Garibaldi's Overcoat

Publisher Marketing: Garibaldi's Overcoat reunites old friends Piers Prideaux and William Radleigh de Beaune a.k.a. Billy Bones as they once again get dragged into a maelstrom of danger attempting to assist British intelligence in tracking down two of the worst villains in recent history. Sebastian Slope one time leader of the murderous Spriggans, an association of dangerous men that makes the Mafia look like the Pony Club, has again raised his ugly head. He is assisted in his latest scheme by his nymphomaniac associate, Elizabeth Bennett, a woman every bit as dangerous as Slope himself. Slope is determined to avenge himself on Cornelius, a senior intelligence officer, and the man who once masterminded his arrest and incarceration. Cornelius, has stolen the bulk of Slope's fortune. And he wants it back. Throw in the Assassins' Fellowship, who are on the trail of Prideaux and Bones, a Norman castle with a very real secret and a seven feet tall hit man known only as the Canadian and what results is a Machiavellian plot that would confound Niccolo Machiavelli himself. A comic thriller full of oddball characters and surreal incident. The action moves from the south of Italy, Puglia to be precise, to the east and west of Wales. There can only be one outcome. There will be deaths, there will be betrayal and nothing is what it seems. Along the way there will be wry humour, cold blooded murder and a look at some of the darker forces that genuinely exist beneath the cloak of the ordinary. Garibaldi's Overcoat continues the story begun in A Touch of Pigskin. It is not necessary to have read A Touch of Pigskin to follow the machinations described in 'Garibaldi's Overcoat' but it is the author's belief that reading both will enhance your enjoyment of each book. "Cross Inspector Morse with Monty Python and you might get some idea of a book that, reduced to its pure essence, is a read and a half all the way...a dark and brilliant surreal thriller. Dai Blatchford has written a glittering, fantastical, cunningly contrived novel that leads the reader down a labyrinth of fear and dread. Rich with humour, character and incident." Amazon.com Contributor Bio:  Blatchford, Dai Dai Blatchford has lived in Wales and Cornwall. He has been variously a Police Cadet, Local Government Clerk, Civil Servant, and Careers Adviser. He received his higher education at Oxford and Swansea. At Oxford he was fortunate to be tutored by Terry Eagleton and it was as a student there that he published his first poetry in an anthology called 'Doves for the Seventies.' Once upon a time he was a lecturer and subsequently a Senior Tutor at an F. E. college in Cornwall. On retirement he returned to Wales and settled in Mumbles where he became a freelance journalist writing for a series of magazines. His first novel 'A Touch of Pigskin' took a while to write and was well received. The sequel, 'Garibaldi's Overcoat' is to be published shortly and there is another project in the pipeline. He is married to Rosie and has two grown up children, two granddaughters and a grandson.