Jason Hopes Crime Novel Is Dead Cert For Success
19 March 2012
Professor Jason Lee with his new novel Unholy Days.
Professor Jason Lee, University Head of Film and Media with Professional and Creative Writing.
A University of Derby lecturer and academic author is turning to crime - but only on paper.
Professor Jason Lee, Head of Film and Media with Professional and Creative Writing at the University, is already a well published academic author whose works chiefly look at 'transgressive culture' - attitudes towards the breaking of real life social norms over issues such as addiction and violence.
But his latest publication will be a step into the fictional world of the crime thriller.
Unholy Days combines the exotic location of holiday island Tenerife with the London underworld, a series of murders and the search for a centuries old lost treasure.
The 250 page hardback novel will be on sale from March 27 through major booksellers Waterstones, Amazon, The Guardian Bookshop and elsewhere (priced around £14 depending on retailer).
The publisher is Roman Books of India, which supplies works of fiction and literary criticism to major American and UK booksellers such as Amazon, Waterstones, and Barnes & Noble. It also recently worked with the University's BA (Hons) Creative Writing degree students on an exciting project which will see one of them get published commercially.
Jason said: "I have been working on Unholy Days, off and on, for around ten years so I am delighted to finally see it in print.
"Although it is a work of fiction one of the main characters and his disappearance are very loosely based on the reported circumstances surrounding the death in 1991 of the media mogul, Robert Maxwell, on his yacht off the coast of Tenerife. There the similarities end, of course."
The novel will be published in hardback at first with plans for a paperback run, if sales go well.
Jason's previous published works containing fiction include Seeing Galileo - a mixture of poetry, photography and prose inspired by the possible meeting of Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei and Paradise Lost author John Milton in the 17th Century - and Lost Passports, a 2005 collection of poetry with the co-author Peter Lewin.
He is also editor of the international academic journal and book series on Transgressive Culture.
Professor Huw Davies - Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Design and Technology - added: "I am delighted that Jason's book has made it into print. We have many published authors of academic, fiction and non-fiction works on the University's staff.
"Their creativity and experience adds significantly to the learning experience of Derby students, who may also wish to pursue a literary career."
For more information about the Unholy Days novel see details on the Guardian Bookshop website at www.guardianbookshop.co.uk/BerteShopWeb/viewProduct.do?ISBN=9789380905297
For more information please contact Press & PR Officer Sean Kirby on 01332 591891 or 07876 476103, or email s.kirby@derby.ac.uk
