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David Owain Hughes
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South by Southwest Wales Kindle Edition

by David Owain Hughes (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.8 out of 5 stars 17 ratings
“Samson Valentine. Once the best gumshoe in the city, but now little more than a washed-up has-been. The question is, though; which city? And when?
With a touch as deft and as quick as an assassin's knife, Owain-Hughes presents us with a classic flawed hero. An inherently good man in a world gone bad. This is a fabulous story that weaves its way seamlessly from 1940s Chicago to modern day Cardiff, thanks to the broken mind of its main character. A man you can trust with your life, but whom you cross at your peril.
This is one hell of a read. I can’t think of a better evening than to sit in the pool of light from a shaded chintz lamp, sip a single malt, and get lost in South by Southwest Wales. Pure magic.” - Richard Ayre

Samson Valentine is the best private eye ever to wear a fedora–or at least he was, before he became a washed-up booze hound. There simply isn't a demand for a whiskey-swilling Welsh gumshoe who insists he's living in 1940s Chicago, but everything changes when a huge diamond falls into his lap. Before he knows what's going on, Samson finds himself swept up in the biggest case of his life. The mob will do anything to get its gemstone back, and they prove it when Sam's friend turns up dead. Now it's personal, and Sam sets out on a one-man mission to take down the Welsh crime syndicate. Armed with little more than his wits and his fists, the odds don't look good. Too much time at the bottom of a whiskey bottle has given him trembling hands and an addled brain. If he's to have any chance of bringing the mob to justice, he'll first need to come to grips with his worst enemy–himself.
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  1. Book 1 of 3
    South by Southwest Wales
  2. Language
    English
  3. Accessibility
    Learn more
  4. Publication date
    July 28, 2021
  5. File size
    598 KB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09962TSF2
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Red Cape Publishing
  • Accessibility ‏ : ‎ Learn more
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 28, 2021
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 598 KB
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Page Flip ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Book 1 of 3 ‏ : ‎ South by Southwest Wales
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.8 out of 5 stars 17 ratings

About the author

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David Owain Hughes

David Owain Hughes

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David Owain Hughes is a word-slinger of horror and crime fiction, who grew up on trashy b-movies from the age of five which helped rapidly instil in him a vivid imagination. He’s had multiple short stories published in various online magazines and anthologies, along with articles, reviews and interviews. He’s written for This Is Horror, Blood Magazine, and Horror Geeks Magazine.

Hughes is the author of six horror novels, four short story collections and a plethora of novellas. Although he predominately writes within the bracket of horror and its multiple sub-genres, he’s recently branched out into crime fiction and is slowly carving out a superb series of crime/noir thrillers under the umbrella title of South Wales.

Customer reviews

4.8 out of 5 stars
17 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book to be a fantastic read with positive pacing, with one review describing it as a fast-paced classic noir detective story.

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3 customers mention "Pacing"3 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the pacing of the book, with one describing it as a fast-paced classic noir detective story.

"...Author Hughes pulls no punches and delivers a gut-wrenching detective tale. Give it a shot, gumshoe. It's a hell of a ride...." Read more

"...A great detective mystery full of action and quirky characters. I definitely recommend reading this one!" Read more

"This is a well written, fast paced classic noir detective story. It flowed well and once the action started, it never stopped...." Read more

3 customers mention "Readability"3 positive0 negative

Customers find the book to be a fantastic read.

"...This is one of the better such books I have read in a long time, completely different from the author's other work in just about every way...." Read more

"A fantastic read! I read this in one sitting! The main character Sam is brilliantly crafted...." Read more

"...I definitely recommend reading this one!" Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Chuck
    5.0 out of 5 stars Dark and twisty Noir from a talented new voice in the genre
    Reviewed in the United States on July 5, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    I know this author mostly through his extreme brand of horror so I was surprised to see that he was putting out a Noir styled detective novel. I am a big fan of Noir so I gambled on downloading it. This is one of the better such books I have read in a long time, completely different from the author's other work in just about every way. This is a masterful rendition, taking all the expected Noir tropes and adding subtle twists and turns. It is also is a vivid unflinching look at the dark and gritty downward alcoholic spiral of the main character, Sam Valentine. His grasp of reality is fluid at best and sometimes it seems he dwells in ongoing hallucinations. The pacing of the book is spot on and fans of gumshoes will find a lot to love here. I hope that the author continues to write in this genre, as much as I also love his usual brand of horror. Check this out Noir fans, you will not be disappointed ...
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Barry
    5.0 out of 5 stars If you like hard-boiled detective stories, this is for you
    Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    If you like hard-boiled detective stories, this is for you. It's got lots of action, gunfights, fist fights, knife fights... you get the idea. Author Hughes pulls no punches and delivers a gut-wrenching detective tale. Give it a shot, gumshoe. It's a hell of a ride.

    Sam's a gumshoe stuck in the 1940's. Only, that's all in his head. He's so booze-addled all the time that he thinks he's in Chicago of the bygone era, when in reality he's in modern-day Wales. While his idea of reality is made-up, the danger he faces is very real. A giant diamond has fallen into his lap, and the organized crime syndicate will stop at nothing to get it back, even if that means snuffing him in the process.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Cynthia Steward
    5.0 out of 5 stars Tommy guns, gumshoes, palookas, and more!
    Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    A fantastic read! I read this in one sitting! The main character Sam is brilliantly crafted. He's a tough guy with a heart, strong but with crippling weaknesses (alcoholism and delusions). What helps get him out from the bottom of a whiskey bottle at last is his biggest case ever, involving a giant diamond, several murders, and a surprise twist of international proportions. Definitely give it a shot, you won't be disappointed!
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Lynn
    5.0 out of 5 stars New Detective on the Scene
    Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2018
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    This was on my TBR list for awhile. And now I’m so sorry I waited so long! I’ve read Hughes’ extreme work for years but he changed direction smoothly with this one. A great detective mystery full of action and quirky characters. I definitely recommend reading this one!
    One person found this helpful
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  • Leo Tolstoy, Avid Reader
    5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Noir Detective Story
    Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2018
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    This is a well written, fast paced classic noir detective story. It flowed well and once the action started, it never stopped. The ending wrapped up the main and side stories nicely, yet left a bit of a teaser that could potentially lead to a second book for this classic detective style.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Brittany
    4.0 out of 5 stars I haven't read a good, straight-up detective/private investigator mystery novel in awhile
    Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2018
    I haven't read a good, straight-up detective/private investigator mystery novel in awhile, so this read was, as a whole, pretty refreshing.
    South by Southwest Wales does a good job of sucking you into the action and mystery almost right away. I'm not lying when I say that it's pretty much action-packed cover-to-cover, and it's written in a way that, I felt, made it very easy to make an instant-connection with our main character, Samson. I'm pretty 50/50 on most detective stories, because I feel like they all follow a pretty similar mystery "outline" that makes the plot easily predictable, but I was definitely kept guessing with SbSW.
    As for the characters themselves, I really liked Samson. He, as I said, was easy to connect with as a character pretty much right away, and I liked his personality all throughout the book. There WAS a plot point involving him - I won't spoil it too much, but it involves his deceased wife - that, I think, was a tad confusing throughout most of the plot, but it was made much more clear by the end of the book, and I especially liked the twist that's thrown in toward the end. I really, really hope that twist isn't just brushed off in later books (if any), and that it might offer up an interesting, perhaps even dark, plot point later on.
    The crew of villains was pretty solid too, though the slew of 'clever' villainous nicknames became sort of hard to keep up with after awhile. I remember XRay, of course, and Alligator (LOVE how his nickname comes into play later on, by the way), so I'm hoping that, out of everyone, those were the most important, lol. If so, then the other nicknames don't bother me too much. I think, as a villain, I actually prefer Alligator over XRay, to a degree - his role in the plot was much more minor and fairly brief, but his portion of the plot was probably one of my favorite bits to read.
    Roxie was great, too. I really, really liked how she wasn't just some "mindless s*x worker" thrown into the plot just for the heck of it - she had character substance and backstory that I really liked, especially given how s*x workers tend to get a bad rep. Plus, I LOVE how she was an actual PERSON in the plot and wasn't just some tool for Samson (or other men in the book) to over-s*xualize. Mindless characters like that tend to really annoy me, so I'd say that Roxie's the MVP.
    This bit won't go into too much detail, but I just wanted to discuss, for a moment, the fact that South by Southwest also has some pretty golden plot-twists - my favorite, actually, is the one involving Mr. and Mrs. Barnes. This detective story is definitely a page-turner and most twists were genuinely surprising and woven very well into the plot. I won't go into them any further - because, duh, plot twists - but they definitely spiced things up.
    Overall, South by Southwest Wales was a pretty solid read and I recommend to any action-loving mystery fan. It was very refreshing and, though I didn't necessarily fall in LOVE with the character, Samson, I hope, is a character that a lot of people would enjoy.
    2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Lagoon
    5.0 out of 5 stars Old school PI noir that pulls no punches.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 27, 2022
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    Chicago. Probably the city you would most associate with your old school heavy drinking, jive talking, wise cracking PI. Enter Samson Valentine. One thing though, Valentine lives in Cardiff. No matter though, after all, a man can be wherever he chooses to be in his mind. And when his mind isn’t clawing it’s way through a whisky haze, Valentine is in the Chicago of the 1940s.

    Through ubsurd luck, if you’d call it that, Valentine comes into possession of a high value diamond. Naturally, other parties soon take an interest. Samson, in between getting plastered, is no pushover and in short time, assesses who he can play off one another. Foul language, loose women and desperate men parade through Valentine’s vignette. Keeping Valentine on something approaching a straight line is the voice in his head of one of his ex wives. Ex and dead. Lost to cancer. There is a touching poignancy to this and it’s the perfect counterpoint to what is, in the main, a noir and deeply violent novel.

    And set in Wales to boot. Valentine may be washed up but you can’t keep a good man down and if his liver doesn’t call time on him, there’s another case in the bruiser yet.
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  • Amazon Reviewer
    5.0 out of 5 stars South by Southwest Wales
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 29, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    Admittedly I wasn't sure what to expect from South by Southwest Wales. Detective noir isn't really my thing. But this is detective noir with a difference. It's set in modern-day Cardiff, for a start. Or is it? To give much more away about that aspect would be doing future readers a disservice. Suffice to say the story moves along at an unrelenting pace and is written with a gritty, nihilistic edge. Samson Valentine is definitely a flawed hero, but his heart is in the right place. This is the kind of book that picks you up and transports you to a different world. And it won't let you come back until it's good and ready.
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  • Karswell
    5.0 out of 5 stars Croeso i Chicago
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 25, 2018
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    David Owain Hughes has created a wonderful character in Samson Valentine – a man of sorrows, twice-widowed and finding solace at the bottom of a whisky bottle. This is a high concept book and the merging of Sam’s hallucinatory visions of 1940’s Chicago with the reality of present day Cardiff is done extremely skilfully by the author.
    There’s a nice streak of knowing (dare I say post-modern) humour running through the story but there are some very dark sections too – the author doesn’t skimp on his descriptions of the violence and brutality Samson encounters or, more importantly, the darkness that is his alcoholism.
    Here you’ll find all the ingredients of a classic noir thriller – mobsters, call girls and MacGuffins galore – but presented in a refreshingly different way. Is this Sam’s road to perdition or redemption? – you’ll have to read it to find out.
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  • J. Andrews
    5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant gumshoe noir
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 10, 2018
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    David Owain Hughes has proved himself that he doesn't just write about the most deranged and sexually perverted psychos on the planet but can create a likeable character with layers.
    All the classic tropes are here for a gumshoe caper, heavily leaning to a British case of crime filled Noir.
    However using the classics, booze, broken and hard on his luck, David has created Samson Valentine, P.I with a slight...twist.
    Showing how bad the real world can be in the supporting characters and extras in Sam's world we see the lost causes or the trapped souls of criminal life. Thugs, addicts, prostitutes, bent coppers the lot, all melded together with a jazz soundtrack would make a great movie.
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  • Jj
    5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Read
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 28, 2022
    Verified Purchase
    What can I say… Sam is a fascinating character and this easy read book takes you away from the day to day stresses of normal life. The characters come alive on the page and you really feel true emotions with them as you progress through the chapters.

    Onto book 2 now 💪

    Thank you!
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