Novel looks at life, experiences and love of Chasewater

Andy Hollyhead has written "Dead in the Water: Chasewater Mysteries Book One", the first in a trilogy about a troubled former police officer, with the lake near Chasetown and Burntwood a central point in the trilogy.

The first book looks at the death of Martin Barr, his links to Chasewater and how suspended Police Constable Jack Appleyard ends up getting involved despite not being part of the official enquiry.

Andy Hollyhead, who lives in Norton Canes, but wrote the book while living in Brownhills, said the cosy crime murder mystery story touched on themes such as relationships and being gay and said he wrote from some of his own experiences.

He said: "I've never been a police officer, but I am gay, and the book is based on some of my experiences of living on the edge of an urban area, near Birmingham, but out on the edge of that, with some of the prejudices you can experience as part of that.

"I've never experienced anything as extreme as the character in the book, but there are aspects I can draw on."

Mr Hollyhead said the setting was somewhere he looked upon with great fondness and spent a lot of time on and said that it was while writing a short story that he got the idea of using Chasewater for the novel.

He said: "I've moved to be closer to Chasewater and I go walking there practically every day now and it is a brilliant area which I think is very much a hidden gem.

"There's plenty of places in the book which people who know Chasewater will find very familiar.

"I have written lots of short stories and poems as I have gone along and I think that what happened was that I got the outline written and realised there was an interesting story here."

"Dead in the Water: Chasewater Mysteries Book One" is available to buy on Amazon, where it has hit the top 50 in the LGBT section.

To find out more and to buy the book, go to amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BYW63HFL