Dennis 'Dutch' French, a former long-serving and decorated soldier, is suspected by the police of killing five members of a vicious cartel responsible for both raping his wife, Melanie, and filming the harrowing event. To evade his arrest, the couple secure employment and flee to Venezuela. Another near-fatal incident during a lifetime of close-to-death experiences reinforces his inner belief regarding the myth of nine lives. Following a further threat of revenge to his wife from the aggrieved cartel, it becomes necessary for him to end the danger once and for all. To do so and evade detection would need expert planning and cunning deceit for the couple to regain the peace that they both desire. Dutch hopes to have committed the perfect crimes, but has he?
Having lived and worked in Sussex all of his sixty-seven years, this is his first novel. Married to Carla for forty-four years, they have three children and four grandchildren.
He ‘coincidentally’ shares many traits with his main character: a lifetime runner, as a former police officer of thirty-three years who too feels he may have lost a few lives on the way and also finds himself nominating titles of popular songs to certain situations and nicknames to certain characters.
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Martin Read reporter Horsham District post
After the success of his debut thriller – Running for his Lives - local author Cliff Comber has written another cracker – Deadly Deceit - and the good news is that it has just been released ! Once again, former police officer Cliff has drawn on his in depth knowledge and experience of 33 years in the force throughout the intricate, captivating plot, providing a great insight into police style logic and deduction, in an inventive and informative way.
Deadly Deceit is another fast moving, extraordinarily detailed story, with excellent dialogue – an imaginative and thoroughly authentic work, especially during the airport sequence, when it was clear that intimate familiarity was at play.
But, how does he get his ideas? “Like Running for his Lives, Deadly Deceit draws on the places that I know – and the villains that I came up against.”
Does Cliff find writing easy? “I wouldn’t say that – it’s a challenge, but I’m getting quicker at it! Running for his Lives took me three and a half years, but I completed Deadly Deceit in a year.”
How does Cliff go about his writing? “As a life long runner, I spend time on a treadmill, running to get fit, which is deadly boring – but a lot of ideas come to me that way.”
Both books are based on the principal character, hard hitting Dutch French, inspired by a charismatic former colleague. Dutch has high principles, and, when he or his wife, Melanie, are crossed, he usually resolves problems at a stroke and is determined to exact revenge, often despite serious threat to his life. While being firmly on Dutch’s side, the perpetual quandary for readers is whether crime, in the form of his revenge, with all its twists and turns, should be allowed to pay. Can he - should he - get away with it? The result is a rattling good page turner, posing moral questions, and with a neat denouement – Dutch is definitely not a man to upset.
And the even better news is that Cliff is already scheming up the final book in the trilogy, for which he plans to move the location from his familiar stamping ground to the Lake District.
Running for his Lives is described as ‘An explosive story of love, myth and ultimate retribution’ – an equally apt description of Deadly Deceit .
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