Elin Gregory

Sweet Saturday, and I had a bit of a lay in and a read instead of getting up early and making this post. Not actually a bad thing because I was reading something rather fine that I will talk about another time.

Last time my recommendation was for Artifice, a graphic novel by Alex Woolfson and Winona Nelson. This time I’m offering you another HUGE free read – the cycle of FBI stories called The Shadow of the Templar by M Chandler.

Click on the cover and it will take you to her Lulu store where you can buy PDFs for a few pence, but if you’re skint you can read the stories online at her website.

These books are self pubbed, pretty well edited for typos etc, though OMG they could do with a bit of editing for length, and the PDFs are nicely produced. The stories deal with the adventures of a team of FBI agents vastly complicated by the deeply unwilling relationship that their leader, Simon Drake, codename Templar, falls into with the snide and sarcastic English jewel thief and con-man, Jeremy Archer, aka The Shadow.

This series of books is PURE crack. Just think of every heist movie you’ve ever seen and double it. Add the kind of banter between a group of secondary characters worthy of NCIS. Then add a lead man who actively hates the man he has fallen in love with. It’s a fortnight’s worth of highly entertaining reading with many laugh out loud moments and others of genuine pathos. It’s not erotic – the few sex scenes are brief and there more to provide emotional fall out than a reader for the reader to get hot and sweaty – but it is very entertaining.

Highly recommended for people who are as interested in the shenanigans as the relationships.