Carter’s leading man Nick Chester, a former cop from the UK, is hiding in New Zealand on witness protection after an undercover job back home turned sour.
While he works to keep those from his past at bay, there is a predator on the loose in the ‘Top of the South’ and Chester feels compelled to stop him.
While Carter and Chester share heritage and both moved to Australia’s next door neighbour, the author was light-hearted in detailing how that is where the similarities stop.
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READ NOW“It’s a story of the hunter and the hunted,” he said.
“Is Nick like me? Well, he’s a Geordie city slicker who doesn’t really get farm work and sometimes wonders what the hell he’s doing there but he loves the view, loves the family and has a strong sense of right and wrong.
“But no, as far as I know I don’t have any Geordie gangsters after me.”
Carter, who also has a home in Fremantle, said his New Zealand hideaway offered much inspiration for the book.
“The farm is 10 kilometres up a remote dead end valley at the top of NZ South Island, near the Marlborough Sounds,” he said.
“I drew heavily on my time there – the view, the environment, some of the characters, the bewilderment of a city slicker facing farm chores and the weather.
“And I drew inspiration for some of the petty crime from reading the local news.
“Barely a week goes by without some young bloke being caught shoplifting a tray of meat down his daks and bolting.”
Marlborough Man will be released in June.
Carter said he hoped his enthusiasm for the project would be crystal clear for readers.
“I hope the passion and excitement I felt about the story and the setting during the writing shows through and that I’ve come up with a bunch of characters that are worth spending time with,” he said.