Paul Johnston

Paul Johnston was born in Edinburgh in 1957, the son of successful thriller writer Ronald Johnston. He attended Edinburgh's prestigious Fettes college (which he blew up in his first novel), in part so that he could study ancient Greek. He went on to read ancient and modern Greek at the University of Oxford. After leaving University in 1982, he worked in the shipping industry for a few years, moving to Greece in 1987 to escape the rat-race. While in Greece, he worked as a journalist and part-time English teacher.

He starting writing in Greece, finishing two novels before his first was published, in 1997. Body Politic was a crime novel set in 21st-century Edinburgh, and won a CWA John-Creasey Memorial Dagger award. In the novel, Edinburgh is now an independent city-state run by a Council of City Guardians, a group of University Professors, who have imposed a low-crime, low-tech society ruthlessly supported by the City Guard.

Johnston has written five novels featuring Quint Dalrymple, the hero of Body Politic. In 2002 he shifted gears, moving from future Edinburgh to contemporary Greece with the Alex-Mavros series, starting with A Deeper Shade of Blue. In 1995 he moved to Edinburgh to work on a master's degree in English, but he found the academic research too distracting from novel writing.

His most recent novel is the violent thriller The Death List, set in contemporary London and featuring a struggling crime writer and a dangerous stalker. Johnston regularly attends literary festivals, and shares his time between Scotland and Greece.

  • Cover scan of Body Politic
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    Body Politic - Paperback
    This is an omnibus edition containing two books by Paul Johnston - 'Body Politic' and 'The Bone Yard'.
  • Cover scan of The Death List
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    The Death List - Paperback
    Crime novelist Matt Wells has more fantasies of revenge than most. Dumped by his agent, his publisher and his wife, he is crippled by writer's block. Then a fan e-mails him. Calling himself the White Devil, he is a serial killer who has chosen Matt to tell his story. Then the killing begins.
  • Cover scan of The Golden Silence
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    The Golden Silence - Paperback
    When half-Greek, half-Scots private investigator Alex Mavros is asked to trace a missing teenager, an immigrant of the former Soviet Union, he doesn't see any connection with the recent plague of violent killings afflicting Athens.
  • Cover scan of The House Of Dust
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    The House Of Dust - Paperback
    In April 2028 youth gangs roam the streets of independent Edinburgh, forcing the Council of City Guardians to seek advice. Experts recommend a maximum security prison by the central tourist zone, but at the opening ceremony someone is shot.

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