Today is our stop on the Games With The Dead #BlogTour. We are delighted to feature James Nally and he has kindly written a guest post for us.
Games With The Dead By James Nally
- Paperback: 384 pages
- Publisher: Avon (28 Dec. 2017)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0008149577
- ISBN-13: 978-0008149574
Synopsis
Irish runaway. Insomniac. Functioning alcoholic.
Life is about to get complicated for DC Donal Lynch.
When a young woman is kidnapped, Donal is brought in to deliver the ransom money. But the tightly-planned drop off goes wrong, Julie Draper is discovered dead, and Donal finds his job on the line – a scapegoat for the officers in charge.
But when Donal is delivered a cryptic message in the night, he learns that Julie was killed long before the botched rescue mission. As he digs further into the murder in a bid to clear his own name, dark revelations make one thing certain: the police are chasing the wrong man, and the killer has far more blood on his hands than they could even imagine.
A gripping, brutal and addictive thriller, perfect for fans of Ian Rankin and James Oswald.
THE ROLEX FACTOR By James Nally
In my third book, ‘Games with the Dead’, a Rolex watch becomes a key clue in the murder of a young estate agent called Julie Draper. Somewhat shamelessly, I plundered the idea from a real murder I covered as a TV producer in 1996. Meet Canadian fraudster and killer Albert Wilson – and discover how a snazzy Rolex timepiece led to his downfall.
In 1990, Albert Johnson Walker was living in Canada with his wife and three children. After his financial services company collapsed, Walker embezzled 3.2 million dollars from his clients and fled to England with his 15-year-old daughter, Sheena. Walker left behind his family and 18 counts of fraud, theft, and money laundering.
In England, Walker adopted the name David Davis and Sheena became Noelle, his young wife. Walker befriended Ronald Platt, a TV repairman, and together they started a business. Platt confided in Walker that he had been raised in Canada and longed to return. In 1992, Walker gifted Platt a one-way ticket to Calgary.
Under the ruse of needing the information for the business, Walker convinced Platt to leave behind his driver’s license, his signature stamp, and his birth certificate – and duly stole his identity. It seemed foolproof… until the real Ronald Platt decided to return to England in 1996.
Terrified that his cover was about to be blown, Walker invited Platt onto his yacht and took him out into the English Channel. Walker knocked Platt unconscious, tied an anchor around his belt, and threw him overboard. On July 28, 1996, a fisherman caught Platt’s body in his nets. Platt’s identity was a mystery to the police until they noticed a Rolex watch on his wrist.
Turns out the Rolex company maintains fastidious records of all purchases and service dates. These records named Ronald Platt as the owner of the Rolex Oyster Perpetual.
As Ronald Platt’s business partner, Walker (going by the name of David Davis) was called in for questioning. When asked about Platt’s whereabouts, Walker said that he believed he’d travelled to France. Weeks later, detectives called at Walker’s home to clarify something in his statement. Because Walker wasn’t in, officers spoke to his neighbour, who quickly informed them that a man named Ronald Platt lived next door, not David Davis. The neighbour also informed police that the man he knew as Platt had a yacht moored in Torquay – where the real Ronald Platt had been fished out of the sea.
Thanks to Rolex watch records, Walker’s real identity was uncovered and, in June 1998, he was convicted of Ronald Platt’s murder, and sentenced to life imprisonment. One of the lead detectives in the case admitted to me that had Platt not been wearing a Rolex, they’d never have identified Wilson as his killer.
This all came flooding back to me as I wrote ‘Games with the Dead’. ‘Men who Guide the destinies of the world wear Rolex watches’, boasted one of their more vainglorious slogans in the 1980s. But, in ‘Games with the Dead’, it works the other way around – when a Rolex watch seals the fate of some very bad men.
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