Crime writer Bert on record-breaking form
Stirling born crime writer RJ Mitchell is celebrating having broken the 1000th sale mark on a Scottish signing tour.
Better known as Bert, the former cop’s fifth crime novel ‘The Shadow of Fear’, launched at the Stirling Smith, on June 7 and a few days later the crime writer kicked off the 30-stop signing tour.
After travelling 1856 miles and fulfilling 20 in-store signings, Bert has broken the magical 1000 mark for the second time with a tour promoted by high street chain WH Smith.
With the tour not set to finish until December 23, he is hoping to break his previous tour sales record of 1072 set with his previous book ‘The Shift’.
The delighted author said: “It’s been a fantastic tour from start to finish and a huge thanks to WHSmith for promoting, supporting and backing The Shadow of Fear and providing me with this tremendous opportunity.
“What has been great is that I have been to places like Inverness, Dundee and Helensburgh where I have never done a signing and met new people and yet still managed to average over 50 sales a stop.
“But at the same time at places like Aberdeen, Paisley and Glasgow Sauchiehall Street, I have met familiar faces who have bought my previous books but still come back for the new one.
“To any author that is the ultimate testament to your work I would imagine.
“To be honest the tour has exceeded all my expectations and my next target is to beat my previous best of 1072 sales with ‘The Shift’ tour a couple of years back.”
Bert was runner-up in last year’s People’s Book Prize with ‘The Shift’, his epic police procedural based on his life and times as a rookie cop in Glasgow in the summer of 1989.
The Shadow of Fear is the first in a series revolving around disgraced soldier Ludovic Fear, who finds himself in HMP Barlinnie for a crime he didn’t commit, becoming ensnared by a notorious crime lord, The Cyclops.