Wick edition of new novel a hit with locals
THE launch of a special Wick edition of the final book in a trilogy by local writer James Fleming was a success.
Almost all the 100 copies of Rising Blood were sold at the event which was held in Mackays Hotel on Saturday evening.
“The response was very positive. The launch went excellently and everyone there was in good humour,” Fleming told the John O’Groat Journal.
Fleming gave a talk to the invited guests as did Wick artist Ian Scott who designed the dust cover for Rising Blood.
“We sold about 85 copies of the book which were signed by myself and Ian. The remaining signed copies will be available at D.R. Simpson’s in Wick for £20,” said Fleming.
“The shop also has copies of all three books.”
The book, which follows White Blood and Cold Blood, is set at the time of the Russian revolution in the early part of the 20th century and tells the story of Charlie Doig.
Doig – based on a character Fleming noticed walking around Wick – has stolen 28 tons of the Tsar’s gold and is pursued by three Bolshevik armies.
In Rising Blood he is to trying to escape the country with his Mongolian henchman, Kobi. The pair have no shortage of encounters and adventures as they struggle east along the Transiberian railway to Vladivostok and the safety of Japan.
Fleming, who admitted that he will miss the Charlie Doig character now that the trilogy has come to an end, is about to embark on his latest project which will be set in a different country and time from his last three books.
The new novel will be about a murder in contemporary Germany, said Fleming, who lives at Blingery House, Tannach, for part of the year although he retains his links with his native Gloucestershire.
The author, whose previous books include The Temple of Optimism and Thomas Gage, is a member of the famous literary family that includes Ian Fleming – the creator of James Bond – and Peter Fleming, the travel writer and essayist.