Katie loves Christmas, the build-up, the shopping and especially the music, so her playlist would be too long for this blog post, so I’ve narrowed it down to ten songs only. Sorry, Katie.

Christmas Lights, ColdplayAll I Want for Christmas is You, Maria CareyLast Christmas, Lauren Spencer SmithStay, East 17Shake Up Christmas 2011, Natasha BedingfieldFairytale of New York, The Pogues & Kirsty McCallCheer for the Elves, Gwen StefaniMerry Xmas, Everybody, SladeUnderneath the Tree, Kelly ClarksonHang Your Lights, Jamie Callum

Tom

Although he’s loath to admit it, Tom is something of a romantic, and he does like Christmas songs, which makes the first choice on his playlist an absolute shoe-in.

Christmas Wrapping, The WaitressesStop The Cavalry, Jona LewieFairytale of New York, The Pogues & Kirsty McCallWhite Wine in the Sun, Tim MinchinHow To Make Gravy, Paul KellyXmas in the 80s, Scouting for GirlsSleigh Ride, the Late GreatsDriving Home for Christmas, Chris ReaDonna and Blitzen, Badly Drawn BoyJust Like Christmas, Low

Billie

My December, Linkin ParkNorth Star, ElephantOi To The World, No DoubtOh Holy Night, Hey MondayAll Alone On Christmas, Darlene LoveAll I Want For Christmas 2005, My Chemical RomanceWalking In The Air, McFlyChristmas Canon Rock, Trans-Siberian OrchestraAva Maria, Chris CornellSanta God, Pearl JamLINKS

No Way To Live on Amazon

Blog post: How my Christmas thriller was born in a flat in Riyadh

The post No Way To Live Christmas Playlists appeared first on anthonyaddis.co.uk.

James Bond Short Stories

The James Bond short stores collected in ‘For Your Eyes Only‘ make up Ian Fleming’s eighth James Bond book, but I left it until after I finished reading all the novels. I wish I’d kept to the order in which they were published, because these stories enrich Bond’s character, and Fleming’s writing.

I had a sense throughout the short stories that Fleming enjoyed writing them, and also experimenting with the character and form. His only experimental novel was The Spy Who Loved Me, a sort of gangster noir that I disliked, but these short stories are more successful. I’ve reviewed each below, with a rating, and then taken the average for the overall rating at the end.

From A View To A Kill

From what I remember of the film, the only similarity this story bears is the title and French setting. It’s a taut tale in which Bond investigates the murder of a despatch rider and the theft of the documents he was carrying. I liked Mary Anne Russell, the story’s love interest, who had a bit more spark about her than Bond expected.

Rating: 76%

For Your Eyes Only

A powerful Cuban wants the home of the Havelocks in Jamaica, so he has them murdered. But he didn’t realise he was killing M’s friends. M tasks James Bond with seeking whatever revenge he feels appropriate, a quest that takes Bond to Vermont where he meets the bow and arrow carrying Judy Havelock, the couple’s vengeful daughter.

Rating: 78%

Quantum of Solace

Apparently, Fleming wrote this as a tribute to Somerset Maugham. It’s a terrific story, based on true tale Fleming himself was once told. It shows what a great writer he might have been if he could have broken free of Bond’s shackles. When Phillip Masters marries a bad sort, she leaves him ‘without a quantum of solace.’ Slowly, he transforms into a bitter, spiteful husk who takes a slow, unpleasant revenge. Bond is simply hearing the story being told, and is very much superfluous to requirements.

Rating: 90%

Risico

Bizarrely, Risico’s plot was the one used for the film For Your Eyes Only. It’s an exciting tale of gangsters doublecrossing one another. James Bond agrees to help one gangster, an informer called Kristatos to possibly kill another, called Colombo. But Colombo is onto Bond, and kidnaps him….

Rating 80%

The Hildebrand Rarity

In some ways, Fleming created the most loathsome of all his villains in the vile American millionaire Milton Krest, a wife beater and braggart. Krest challenges Bond and contact in the Seychelles Fidele Barbary to help him find and kill a rare fish for the Smithsonian- the Hildebrand Rarity. When the fish is found, Krest poisons the water and any other living creatures to get his prize. On the way home, he verbally abuses Barbary and beats his wife with a stingray tail that he calls ‘the Corrector.’ Big mistake – because one of them kills him in a really horrible manner. To avoid getting trapped in a police investigation, Bond disposes of the body. He then spends the rest of the journey wondering which of the two killed Krest.

Rating: 86%

A SHORT STORY HERO?

Bond is definitely the hero of the 007 novels, but for me, Fleming comes out on top in the James Bond short stories. Reading For Your Eyes Only made me wonder if he should have written more shorter fiction, with and without Bond. His writing is leaner, and he wears his research more lightly, not lecturing the reader about things he’s learned for the story.

Anyway, it’s been good enough to make me start reading Fleming’s second short story collection straight away, Octopussy and the Living Daylights.

Overall Rating: 80%

My Other james bond reviewsThe Man With The Golden GunYou Only Live TwiceOn Her Majesty’s Secret ServiceThe Spy Who Loved MeThunderballGoldfingerDr NoFrom Russia With LoveDiamonds Are ForeverMoonrakerLive and Let DieCasino RoyaleKim Sherwood’s ‘Double 0 Agents’ No Way To Live

My own thriller series, Angel of the South, begins with No Way To Live:

She’s the deadliest person he knows. And now he’s betrayed her. 

A ruthless London gang targets an innocent shopkeeper and his daughter, prompting Tom Adams to walk away from the criminal life he never wanted. After all, it’s the season of goodwill. When he warns the shopkeeper of the danger he’s in, Tom betrays Billie, the gang’s boss, and the complicated history they both share. 

For Billie, Tom’s desertion comes at the worst possible time. Surrounded by enemies, she’s fighting a war on two fronts and can’t afford to look weak. If Tom had known the full story, he might have stuck around. Fatally, he isn’t even the gang’s only traitor. 

And the ‘innocent’ shopkeeper? His past might be darker than anyone’s. 

Caught in a clash of love, loyalty and revenge, Tom must choose between Billie, the woman he once trusted, and the possibility of a life worth living. 

No Way To Live is available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited.

Further Reading

Ian Fleming short story thread

Ian Fleming Short Stories

The post Reading James Bond Short Stories: For Your Eyes Only appeared first on anthonyaddis.co.uk.

I’ve written in a previous post about how I came to write a Christmas thriller in a flat in Riyadh. But it was only later, when I came to edit the novel, that I realised an unexpected character had pushed herself into the forefront. And she was so intriguing, I needed to see how her story played out. The more I thought about it, the more I realised the story arc would need a thriller series, not just a single book.

SPOILER ALERT!

This article contains spoilers, so make sure you’ve finished Book 1, No Way To Live, before reading on!

AI generated image of Angel of the South’s logo – more for my own visualisation purposes than anything else…it’s a version of storyboarding.

angel of the south – an unintended thriller series

I didn’t intend to start a thriller series. I have other projects in mind, and a full time job, so the complicated structure of a series is the last thing I need. What I wanted to do was focus on getting my sporting underdog novel finally finished after God knows how many rewrites.

But Biullie Brindley, who started out as No Way To Live’s antagonist, kept popping into my head. She’s going into business for herself, she said to Katie at the end of the novel:

‘Something philanthropic. Good deeds and charity, that sort of thing.’

But how would someone like Billie help people?

Well, in the only way she knows – violently. And the thing about Billie is, she’s all light and dark, as the cover of No Way To Live shows. Yes, she’ll help people – but there needs to be something in it for her.

Good Deeds and Charity

I agonised over the title of No Way To Live, but the title of Book Two came easily, from that conversation Billie had with Katie – Good Deeds and Charity.

Billie was going to set up a company that would, in her mind at least, perform good deeds and charity, helping the little fish against the sharks – and she’d make the sharks pay her fees. After all, the sharks have more money.

A thriller series is born

And so Angel of the South was born – the name of Billie’s company and the series. And it’s all thanks to being stuck in a flat in Riyadh.

At the end of Book One, Billie persuades Katie to ‘forgive and fuck‘ Tom. She loves Tom, but appears to have recognised that he’s moved on. Needing to move on herself, she goes travelling, gets herself trained in hand-to-hand fighting, weapons and surveillance. She even has a fling.

But for Tom, Katie was a fantasy that represented a life away from his criminal background, away from Billie, for that matter. He does love Katie…but she’s not Billie.

Book Two sees Tom and Katie together still, but when Billie asks for Tom’s help in her first really big case, the ties between them pull tight. Turns out Billie isn’t ready to let Tom go after all…

Angel of the South will explore the push and pull of Billie and Tom’s relationship and the people they help and harm along the way.

LINKS

No Way To Live is available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited.

Good Deeds and Charity

The post How my Thriller series Angel of the South was born appeared first on anthonyaddis.co.uk.

Origin Story

Strangely for a Christmas thriller, No Way To Live was born in Riyadh. There were no Christmas decorations to get me in the spirit, but Riyadh’s surface-to-air missile defences provided a form of seasonal fireworks display.

After my family left Jakarta in the summer of 2020, my wife and children, and our two adopted Indonesian street cats, moved back to England. I secured a job in an international school in Saudi Arabia. The idea was that from Saudi, I would travel back to the UK every holiday. Unfortunately, Covid meant it became harder to leave and reenter the Kingdom.

SURFACE to air missile defences

From September to December, I found myself locked down in a small, dark flat in Riyadh. I didn’t know anyone, and school was closed, so all lessons were taught virtually.

Occasionally, huge explosions made the sliding balcony doors in the flat’s living room shake – Riyadh’s ground to air missile defences destroying incoming Houthi missiles.

“Don’t worry!” the school’s security advisor would email out: “You’re safer here than you are in England!”

To keep my spirits up, I started watching Christmas movies and reading Christmas books from late October onwards.

Inspiration Strikes

All these books and films made me wonder if I could write a Christmas thriller, but with characters I would enjoy spending time with – even the antagonist.

I’d been playing with the idea of a crook walking away from his gang in order to help one of its intended victims, and had thought of setting the story in Portugal and Egypt. But it was November now. I’d been away from my family for two straight months. Feeling homesick, I set the book in the two places I know best – London and the Isle of Man.

Despite the dual settings, No Way To Live ended up being very much a London thriller, with a London gang’s encroachment into the Isle of Man being the spark that lights the plot. And it turns out that the key focus is on the relationship between Tom, who never wanted to be part of the gang, and Billie, who did – but for unexpected reasons. They grew up together, were practically brother and sister…except they weren’t. Their relationship is complicated. By walking away, Tom betrays Billie just when she needs him most.

Early mock-up of the front cover. In the end, I wanted something that hinted at Billie’s dual nature.

Writing a Christmas Book – Trade Secret

Writing advice about how to write Christmas stories, often suggests setting up a Christmas tree in the room where you write and playing Christmas music to get you in the mood. With none of the usual trappings of Christmas around me, I relied on Spotify and a YouTube video of a crackling log fire, but I had to be a bit careful – this was no cosy Christmas story, it was a Christmas thriller! More Die Hard than Love Actually, but with a dash of Love Actually thrown in for good measure.

My Spotify Christmas thriller playlist consisted of more abrasive tracks than a typical one – obviously the Pogues, but also songs I’d never heard before like Oi to the World.

Life, Delta and Other Projects Take Over

With nothing else to do, I wrote the first draft in six weeks, and then went home for Christmas. In the panic over the Delta strain of Coronavirus, I had to return to Riyadh via a two week stay in Bahrain. I started writing the urban fantasy trilogy I’d meant to write when I first went to Riyadh. No Way To Live went on the backburner.

I left Riyadh after only a year of my two year contract, and got a teaching job in Birmingham. It was a long commute and a busy, stressful job. I didn’t have much time to write, but I did manage to publish another novel – Do Not Keep Silent – which I’d written in the second half of 2019.

No Way To Live

But Billie, Tom and Katie lingered in my mind. I dusted their story off and added some more chapters to flesh out some other characters. No Way To Live became the title partly in testament to Billie, who’d forced herself out of the shadows into a major role in the book, and partly because she uses the phrase when talking to another character.

By the time I’d finished the rewrite, I had another idea for the characters. One foggy night, a young boy was stoned out of his face, and he could probably do with Billie’s help…

And so No Way To Live was written – all thanks to being stuck in a flat in Riyadh in teh run-up to Christmas.

Links

If you’d like to meet Billie and Tom, you can read No Way To Live — the first book in my Angel of the South series — on Kindle Unlimited for free, or for £2.99, available for preorder now, and released on 21st November.

If you like gritty London thrillers with heart, complex antiheroes, and you think Die Hard is the greatest Christmas film ever, you’ll love No Way To Live!

Other posts about No Way To Live:

How No Way To Live’s antagonist became the star of the showNo Way To Live releaseHow No Way To Live got it’s nameChristmas books and films that inspired No Way To LiveNo Way To Live Characters’ Christmas Playlists

The post How My Christmas Thriller Was Born in A Flat In Riyadh appeared first on anthonyaddis.co.uk.