Author Steve Cavanagh is among the stars heading for Harrogate crime festival this week (Image: Getty \/ Express)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n Bestselling author Steve Cavanagh used his outrage at the growing number of mega rich people who laws don\u2019t seem to apply to as a central theme to his latest Eddie Flynn thriller. The 10th novel about a con-artist turned defence lawyer was inspired by his love of American author Gillian Flynn\u2019s Gone Girl, which was adapted into a Hollywood film starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike, as well as the hit US TV drama Succession, which starred Brian Cox as a media magnate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n And this gave Steve the starting point for exploring the new wave of individuals that have the wealth and power of small nations, often now from tech and AI ventures. His latest Eddie Flynn book, One Of Us Is Guilty, is out on Thursday (July 30) and tells the story of Patrick and his wife Vanessa. Patrick, the heir to a huge media empire, is the son of one of the most powerful men in the world, who has political ambitions for him.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Steve says: \u201cThe book opens on one night when Patrick realises his mistress has been keeping things form him, and lying to him. And that is the same night that Vanessa finds out Patrick has been having an affair. It\u2019s the following morning that the mistress is found dead, and they were both in her apartment that night<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Steve Cavanagh at the Theakston Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival, July 2023 (Image: Charlotte Graham\/Shutterstock)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n \u201cSo you know one of them has killed her, but you don\u2019t know which one. And that is our jumping off point for the book. One of them is charged with murder by the police and Eddie Flynn has to come in to defend them. But throughout the book he is wondering if he is defending the right member of the couple? Who is guilty and who is not? And the has to wrestle with his own conscience and demons throughout the case.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Steve, a former lawyer and one-time bouncer, who was born and brought up in Belfast but now lives near Lisburn, with wife Tracy and their two children, is renowned for his brilliantly twisty thrillers and never is this more so than with One Of Us Is Guilty.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n He says: \u201cI was aiming for a book that is a cross between Gone Girl and Succession. I loved that sort of toxic couple that is going on in Gone Girl, where they are both keeping secrets form each other.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Asked if any real-life figures inspired his latest book, he adds: \u201cThe characters in the book are in no way inspired by Rupert Murdoch, which I have to say for legal reasons!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Harriet Walter and Brian Cox, centre, as billionaire media magnate Logan Roy, in Succession (Image: HBO)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n \u201cBut one of the themes I explore in the book, which is something that has come up in the series before, is that people think there are rules and laws, and that these apply to everyone, but that is now not the case. The thing we are seeing that is totally out in the open now, no one is bothering to hide it anymore, is that everyone is talking about AI, but it is an industry built on piracy. It is the largest intellectual property theft in history and no government has yet said, \u2018wait a minute, you can\u2019t do that\u2019. It\u2019s being left to the individual to do this.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe live in a world where the powerful have more power than ever before. We have individual people that have the wealth and power of nation states, so it is very turbulent times.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThat is why Eddie Flynn is fun to write because he does not really play by the rules, he knows the system is biased and he tries to bend the rules to even up the scales of justice and make everything a lot more fair.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The author, a former human rights lawyer in Belfast, came up with the idea for his character Eddie Flynn while cross-examining a witness in a case, before becoming a full-time writer in 2019.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI was cross-examining someone, and I tricked them into revealing they were lying. It hit me that con artists have the exact same skills as good trial lawyers: distraction, misdirection, persuasion, all of that,\u201d he admits. \u201cSo that was the basic idea for Eddie, and then I gave him a few characteristics of my own.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n He says it is a privilege to still be writing about the character as the first three books in the series did not sell, so in publishing the fourth he was working on a standalone for his next one and then planning to come up with a new character.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n One Of Us Is Guilty by Steve Cavanagh is published on July 20 (Image: Headline)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n That fourth book was Thirteen, which won the prestigious Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award, for which the Express is the media partner, and went on to become a big seller.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Steve is looking forward to returning to the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival held annually at the Old Swan Hotel in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, from Thursday to Sunday, where this year\u2019s award winners will be announced on Thursday night.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n He says: \u201cI\u2019m very much looking forward to it. Hopefully we\u2019ll have good weather and it\u2019s always a joy going to Harrogate as I get to see people I have known for years, and you chat with readers and writers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe events themselves are brilliant, and it\u2019s very collegiate. It\u2019s the start of a two-week book tour for me around the UK and Ireland, so I can\u2019t wait.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n A TV or film adaptation of the Eddie Flynn series has been underway for the past two years, but Steve is remaining tight-lipped about that, while also working on a standalone thriller for his next book, which is in the early stages.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n He admits life is good but adds he one regret is creating such a smart and calculating protagonist in Eddie Flynn: \u201cSometimes I think I should\u2019t have created a character who is so smart – it would have been much easier (to write) if he was dumber!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n *One Of Us Is Guilty by Steve Cavanagh (Headline, \u00a316.99) is out on Thursday. Steve is appearing at the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate from July 23-26. Visit harrogateinternational festivals.com for information and bookings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"Author](\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/39\/1200x712\/secondary\/Steve-7048933.jpg?r=1784524672509\" "\\"Author")
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/p>\n![\"Harriet](\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/39\/590x\/secondary\/Succession-7049790.jpg?r=1784524672576\" "\\"Harriet")
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