Best-selling Wigan author revives his most famous creation

Standish-based writer, Paul Finch, probably best known for his crime and thriller fiction, set his last two novels during the tumultuous years of the Norman Conquest, but with his next novel, Rogue, due out later this month, he is going back to the tough, action-packed world of cops and robbers.

The former police officer and journalist, who cut his professional writing teeth penning scripts for the popular police series, The Bill, took the publishing world by storm in 2013, when his first novel, Stalkers, introduced crime fiction fans to maverick detective Mark “Heck" Heckenburg.

Six more Heck novels followed, several achieving bestseller status, though the series appeared to go on-hold after the seventh, Kiss of Death, was published in 2018. Paul appearing to move on to other projects.

However, Heck fans online have been quick to register approval that on October 24, Rogue (DS Heckenburg 8), will see him return in another blaze of bone-jarring action.

“Been waiting for this one,” one said. “You’re not the only one,” another agreed. “Heck is back … brilliant!” a third posted.

Paul admits some regret that his rough-edged hero took such a long hiatus.

He said: "It was never my intention. It was mainly because of a change of publisher. The big houses aren’t always that keen on continuing series that were started elsewhere. They are always looking for something new from you, and as a professional, I went along with that uncomplainingly. But I’m in a position now to bring Heck back, and Rogue is the outcome.

“It picks up almost immediately where the last book in the series left off. We just keep going as we were, head-down with full-on action and suspense.”

Paul has written widely since becoming a full-time author. Strangers, the first book in his Lucy Clayburn cop series, which ran parallel to the Heck books, made the Sunday Times Top 10 list and was optioned for television development, while freestanding contemporary crime thrillers like One Eye Open and Never Seen Again also found a sizeable readership.

“The medieval books, Usurper and Battle Lord, were born during the Covid era,” Paul said. “The publishing industry slowed down dramatically, and suddenly I found myself with an opportunity to experiment. Historical adventure has always been a subgenre close to my heart, and it’s definitely somewhere I’m planning to go again. But for the moment, the keyword is ‘Heck’.”

Paul says he always felt the DS Heckenburg novels would be of particular interest to Wiganers in that Heck hails from a post-industrial Lancashire town sandwiched between the West Coast mainline and the M6 motorway.

“It’s Wigan in all but name,” he said, “and Heck himself, a schoolboy rugby league star in his youth, and now a displaced northerner based in London, still carries those working class values with him. He also comes back to the Northwest on a regular basis as he’s now a detective sergeant in the National Crime Group.”

The author assures us that Rogue, which sees Heck go off-grid to nail gunmen who’ve massacred 26 off-duty police officers during a pub party, is as much a humdinger as all those that went before.

“Compared to my other cop novels, which tend to be procedurals, the Heck books are all about fistfights, shootouts and frenetic car chases. I promise you solemnly that Rogue continues that tradition.”

Paul himself meanwhile can be contacted via his regularly updated blog, https://paulfinch-writer.blogspot.com/, on X, or his Facebook fan page, https://www.facebook.com/paulfinchauthor.