Pauline Rowson explains the background to creating her new action hero, Art Marvik, in the marine crime novel, Silent Running

I like heroes and as I’m a sucker for adventure stories and mystery there was no doubt that this was what Silent Running had to be.  I wanted a character who was not bound by the official rules of the law, but who was nevertheless on the right side of it.  Silent Running also had to have all the hallmarks of my brand – a troubled hero, the sea, boats, interesting and diverse characters and lots of action. So already the stage was set, enter Art Marvik.

Former Royal Marine Commando, Special Boat Services Officer Art Marvik, newly out of the marines, is tough, highly trained, fearless, intelligent and fit.  But injuries inflicted while in combat have forced him to leave the marines and seek a new life in Civvy Street.  He thought he’d be able to adjust and carve out a new career for himself on the sea, but his first job as a private maritime security operative goes very wrong when the luxury motor cruiser he was travelling on and had been detailed to guard, gets attacked by pirates in the Indian Ocean, and Marvik finds himself with a bullet in his shoulder and the boat’s owner dead. He’d failed on his first mission in civilian life, and Silent Running opens with him reeling from it.

Marvik’s not sure what lies ahead for him but when his former marine comrade, Shaun Strathen, enlists his help to find a missing computer scientist and a former girlfriend of Marvik’s goes missing after visiting him in his remote Isle of Wight cottage Marvik find his skills very much in demand by Detective Superintendent Crowder of the newly formed National Marine Intelligence Squad (NIMS). Could this be the opening that Marvik craves?  Only if he can succeed on his first mission.

What's his back story? 

Every character has to have a back story. Marvik was sent to an elite and expensive boarding school at the age of eleven,very much against his will. He grew up feeling his marine archaeologist parents loved their occupation and their quest for aquatic treasures more than they loved their son. After their death in a diving accident when Marvik was seventeen he joined the marines and put his parents, their life and their wealth behind him. Langton, the psychiatrist, who treated Marvik after a head injury sustained in combat, said he was running away from his emotions, maybe he was, but he would continue running.  The past was the past, but the past has a nasty habit of catching up with you and Marvik’s is about to do just that.   

Silent Running is available at all online bookstores, in bookshops and libraries

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