ABOUT KEITH WELLS

I was born in south London after the second war, educated at Deal (Kent) and at Grammar school in Dover. Aged 16, armed with good GCE ‘O’ level results, I joined what was then the world’s largest chain store company, as a trainee manager, gaining valuable experience in the Kray’s 1960’s east London backyard and later in its antithesis, Jersey in the Channel Isles. Aged 23, while Assistant Manager at the Ramsgate branch; no longer challenged by that field of work, I resigned, and after a short sojourn into the building industry joined Kent Police in 1971.

During a thirty-year police career in which I achieved academic success in law exams, I chose a promotion path of experience over fast-tracking; I thought it would be far more satisfying, and didn’t risk destroying my family; in consequence, one of my appraisers noted, ”This officer lacks ambition.” My response years later was, “My family is still intact.”

I was privileged to take on the stress, pain, disappointment and fear, but most importantly the satisfaction, often elation an officer experiences in patrol, pursuit, capture, investigation of crime at every level, police policy research and writing, and operational command. I stood still long enough in each of my many posts to develop the high level of skill and competence demanded, and to gain the confidence and respect of the officers I worked with, or who were under my command; simultaneously earning the laudation of senior ranks.

After just two years as a Patrol Constable I moved on to Detective Constable, then Patrol Sergeant, Detective Sergeant, Inspector, HQ Staff Officer and in 1991, 35 years after I was caught ‘scrumping apples’ and cautioned by the Chief Inspector at Deal, I was appointed Inspector in charge of Deal police station. I spent six years managing the policing of Deal before being given the sad task of preparing the station for downsizing. Managing the Area Police communications centre and preparing it for centralisation at Kent HQ was followed by two years in a small group of Inspectors carrying a county-wide responsibility for implementing the Police and Criminal Evidence Act; then came retirement in 2001.

I hadn’t planned for a life of leisure in retirement; on the contrary, my plan involved bold ideas of dividing my time between voluntary work, home improvement, courses to hone my IT and writing skills, and within 5 years to have written my first crime novel.

Voluntary work is very fulfilling but time-consuming beyond my expectation. Five years on I was Chair of Governors of a local Catholic school, a Trustee on a local charity and national charity, a volunteer at the local hospital, a volunteer driver for two convents, general factotum and safeguarding representative within my parish. Despite completing the creative writing courses, I had managed only to write the outline plot and sub-plots for a dozen novels. Most of the voluntary work had to stop before I could knuckle down to serious writing. This I did by the end of 2006; unfortunately hampered by lingering injuries sustained in a work incident in 2001 and motorway collision in May 2006.

As a lifelong, avid fan of conspiratorial fiction, I retained aspirations from grammar school days of capturing real events from the local, national or global stage, and injecting my fiction and motive into them; a new driving force to disguise the facts. A lifetime of experience with authors such as Clancy, Archer, Maclean, Ludlum, Bagley, Forsyth, Brown, Wilson, Seymour, le Carré, (the list is endless) served to reinforce my conviction that on retirement I would put my life’s experiences and imagination to the ultimate test; write a conspiratorial crime novel and seek publication.

That winter the serious work began, not in a cold and wet England, but in the warmth of the Canary Islands, where Theresa (my wife) and I own a small apartment.

The first novel was finished early in 2008, but the drive to publication suspended because I intended it to be the first of three involving the same characters, with the second being a stand-alone continuation of the first. Therefore, I wanted to complete the second novel and make any necessary continuity changes to both, and have a clear outline of the third before seeking publication of the first, ‘Deadliest Deal’.

How naïve can a writer be? I thought it would be a doddle finding an agent or publisher for my masterpieces. This was the period when the potential influence of the internet to change commercial strategies was being felt; the music industry was experiencing a revolution that was overflowing into the publishing industry, and I hadn’t seen it coming. I was too busy enjoying my writing.

Agents and publishers, under the financial pressures of austerity, a shrinking retail market and a rapidly expanding independent market, needed to be sure a newbie writer would be worth the investment, so if in doubt settle for the ‘sure thing’, a celebrity name, which I wasn’t. Thus, my decision was to persevere with the traditional route and bombard Agents and publishers with my manuscripts, or become a self-published ‘indie’ author. The latter was my chosen route. ‘Deadliest Deal’ and ‘September’s Broken Child’ were published in quick succession and ‘Vengeance is mine saith the Terrorist’ (now re-titled Quest for Revenge ) followed in February 2012.

I had built my shop window to the world, a website, ‘deadlydaley.com’, pleased that I had three ‘indie’ published novels and more than half a million words show-cased for all to read; the first ‘Daley’ trilogy was finished. Though I labelled it a trilogy, each novel stands alone in its story, but a subtle thread is woven from the mind-boggling opening chapter of ‘Deadliest Deal’, through the tragedies of ‘September’s Broken Child’ to the final twist of ‘Vengeance is Mine Saith the Terrorist’ (Quest for Revenge).

My next novel, ‘The Safe’ (now re-titled Rejects Renegades and Rogues) was one of the first story-lines I penned in outline, but it took a back seat while I wrote the trilogy. ‘Justice is Best Served Dead’ followed in February 2014, which led to a request for me to serialise it on local radio; a task that took much time, hard work and learning of new skills, but produced a great deal of personal satisfaction.

I wrote ‘Because I Can’ (now re-titled ‘Taken in Dublin’) during 20015/16 and published it in July 2016. Since then I have written two more novels in the Daley series, but because of two family tragedies, two daughters lost to cancer, neither is yet published. A sadness compounded by the fact both girls were avid readers and enthusiasts for my writing, and constantly eager to know which of my characters caricatured them; I always left them guessing.

‘Death Surprised Her’ is the final part of a trilogy with ‘Rejects Renegades and Rogues’ (part one) and ‘Taken in Dublin’ (part two). One of the two unpublished novels doesn’t have a title yet; I’m leaving it open until something jumps out at me; though I’ll be forced to give it a title soon because I expect to publish the two novels by year’s end (2023).

I still share my writing time between the family home in Kent and the Tenerife apartment; one of my friends described me as a ‘literary nomad’. The photo shows the view from our terrace.