"The Butcher of Belle Vue" has struck again. Like the first two victims, the third has been partially skinned, her muscles, tendons, and ligaments exposed to view. But this time her face has also been removed. Jon Spicer and his new partner, Rick Saville, are on the investigating team. The case is waiting for its first breakthrough when a woman approaches Jon insisting that she heard The Butcher claim his third victim in the room of a run-down hotel in Belle Vue. All she has to back up her story is a business card found in the room from a local escort agency with a name scribbled on the back. Jon's investigation takes him into the world of Manchester's escort agencies and the unscrupulous cosmetic surgery industry, and brings him face to face with the human propensity for violence.
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.
