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eddie mccann

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first registered 25.01.11

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about me

I sat on the forest floor and looked around me. Each tree was different with its own story to tell. The chattering monkeys and cries of every day life were music to my ears. I took a drink from my flask and wiped the sweat from my face, stood up and went on my way. This is one side of nature I write about, inspired by my time with the Black Watch in Kenya during the Mau Mau uprising, and two years sailing up and down the South Pacific on any old freighter that would take me.

The other side, the backstreets of any big city, has resulted in a twelve part series for film and television. The central character, Joe Lavender, is a private detective for whom the stories offer a great example of passion and vision for his world. He fuses the charm of the good/bad guy, a sense of fair play and the unpredictability of the hard-boiled private eye Hollywood popularised in the 1930's and 40's; as a tough guy with a heart gold and women love him for it.

In his forties, he has been around in a sense that he has seen much but says little. "You never go forward looking back." Old-fashioned manners and graces are suggested in his polite, if not abrasive wit, and sober calm with an underlying message that no matter how bad things may seem, all will come right in the end. Four Lavender episodes on display.

Interested agents, publishers and producers please contact me at: yvettemccann@virginmedia.com

favourite books

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
The Maltese Falcon By Dashiell Hammett
The Panther's Moon By Victor Canning
The Mask Of Dimitrios by Eric Ambler
Al Capone by F.D. Pasley

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Self-publish with CreateSpace

my books

Candy

Eddie McCann

A figure detaches itself from the shadows and melts in the darkness by her bedside. She screams but it is too late.


Candy is driven to Lady Margaret by necessity, and is met by the psychopathic butler who has already killed Lady Margaret's niece in the mistaken belief that she is a threat to his inheriting Lady Margaret's fortune. The besotted, dim-witted handyman, knowing the butler intends Candy to be his next victim, decides the butler has gone far enough and he must do something. Candy's estranged mother hires Joe Lavender to find Candy, and when he does the two of them walk the dark corridors looking for the missing Lady Margaret whose body is under their noses all the time. The vivid description of the house not only makes it threatening, but gives it a character all its own as if the place itself is malevolent and causes strange things to happen. The Lavender Series.

 

Chantelle & Denise

Eddie McCann

Her body flows upwards in a gentle spinning motion. He looks into her eyes and knows she will never see again.


A loch side cabin in the Scottish Highlands should be the perfect setting for a holiday, but not for private investigator Joe Lavender who discovers a body in the loch ten minutes after her arrives, He gets a visit from Denise and then her identical twin sister, Chantelle, who makes a point of asking if he has been down to the loch to 'admire the view'. It occurs to him that perhaps he is being framed for murder. A new slant on the good/bad twin sister theme in that the bad one is fooling no one but herself. The Lavender Series.

 

Invitation To A Ball

Eddie McCann

The path fades in the distance. The fragrance of honeysuckle tells him all in life is not ugly. He presses on serching for the truth.


Schizophrenia sets in when Brandy's parents die in suspicious circumstances. She blames herself for their deaths but in her subconscious suspects her twin sister is to blame. Tension mounts when private detective Joe Lavender, looking for a missing client, goes to her for help when his car breaks down. She is suspicious and afraid, and for good reason - She murdered his client a few hours earlier and has no choice but to murder Lavender too. Complications arise when he suspects she is not what she seems and overstays his welcome. The Lavender Series.

 

Island Of Dreams

Eddie McCann

A story of love, treachery and revenge: A vivid portrayal of one man's struggle for survival on a remote South Pacific Island.


Elizabeth Argyll isolated herself on a remote South Pacific Island after a broken love affair, and finds that not a day passes without she thinks of the man who drove her there. She is old and going blind. She has a visitor. He introduces himself as a reporter working for a magazine interested in getting her story, when all the time she knows he is the man in question. She scribbles something in a diary and presses it into his hand when the time comes for him to leave... Back in his quarters he gets a headache. The light dims. Elizabeth makes contact of some kind. Then the headache goes away and the light brightens up again. Elizabeth is dying. In the final moments he lives in her mind. They are running over the heather, her teasing, him trying to catch up. Then she slips from his grasp and closes her eyes for the last time.

 

Coral Island

Eddie McCann

A man's search for a kidnapped girl in the jungle of a South Pacific Island, and the trials and tribulations that follow.


I went for a stroll along the seashore. Millions of crabs had the beach to themselves. I hadn't gone far when the sweep of the shoreline revealed a brooding, steaming wilderness where towering cliffs jutted out to sea. I went back the way I came.

Light filtrating through the canopy made dappled patterns across the green leaves of the under-storey and ended glowing white on the forest floor below. Next I came to the ocean and a lagoon not far away, each with its own brand of beauty.

Where the lagoon offered dramatic hues and myriad shades, the ocean reflected nothing but blue in the sky above and in the depths below; nothing to focus on, nothing to exhibit but an endless expanse of water and infinite desolation. I wasn't impressed. I continued on my way.

A sequel to Island Of Dreams, with its own story to tell.

 

Dark Island

Eddie McCann

Inspired by the discovery of an unknown species of anthropoid, Orang Pendek, on an island forgotten by time and what happens when threatened by intruders.


No sound was heard, no sound was needed, the silence more eloquent than words. But I wasn't fooled. My eyes were wide open and I saw things as they were and not as I wanted them to be: The sun-kissed beach, the blue sweep of the ocean, palms whispering in the breeze, wheeling gulls fighting and squabbling, and flocks of migrating geese speeding relentlessly towards the horizon.

I settled down for the night and closed my eyes. It wasn't long before I was asleep. A beautiful calm came over me and in my dream Cora appeared. I felt I could reach out and touch her. Lips brushed mine and a crystal clear voice broke the silence, "You can relax now. All your troubles are over. I'll never leave you again." A sequel to Island of Dreams, with its own story to tell.

 

Paper Doll

Eddie McCann

Memories are everywhere, in what she says and what she does.She cries until she can cry no more.


The woman lives alone in Pervolo Lodge, a Gothic-style mansion with no one but her dolls for company, and is slowly going mad. She puts an ad in the newspaper for a piano-tuner and Chester Mudd, a hapless idler with dreams, answers it and is not seen again. Joe Lavender is hired by Chester's mother to find him and uncovers a catalogue of mutilated dolls and sundry brutalities of a depraved mind. With acknowledgement to the writer/writers of Paper Doll, a popular song of the 1940's, which the womans sings in her more lucid moments and is a haunting refrain throughout. The Lavender Series.

 

Prettier Than Me

Eddie McCann

The moral mist in which Cassie loses her soul is poetically echoed by the mire in which the forces she seeks to destroy, destroys her.


After driving her boss to suicide with allergations of sexual harassment, Cassy quits her job and embarks on a life of crime. She is the classic femme fatale, the Lucrezia Borgia of modern times, going from place to place, lying, cheating, lurking in the shadows for fear of being seen and travelling incognito in case she is recognised. The only person she can trust pays for it with her life, and she can never forgive herself since she is the one who killed her.
Filled with conceit, deceit and deception, the tale offers an insight into a disturbed mind; a world full of haunting images, forgotten dreams, flights of fancy, fear, accusations and recriminations. The style is exquisite of the drama that unfolds; fast-moving, with characters parading themselves like targets in a shooting gallery.
The story has to be read in its entirety to separate fact from fiction and reality from dreams. Crafted images linger on after the detail has faded. The final chapter dissolves in a maelstrom of soul-searching and disbelief.

 

Magic Wood

Eddie McCann

In the gathering dusk it seems somewhere a child is crying, a bitter desolate sound echoing down the years.


When Graham, the man Abbie was going to marry, dies under the wheels of a bus, she withdraws into a world of candle-lit vigils and secret trysts in the belief that one day he will return. As her paranoia progresses she sees every man resembling Graham as a shallow imitation and kills him. Joe Lavender, investigating an insurance scam, not only ignores warnings that she is dangerous, but defends her strange behaviour unaware that he is next on her list.

Her grisly secret is revealed by perhaps the only man who ever loved her when, ironically, he follows her over the moonlit heather to make sure she is safe. Melancholy and torment haunt every page, and the persona of an all-consuming love she so graphically defines stays with the reader to the end. The Lavender Series.

 

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fatema wrote 2 days ago

Hello, you seem to have lots of books here. I have two, please feel ....

kristylo wrote 7 days ago

HELLO, How are you today.my name is kristy,i saw your profile today ....

Casimir Greenfield wrote 17 days ago

Hi Eddie - I'm just extending the hand of friendship. I'm fairly new ....

Nathan O'Hagan wrote 19 days ago

Hi Apologies for the spam, but I would be very grateful if you could....

Andrew Hughes wrote 40 days ago

Hi Eddie, “Informers and blackmailers, phrenologists and dissectio....

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my comments

latest

I wrote 2 days ago

Message from: - Katjay 28/6/11 Hi Eddie. This a strange and compelling story, people by some weird and wonderful characters. I originally intended to read your first two chapters and so engrossed I have out Candy on my WL to read to the end. Loads of stars and will back soon. Kat x Hens From He... view book

I wrote 2 days ago

Message from: - Kenneth Edward Lim 26/6/11 Eddie, "Candy" has all the trappings of Gothic horror with a naive girl trapped in a mansion peopled by strange characters. Although working a familar plotline, you execute it with such skill that the thrill of the chase, the conflict and the comeuppanc... view book

I wrote 2 days ago

Message from: - Red2 19/6/11 Read the first chapter and enjoyed the read. I like the suspence about the car Candy shows up in. I have rated and hope to get back to read more. I'm amazed on how many books you have uploaded, an extraordinary feat! Regards, Red view book

I wrote 2 days ago

Message from:- Miss Maria 17/6/11 Dear Eddie, Angelina is the sequal to Dark Of The Moon. No, not asking for backings, just sincere comments, negative or otherwise. Dark Of The Moon's shelf will be a bit busy for a while, so here you are:) I will read more of Candy and comment as soon as I can. ... view book

I wrote 2 days ago

Message from: - Lizjrnm 14/6/11 Whithout giving too much away - I read up through Chapter 4 and I am hooked - I am sure I will finish this tonight because I need to know what happens with these very odd people. I want to know why Candy sticks around to see what job is in store for her - I need to... view book

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