Today we profile Road Kill, an increasingly successful book by the prolific author, Pete Adams; 14 books, 9 crime thrillers published, 2 in process of being published, and 3 ‘nonsense stories’, written and illustrated by him, called Whopping Tales.
What have people said about Pete’s writing?
Pete Adams writes clever twisty tales, eccentric characters, crackling dialogue, a talented writer who has complete control of his material – Alison Baille – author
Reminiscent of Tom Sharpe at his best – Terry Wood
USA – Publisher’s Weekly – Adams has disguised a serious plot in the trappings of burlesque. Fans of British slang, sangfroid, and humor will be satisfied.
USA – Kirkus – All credit to Adams for his fertile imagination…
So, let’s hear from Pete:
‘Road Kill – The Duchess of Frisian Tun’ is my sixth book, following on from the Kind Hearts and Martinets (5 book mini-series). Road Kill is book 1 in the ‘DaDa Detective Agency’ mini-series (4 books), and along with 2 other mini-series is to become a 14 book anthology titled: ‘Divine Breath’.
Dadaism was an arts movement that flouted the conventional by producing works marked by incongruity.
The DaDa novels are idiosyncratic cosy crime thrillers with a capricious narrative, the intention being to create a DNA spiral of the real and surreal narratives, with a rational design and a significant and satisfying, ending.
The central protagonists in Kind Hearts and Martinets, DCI, Jack (Jane) Austin and Detective Superintendent Amanda Bruce, have a growing following and it was suggested I develop them into a new series. It has also been said that Mandy and Jack are akin to a modern day Jeeves and Wooster; not intentional, but too tempting to ignore. Jack Austin (a cockney Wooster) and, the more adroit and decorous and, definitely stronger, Amanda (Jeeves), retire from the police and establish the DaDa Detective Agency.
Picasso said, “Everything you can imagine is real” and the DaDa books are, strangely, real.
Road Kill is: An au courant, romantic comedy, crime thriller with scary bits. A droll and saucy insight into the Middle Class, Haute Monde and, Geography. Tales of a reclusive England with: The Journalist, The Professor, The Synchronised Swimming Instructor, The Fish Wife, The Dame, The Actress (really Jack Austin), The Geography Teacher, The Gossip Columnist, The Spy, The Police Inspector, The Man from the Council, The Priest, The Knight, The Super-grass (deceased), The Gangster, and, The Lady Blanche.
Blurb:
Cataclysmic events have occurred in the decorous upper middle class enclave within Southsea, Portsmouth, on the south coast of England.
But what were the circumstances that contributed to this violent clash involving a Sherman tank and a bazooka? The strange occurrence is investigated by Lord Everard Pimple, a naive, upper class twit who not only inadvertently opens a can of worms, but has an introduction into the world of womanly wiles.
Everard’s life is about to blow up like an atom bomb… he just doesn’t know it yet. But after the dust settles, will he still be standing?
A reviewer:
“Road Kill marks the first book as we step away from Pete Adams’ ‘Kind Hearts and Martinets’ series… No longer the Community Policing department in Portsmouth… and, new characters. Lord Pimple is as inadvertent a main character as you will ever meet, a court reporter for the local Portsmouth newspaper, given a tip-off about a big story… The author cleverly sets the book in a single house in Frisian Tun; the road Jack and Amanda Austin reside on and saw so much military firepower in the previous series!
The story unfolds as the occupants of the house try to explain to Pimple and his glamorous colleague, Cecilia Crumpet, what happened and their part in it. This approach to storytelling is great fun, with the personalities of the different storytellers becoming more pronounced throughout the story. Everyone will have their own favourite. Whether it’s Aedd, the geography teacher with the wandering accent, the wandering hands of Georgiana Lovebody, the synchronised swimming teacher, the Professor daydreaming about goatherds, or Dame Pimple herself! The bickering, the personal relationships and slow destruction of the room add a huge amount to the story and make it a fun read.
Adams has also utilised a different writing style… making asides to the reader directly… it becomes its own subplot allowing the author to ponder on characters and their behaviour without interfering with the story’s narrative.
If you enjoyed Adams’ first series then DaDa should be savoured.”
Inspiration? The real and surreal narratives enable me to stretch plots but always with the reader seeing it in, ‘reality’, in other words, it is believable; just. I like to expand comprehension but not to slip into ‘fantasy’.
The title? I more often than not have the title before I start a book. ‘Road Kill’ was following on from an unlikely (but believable) pitch battle in an upper middle class street. The sub-title: The Duchess of Frisian Tun, is an elusive character, in the ilk of John of Gaunt’s wife, ‘Lady Blanche’. You may also see an extrapolation of Chaucer’s, Pilgrims Progress, but where the characters go nowhere; the story set mainly set in one house.
From the Prologue: ‘Before and After – What follows is before, and then, afterwards, is after. Not afters, as that would be a dessert, say, apple crumble and custard. Suffice to say this is a scary story when you get to the after bits, especially if the custard has gone cold. You, the innocent reader, will be lured into a sense of a secure world of haute-monde and geography and, when you are least aware – Bam!
Warning – What was lovely, could turn ugly. Not Jack Jane Dick Austin, because he was already ugly. However, his wife, Mandy Duck Austin, well, she is lovely but, can turn ugly, even when Dick had done absolutely nothing wrong, like say, blow up an idyll, kill some gangsters an shit…’
Did I enjoy writing any particular scene? It is difficult to select something that was special to me. I find with all of my books, scenes and especially the emotions I felt when I wrote them, return and I relive them in my head. Road Kill is humorous but, as Peter Ustinov said, “Comedy is a funny way of being serious.” All of my books have a serious side.
Author biography
Pete Adams is an architect with a practice in Portsmouth, UK, and from there he has, over forty years, designed and built buildings across England and Wales. He comes from a large London family, his mother 13th of 14 children and many stories and dialogue come from his London experiences.
Pete has been writing since 2110 and is halfway through his thirteenth book, has a growing number of short stories, one, critically acclaimed and published by
Bloodhound, and has written and illustrated a series of historical nonsense stories called, Whopping Tales, now contracted to Next Chapter publisher.
Pete describes himself as an inveterate daydreamer, and escapes into those dreams by writing crime thrillers with a thoughtful dash of social commentary.
Facebook book page: https://www.facebook.com/Peteadamsauthor/ Pete’s first 8 books are on Audible – “exceptional listening”.
Link to ‘Road Kill’ via his publisher with links onto his other books: https://www.nextchapter.pub/books/road-kill
