Wye Valley beers feature in eBook Thriller!

ELICIA, the debut novel by Ian Hudson, has the heroine and hero drinking HPA and Dorothy Goodbody’s Wholesome Stout in the fictional Wye’s Brewery Bar. And later in the story Wye Valley Bitter is being enjoyed in the brewery’s very real Barrels pub in Hereford.

Elicia is a thriller about reportage photographer Elicia who encounters solitary writer Aiden Dean. Photographing him Elicia includes his portrait in her first solo exhibition. Meeting again at the gallery there develops an intense love affair between photographer and subject; both are searching for a future where they can love as equals. But what has her portrait revealed?

Detective Sergeant Antony Mylen is still investigating his one unsolved crime; the apparent suicide of graphic designer Lizzie, a young woman he believes had no reason to end her life, who was found a year ago with cut wrists in her bloodied bath water. Aiden, a man close to the dead woman, is the detective’s lead murder suspect. Mylen believes the portrait of the writer and the photographer are a catalyst to prove his suspect’s guilt. As more people from both Aiden’s and Elicia’s past step into the light, how close are these two people willing to get to each other and the truth? 

Ian is a former barman at the Barrels and filmmaker. ‘What a character drinks is vital in helping the reader create the profile of that person in their imagination. Like the characters the Wye Valley Brewery are artisans and this is important to the concept and themes of the novel. The initial references to the beer are done with humour, Elicia, on their first date, has bought the all-in-black writer Aiden a pint of Dorothy Goodbody's Wholesome Stout, and she the blonde haired spirited young woman is drinking HPA. Both use the drinks as an anchor as they get to know each other. The use of cask-conditioned beer is important to create the sense of the real world I know.’

‘I set out to write a taut psychological thriller, one laced with sarcastic and dark, playful humour, a story that leads each character, and the reader, to question what they know to be truth and what is illusion in love and death. Inspiration for writing the book comes from living and breathing the world of indie music and films and being part of the community in a real pub serving real beer. Though I maybe should add it is a work of fiction. I Promise.’

Elicia is available for Kindle and via the Kindle App at
http://www.amazon.co.uk/ELICIA-ebook/dp/B00A25VFKC