TGt Meets...Pete Davies - Author of Crime & Action Adventure Stories

Meet our latest TGt Meets Pete Davies, author of crime and action adventure stories based primarily in Mallorca.

Tell us a little bit about The Soller Solution...

It’s the third in the 3R series of crime and action adventures that are based primarily in Mallorca, but they also take the 3R team to different locations across the world - usually places that I can describe from my own experience of having been there.

This story sees the team trying to deal with three seemingly unconnected coincidences as they answer a call for help from Sam Martínez’s old boss from the Met police.

What starts as a favour to his old boss, to try to stop an art thief holding an international gallery to ransom, soon turns into a far more complex affair, involving a multi-millionaire security systems designer, one of Sam’s old adversaries and a Spanish organised crime gang, where the stakes become increasingly more dangerous for everyone concerned.

Your books are based mainly in Mallorca. When did your love affair with the island start?

My wife and I went there to celebrate our silver wedding anniversary and fell in love with the place and since 2007 we’ve been fortunate enough to go back there for holidays 2-3 times a year and been able to explore much of the island during that time. However, as much as we now feel we know the island quite well, we’re still finding new places to explore even after all of this time.

When did you first realise you wanted to be an author?

It might sound strange, but it was probably when I was half-way through writing my first book, The Mallorcan Bookseller. Until then it was more about me having an idea of a story in my head and I’d decided to try to put it down on ‘paper.’

I realised as I was writing that I was really enjoying not just the characters I was creating, but also the process of creating a storyline with the associated backstory, together with ensuring a level of integrity around the technical detail that I like to include in my stories.

What started as an idea for one book soon turned into a plan to write 3 books around these characters.

Did covid and lockdown influence your decision to start writing books?

Not to start with.

I had retired from policing in 2012 and had been semi-retired since then, but working as an executive coach and leadership trainer both in the UK and in the Middle and Far East. I was 60 in 2018 and towards the end of that year I had decided to start winding down my workload and it was whilst we were on holiday in 2019 in Mallorca that I started to almost joke that I should perhaps write a book, as it would give me ‘something to do.’

By the time Covid really start to affect our day to day lives I was already writing my book, but not being able to go anywhere during Lockdown certainly helped to keep me occupied and give me a focus.

How long does it take to write a book?

The actual writing time is somewhere around 12-16 weeks, however, I have preparation time before that, coming up with storylines, locations and characters. After I’ve finished the actual writing I then go through the formatting, editing and proofreading process, which I confess isn’t my favourite part, but it is just as important as the actual writing to ensure I give the reader the best possible experience.

What do your family think of your writing?

I’m really touched to say that they are really proud of me, that I’ve actually gone ahead and done it - written not just one book, but three and have published them on Amazon where they now have around 500 Reviews between them.

It has also been great that I’ve had real help from them as well, with my wife and two of my cousins helping with the early editing process, together with my cousin Brian, who amongst many of his talents is a hugely talented photographer and he designed the front covers of all the books.

Do you have any suggestions for budding writers.

There’s a saying ‘we all have a book in us.’ So if you’ve got an idea and want to write about it, then do it. Do your homework on your subject matter and it really helps to write about something you’re interested in and have knowledge about, for example, I use my policing background to help out on the ‘policey’ bits of my stories, but I put the work in with the research on other parts of the story to ensure I can write with some authority, for example, The Sóller Solution is about international art theft and I spent time talking to a Norwegian Police crime analyst who specialises in this area.

Two final points - (1) if you’ve never written a book before, you might want to do what I did and find out how you do that before you start putting pen to paper, which I did by reading a number of books on writing to give myself a structure as to how to write and (2) if you can’t afford professional help for editing, then ask friends and family for help. Although they might not have a professional’s expertise, some will be great detail people who can spot the words missed out (tip: spellcheck will find the spelling mistakes, but not missing words), whilst others will be really good on the flow of the story.

Have you been approached by or submitted your books to any TV companies as we think they would be great on screen?

No, or rather I’d prefer to say, not yet.

But I know from conversations I’ve had with people in the literary world that film and tv producers/makers usually like to see around 3 books from an author, so as I’m now starting my 4th book, then maybe I might get lucky and come to their attention.

Do you get much feedback from your readers?

Yes and it’s great and really encouraging to get feedback from my family and friends. However, with around 500 Reviews across the 3 books, I’m now well into the world of getting both positive and sometimes negative feedback from the people who have taken the time to read my book.

The sheer number of positive reviews has been both humbling and reassuring that my stories are bringing enjoyment to people, but in addition, I get a lot of lovely, very personal messages on social media where people tell me how me how much they enjoy my books, especially how they can relate to some of the real people from the cafes and restaurants on the island who I include (with their permission) in the storylines.

The interest in my books has been amazing with people volunteering character names and suggesting locations and storylines, so much so that I’ve now set up a 3R International Series Facebook group for anyone to join as a way of keeping people up to date with my writing.

When can we look forward to the publication of the next book?

I’ve got the storyline worked out and I’m just putting together the biographies of some of the new characters. So it won’t be long before I start writing. Actually getting it out on Amazon? Well it should be out in time for Christmas, so late November/early December is my target date.

If you'd like to find out more about Pete Davies please visit his Facebook Group HERE.