Award-winning screenwriter Rob Gittins is launching his first novel next week. The hard-hitting and breathlessly pitched thriller Gimme Shelter (published by Y Lolfa) is a crime novel set in the hidden world of witness protection, and has already attracted rave reviews. Rob Gittins’s work for Heartbeat Casualty and The Bill has won him a Writers’ Guild Award, and he is currently the longest serving writer on EastEnders, having written over two hundred episodes of the programme.

Gimme Shelter pits a young, female, Witness Protection Officer against one of the deadliest psychopaths imaginable as she fights to keep her latest witness safe; but is that witness all she claims to be? And, in a world in which nothing can be taken on trust, is the Protection Officer all she seems?

“Gimme Shelter is a crime novel that didn’t actually begin with a crime,” explains author Rob Gittins. “It began with a question and that question was simple. If someone gave you the chance to start again, to wipe the slate clean, erase all that had been and all you’d been in the past, would you take it? And if so, could you handle it? “That question arose out of a stray sentence I read in a report a year ago on the growing number of protected witnesses in the UK. Over three thousand witnesses are now taken into that protection scheme each year. This startling statistic fascinated me at first, and then began to haunt me. Thousands of people living a life in the shadows, leading a life that isn’t their own, having to memorise a life story that isn’t their story at all.

“It’s all forced upon them by crime, of course - and some gruesome and harrowing crimes are at the heart of Gimme Shelter. But it’s the psychological impact and effect of the protection programme that completely compels me, and that was the starting point of the story that’s now become Gimme Shelter. ”

The author has revealed that a sequel will be ready for publication by this time next year. “ Gimme Shelter is only the first in a number of stories I want to tell, because as I did more research into this whole field, I was presented with more and more questions that needed answering.”

Rob Gittins will be launching Gimme Shelter in Waterstones, Carmarthen night the 10th of September at 6pm, where limited edition hardback copies will be available. He will also be launching the novel in Waterstones, Cardiff on Thursday night the 10th of October.

Rob has written for numerous top-rated television drama series including Casualty, The Bill, EastEnders, Soldier, Soldier and. Rob’s also written over twenty original radio plays for BBC Radio 4 and over a hundred episodes of The Archers.

Praise for Gimme Shelter

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‘What a brilliant book… crying out to be a major bestseller and a major film… mesmerizingly written. Superb!’ Katherine John

‘Visceral, strongly visual and beautifully structured… powerful, quirky characters.’ Andrew Taylor, Winner, Crime Writers’ Association Cartier Diamond Dagger

‘…utterly compelling, the psychological impact on the individuals enrolled on the Witness Protection scheme that forms the basis of the book is fascinating… highly recommended for those looking for a crime novel that is that bit different.’ Newbooks magazine