Former Bury St Edmunds footballer releases new crime novel Harvest

A crime journalist and former Bury Town footballer has self-published his first novel after being inspired on a honeymoon trip around the world nine years ago.

Michael Steward, from Bury St Edmunds, has written crime novel, Harvest, after spending six weeks in China in 2013.

This was the former midfielder's inspiration for the novel and he decided to set the book in Beijing.

The dark thriller follows two private detectives as they hunt for a missing British teacher through the Chinese capital.

He said: "China was so different, and I really fell in love with it while we were there. It was probably quite ambitious of me to set the book in Beijing but I thought it provided the perfect backdrop for the story.

"I probably wrote the first 5,000 or 10,000 words when I first got back from the honeymoon. Then I left it alone for a while and life got in the way. I went back to it around 2017.

"This isn’t a lockdown book, I finished the first draft in February 2020 – it’s just taken me this long to get it up to scratch," he added.

Michael said that his former teammates have been very supportive of his move into novel writing.

"We’ve got a Bury old boys Whatsapp group and there’s been a little bit of mickey taking as you might expect but the lads all offered their congratulations when I first announced the book was coming out."

Michael hopes to continue the series on with the same characters.

Harvest can be purchased as an e-book on Amazon here.