Summer reads Sneaky peeks: Anita Waller's tantalising new book Game Players

Available here

Blurb

When a gang of six children playing in their den in the woods spot a man burying drugs nearby, it marks the beginning of the end of their childhoods.

Unsure what to do, the children dig up the drugs and take them away. But when the dealer, who they watched bury the stash, shows up dead, the youngsters are thrown into turmoil.

Scared of what might happen, the children tell the police about the body they have discovered.

Meanwhile, a group of gangsters start searching for their missing drugs.

Soon the children and their families become the target of the vicious criminals who will stop at nothing to retrieve their narcotics…

Author Bio

Anita Waller was born in Sheffield, South Yorkshire in 1946. She married Dave in 1967 and they have three adult children.

She began writing when she was around 8 years of age, writing 'compositions' at junior school that became books with chapters.

In 1995 she sent Beautiful to a publisher and as they reached the contract stage the publisher went into liquidation. As a result, the book was consigned to the attic in dejected disgust but in 2013 it was dragged out again for an enforced complete re-type. The original was written on an Amstrad 8256 and the only thing that remained was one hard copy.

Anita is not a typist and it was painfully reworked over two years, submitted to Bloodhound Books who, within three days of reading it, offered her a contract. 31 August 2015 saw its release into the wide world.

Following the outstanding success of Beautiful, she began a sequel on 27 December 2015, finishing it on 19 March 2016. The new novel, Angel, was launched on 7 May 2016.

34 Days followed, with its launch in October 2016. This was a huge success, particularly in the United States. While this, her third book in the psychological thriller genre, was flying out in all directions, she began work on her fourth book.

Winterscroft was a change in genre. It is a supernatural tale, set in Castleton, Derbyshire, and its release date was February 2017.

While she was writing Winterscroft, it became very clear from reading reviews that a sequel to 34 days was needed, and she began work on that. Bloodhound Books launched Strategy, on 10 August 2017.

Her next book, launched February 2018 and entitled Captor, is a psychological thriller, set exclusively in Sheffield. It was an instant success, both in the UK and the US.

The along came Game Players… once more set in Sheffield, the story involves a group of six children who have each other’s backs to a remarkable extent. The darker, criminal side of Sheffield is explored, and the book launch is 18 May 2018.

In her life away from the computer in the corner of her kitchen, she is a Sheffield Wednesday supporter with blue blood in her veins! The club was particularly helpful during the writing of 34 Days, as a couple of matches feature in the novel, along with Ross Wallace. Information was needed, and they provided it.

Her genre is murder - necessary murder.

Sneaky Peak

Sally Brownlow was waiting anxiously for them. ‘I expected you back before this,’ she scolded. ‘It’s been raining for a while. Where’ve you been?’

‘We were fine,’ Mark said. ‘We sat in the undercover car park in Asda and played Uno. Dry and warm, so we were fine. We’re doing the same tomorrow after the dentist, ’cos we didn’t finish the game.’

Sally looked at them, unsure whether to believe them or not. Eventually, she gave them the benefit of the doubt and ushered them inside.

‘Fish fingers for tea. Go and have a wash, please. You’ve got five minutes.’

They ran upstairs, keen to get back down for fish fingers and chips.

Dom’s mind was racing. That white powder, he felt sure, was going to cause problems. How could they ever feel safe there again, if the woods were going to be used for dropping off drugs? Maybe they should have dug them up and taken them to the police station? Or at least gone in and passed on the location of the stash.

He decided that the following day he would check if it was still there, and if it was, he would report it. He finished washing his hands and followed Freya and Mark downstairs. Somebody had to be the sensible one, and it had better be him.

Lying in bed later, Dom spoke to Mark about it. They shared a room and had many private discussions once they had gone to bed.

‘I’m not sure about doing that,’ Mark said, suddenly afraid for his brother. ‘What if you’re seen?’

‘We can’t ignore it, Mark. Don’t you remember all that stuff they told us at school? People die from taking drugs. I think we’ve got to do something. I’ll not touch it, I promise, just scrape down far enough to check it’s still there. If it isn’t, that solves the problem, but if it is…’

‘We don’t tell the police about the den, though. We’ll say we were playing in the woods and saw somebody burying it. Agreed?’

‘I’ll agree if the others do. This isn’t only down to us,’ Dom conceded, ‘but I don’t think we can ignore it. We’ll talk to everybody tomorrow, right?’

‘Right.’

Agreement made, they slept.

Freya didn’t. She felt a little scared and, for the first time, wasn’t sure how to act. She needed to talk to her Sammy, listen to what he thought. It was no good talking to Ella, because she saw danger in everything, but Sammy was sensible, like Daryl, really.

Yes, the next day, they had to talk, but mostly, she wanted to talk to Sammy. After all, Sammy thought he knew the guy, even though he tried to deny it; she knew her Sammy, and her Sammy knew who the man was.