Private Detective For Hire. No Case Too Small.
Bored, overweight office worker Eugene Blake posts an ad on the internet offering his services as a private detective, hoping to vanquish the deadly boredom of his life with danger and excitement. But when he is tasked to find the missing husband of Melissa White he quickly realises he has no idea what he is doing.
His investigation leads him into the dark underworld of London where he discovers that his case is far more fiendish, puzzling and dangerous than he had ever expected.
The Fat Detective is a British twist on the hardboiled detective and in Eugene Blake we surely have one of the most unqualified characters to have ever donned a raincoat and set off into the shadows.
What if you had to start your life all over again?
This is what Edward Glass has to do when he is released from hospital and thrust back into the city.
He finds London to be a cold, unfriendly place and he struggles to find work. But when he meets his new neighbour, Catherine Lucia, she unlocks a newfound enthusiasm for life.
As their relationship deepens Edward’s dark past starts to emerge and it soon becomes hard for Catherine to know what is truth and what is fiction.
The Glass Book is a novel about companionship, surviving in the modern world and the stories that make up the city experience.
About Me
My latest novel is The Fat Detective, a take on the American hardboiled crime genre but with a uniquely British twist, and I am currently working on the further adventures of Eugene Blake. Based in London, I write my novels by hand in a series of red notebooks using a cheap Japanese fountain pen and then type everything up onto my laptop. The Glass Book was my debut novel, the story of Edward Glass and his struggles to reconstruct his life, and further novels will become available in the future.
I have also written plays, screenplays and film history. Between 2002 and 2003 I wrote, directed and performed in three plays at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and have written two screenplays, the latest being The Dime Detective, a hardboiled detective movie set in Manhattan during the 1929 Wall Street Crash.
I have two degrees in film history and have written extensively about the Swedish silent films of Victor Sjöström (highly recommended) and the reception of Charlie Chaplin’s movies in Britain during WWI. At the 2014 Chaplin centenary at the Il Cinema Ritrovato film festival in Bologna I gave a talk on Chaplin in WWI and my film history writing has been published by both the British Film Institute and Routledge. I also have a vast knowledge of movies with a particular interest in the cinema of the Hollywood studio system and have also been featured on BBC radio as a classic film commentator on a variety of shows.
I am also very interested in the history of photography and have been photographing for several years. I have a particular interest in images of cities and local architecture. For the past ten years I have also held down a desk job within the ever-evolving video-on-demand industry.
If you have any questions for me or just want to say hello, get in touch any time at contact@christianhayes.co.uk.
Christian
