About Steven Bannister
Steven Bannister is the Amazon best-selling author of ‘The Black Mystery’ series of horror thrillers — Fade to Black, Back to Black, The Black Net Black Mary, Coldharbour Lane, The Stone Baby — and the stand-alone fantasy thriller, The Unforgiver. And for those who’d like something completely different — that is to say ridiculous and decidedly light-hearted and tongue in cheek — try Helldorado. Don’t say you weren’t warned…
Note: The good news, or the bad news, depending on your point of view, is that Steve is returning to writing after an absence of three years. He expects to publish again late in 2022.
Steve says: I write, according to my U.K. editor, “to scare the pants off people”… I cannot deny it. But my books are primarily written to entertain, so there is a mix of the macabre and a certain amount of black humour. I hope the combination is as enjoyable to read as it is to write.
As for my own story, I am blessed with a loving family and way too many friends for their own good. After many years in marketing, public affairs (of the corporate kind) and media, the time arrived to indulge my passion for writing fiction. The unkind might suggest that is what I have been doing all along. I hope you enjoy Fade to Black — the first instalment in the ‘The Black Mystery’ series, and it’s sequels - Back to Black, The Black Net, Black Mary, Coldharbour Lane and The Stone Baby. Oh, and you might like the latest stand-alone novel, The Unforgiver. It’s protagonist Judge Jack Whittaker is a real piece of work. Readers tell me they want more of him. You might let me know what you think if you find a spare minute…
As far as writing influences are concerned, there’s no going past the great James Lee Burke for atmospherics and a dark underbelly. For pure brilliance, I go back to Trevanian.
Don Winslow’s Satori is a worthy homage to the man who wrote as Trevanian- the late Rodney Whitaker. For nonsense of a high calibre, I like Hugh Laurie’s The Gun Seller (probably the inspiration for Helldorado) and anything by Bill Bryson. Way back you have to love Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler’s noir fiction, Hemingway’s lean style and Alistair Maclean’s boys-own adventure war stories.
I am also influenced by great films: The Departed, — Nicholson is perfect in it - The Godfather series; the early Sopranos (bit of a theme here…); The Maltese Falcon; Legally Blonde (so like, totally kidding); Shutter Island, Di Caprio is the new… Di Caprio; Hitchcock’s The Birds scared the hell out of me as a kid; Oh Brother Where Art Thou? and Sin City. What’s not to like?
Feel free to get in touch or give feedback
via email, twitter, facebook.
These are things I have written:
Recommendations
David Leadbeater — For great edge-of-your seat reading, checkout the Matt Drake action/adventure series by U.K best-selling author David Leadbeater.
Goodreads — a good place to go when undecided of what to read next or to see what your friends are reading — this is my page.
The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) — a global non-profit association of author-publishers. They offer connection and collaboration, advice and education; campaign for and further the interests of self-publishing writers everywhere — this is my page.
