This surely has to be a first?
Crime fiction about an undercover cop written by a former undercover cop!
cover reveal...
Steve Regan is back and this time he’s alone and undercover in a seedy area of Thailand on the trail of a Texan expatriate, Les Watkins, the biggest drug smuggler in South East Asia.
Using himself as the bait, Regan attempts to score a $50,000 deal with the Thai mafia in an effort to get closer to his target.
As he finds himself embroiled deeper into the operation, Regan suspects Watkins may be connected to Regan's nemesis, ruthless Mafia boss Carlo Vitale, who has fled the United States following a triple bombing and assassination of three crime family heads.
Besides staying alive, Regan has other problems when he suddenly finds himself facing the worst dilemma an undercover cop can face.
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Stephen Bentley introduces and talks about his new Steve Regan crime book...
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Some of you may know that I, the author, was a
real undercover cop in the UK many years back. I wrote about it in my Amazon UK
bestseller Undercover: Operation Julie - The Inside Story.
Indeed, it recently became a #1 Amazon UK bestseller for the fourth time, in
four different categories on four separate occasions since first publication.
The fact of my memoir morphed into the fiction
of Steve Regan owing to a meeting with two mobsters who wished to involve me
into a plot to smuggle huge quantities of cocaine from Bolivia, via Miami, and
into Britain. Those characters remained a mystery to me, and inspired the Steve Regan series.
Now, it’s easy for a reader to say, “Steve Regan
is Steve Bentley.” He’s not but of course he is loosely based on me.
One reviewer of Book 1 wrote, “… He [Regan] is
too “perfect… ” That is an interesting point about the fictional character and
about real-life undercover cops. It’s only a few days ago I read an article
claiming, “if he seems too good to be true, he probably is…,” meaning the “he”
is probably an undercover cop. There is some truth in that. The quote is in the
context of a woman who knew a guy for years. He was an undercover cop but she
was unaware of it at the time because he was “such a nice guy.” It also
highlights how people stereotype police officers.
To infiltrate a crime group, it helps if you are
a likeable character. If you are obnoxious, the chances are you will be
shunned. An undercover cop is trying to “wheedle” his or her way into another’s
inner circle and to gain confidences.
Steve Regan inherits the “nice guy” character
trait from me, I guess, but as he is part of my imagination, I can permit him
to do things I could never do in real life. That’s fun. He also has a sense of
humour, and “a way” with women. I make no comment if that is any reflection on
me!
He is not another Jack Reacher or Milton. He is
Steve Regan, an intelligent, determined thinking-man who is rather good at his
job.
As the series develops, Regan may succumb to the mental stresses of his prolonged undercover role. Again, that scenario is a reflection of reality, as is the temptation to “go rogue” - to profit from criminal enterprises, a theme explored in Book 1.
Dilemma (Book 2 Steve
Regan Undercover Cop) is part hard-boiled crime fiction
and part romantic suspense. It is set in a seedy bar area of Thailand. Regan
lost a wife and a daughter in a road traffic accident [fiction] many years
back, and readers will discover if he finds real love in such an unlikely Thai setting.
Whether that last part (love) is me or Regan, readers will have to make up
their own minds.
So, to sum up: Regan is a complex mix of
gentleness, ruthlessness , determination, and vulnerability. By necessity, he
is also a great actor!
Book 1 Steve
Regan Undercover Cop can be downloaded for free if you
subscribe to his monthly newsletter on his author website.
All of Stephen Bentley’s undercover themed
books, fact and fiction, may be found in digital formats here on Books2Read.
A portion of all my book sales royalties are to be donated to the Jamie Bulger Memorial Trust, a UK Registered Charity. Please consider donating even if you never buy my books.
The real Stephen Bentley is a former police
Detective Sergeant and barrister (trial attorney) from the UK. He is now a
freelance writer and HuffPost UK blogger.
His memoir 'Undercover: Operation
Julie - The Inside Story' is a frank account of his undercover detective
experiences during Operation Julie - an elite group of detectives who
successfully investigated one of the world's largest drugs rings.
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Credit to author and illustrator Kelly Artieri
Kelly was commissioned to produce an illustration of what Steve Regan looked like, wearing his beloved Aviators, sat astride his 1970's vintage Triumph Bonneville motorcycle.
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