THRILLER addicts who turn up at Culcheth’s Forget-Me-Not Toy and Book shop on Saturday. December 11, to meet bestselling author David Costa may be in for a surprise.
For David Costa is the pen name of Culcheth resident and Croft parish councillor Paul Campbell.
He will be signing copies of his recently published books “Tested by Fire” and “Light of the Sun” – part of the David Reece Black Ops trilogy.
The third book is likely to be published next year.
Paul decided to use a pen name for his novels because of his police background – he served 26 years in Northern Ireland, 23 of them in Special Branch.
He had been planning to write a novel for years and the Covid lockdown gave him the time to turn out “Tested by Fire” – a tense thriller set in Manchester when the Conservative Party conference was taking place and the central character, David Reece, and the SG9 Black Ops team are racing against time to thwart a joint Real IRA-Islamic Jihad plot to assassinate the British Prime Minister.
It became a bestseller on Amazon – which encouraged Paul to produce his second book in rapid time.
“Light of the Sun” again involves David Reece and his team, this time trying to stop a terrorist plot to set off a dirty bomb in London.
Although both books are fictional, they benefit from the authenticity Paul is able to provide drawing on his own Special Branch service in the RUC. Both are available in print and as e-books from Amazon.
How did Paul decide on his pen name? Well, it came to him when he was relaxing – in a coffee shop!
He will be at Forget-Me-Not on December 11 between 11am and 2pm.
