[Vigilante Justice 01] • Jack Stone

Jack Stone just wants a quiet life. He's done his time. He's out of the Regiment. He doesn't want to fight any more. All he wants to do is go home, but going home means facing his demons and he's not ready to do that. Not yet. And given the choice he never would be. But when a friend turns to him for help, Jack's got no choice but to go back to the estates of his youth and the crime families he thought he'd escaped for good. Because one thing you don't do if you are Jack Stone is turn your back on a friend, even if it means cleansing the streets with fire.

From the Author

I wanted to take a second to talk to you, me to you, just like we're chatting in a cafe or a bar. Old friends. That's how I think of us most of the time, old friends, or new friends ready to become old friends down the line. Most of you coming to this will have been drawn here by one of two means, I suspect. One, you read Silver and the Ogmios stuff and you enjoyed it enough to browse for something new, or two, it was free and you thought hmm, why the devil not?

I figured seeing as I had you here I'd actually take a moment to offer a warning, tell you what to expect and what not to expect. For a start, Northern Fire is a sampler, a taster, if you will, of a much bigger idea Steve Lockley and I intend to return to when the whim strikes. It's free because it's like reading the first chapter of a novel. That doesn't mean it's not a full story, it is, but it's a short story that opens the door into Jack Stone's world.

Jack, to me, is a man who has survived the worst humanity had to throw at him out in Afghanistan and Iraq, and just wants a quiet life. But men like Jack don't get to settle down and grow old gracefully. Men like Jack come into this world fighting and go out of it the same way. Fresh out of the Regiment (22nd SAS), Jack's coming home to a world of pain. He can't help himself. He's drawn to the darkness, but then, he's not exactly a white knight.

Northern Fire is a free short story (around 6,000 words so probably a comfortable 20 minute read if you don't skim) that introduces Jack, to give you an idea if you want to sink deeper into his world. While it's complete in itself it serves as the foundation to a much bigger and more explosive story, Northern Grit, that is also by Crossroad Press. We've got more stories in the works, including Northern Soul and Northern Steel, which see Jack back in my native Newcastle, in the north of England, surrounded by kidnapped girls, sex trafficking, gangland crime, drugs, and every vice known to man. See, that's Jack Stone's world. That's where he belongs. Because this is no place for a white knight.

We won't be publishing one every month. It's not a serial. Each story will be complete in and of itself. But together they'll layer more and more desperation on each other, more brutality and hopelessness until they come to an explosive head. We hope you'll stick around for the ride.

Please note this originally appeared on the American sales page but was missing on the UK one