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Chapters (61)
  1. Prologue
  2. Chapter One
  3. Chapter Two
  4. Chapter Three
  5. Chapter Four
  6. Chapter Five
  7. Chapter Six
  8. Chapter Seven
  9. Chapter Eight
  10. Chapter Nine
  11. Chapter Ten
  12. Chapter Eleven
  13. Chapter Twelve
  14. Chapter Thirteen
  15. Chapter Fourteen
  16. Chapter Fifteen
  17. Chapter Sixteen
  18. Chapter Seventeen
  19. Chapter Eighteen
  20. Chapter Nineteen
  21. Chapter Twenty
  22. Chapter Twenty-One
  23. Chapter Twenty-Two
  24. Chapter Twenty-Three
  25. Chapter Twenty-Four
  26. Chapter Twenty-Five
  27. Chapter Twenty-Six
  28. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  29. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  30. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  31. Chapter Thirty
  32. Chapter Thirty-One
  33. Chapter Thirty-Two
  34. Chapter Thirty-Three
  35. Chapter Thirty-Four
  36. Chapter Thirty-Five
  37. Chapter Thirty-Six
  38. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  39. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  40. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  41. Chapter Forty
  42. Chapter Forty-One
  43. Chapter Forty-Two
  44. Chapter Forty-Three
  45. Chapter Forty-Four
  46. Chapter Forty-Five
  47. Chapter Forty-Six
  48. Chapter Forty-Seven
  49. Chapter Forty-Eight
  50. Chapter Forty-Nine
  51. Chapter Fifty
  52. Chapter Fifty-One
  53. Chapter Fifty-Two
  54. Chapter Fifty-Three
  55. Chapter Fifty-Four
  56. Chapter Fifty-Five
  57. Chapter Fifty-Six
  58. Epilogue
  59. Author’s Note
  60. Acknowledgements
  61. About the Author

The Franklins and the Franklin Pharmaceutical Corporation are of course another fictional creation, but I suspect if Bormann and Hitler really did escape together, they may well have looked at the United States as being the obvious location for a future Fourth Reich.

The basic idea for The Counterfeit Candidate has been buried inside my head for over forty years, but it took the totally unexpected arrival of a three-month lockdown to turn it into a reality. Like millions of other people, when the virus struck and the world shut down, I lost all my work and found myself at home wondering what to do. I was a television director with nothing to direct, so I decided to finally have a go at writing the story. I had no idea if I was capable of doing it and, trust me when I say, no one was more surprised than me that the book finally got written.

Acknowledgements

Many people helped bring this book together and I’m eternally grateful to them. Paul Feldstein, of The Feldstein Agency in Belfast, was the first literary agent to show any real interest in the project, after he read the synopsis. He loved the idea straight from the off and always believed in the story.

As a first-time writer, who naturally expected rejection, the two-line email I received from Verena Rose, the Acquisitions Editor at Level Best Books was truly awesome.

“I have read THE COUNTERFEIT CANDIDATE and loved it. If you are still interested in publishing with Level Best Books, I would like to discuss a contract with you.”

Verena and Shawn Simmons at Level Best have been incredibly supportive and wonderful to work with as a Publisher and as individual Editors and I couldn’t have wished to work with two nicer or more experienced people. We may have been based three and a half thousand miles away from each other but the world of lockdown and zoom combined to allow the creative process to work incredibly smoothly. I’d also like to thank Victoria Woodside for her fantastic proofreading and fact-checking.

My wife Charmaine has been unbelievable from day one. Firstly, she put up with me basically not doing a thing in the home but write, twelve hours a day, seven days a week, for three months during the lock-down and then she was the first person to read the manuscript. After that, she became the best Editor I could ever have wished for, working with me every day, improving and honing the book with her inspiring, creative ideas and incredible eye for detail, all of which helped take the book to another level.