Exmouth author releases latest thriller - Limelight

Exmouth author, Graham Hurley, launches his latest book, Limelight Picture: Laura Munoz (Image: Laura Munoz)

The latest thriller from prolific Exmouth author, Graham Hurley, is set to be released this September.

The new book, Limelight, the fourth from the critically-acclaimed Enora Andressen series, follows the success of the three other books; Curtain Call, Sight Unseen and Off Script.

Graham’s third book, Off Script, was only launched earlier this year, so with his quick writing ability he has managed to pen the next instalment of the life of Anglo-Breton actress Enora Andressen in a matter of months.

Graham said: “Off-Script was published in March, but finished months earlier.

Compared to my World War Two series, The Spoils of War, the Enora books rarely take more than a month to write.

“I made friends with Enora at first sight and it’s a pleasure to slip into her persona on the page, and adopt her tone of voice.

“Lockdown, of course, was the perfect opportunity for someone like me to get back to the keyboard, and I spent May penning book five - the title, Intermission, is the clue.”

The popular series of thrillers is narrated by Enora herself, who is a film actress in her early 40s. The launch title, Curtain Call, finds her beset by the ugly collapse of a 17-year-long marriage to Berndt Andressen, a Scandi screenwriter, and by the near-terminal diagnosis of an aggressive brain tumour.

She emerges intact from both these traumas, and journeys onwards through books two and three.

The fourth instalment, Limelight, takes Enora to Budleigh Salterton’s acclaimed literary festival.

There, she meets and befriends a French woman who is shortly to disappear without trace.

Their brief friendship is all the deeper for its spontaneity and candour, but one secret Christianne doesn’t share will put this beguiling little seaside town on the front page of every UK newspaper.

Life is dangerous, Enora will later conclude, because no one survives it...

The author has cleverly touched on a raw contemporary nerve in every book in the series.

In Curtain Call, it was the many deceits that shaped the Brexit vote. In Sight Unseen, the scourge of the County Lines drugs gangs. In Off Script, it was about the woeful lack of mental health provision. And Limelight is about one’s right to die at the moment and manner of one’s choice.

The last two books are set in the South West, giving local readers the added advantage of being able to visualise the settings used in the narrative in the true sense.

Having lived in Exmouth for 15 years, Graham is perfectly placed to describe the area.

When asked why he chose Budleigh Salterton as the location for his latest book, he said: “For starters, it’s a very different proposition compared to Exmouth: smaller, richer, more refined, more peaceful, a comely little place with the quiet self-confidence that comes with wealth and early retirement.

“On the other hand, certainly to the outsider, it brims with a certain kind of energy.

“Stuff happens in Budleigh, whether it be the literary or music festivals, both of which have put the town well and truly on the cultural map, or the croquet club, or the magnificent golf links, or bridge, or the Anglo-French Fellowship, or a myriad of other community organisations.

“Budleigh is the kind of place that looks after its own interests with flair and a degree of inventiveness that are gifts for someone in my trade.”

Reading a book with so many local references is sure to fire up the interest of many East Devon residents, especially when the story places Budleigh Salterton in the spotlight of the national news broadcasts.

The book is to be published on Wednesday, September 30.

To grab a discounted and signed copy of Graham’s latest book, pre-publication, visit Best Books on 18 The Parade, Exmouth, Budleigh Library, or L’Image at 43 High Street in Budleigh Salterton. The cover price of the book is £20.99.

For more, see www.grahamhurley.co.uk