Signing success for crime writer Bert
Stirling crime writer RJ Mitchell had a hometown signing at the weekend for his book‘The Shadow of Fear’.
Part of a tour which started on June 7, sales broke the 1200 mark at a recent signing in WH Smith’s Argyle St store in Glasgow.
Bert said:“It’s amazing to think I set out over six months back on the tour and if someone had told me then I would be looking to break 1300 sales going into the final weekend, I think I would have had a laugh.
“So I’d just to like to thank everyone who has bought a copy of my book. The reaction to‘The Shadow of Fear’has been overwhelmingly positive and it has been great to take it to places I have never done signings in, like Inverness, Dundee and Helensburgh, and see how positive people still are about the written word and crime fiction in particular.
“I must thank everyone at WHSmith. The staff in Smith’s stores all over Scotland have been really kind, helpful and hospitable to me and when you have travelled over 2,000 miles on a tour that really matters.”
The Shadow of Fear is the first in a new series revolving around disgraced soldier Ludovic Fear, who finds himself in HMP Barlinnie for a crime he didn’t commit and his hopes of redemption dwindling when he becomes ensnared by a notorious crime lord called The Cyclops.
WHSmith Scotland director David Hunter says Mitchell’s success is concrete proof of the high street chain’s willingness to support Scottish writing talent.
Hunter said:“The Shadow of Fear is now RJ’s third tour with us and each one has gotten bigger and better with his sales figures growing exponentially.
“But this 2018 book tour is by far the biggest we have ever put on in Scotland and for RJ to have broken through the 1,000 sales, pushed on through 1200 sales and beaten his previous best from 2016 with two weeks still left is tremendous and proof of just how popular he has become with our customers.
“WHSmith are delighted to be supporting local Scottish writing talent and the success of this tour just shows that the Scottish public very much still enjoys a good read in its traditional form.”