Whilst on witness protection, in 90s Bristol, John gets so bored, drunk and mad in the life handed to him, he creates an identity more interesting; re-inventing himself as a Private Investigator. With his first case handed to him on a plate from a neighbour to find the original femme fatale, Cherry, he needs to draw on the darkest recesses of his past to survive the present and question what it is to have an identity in the first place. Using every piece of what he can from what he is, was and will be – to find Cherry and him end up the one ‘on top’.

Touring the clubs, pubs, offices and rainy streets of Bristol in the late nineties; over the Bridge into to Wales and back again to find her, himself and a motive.

John Bowie grew up on the coast in rural Northumberland, a region steeped with a history of battles, Vikings, wars and struggles. These tales and myths fascinated him as a child, and then as an adult. In the mid to late nineties he studied in Salford enjoying the bands, music, clubs and general urban industrial-ness of Greater Manchester, including the club scene and the infamous Hacienda. He was also there when the IRA bomb went off in 1996.

John’s writing is semi-autobiographical, a dirty realism and crime-noir. Ghostly references to a heritage that includes the Vikings, Scotland, Ireland and the North, flavour the words throughout, often with a dark but humoured edge.

Although inspired partly by 50s pulp hardboiled detective fiction and the beat generation authors and poets, John aims to celebrate his female characters from his real life through his writing, whilst retaining the hard drinking, cynical honesty and accessible writing style of these genres. John lives in Bristol with his wife and daughter, where he has been since the late nineties. He is a professional designer, artist and writer as well as a proud husband, father, brother and son.