David Michie

Page Updated: 08/09/2004

David Michie

Expiry Date

Pure Deception

Conflict of Interest

The inside story behind the City's Spin Doctors…

WebPage: http://www.davidmichie.com

by David Michie

About the Author

Bibliography

Paperback - timewarner (2003)

Expiry Date
Her research in DNA could see her ending up DOA

`It would have been just another suburban tragedy except for one thing.’

Weybridge, England: When Matt Norton’s body is discovered washed up on a riverbank, it is the shocking end to a short and tragic life. Matt suffered from a rare ageing disorder called progeria; still at primary school, he had the body of a seventy-five-year-old. His father Andrew can’t believe it - especially when he learns that his son’s death might not have been accidental ...
Washington, DC: Gene-therapy is as much about spin as it is about research, especially on a project as exciting as NP3. For Dr Lorna Reid has discovered nothing less than the elusive elixir vitae: a miracle anti-ageing drug that puts back by decades the expiry date genetically written into our DNA. But not everyone is as thrilled as the media are by Lorna’s scientific breakthroughs. Unless she is extremely careful, the anti-ageing guru is about to find her own life-expectancy drastically reduced …
`When it comes to writing about the world of PR skulduggery, Michie is an insider trading on his strengths’ The Times

First British Edition Little,Brown (2001)

Paperback - timewarner (2001)

Pure Deception
From London to Los Angeles, in the high-stakes game of global celebrity, spin-doctors reign supreme - and pure deception is par for the course . . .
No one is more surprised than Mark Watson, an amateur singer from south London, when he is talent-spotted by celebrity super-agent Hilton Gallo. The offer to record an album with pop icon Isis seems like an impossible fantasy. It's only after arriving in Los Angeles that Mark learns how, in the world of celebrity PR, illusion and reality are dangerously entwined. Too late he discovers that his real purpose is to protect Isis from the devastating story of her past.
Meantime, animal liberation paramilitaries, One Commando, are ruthlessly campaigning against cosmetics firm Berkeley Square. The company's chief executive has been subjected to an attack of unspeakable savagery. No sooner is a Berkeley Square endorsement deal with Isis and Mark announced than the two stars find themselves in the terrorist group's sights.
Mark's dreams of fame and fortune quickly turn to surreal nightmare as he realises that only he holds the key to One Commando's end game. Can he second-guess the perverse plans of One Commando's enigmatic leaders? Will succeed in his race against the clock? And what is Isis’s terrible secret?
David Michie’s second novel combines his insider knowledge of celebrity spin-doctoring with another dazzling display of inch-perfect plotting and heart-stopping suspense.
'When it comes to writing about the world of PR skulduggery, Michie is an insider trading on his strengths' The Times
'Thrillers have been set in many different milieu, but by setting Conflict of Interest in the cut-throat world of corporate PR, David Michie has created a fascinating novel setting for his highly accomplished narrative… John Grisham has a rival in the realm of corporate thriller' Amazon.com
'David Michie brilliantly portrays the mounting panic and fear when caught in an impossible situation with nowhere to run' Nick Leeson on Conflict of Interest

Paperback - Warner (2001)

First British Edition Little,Brown (2000)

Conflict of Interest
When he was head-hunted he didn't realise they wanted his life
It's the job offer of a lifetime: Ł120,000 a year, a-top-of-the range BMW, and the chance to work with charismatic sportswear billionaire Nathan Strauss. But on the very day that Chris Treiger celebrates his new job, Nathan Strauss sends shock waves through the corporate world by falling off the balcony of his ninth-floor hotel suite.
Unable to back out of his job with Lombard, Britain's most powerful PR firm, Chris now finds himself reporting to Nathan's brother, Jacob, and his sinister spin doctor - a man whose loyalty borders on the obsessive.
Meanwhile, Chris's former lover, journalist Judith Laing, is investigating the bizarre death of a leading financial analyst whose body has been found after an apparent auto-erotic experiment gone wrong. Discovering that he was on the point of revealing damaging evidence about Chris's new bosses she tries to warn him, but Chris refuses to believe her until another death occurs.
Torn between disbelief and outrage that he might unwittingly have become part of a multinational cover-up, Chris sets out to prove things one way or the other, immediately putting both his own life and Judith's in jeopardy.
Powering to an adrenaline-pumping climax, David Michie's fictional debut is a thrilling ride through the dark underworld of corporate PR, with more dazzling twists and turns than a spin doctor avoiding the truth.

About The Author
In His Own Words…
I was born and brought up in Rhodesia and educated at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa - a background I share with novelist Wilbur Smith.
I wrote my first novel at eighteen, a ‘Boy’s Own’ adventure novel which, to my subsequent relief, was never published. I began my public relations career in Johannesburg, but becoming a novelist was always my main ambition. I wrote another six novels, all of which were roundly rejected by publishers on both sides of the Atlantic.
In 1988, at the age of twenty six, I decided that living so far away from the London publishing scene was a disadvantage. Moving to London, I found myself an agent and continued writing - by this stage I was writing women’s fiction in the Judith Krantz/ Shirley Conran genre. The rejection letters continued to pile in.
By 1995, having produced a total of ten novels without success, I decided to take a break from writing. Besides, as a Senior Consultant in a PR agency I didn’t have any time to write. But around this time, the term ‘spin doctor’ was gaining popular currency, and while on holiday in America I had the idea of a non-fiction exposé about some of the darker practices in PR.
The result was The Invisible Persuaders - How Britain’s spin doctors manipulate the media. The concept for the book was snapped up by Bantam and published in April 1998.
Having gone through the tortuous process of libel reading with The Invisible Persuaders, during which a lot of colourful detail had to be removed, I realised that a truer account of what goes on in some PR firms might be achieved in fiction. Hence was born the concept of ‘the PR thriller’.
Writing a summary and sample chapters of a corporate PR thriller, Conflict Of Interest, I approached literary agency Ed Victor Ltd who took me on.
Shortly after The Invisible Persuaders was launched, my agent, Lizzy Kremer circulated the Conflict Of Interest material to a number of publishers. After several expressed interest, an auction was held, with Little, Brown offering me a two book publishing contract.
Conflict Of Interest is set in financial and corporate PR - a world I know well. While the characters are composite - to protect the guilty - and events are fictitious, they accurately reflect the motivations and machinations at work in City PR, where sustaining a high share price can become the justification for the most perverse activities. The theme of child slave labour in the developing world underpins the action with a contemporary issue which, regrettably, continues to be relevant.
Having written Conflict Of Interest, I am now completing a second PR thriller. Pure Deception is set in celebrity PR, where the creation and maintenance of stellar status also provokes ruthless opportunism. The plot of Pure Deception is set against the backdrop of laboratory animal testing in the cosmetics industry.
I now live most of the year in Australia. I married my Australian-born wife seven years ago and neither of us ever adapted to British winters. However, as we both love London, we plan to return there every summer.

Bibliography
N.B. dates and publishers in dark red indicate British First Editions. Dates and publishers in black indicate recent reprints.

Expiry Date (Little,Brown, 2002) Little,Brown May 02 timewarner Pbk Dec 03

Pure Deception (Little,Brown, 2001) timewarner Pbk Jan 01

Conflict of Interest (Little,Brown, 2000) Warner Pbk Jan 01