Richard Godwin has Confessions Of A Hit Man

Richard Godwin has a new novel out.  Called Confessions Of A Hit Man.  If you know, or have read some of his work, you know this guy writes a taut, well researched, gripping tale of darkness and suspense.  So, when I finally get my hands on this novel, I expect to be kept glued to the text from page one all the way to the end.

I've invited Richard to use this blog and say a few things about both himself and his new book.  It's always interesting to read how a writer comes up with his ideas for a new book.  So we have that.  We also have his bio as well listing his complete works.

If you haven't read anything of Richard's, now is the time to rectify error in your reading selections.  Trust me.  You won't be disappointed.

So without further fanfare, here we go.

Confessions Of A Hit Man is my most mainstream commercial novel. Here’s the Blurb:

Confessions of a Hit Man is a high octane thriller with a plot that adds velocity like a well-oiled chicane. When ex-Royal Marine Jack becomes a paid assassin, work comes easily, especially when working for the Sicilian Mafia, until he gets drawn into a government plot selling enriched plutonium to a rogue Nation.

But it is also more subtle than that, in it I look at the world of espionage and the eminence grise that controls operation the general public has no knowledge of. One reviewer has picked Up on this and incisively written of the double who surrounds Jack:

‘From the first, Jack, with his Royal Marine training, is brilliant at his job of tracking, approaching, ingratiating himself with, and finally killing his targets. He also acquires a double, a shadow self, which escapes from his mirror and becomes him. That in itself is a fascinating literary device. With each new adventure, “the line of barbed wire stretched its way round my life like a shadow. You can hardly read this without rooting for Jack. Or is Jack’s double, that absorbs him so completely that he stops talking about his double?
Throughout the novel, Jack (he hides his name even from his girlfriend) takes orders from a shadowy figure, immaculately dressed, smooth spoken, a kind of autodidact, with a bottomless pit of money. This man stands beyond the sociopathic billionaires, elected officials, arms dealers, the Deep State itself, and behind Jack (who stops talking about his double halfway through the book) . Who is this guy? Who is Jack?’

Professor Jay Gertzman.

Confessions Of A Hit Man is both a narrative about the world of espionage that encompasses us all but also what that world of the double entails.

It is available here in the US

And here in the UK        

 Richard Godwin is the author of critically acclaimed novels Apostle Rising, Mr. Glamour, One Lost Summer, Noir City, Meaningful Conversations and Confessions Of A Hit Man.

He is also a published poet and a produced playwright. His stories have been published in numerous paying magazines and over 34 anthologies, among them The Mammoth Book Of Best British Crime and The Mammoth Book Of Best British Mystery, alongside Lee Child, published by Constable & Robinson, as well as the anthology of his stories, Piquant: Tales Of The Mustard Man, published by Pulp Metal Fiction in February 2012. 

Apostle Rising, published by Black Jackal Books in June 2011, is a dark work of fiction exploring the blurred line between law and lawlessness and the motivations that lead men to kill. It digs into the scarred soul of a cop in the hunt for a killer who has stepped straight from a nightmare into the waking world. It is available here. It has sold foreign rights in Hungary, to Alexandra, translated as A Romlas Labirintusa; in Italy, to Lite Editions, translated as L’Apostolo; and in Slovenia, to be published in late 2014 by Artizan Press.

Mr. Glamour, published by Black Jackal Books in Aril 2012, is about a world of wealthy, beautiful people who can buy anything, except safety from the killer in their midst. It is about two scarred cops who are driven to acts of darkness by the investigation. As DCI Jackson Flare and DI Mandy Steele try to catch the killer they find themselves up against a wall of secrecy. And the killer is watching everyone. It is available here. It has sold foreign rights to Italy and France, to be translated early 2015 by MeMe.

One Lost Summer, published by Black Jackal Books in June 2013, is a Noir story of fractured identity and ruined nostalgia. It is a psychological portrait of a man who blackmails his beautiful next door neighbour into playing a deadly game of identity. It is available here.

Noir City, published by Atlantis in June 2014, is about dangerous gigolo Paris Tongue, who seduces the wife of a Mafia boss and is hunted across Europe by hit men. It is available here .

It will be translated into Italian in 2015.

Meaningful Conversations, published by Noir Nation in 2014, is a Noir novel about a well-adjusted psychopath. Bertrand Mavers is a professional cellist who is resisting a control programme through the use of artistic paradigms, he is also abducting people and building a body at The Farm. It is available here.

Confessions Of A Hit Man, published by MeMe in July 2014, is a high octane thriller with a plot that the velocity like a well-oiled chicane. When ex-Royal Marine Jack becomes a paid assassin, work comes easily, especially when working for the Sicilian Mafia, until he gets drawn into a government plot selling enriched plutonium to a rogue Nation. It is available here. It is being simultaneously published in English and Italian October 2015.

Richard Godwin was born in London and obtained a BA and MA in English and American Literature from King's College London, where he also lectured.

You can find out more about him at his website www.richardgodwin.net , where you can also read his Chin Wags At The Slaughterhouse, his highly popular and unusual interviews with other authors.