Undercover Panel
Featuring Neil Lancaster
and Liam Thomas

An interesting panel that took the audience, in part into their world of their previous careers, their inspiration/motivation and their books. Discover their books and then what else they had to say, including something absolutely brilliant that I have quoted at the end. It’ll make you smile and think… Then find out about a book that has recently had a cover reveal at the end.

The Books

Blood Runs Cold By Neil Lancaster

She was taken against her will.
She escaped once.
She won’t escape again.

Buy Link:

Waterstones

The Buyer By Liam Thomas

The Making and Breaking
Of An
Undercover Detective

Buy Link:
Waterstones

The Discussion

Neil Lancaster and Liam Thomas both served in the police service. They both have interesting stories, with unexpected details to tell about their grandfathers that led to both the intrepid authors into their own careers into the police.

Neil Lancaster’s grandfather joined the police in 1919. He was deemed too short, but they needed someone who could play the French Horn, which he could do, so he was let in anyway and served on duty in a bigger capacity than just playing the French Horn. He has many interesting stories to tell, if you ever get to see him live in a talk.

He once wrote a memoir, but is a lover of fiction and realised he had “characters leaking out of him,” and wondered if he could write, so basically gave it a go.

Liam Thomas’s grandfather was in the military police, things weren’t great for him at home in the fishing community where he lived and as a way out, he joined the police. He then wanted to be a screenwriter and it transpired that publishing house, Penguin, reckoned after telling them about his life, a memoir would be good. He is also considering writing fiction.

Both discussed their working lives. Neil Lancaster went from being your average cop to being part of CID and a member of the Homicide Task Force and was involved in major cases that were making the headlines. The stakes were high and it weighs on you.

Liam Thomas talked of working with “extraordinary detectives” and different elements of the job, as well as every image of homicide; as Neil Lancaster talked about this, but also saying about an image that wasn’t the most horrific that stuck in his mind.

Neil Lancaster talked revealed how he saw some funny people in his career and this helped form some of his characters in his books.

Both have revealed they have no regrets.