This is a thriller of the “How&Why’d they do it?” category and the book stands alone with its intriguing trail of catch-up between the police and the criminals. Arson! A crime that goes badly wrong in its execution, and goes on to tragically affect the local school community, produces a trail of chaos. It’s a winding trail that the reader must try to follow with ex-school pupil, detective Nigel Shantra, in hot pursuit of the ruthless criminals!
Links to download free book – Always double check the price before you download – sometimes there are price glitches or unexpected price changes.
This book is free from 03/27/2016 until 03/28/2016.
Download Book at Amazon
About the Author
G J Griffiths is a UK baby-boomer who worked for quite a while in the Photographic industry. Then he became a Science teacher for about twenty years. He likes reading, walking in the countryside, DIY, birdwatching and being a Grandad! Having retired he thought he would like to write a novel, which soon became four.
So why did he write the first one?
Who Do They Think They Are?
Watching those programs on TV about different people looking into their ancestral past, and seemingly becoming very upset about certain individuals in their pedigree, he wondered about how much their emotions had been stirred by forebears, such as cousins, grandparents and even great grandparents. After all they had never met them or never even knew about their existence previous to their research. The tears, regrets and often anger that became evident on the screen betrayed how delicate feelings may often lie very near the surface.
At the same time he had been reading Winston Churchill’s volumes about the Second World War and also reading about the Battle of the Bulge, of Band of Brothers fame. It occurred to G J Griffiths: What if someone was looking into their ancestry and discovered that their forefather was involved in plot to assassinate a famous general from WW2? What if that general was George S Patton who was so vital in relieving the US troops trapped in the Battle of the Bulge? He had read that Patton often could be a thorn in the side of his senior officers at that time.
And so he created three pivotal fictional characters around this idea of unpleasant discovery; of an assassination plot involving the father of Chris Squires. The father he never knew dashes his hopes to the ground. How would Chris feel? How would he react? Once the author started writing the story the characters took over and he had to continue the tale where they took it! It became his first novel, Fallen Hero.
When GJG started writing Fallen Hero he was already well into the collection of stories later to become his second book: So What! Stories or Whatever! But the general direction of the plot and many of the characters were not properly formed at that time. Then along came the idea for Fallen Hero and that took over for the next 18 months or so!
Originally, after he had retired from teaching GJG just wanted to write and write about many of the kids he had taught and tell his readers about some of their hilarious tales. But after a while he realised that so many of the stories would be tinged with sadness or tragedy or poignant moments, and that it was not going to be just another “book of funny stories”. If he was going to include some of the difficulties that the kids’ teachers also faced, many times a day sometimes, then he had to also write about why they wanted to come into education, and more importantly, why they were determined to stay in it!
So Robert Jeffrey was “born” and his story is gradually unfolded and woven between the collection of students’ stories. Robert’s determination to become what he feels is a “good teacher” became a main theme throughout the book. There was a danger then that the book would become a continuous whinge from yet another cynical, grumbling teacher. Enter Kyle Crabbe, the bully, and some of the tales begin to have a sinister theme to them! With that stage set it meant that G J could lead the reader up a path that would allow a twist to it! Be surprised – be very surprised!
Some of the books that Robert Jeffrey had read and that had inspired him to want to teach coincided, strangely enough, with some of the list that G J Griffiths had also valued. It was a list that included: R Delderfield’s “To Serve Them All My Days”, Thomas Hughes’ “Tom Brown’s Schooldays”, D H Lawrence’s “The Rainbow”, E R Braithwaite’s “To Sir with Love”, “Neill! Neill! Orange Peel!”, plus, of course, a couple from The Master – Charles Dickens, such as “Hard Times” and “Nicholas Nickleby”.
G J Griffiths has now completed three novels in the So What! Stories series of books. As well as volume 1 there is So What’s Next! and So What Do I Do? GJG believes that each novel in a series should be carefully crafted so that each may be read as a stand-alone book, so that is what they are. That is not to mean favourite characters from the previous book(s) are all omitted; two or three will re-appear to intrigue the reader in a new plot! More details may be found under their relevant pages. There is also a “box set” ebook of all 3 novels, So What! Stories or Whatever!: The Trilogy, priced to save the reader money.
His latest book, Ants In Space! is an illustrated children’s Sci-fi adventure and should be published early in 2016. This is a new and exciting venture for G J and should attract a new gang of much younger fans keen on intriguing extra-terrestrial tales!
Is this book no longer free? Let us know in the comments so we can remove it from our site. Have you read this book? Tell us what you thought about it in the comments!
