Date Published: 11-11-2025
Publisher: Epicenter Press
As the pressure mounts for a quick solution to the case, the detective finds that he too, is in the killer’s crosshairs. But Ryan is distracted from the investigation by a romantic encounter with an old university friend. He also worries about his mother, Mumta, and her new obsessive desire for grandchildren from her only son. Could this be linked to her recent medical tests? And there’s another pressing problem—the plague of rats in his apartment block.
Detective Ryan’s hands are well and truly full.
Author Interview
CF: I’m British, born in London, but I’ve spent time in many countries, including the US and Australia. I’ve moved around so much that I now consider myself, and, if you’ll excuse the cliché, a citizen of the world.
CF: I read all genres of books, but if I had to choose a favorite, I guess it would be the thriller genre.
It’s almost impossible to name my top five authors, but in no particular order the ones I’ve read most of are:
Lee Child --- an author who lived and worked close to where I spent time when I was younger, in the center of England, in the West Midlands. Child, aka his real name Jim Grant, is famous for the high-octane Jack Reacher series.
Gillian Flynn – Best known for blockbusters like Gone Girl and Sharp Objects.
Lucy Foley – Like Child, another British author who writes both mystery thrillers and historical novels. I like her thrillers --The Midnight Feast, The Paris Apartment, The Guest List and The Hunting – best. They are constructed in an Agatha Christie kind of way.
John Grisham --- Very old school, but the undisputed master of the legal thriller, famous for bestseller like The Firm and a Time to Kill.
Michael Connelly – an author famous for his procedural crime and legal thriller. His most iconic character is probably Harry Bosch.
Dennis Lehane’s “Small Mercies.” A tale of revenge and family love set in 1974. Lehane has a marvelous ability to suck you in with his writing.
CF: I thought about becoming a writer back in my teens. However, it took me many years and many baby steps before I was ready to take the plunge into full-time authorship.
CF: I’ve tried both plotting and being a pantser. I would like to be a pantser—it seems to me a more exciting approach, but every time I’ve tried to write without extensive plotting, I’ve had to give up. So here I am… an unwilling plotter.
CF: I know Australia well, having spent years here on and off. I’ve often thought about writing a cozy mystery detective story set in Sydney, but I only got around to it recently. My protagonist, Detective Ramesh Ryan, is someone who, like me, feels like a fish out of water here. He is also ambitious and intelligent but emotionally stunted.
How do you celebrate finishing a book?
CF: By lying down and thinking… never again… Well until the next time anyway.
CF: Don’t think too much. Just do it.
CF: Scrivener --- It’s far from perfect and took me months to adjust to but I’m finally used to it and am happy with it.
CF: Be persistent. Don’t give up. And plough on until you have some sort of first draft. Then you can go back and refine it.
How do you organize everything and finding the time to sit down and write?
CF: There’s no tricks to it. I sit in a quiet room and write. It’s hard, and unrelenting, and I need all my determination to keep going.
CF: Probably a cat… independent, self sufficient, and intuitive.
CF: My publisher, Epicenter Press.
How do you name your characters?
CF: Names just come to me, but I have an irritating habit of deciding halfway through the book that a name doesn’t fit the character, so I change it. This causes chaos, but I feel I have no choice but to do it.
CF: I write from nine o’clock to twelve five days a week, and use the time between twelve and one to edit what I have just written.
Thank you, Clive, for being here at Always Reading! -Melissa
About the Author
Clive Fleury is an award-winning writer of novels and screenplays, including most recently the murder mystery Off Season, which was the first in the Detective Ryan Mystery series. He is also a TV/Film writer, director, and producer who has worked for major broadcasters and studios on a wide variety of successful drama and documentary projects, in the US, the UK, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has written and directed four feature films, one of which, “Big City Blues,” starred Giancarlo Esposito, the late Burt Reynolds, and Balthazar Getty. His most recent film, “Sons of Summer,” is a surfing movie set on the Gold Coast of Australia and stars Temuera Morrison and Isabel Lucas. Clive currently spends his time between Miami, Florida and Sydney, Australia.
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