Crime author LJ Ross has announced the launch of Heavenfield, the third instalment in her DCI Ryan series, which will be released on March 8th, to coincide with International Women’s Day.
Louise Ross, who writes under the name LJ Ross, shot to the top of the UK Amazon charts with her debut novel Holy Island, released last January.
The second in the series, Sycamore Gap, enjoyed similar success, with both titles being named among Amazon’s top reads of 2015. The books are also available as audiobooks.
Now, the North-East born author is gearing up for the launch of her third book, Heavenfield, which is set to draw all of the themes from the first two DCI Ryan outings to a conclusion.
Louise said: “Writing Heavenfield has been an entirely different experience to putting pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, for Holy Island. My first novel was really a leap of faith. I’d given up a secure, well-paid job to pursue my dream of becoming an author, without knowing whether people would like my work.
“But the DCI Ryan series has quickly gained a loyal following. This time round, the pressure is on to write because I know there are DCI Ryan fans who have already read both Holy Islandand Sycamore Gap and are now eagerly waiting for all of the storyline strands to be wrapped up in the third book. I feel a lot of responsibility to make sure Heavenfield provides a satisfying and fitting ending to some of the themes which have run through the series so far.”
Heavenfield launches in e-edition on March 8th, with the paperback version to follow later this year.
All three thrillers are set in Northumberland. Louise now lives in Bath with her husband James and their two-year-old son. She grew up in Ponteland and still returns to the North East regularly to visit her parents.
Looking out upon Holy Island during a train journey from Newcastle to Edinburgh, Louise remarked to James that she was amazed no one had set a book there. She started to jot down plot ideas there and then.
Holy Island opens with a grisly murder among the remains of Lindisfarne Priory while Sycamore Gap begins with the find of a body among the stones of Hadrian’s Wall. Heavenfield is set around the tiny church of St Oswalds in Wall, Northumberland, believed to be the location where King Oswald raised a wooden cross before the Battle of Heavenfield in AD 635. The book will bring to a conclusion themes explored in the first two in the series, including the mysterious “circle”.
Regulatory lawyer-turned-author Louise decided to change career following the birth of her son Ethan, now two.
Louise was offered traditional book deals after sending off her manuscript to a handful of publishers. But, she opted to self-publish through Amazon in the same way as fellow best-selling authors EL James, who penned the 50 Shades trilogy, and Lisa Genova, who wrote Still Alice, which was turned into a film starring Julianne Moore.
Louise said: “Self-publishing was once seen as vanity publishing. But that isn’t the case at all. It’s given me both freedom and success, and it means I can share my work directly and much more quickly with my readers. I can’t wait until I’m able to push the button to officially launch Heavenfield in March.”