An Espionage Thriller Set in the Arctic Circle

Darren Harrison was born in Hexham, England, and grew up in Bellingham, a small village in the English-Scottish border country of Northumberland. His childhood was spent around Kielder Water, sailing competitively, taking part in amateur dramatics at the village Town Hall, and developing two interests that would remain with him throughout his life: movies and writing.

Going to the cinema was an event. Family visits to Berwick-upon-Tweed offered the chance to see films at the old Berwick Playhouse, while a traveling film company brought monthly screenings to Bellingham Town Hall. Books were easier to find. An only child and enthusiastic reader, Darren began with Enid Blyton before discovering the thrillers of Alistair MacLean and Ian Fleming. Battered Pan paperbacks bought from the used-book stall at Bellingham's annual village fête introduced him to the writers who would have a lasting influence on the stories he wanted to tell.

He began writing in primary school and was attempting longer fiction by his early teens. His fascination with the United States eventually took him across the Atlantic, first as an AFS high school exchange student in Shenandoah, Iowa. After earning a B.A. in United States Studies from the University of Essex, he emigrated permanently to the United States in 1995 and subsequently served in the U.S. Army, with postings in Texas and Vicenza, Italy.

In 1998, Darren returned to Shenandoah and began working as a community newspaper reporter. His journalism career included several years covering crime and local government, an editorship in Iowa and, eventually, a position as Assistant Managing Editor at one of the Washington Post Company's regional newspapers. He later moved into technical writing and earned an M.A. in International Relations from St. Mary's University in San Antonio.

Throughout those years, fiction remained a constant. In 2002 he completed In Search of Secrets, an unpublished international espionage novel featuring British intelligence officer James Carter. More than two decades later, Carter would return in The Hunt for the Arctic Fox.

Darren's fiction draws on his military experience, journalism, interest in international affairs and lifelong affection for international thrillers. Movies have also shaped the way he writes. He tends to visualize scenes before putting them on the page, seeing characters move through locations and events and then translating those images into prose.

That approach helped shape The Hunt for the Arctic Fox, an espionage thriller centered on Swedish special operations soldier Anja Forsberg and ranging from Scandinavia and the Arctic to the Northumberland countryside of Darren's childhood. The novel became the first title from Longboat Harbor Publishing, the imprint he created to give his fiction its own publishing identity.

A dual British-American citizen, Darren lives in Madison, Wisconsin, where he works as a technical writer. Away from writing, he remains an enthusiastic reader, movie collector, traveler and road-trip enthusiast, and a Minnesota Vikings season-ticket holder.

For all the different directions his writing has taken him, his reason for doing it has changed remarkably little since he was a boy in Bellingham inventing stories for his friends. He writes because he enjoys creating characters, building their worlds and sending them on adventures.

If other readers come along for the adventure, all the better.