BOOKS

DEATH ON THE ICE

The original idea of this novel was to tell the story behind Captain Oates, a man generally known only for his famous last words: ‘I’m just going outside and I may be some time’. Of course, it then grew into the tale of Captain Scott, Shackleton and Scott’s bohemian wife, Katherine.

EMPIRE OF SAND

My inspiration for this was to write a book that ended where David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia began, at the start of the Arab Revolt.

It didn’t quite work out that way: in the end Lawrence the guerrilla warrior bookends the novel. But the idea that Lawrence had a spying career before the revolt is still central to the book and is historically accurate. So is his nemesis Wilhelm Wassmuss, dubbed ‘The German Lawrence’ after the war. The two actually never crossed swords. But they do here.

“Intelligently structured, absorbing and thoughtful as well as tense and exciting” – Daily Telegraph

DYING DAY

The final part of a “double trilogy” concerned with the activities of Special Operations Executive and similar outfits during and after the war (although all can be read as stand-alones).

This was based on stories that John Debenham-Taylor, who was an operative in Berlin during the airlift, told me about running agents over the border. I thought of it as Len Deighton with added DC3s when I was writing it.

"Thrilling post-war espionage action" - Tatler

THE LAST SUNRISE

Based on a little known Operation Remorse, a scam by Special Operations to play the wartime money markets in wartime China (which netted £70m profit), this is also a novel about the brave men who flew ‘The Hump’ – the Himalayas – to ferry supplies to the Flying Tigers.

I was lucky enough to meet Lorna McAlister, who as a young girl worked for SOE in China, who gave me a lot of the background.

I now think of it as an Asian version of the Italian Job. And I wrote that DC3 versus fighter plane well before Quantum of Solace came out.

"A ripping tale of guts, gold and lethal redheads" - Daily Express

AFTER MIDNIGHT

I knew I wanted to write about the war in Italy and while searching the internet I found a letter written by Bob Millar, an Australian navigator flying with a South African squadron, to his one-year old daughter Anne. Shortly after his plane disappeared in the mountains and has never been recovered.

I tracked down Anne Storm, as she is now, and found she had moved to England. I asked if I could fictionalise her story, in the hope it might help find the missing plane. She agreed. It is now thought the Liberator bomber is at the bottom of Lake Bolsena in Lazio, Italy.

“The novel is full of life, but with a moral complexity and a genuinely alarming series of twists that mark it out of the ordinary” – Daily Telegraph

NIGHT CROSSING

It is strange how disparate strands contribute to a novel.

In this case it was reading of the German version of The Great Escape from Bridgend POW camp and a story told to me by film producer John Goldschmidt about his father’s internment and deportation from the UK as a ‘dangerous alien’. Then I found that some German POWS had been executed by the British after the war for their part in hanging a ‘stooge’ in their midst.

Now, if I can just pull all that together…

“Ryan skilfully blends fact with fiction and writes with such elegance that, if we gave stars, this would get five” - Time Out

BLUE NOON

In this novel I wanted to try and make the reader like a real-life villain, a kind of Flashman with even fewer morals. Not so much an anti-hero as anti-everything, pre-war con-man Harry Cole served with the British Army, French Resistance, MI9 (which ran escape lines), the SS, the American OSS and the Canadians. And appears to have deceived and robbed them all as well as betraying friends and colleagues to the Gestapo.

However, there are still some who claim he saved their lives, and yet others who loved him...

“Ryan has an excellent eye for strong material, as well as story-telling flair” – The Sunday Times

EARLY ONE MORNING

The novel that began my sequence of ‘based on actual events’ novels.

I came across a line in a motor racing review that said the enigmatic ‘Williams’, the first man to win the Monaco Grand Prix, had pursued a later career as an SOE saboteur in France, recruiting two other Bugatti drivers into his circuit. At the time, SOE were very tight-lipped about its agents and their activities, so I decided to fictionalise the gaps.

Almost a movie.. several times.

“Excellent.. I cannot recommend it too highly” - Daily Telegraph

COPPER KISS (as Tom Neale)

The second Piper and Celeste novel, concerned with an assassination attempt in London, with a (minor) subplot involving what happened to the Kennedy who should have been president, rather than JFK.

This has been optioned by Fremantle TV and a script exists, so fingers crossed.

“A vivid and memorable thriller” – The Good Book Guide

STEEL RAIN (as Tom Neale)

The ‘Tom Neale’ books came about because I wanted a change of pace from WW2, but my publishers were worried the modern thriller theme might confuse loyal readers. As if my mum would worry.

It came about after of discussion about White Knight Syndrome – why do successful men fall for strippers, prostitutes etc – with my chum Dr. Sunie Fletcher.

Subsequently, my friend retired Federal agent Rick Young in the US told me about the permanent FBI office in London (who knew?) and I met ‘Celeste’ in a bar in Paris, and it seemed logical to throw all that into the mix.

“There are plenty of twists, turns and blind alleys …an accomplished and assured debut, with an interesting cast of characters” – Shotsmag

TRANS AM

This one is loosely – very loosely – based on Peter Pan.

In this novel, the Lost Boys are kidnapped children, and the hero is a single mom determined to get her son back. She is helped by an ex-soldier who was originally a trumpet player. I even learned the trumpet to get it right. But my then editor wanted a guitarist.

However, I got to meet Guy Barker, trumpeter maestro, because of it. Set in Arizona and New Jersey.

"Thrills and horror about the atrocities of war and twists you’d need a crystal ball to predict” – Daily Mirror

NINE MIL

Winnie the Pooh relocated to New Jersey.

This grew out of a trip to Atlantic City and the ‘Pine Barrens’, a strange area of New Jersey that later featured in a wonderful episode of The Sopranos, directed by Steve Buscemi.

The fact that I imagined Sam Peckinpah directing it explains the violent shoot-out at the end. But not the elephant.

"Has brilliant written through it like a stick of rock” – The Independent

UNDERDOGS

When Seattle suffered a fire late in the 19th century, the city authorities decided to build the whole place one storey up, thus eliminating the flooding that had plagued it.

Parts of the old city remain, and I thought it was a great setting for a John Carpenter-type novel.

It’s a chase thriller with elements of Alice in Wonderland.

“Wonderfully exhilarating” – The Sunday Times