Ampthill Literary Festival Chair Releases Second Book In Charles Holborne Series

An Honest Manby Simon Michael
(Copies available for review, author interviews, images and more information can also be arranged)

Criminal lawyer Simon Michael draws inspiration from actual court cases to create the Charles Holborne series: “literary fiction and social commentary dressed up as edge-of-the-seat legal thriller”. The second book – An Honest Man – explores what happens when the lead character comes into contact with major-league villains including the Kray brothers in 1960s London.

An Honest Man is the second book in the Charles Holborne series by Simon Michael, chair of the Ampthill Literary Festival. In tackling class prejudice and anti-Semitism, the series has a powerful resonance with the current debate around immigration and assimilation.

Simon Michael’s latest work is published by Urbane Publications and follows the 2015 release of successful debut crime thriller fiction novel, The Brief. During Simon's years of practice at the Bar he has prosecuted and defended enough murderers, armed robbers, con artists and other assorted villainy to provide him with a lifetime of true crime stories. Simon had several books published in the UK and the USA in the 1990s and his short story Split was shortlisted for the Cosmopolitan-Perrier Short Story Award. Four children, two divorces and lots of therapy forced him to spend the next 20 years in full-time practice as a lawyer, but in 2016 he was finally able to retire from the Bar to devote himself to full-time writing. The Brief (September 2015) and An Honest Man (July 2016) are the first two books in the Charles Holborne series, set in the dangerous gangland streets of 1960s London.

Simon Michael says: “The Charles Holborne series is informed by my 30-plus years of working as a Legal 500 listed barrister. Set in a time of rife police corruption and control of London by gangs (principally the Kray twins), it is based on real cases, with real forensic evidence and court documents included. However, the principal theme of the books is actually about dislocation: not fitting in. Charles Holborne (ne Horowitz) was a Jewish East End boy, an amateur boxer who worked as a lighterman on the Thames. He’s brilliant despite coming from the wrong side of the tracks and he succeeds at the Bar, where he finds himself unable to fit into that most conservative of professions at a time of class prejudice and anti-Semitism.  

“The second principal theme is of moral conflict. Charles Holborne believes passionately in the rule of law. Sometimes he stands alone against the storm of corruption and criminality raging around him, but all too often he is tempted to obtain justice by breaking the rules, just like everyone around him.”

ESSENTIAL DETAILS

Genre:Crime/legal thriller

Publisher:Urbane Publications

Publication date:July 2016

Pages:320 pages

Availability:Global

ISBN:9781911129394

Price:£8.99

Author:Simon Michael

Purchase link:https://urbanepublications.com/books/an-honest-man/

For more information, editorial opportunities, interview requests or review copies please get in touch with either Sam Batt or Helen Lewis: SamuelBatt@LiterallyPR.com or HelenLewis@LiterallyPR.com +44 (0) 8709 619 069

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