Maps of Hell

About Paul Johnston

Paul Johnston is one of the UK's most highly regarded and exciting crime writers. He rocketed onto the scene with his debut novel, Body Politic, which won the Crime Writers' Association John Creasey Memorial Dagger for best first novel in 1997. Set in a futuristic Edinburgh run by a supposedly benevolent totalitarian regime, it introduced the maverick investigator Quintilian Dalrymple. A further four novels (forming a quintet, by design, oh yes) consolidated Quint's position in contemporary crime fiction's Premier League of engaging and unusual heroes. Body Politic has recently been optioned for film/ TV, and Paul is working on a new edition to celebrate the book's tenth anniversary. Quint's adventures have been published across the globe, from the USA, to Greece, to Japan, to Denmark, and points between.
 
Paul was born in Edinburgh in 1957. He lived there before going to Oxford to study ancient and modern Greek. He has a longstanding relationship with Greece - its language, its history and its culture - and spends much of his time there. He has a Greek wife, Roula; their daughter Maggie was born in 2006. Paul also has a nineteen-year-old daughter, Silje, from his previous marriage. His knowledge of Greece and its people led to a trilogy of novels featuring another cult detective, the half-Greek, half-Scottish Alex Mavros - they are A Deeper Shade of Blue, The Last Red Death (winner of the Sherlock Award for Best Detective Novel, 2004) and The Golden Silence. They were all critically acclaimed. The Golden Silence is currently being developed as a film in Greece.

Maxim Jakubowski's view on Paul Johnston...

His early Quintin Dalrymple thrillers were set in a near future Edinburgh, but his Alex Mavros trilogy, of which THE GOLDEN SILENCE  is the 3rd, occurs in the Greek islands and Athens where the driven half Scots half Greek amateur investigator is drawn into local cases often linked to his own past. Colourful and frantic, a plunge into the dark side of paradise.

Alex Mavros series:
1. Crying Blue Murder
2. The Last Red Death
3. The Golden Silence