About Me
Henry Farley
The story so far:
Henry Farley began writing novels ten years ago. It all started with a partially written, undefined manuscript inspired by the crime thrillers he had read and enjoyed at the cinema. After asking a few friends to read the draft, they all encouraged him to finish the story. He eventually completed the novel, which was originally titled and first published as Better Dead Than Alive. He later reviewed it and re-published it as Fatal Deceit. It proved to be the launchpad for the novels that followed.
His second novel departed from the crime thriller genre to tell the remarkable true story of his mother's experiences as a sixteen-year-old helping the Austrian Resistance while working for the Deutsche Reichsbahn. Born in Graz, Henry returned to his birthplace several times with his mother after they moved to the United Kingdom. She had written an account of her first experience with the Resistance, in which she helped two children, classified by the |Nazi regime as Jewish, escape from Austria to Switzerland. The title of the novel, No Time to Play, was her own.
The books that followed have been diverse in subject matter, although each contains an element of crime.
Henry's mother raised him in Coventry during a time of financial hardship. She also endured abuse because of her German accent. Henry remembers the mid-1960s as an exciting time to be young, enjoying the new freedoms of the era. After marrying his wife, Irene, shortly after his twentieth birthday, his priorities turned towards building a secure career.
His artistic ambitions were curtailed by colour blindness, so he pursued a career in civil engineering instead. Starting in junior roles, he steadily gained experience and qualifications, eventually becoming a chartered civil and structural engineer.
Meet the Man Behind the Stories
Inspirations
Henry initially assumed that writing fiction would come easily after years of producing technical engineering reports. He soon discovered how different creative writing was, requiring not only technical skill but also an understanding of storytelling, character development, dialogue, and narrative flow.
Hidden Killer, will be his seventh novel, and marks a return to the crime thriller genre and a sequel to his last book, FACEOFF. Again, it features a macabre twist centred on the protagonist's unusual area of expertise.
Henry's love of crime fiction stems from a lifelong passion for books, films, and comics. As a child, he immersed himself in superhero comics, particularly those published by DC Comics. Later, he discovered the crime novels of Mickey Spillane, who’s dark, twisting plots captivated him. He went on to enjoy the James Bond novels by Ian Fleming. His favourite novel remains To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, with Catch-22 by Joseph Heller* a close second.
His cinematic tastes closely reflect his reading preferences. Among his favourite classic film noirs are Double Indemnity, The Maltese Falcon, White Heat, and The Postman Always Rings Twice. His favourite neo-noir films include Chinatown, Point Blank, The Long Goodbye, and Gone Baby Gone. More recently, television and streaming series have expanded the scope of crime thrillers, adapting the work of authors such as James Patterson, Harlan Coben, and Lee Child, while allowing increasingly complex and layered storytelling.
Away from writing, Henry's interests include reading, cinema, and yoga. He practised Shotokan Karate for many years but now maintains his fitness through yoga. He is married and has two children.
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