What’s the Secret of The Handshaker’s Attraction?

There are those people who don’t like e-books. They’d rather have an old fashioned paperback in their hands. I have to confess, I’m one of ’em. Well now, you can have that paperback… well you can if you’re looking to read The Handshaker. Not only that, but through Amazon, you may also qualify for free shipping (you need to check the Amazon Ts & Cs to find out about that).

Women readers seem to love this book, and I find that strange. The Handshaker is clearly a misogynist. He targets women, he uses and abuses them ruthlessly and when he’s done with them, he leaves them hanging all over town. When I first wrote it, my major concern was that female readers would be turned off and away by the violence perpetrated on women, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

I asked my good friend and editor, Maureen Vincent-Northam about this, and her response was, “ah, but there’s a nice man pursuing The Handshaker.” My argument against that was that Alex Croft is only in the chase because The Handshaker has his girlfriend.

And is Croft really that nice? He was jumping Sinclair while he was still married to someone else, and that’s hardly cricket, is it?

He is a thoroughly decent chap, obviously, but he’s not without his failings as the infidelity demonstrates. He’s quite arrogant in his own way, and if his self-assurance does take a few kicks along the way, it never takes long for it to come back to the fore.

Would I like him if I met him in real life? Probably not. Would my missus? Probably. He’s wealthy for a start off. He’s fit, good looking, rolling in money, and an expert in his field, whereas I’m fat, unshaven, dress like a tramp most of the time, rolling in debt and an expert in drinking tea. In short, he’s everything I’m not.

We have one thing in common, Croft and me. We don’t discriminate. So even if I am slightly envious of the fella, I don’t mind working with him again on The Executioner, which I hope will be out and about by the end of the year.

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The Handshaker is available in paperback from Amazon UK and Amazon Worldwide. It’s also available for the Kindle from Amazon UK and Amazon Worldwide and in all e-formats from Smashwords.