Chris Dolley...

...is an English author, a pioneer computer game designer and a teenage freedom fighter. That was back in 1974 when Chris was tasked with publicising Plymouth’s Student Rag Week. Some people might have arranged an interview with the local newspaper. Chris invaded the country next door, created the Free Cornish Army and persuaded the UK media that Cornwall had risen up and declared independence. This was later written up in Punch. As he told journalists at the time, ‘it was only a small country and I did give it back.’

In 1981, he created Randomberry Games and wrote Necromancer, one of the first 3D first person perspective D&D computer games. Not to mention writing the most aggressive chess program ever seen and inventing the most dangerous game ever played — the Giant Wrigley’s Spearmint Gum Cliff Top Relay.

He writes SF, fantasy, mystery and humour. His novel, Resonance, was the first book to be chosen from Baen’s electronic slush pile. Baen published his second book, Shift, in 2007.

Now he lives a self-sufficient lifestyle in deepest France with his wife and a frightening number of animals. They grow their own food and solve their own crimes. The latter out of necessity when Chris’s identity was stolen along with their life savings. Abandoned by the police forces of four countries who all insisted the crime originated in someone else's jurisdiction, he had to solve the crime himself. Which he did, driving back and forth across the Pyrenees, tracking down bank accounts and faxes and interviewing bar staff. It was a mystery writer’s dream.

He can also filk — but only when dressed in flares and teetering on five inch platform shoes. This was taken during the Bacsides 1991 tour.

Glam Rock — don't you just miss it?

Check out his website: www.chris-dolley.com

Novels

Resonance

Graham Smith sees things others can’t... or won’t. He knows that roads can change course, people disappear, office blocks migrate across town. All at night when no one’s looking. The world’s an unstable place, still growing, sloughing off layers of reality like dead skin. One day you drive by, and it’s changed.

Annalise Mercado hears voices, all from girls calling themselves Annalise. Sometimes she thinks they’re spirit guides, sometimes she thinks she’s crazy. But then they tell her about Graham Smith and how only she can save him. So begins the story of two people whose lives appear fragmented across alternate realities and how, together, they hold the key to the future of a billion planets...

Shift

Imagine a world where there’s more than length, breadth and depth. Where there are other axes of movement. A true eleven-dimensional universe. And then throw in a discovery that the human brain protrudes into these higher dimensions.

Welcome to the world of Shift. A multi-dimensional thriller where the detective has to get inside the mind of a killer — the hard way.

A serial killer with multiple personalities. A born-again astronaut. A world on the brink of disaster. Only Nick and Louise can save the planet — if they live that long

French Fried

This is the unfortunately true account of Chris's first eight months in France. Imagine A Year in Provence with Miss Marple and Gerald Durrell.

Animals behaving badly, other people's misfortunes and the most bizarre true crime story ever - what more could anyone want? His identity stolen, his life savings grabbed, a bank account opened in his name in Spain to take the proceeds - he's then abandoned by the police forces of four countries who all insist the crime is someone else's jurisdiction. So he has to solve the crime himself. Which he does. But unlike fictional detectives he has an 80 year-old mother-in-law and an excitable puppy who insist they come along if he's going anywhere interesting - like a stakeout.

Medium Dead 

Medium Dead is a fun urban fantasy chronicling the crime fighting adventures of Brenda – a reluctant medium – and Brian – a Vigilante Demon with an impish sense of humour. Think Stephanie Plum with magic and a dash of Carl Hiaasen.

Brenda Steele is smart, funny and out of her depth. A Vigilante Demon called Brian wants her to find murdered spirits and help him track down their killers. But Brian doesn't just catch criminals, he likes to play with them first, and make the punishment fit the crime. As he tells Brenda, “if all you did was turn up, capture the bad guy then leave – century after century – you'd die of boredom.” 

An Unsafe pair of Hands  (coming July 5th)

An Unsafe Pair of Hands is a quirky murder mystery set in rural England. Peter Shand is the 'safe pair of hands' – a high-flying police administrator seconded to a quiet rural CID team to gain the operational experience he needs for promotion. On his second day he’s thrust into a high-profile murder case.

The pressure on Shand is enormous. The case is baffling, he thinks his wife is having an affair with the chief suspect, a local journalist is out to discredit him, and then, goaded at a press conference about lack of progress, he invents a lead. And keeps on lying – to the press, his boss, his team – telling himself that he'll solve the case before anyone finds out.

Which will break first – the case, or Shand?

Collections

What Ho, Automaton!

Wodehouse Steampunk! What Ho, Automaton! chronicles the adventures of Reggie Worcester, gentleman consulting detective, and his gentleman’s personal gentle-automaton, Reeves.

Reggie, an avid reader of detective fiction, knows two things about solving crime: One, the guilty party is always the person you least suspect. And, two, The Murders in the Rue Morgue would have been solved a lot sooner had the detective the foresight to ask the witnesses if they’d seen any orang-utans recently. Reeves needs all his steam-powered cunning and intellect to curb the young master’s excessive flights of fancy. And prevent him from getting engaged.

Picture Books

International Kittens of Mystery

If you like a laugh and looking at cute kitten pictures this is the book for you. It’s a glance inside the International Kittens of Mystery – the only organisation on the planet with a plan to deal with a giant ball of wool on a collision course with Earth. Forget  Bruce Willis and his team of miners. Send for the kitties! 

Available DRM-free for only $2.99.

Novelettes

 Magical Crimes

A fun CSI with magic and ‘a little something else’ story. The little something else being two foot long and lurking in the hero’s trousers. But don’t worry, the penis in this story is used purely for the purpose God intended – humour and crimefighting – not lustful titillation.

And, besides, our psychic profiler hero has a locked room mystery to solve.

Available DRM-free NOW as a 99 cent download in all available eBook formats.

Short Work

Nigeran Tuna Spam

How can anyone resist an email that begins, “I am Fluffy, the favourite kitten of the late president of Nigeria...”

Not many.

I wrote this spoof email on my blog in January, 2007 and it went viral within hours.

ET Spam

Ever wondered what might happen if you replied to one of those Nigerian 419 emails? This is the SF version.