Six Sentence Saturday - THE CASEBOOK OF DOC MARCUS QUIGLEY by CLAY MORE (Keith Souter)

When Frank Roderus first announced that  High Noon Press were looking for short stories, preferably linked to form a series, to publish as ebooks, I jumped at the opportunity. I love the short story format and I saw it as a chance to write a series about a new character.

The old adage - write about what you know - has held me in good stead throughout my fiction career. As a doctor I usually manage to include a fair amount of medical information into my stories, most recently with my character of Doctor Logan Munro in the Wolf Creek series.



The overall plot: 
Still with a medical theme I decided to write this new ebook series with my main character as Doctor Marcus Quigley, an itinerant dentist, gambler and sometime bounty hunter. I aimed to write them like the old time Saturday afternoon Westerns, each linking with the next to form a quest.

Marcus has reasons for choosing such a lifestyle, for there is someone he means to track down and hold to account for a murder committed some years previously.

In the first short story (c 9,000 words) DEAD IN THE SADDLE Marcus  has set up a temporary consulting room in Hagsville. He has just pulled the tooth of one of the town's loafers, who makes across the street towards the Arcade Saloon for some medicinal whiskey. My six(ish) sentence:

The horse was close now and seeing Ted and the others approach it, it stopped.

That was enough to jolt the rider. He slumped sideways and slid right off the horse to land on his back in the dust.

“Hey Mr Parker, are you hurt bad?” Ted cried, breaking into a run. ‘That was one hell of a …”

But his words died on his tongue. One glance at the unseeing eyes told him that there wasn’t a lot of conversation you could have with a dead man.

When Sheriff Dan Morgan asks him to examine the body Marcus discovers some strange things that lead to a trail of death and duplicity and which put him right into the very jaws of danger.

The second in the series GUILTY AS SINNED is also out and the third THE COVERED TRAIL  follows shortly.

They are all available in ebook at Amazon, Kobo and Barnes & Noble. 

Bio:  KEITH SOUTER is a part time doctor, medical journalist and novelist. He is married with three grown-up children and lives within arrow-shot of the ruins of Sandal Castle, the scene of two of his historical crime novels.  He writes books about health and anything else his agent conjures up a deal for. He writes fiction in four genres - westerns as Clay More, crime as Keith Moray, historicals and YA fiction as Keith Souter.  He also enjoys short fiction, for which he has won prizes, including a 2006 Fish award.

Website:

http://www.keithsouter.co.uk