About Spark Out by Nick Rippington
Think Arnie Dolan was trouble? Now meet
the old man...
MAURICE ‘BIG MO’ DOLAN is prone to headaches and there is one main cause: his family. He believes eldest son Chuck, 7, needs toughening up, his wife Beryl is too lenient, his career-criminal father has no respect for him and he is about to lose his younger brother Clive to the army.
There is light at the end of the tunnel, though. With Margaret Thatcher’s government backing initiative and suggesting people get ‘on their bikes’ to find work, Mo believes it is the perfect time for him to expand his business... into armed robbery.
As he plans the ultimate raid to drag him out of the poverty trap, he believes his fortunes are bound to get better... but with the Falklands War just around the corner they are about to become a whole lot worse.
A hard-boiled suspense thriller that's not for the faint hearted.
A prequel to Crossing The Whitewash, the novel is set in 1982 as Britain comes to terms with a Thatcher government and the prospect of war in the south Atlantic...
MAURICE ‘BIG MO’ DOLAN is prone to headaches and there is one main cause: his family. He believes eldest son Chuck, 7, needs toughening up, his wife Beryl is too lenient, his career-criminal father has no respect for him and he is about to lose his younger brother Clive to the army.
There is light at the end of the tunnel, though. With Margaret Thatcher’s government backing initiative and suggesting people get ‘on their bikes’ to find work, Mo believes it is the perfect time for him to expand his business... into armed robbery.
As he plans the ultimate raid to drag him out of the poverty trap, he believes his fortunes are bound to get better... but with the Falklands War just around the corner they are about to become a whole lot worse.
A hard-boiled suspense thriller that's not for the faint hearted.
A prequel to Crossing The Whitewash, the novel is set in 1982 as Britain comes to terms with a Thatcher government and the prospect of war in the south Atlantic...
Book Hangover with Nick Rippington
This post is about things that get you all discombobulated once they are over, like a meal you never want to end, films you could watch over and over again, and songs you could listen to on repeat, all day, every day.
Who are you and what do you do?
In my day job, I am a mild-mannered national journalist, one of those who keeps their head down and makes the writers look good. As a sub-editor and designer on the back bench of the Daily Star Sunday I quite often find myself thrust into the spotlight when our small but perfectly formed team is decimated by holidays or illness. I’ve been in work coordinating things when the Tunisia terrorist attack took place, and in the aftermath of the dreadful events in Paris. You have to think on your feet, select the best pictures, decide the priority for the stories you have and then present a package that gives readers all the information they need to know. It’s a bit of a relief when I change tack and move over to the Sports Desk for the daily paper. I tend to design those terrific-looking weekend football supplements! I ended up at the Star, having landed and lost my dream job on the News of the World. I was appointed the Welsh Sports Editor of the biggest selling newspaper in Europe, only to be made redundant at forty-eight hours’ notice when Rupert Murdoch closed down the paper in response to the phone hacking scandal.
What gives you an actual hangover?
Many things. Cheap British lager gives me a hangover and I am convinced they pump it full of extra chemicals to ensure you get a hangover the following day even if you weren’t particularly drunk the night before! Any night on the shots, too. Sambuccas in particular make me feel like my head and stomach have spent the night in a tumble dryer.
What TV programme?
American TV is taking over, though there have been some decent series recently made in this country, like Happy Valley, Broadchurch and Line of Duty. There is a theme there, of course, cop shows. I don’t think anything comes close to Sky Atlantic’s brilliant Billions series, though, about the battle between a dodgy Wall Street opportunist and an obsessed district attorney.
What film?
Always something different. Silence of the Lambs is probably my favourite film of all time and I have watched it a fair bit. I loved the sci-fi film Bladerunner, too. I really get upset with remakes that don’t come close to matching the originals. Love all the gangster films, too, and Once Upon a Time In America with those great actors De Niro and James Woods is a classic.
What song?
My wife and I danced to There Is A Light That Never Goes Out by The Smiths for our wedding song, so I’ll have to say that. My friends and I were talking the other day about which songs we would nominate on Desert Island Discs. So tough!
What food?
Curries and Pastas generally. I love to make them myself. I’ve got some great cookbooks at home, like the Sopranos cookbook which tells you how to make some of the delicious recipes they enjoy on the show. I have been making curries since my friend and I experimented in a spare study period when we took cooking lessons. It was great because lessons finished at lunchtime and we could eat our meals while they were hot.
Which person/people
Well, I’m certainly not going to be nominating any politicians. These days their simple lack of empathy and understanding for the general public shocks me, whatever side of the fence they are. It would have to be Darrell Clarke. Who? Darrell is the footballing genius who rescued Bristol Rovers from non-league obscurity three seasons ago and won us back-to-back promotions. We are now setting our sights on the Championship and, who knows, maybe the Premier League eventually.
And, finally ... which book?
I don’t believe there is a cleverer, more switched-on writer than John Le Carre. Everything he produces is a mini-masterpiece and I could never hope to rival his genius. Of all the Le Carre books – and even recent ones like The Night Manager have been fantastic – I would have to say The Little Drummer Girl, an engrossing story about a spy agency trying to infiltrate a terrorist network.
About the author
NICK RIPPINGTON is one of the victims of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal you never hear about. Having proudly taken his dream job as the newspaper’s Welsh Sports Editor, he was made redundant with two days’ notice when Rupert Murdoch closed down Europe’s biggest-selling tabloid six years ago. The dramatic events prompted Nick to write UK gangland thriller Crossing the Whitewash, which was released in August 2015. Spark Out is the second novel in his Boxer Boys series. Married to Liz, Nick has two children – Jemma, 35, and Olivia, 7. A Bristolian at heart, he lives near Ilford, Essex.
Buying links:
Amazon UK:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Spark-Out-hard-boiled-suspense-thriller-ebook/dp/B072229YC6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1499186706&sr=8-1&keywords=spark+out
Amazon US:
https://www.amazon.com/Spark-Out-hard-boiled-suspense-thriller-ebook/dp/B072229YC6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1499186706&sr=8-1&keywords=spark+out
Check out the rest of the blog tour...
No comments:
Post a Comment