Spotlight on Guest Author Sheryl Browne

My blog guest this time is fellow Choc Lit author, Sheryl Browne. She writes edgy, sexy contemporary fiction and psychological thrillers.

A member of the Crime Writers’ Association, Romantic Novelists’ Association and awarded a Red Ribbon by The Wishing Shelf Book Awards, Sheryl has several books published and two short stories in Birmingham City University anthologies, where she completed her MA in Creative Writing.

Recommended to her publisher by the WH Smith Travel fiction buyer, Sheryl’s contemporary fiction is published by multi-award winning Choc Lit.

I asked Sheryl some questions :-

When and where do you write?

I have a Georgian Bureau which is my actual writing station. I absolutely love it. It makes me feel like a proper writer and has so much history in its bones. It even has an ink stain (no, I won’t be renovating it).

However, I’m currently working in my lounge at tiny a repro French antique dressing table. The little guy lying next to it is the reason why. Little Snoops is recovering from two strokes and is more settled when he can keep an eye on me!

Do you scare yourself when you are writing your thrillers?

I do a bit. In writing psychological thrillers, I’m exploring the darker psyche of some of my characters, looking at the nature vs nurture conundrum. Is badness in the genes? Is it brain function or childhood experience that creates a monster? A combination of all three?

The driving force linked to most murders, I’m reliably informed by a former DCI, is humiliation. How many of us haven’t felt humiliated at some point in our lives? Who hasn’t wished for revenge, even if only in the form of hoping someone gets their comeuppance? As a writer, in order to create a believable character, you have to live, eat sleep and breathe them, almost become them, as it were. I think I may have succeeded as, apparently, I have a scary insight into the mind of a psychopath. Thank you Rachel at Rachel’s Random Reads. I’m flattered … I think.

What part of you is included in your books?

My heart. Seriously, my writing tends to gravitate towards family and family dynamics and just how strong a family unit can be. My latest thrillers feature DI Matthew Adams, who is a family man, and the core of the stories is his need to protect his family. Personally, I am fiercely protective of those I love and this is a trait I think I bring into my writing.

What can we look forward to next from you?

The Edge of Sanity! No, I’m not balancing on the brink of, honestly. This will be the third in the DI Matthew Adams thrillers series. A harrowing story of hope amid loss and betrayal, The Edge of Sanity pushes the Conner family to the absolute limits of what a person should be able to cope with. The story is “remarkable, dark, emotionally charged” and already a Northern Crime Reviews Recommended Read.

The book is currently in edits so … watch this space.

Thanks so much for sharing my book news, Morton! Can I just take this opportunity to also thank readers and book bloggers for their fabulous support? It really is so hugely appreciated. I honestly wouldn’t still be writing without it.

That’s great, Sheryl. I hope Snoops continues to improve. Details of the first two DI Matthew Adams thrillers are below.

After She’s Gone

He’s killed your child and kidnapped your wife. What would YOU do?

There’s evil and then there’s Patrick Sullivan. A drug dealer, pimp and murderer, there are no depths to which Patrick would not sink, and Detective Inspector Matthew Adams has found this out in the most devastating way imaginable.

When Patrick’s brother is shot dead in a drug bust gone wrong, the bitter battle between the two men intensifies, and Matthew finds it increasingly difficult to hold the moral high ground. All he wants is to make the pimping scum suffer the way he did … the way Lily did.

But being at war with such a depraved individual means that it’s not just Matthew who’s in danger. Patrick has taken a lot from Matthew, but he hasn’t taken everything – and now he wants everything.

 Sins of the Father

What if you’d been accused of one of the worst crimes imaginable?

Detective Inspector Matthew Adams is slowly picking up the pieces from a case that nearly cost him the lives of his entire family and his own sanity too. On the surface, he seems to be moving on, but he drinks to forget – and when he closes his eyes, the nightmares still come.

But the past is the past – or is it? Because the evil Patrick Sullivan might be out of the picture, but there’s somebody who is just as intent on making Matthew’s life hell, and they’re doing it in the cruellest way possible.

When Matthew finds himself accused of a horrific and violent crime, will his family stand by him? And will he even be around to help when his new enemy goes after them as well?

Buying links:

After She’s Gone: http://getbook.at/DIMatthewAdams

Sins of the Father: http://getbook.at/DIMatthewAdams2

Author Links for Sheryl Browne

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Choc Lit

Trailer Link for DI Matthew Adams series: https://youtu.be/0MqZ5TpBwGk