Dartmoor, southern England’s last great wilderness, is the setting of the novel I’m writing at the moment – and it’s great fun setting a thriller in a place I know really well. The book is a sequel to my Sean Miller thriller Balmoral Kill, and will be out later this summer.
I’ve known and walked Dartmoor for over fifty years. I’ve long campaigned for it to be wild and free. I spent nine turbulent years as chief executive of the Dartmoor Preservation Association (DPA)- one of England’s oldest environmental campaigning groups, founded in 1883.
Most of my books have accurate settings; I spent a great deal of time getting the area around Loch Muick right for the finale of Balmoral Kill. Dartmoor was even easier – I know it so well I can just close my eyes and picture any corner of the place.
This new novel – still working on the title – uses some considerable stretches of the Moor, including Spitchwick, where I lived wild in a wood for around a year, the area around Dartmeet and the spectacular Dart Gorge, which is the setting for one of the main action sequences.
Princetown features too, with my characters Sam Lovat and Billy Stanton staying at the Duchy Hotel, the place that was my office when I worked for the DPA, and the valley of the West Dart around the mysterious Wistman’s Wood.
There’s a lot of action in this one, including an escape from Dartmoor Prison, several gun battles and a long chase across Dartmoor.
It’s been fun to write…
And if you haven’t read the first Sean Miller thriller, set in London and the Scottish Highlands, it’s out now in paperback and as a Kindle eBook.
How do you hunt down a faceless assassin before his ultimate kill?
You get Sean Miller… Sniper. Mercenary. Adventurer. He’ll stop at nothing. Do whatever it takes.
As the shadow of the Nazis falls across Europe, a sinister conspiracy begins a secret war closer to home. Miller’s chase leads from the dangerous alleys of London’s East End to the lonely glens of the Scottish Highlands. But where do his loyalties really lie?
Who will take the final shot in the Balmoral Kill?
John Bainbridge Writer 