Award-winning author and former Huddersfield Examiner journalist Denis Kilcommons is finding a whole new generation of fans – at the age of 83.

The Honley-based writer has had his first four international thrillers re-published for the digital age more than 30 years after they came out.

Thanks to publisher Silvertail Books the thrillers are now available for the first time as e-books.

The books include The Dark Apostle, which provides an alternative view of the assassination of Martin Luther King, and won the John Creasey Award from the Crime Writers’ Association of Great Britain in 1987 for best first crime novel. The other titles are Serpent’s Tooth, Blowback and Matilda’s Game.

The books were published around the world and translated into many languages and Denis said: “For a time, I thought I was big in Japan because I sold thousands of copies there. Then I realised the population was more 120 million…”

 

 

Denis was a journalist on several newspapers in England, and night editor on an East African daily paper, before moving to Huddersfield. He met his wife Maria whilst working on the Evening Gazette in Blackpool.

He semi-retired from the Examiner in 2006 but continued writing columns for the paper until February last year.

Denis has had more than 20 titles published under his own name and pseudonyms, and continues to write at his home in Honley. He is partway through a 10-book series.

“One of my most successful books was The Limit, written as Peter Lacey,” he said. “It was a hard-edged crime novel set in Blackpool. I’m using that and its sequel, The Bagman, as the anchor around which I’m writing the series.

“They are all set around Cheshire – where I grew up – and the Fylde Coast, between 1959 and 1999, and follow the same characters. It’s nostalgia crime and I’m enjoying re-living all my yesterdays!

“Eight books are finished and I’m half-way through the last. Then I’ll see what my agent thinks.”

 

 

Denis retired from the Examiner after an incredible 65 years as a journalist, 50 of them on the Examiner.

He reckons he must have written around 6,000 columns and six million words during his 34 years as a columnist on the paper.

Denis, whose wife Maria died two months ago, has two daughters, Siobhan and Sian, both former students at Honley High School before going to university. Siobhan and family live in Donegal and Sian and family in Honley.

Denis’s books can be found on Amazon HERE.