The body of a woman with her throat ripped out is found on Saddleworth Moor, near Manchester. She is discovered in an area where several sightings of a mysterious large black cat have been made. When analysis shows that hairs caught under the victim's nails are those of a panther, it is assumed that the animal has killed its first human prey. But then a man DI Jon Spicer is investigating as part of an entirely different case is murdered in exactly the same way. Only this time the body is found in a secluded car park - a popular gay rendezvous far closer to the city centre. Soon DI Spicer finds himself hunting a killer dubbed The Monster of the Moor, a creature whose stealth and savagery strike terror into the local population and way beyond it to the whole of the north west.
Chris Simms has worked in airports, nightclubs, post offices and telesales centres. Along with nominations for Crime Writer's Association Daggers and the Theakston's Crime Novel of the Year award, Chris has been selected by Waterstone's as one of their '25 authors for the future'.
Chris says he is drawn to books that give insights into unusual minds. The twisted desires of Frederick in John Fowles', The Collector, the tormented thoughts of Scobie in Graham Greene's Heart of the Matter, the violent urges of Francie in Patrick McCabe's Butcher Boy are all are books Chris states had an influence in shaping him as a writer. The idea for his debut novel, Outside the White Lines, came to him in the early hours of the morning while broken down on the hard shoulder of the M40.
His series of DI Spicer novels - psychological thrillers set very firmly in Manchester - follow the police detective's fortunes as he pursues mad, bad and deadly individuals through the city's ever-changing landscape.
