Inventor of the Sorensen-Birtwistle Revised Scale of Girl-Rage, Chris has a beautiful girlfriend (Virginia), two likeable potential parents-in-law (Hugh and Daphne) and a classic sports car with a leather-covered gear stick. Impending matrimony and the car's leaking roof seem to be the only clouds on the horizon. But his apparently comfortable world is turned upside down when Hugh dies suddenly and Daphne (after one Irish Cream too many) reveals some shocking information. Meanwhile ...In an inn, in the Danube Valley, in the seventeenth century, a certain cantankerous philosopher seems to have some words of guidance for our modern-day hero. We join Virginia and Chris (and Rene) as they seek to uncover the truth about Hugh, themselves and the meaning of life. "A Very Persistent Illusion" is a hilarious, hugely inventive and thought-provoking novel about love, madness and reality. 'Compelling and clever, I really couldn't put it down. A deceptively light read. I laughed out loud' - Alison Joseph, author of the "Sister Agnes Mysteries".
L C Tyler is a British writer of crime and other fiction. He grew up in Essex and studied at Jesus College Oxford and City University in London. During a career with the Civil Service and the British Council he lived in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Sudan, Thailand and Denmark, none of which places provides the slightest inspiration for his work.
He is now based in Islington and West Sussex. He is married and has two children and one dog. Sadly, Amazon rules prevent the inclusion of a dog in the author photo - the dog is easily the more photogenic of the two.
His first novel, the Herring Seller's Apprentice, was published in the UK in 2007 and in the US in 2009. It was been nominated in the US for an Edgar and for a Barry Award, and was short-listed in the UK for the Last Laugh Award. Subsequent novels in the "Elsie and Ethelred" series are Ten Little Herrings (UK 2009, US 2010), also Edgar-nominated, and The Herring in the Library (UK 2010, US 2011), which won the Last Laugh Award. Herring on the Nile will be published in the UK in July 2011. Outside the series, his humorous (non-crime) novel A Very Persistent Illusion was published in March 2009.
L C Tyler writes occasional short stories; one of these ("Richard Remembered") won an Ian St James Award in 1993. Others have been published in magazines and anthologies. He also writes bad poetry, some of which he is able to sneak into his novels by having bad poets as central characters.
