“The Bowstring Wager” – the fifth novel by Jez Lowe

Jez Lowe’s FIFTH novel is published by Badapple Books later this month in the UK, following on from “The Dillen Doll” (2017), “The Corly Croons (2019), “Piper’s Lonnen” (2022) and “The Keeker Seam” (2024).

The title of the new book is “The Bowstring Wager”, and it chronicles the further of adventures of “The Stranger From The South”, the music-loving, deep-thinking and somewhat aloof police detective called Evan Piper who has been the central character of the last three stories.

This is from the book’s back cover –

“The building of a new bridge across the river has changed 19^th Century Tyneside forever, with new trade, new industries and thousands of new workers and their families pouring into the region. They bring with them all the hopes, problems and intrigues that such an influx inevitably does, and Evan Piper, head of the Gateshead Police Force, finds himself in the thick of it, with Irish labourers, local businessmen and shady Dutch racketeers all making demands upon his time and his loyalty. He is captivated once more by an exotic woman with the voice of a siren and a will of her own, as well as by the wild and yearning fiddle music ringing out from every tavern along the quayside. Deathbed revelations, a thunderous horserace, perplexing plots and gruesome street battles lead him to a deadly confrontation on the very bridge that seems to be the focus of it all. And everywhere the sound of jigs, reels and ballads as a backdrop.

The fifth novel by award-winning singer and writer Jez Lowe once again resonates with the songs and music of his native North-East England, as well as leaning into his Irish ancestry and his instinctive grasp of social history.”

As with Jez’s last novel, “The Keeker Seam”, there is no accompanying CD release with the new book, but there will be a special QR code included with every copy giving access to two exclusive new songs for downloading purposes. Details of these will be announced soon.

Publishing date for “The Bowstring Wager” is June 22^nd, and pre-orders are now being taken via the SHOP page on this website.

Jez will also be doing a show based around the book as another of his “Life Writing” presentations at Edinburgh Festival Fringe on August 15th, and will also be featuring it at the song-writing workshop/performance day at Lewes Saturday Folk Club on July 18th. Details on the LIVE DATES page of this website.

Meanwhile, Jez has been asked to contribute a new song to one of the UK’s leading podcasts, “Strangers on a Bench”, hosted by Tom Rosenthal. The episode was recorded in the North East of England, and is available from June 8^th here https://strangersonabench.com

This month also sees the start of a UK tour by The Pitmen Poets, for which Jez will be joined by Bob Fox and Billy Mitchell . The quartet’s fourth member, Benny Graham is currently waiting for medical treatment, so has had to absent himself from this tour. However, the full quartet are featured on a new Pitmen Poets CD, released to coincide with the tour, entitled “Burning Bright – The Pitmen Poets recorded live in Keswick 2024”.
It’s available to buy and download here – https://thepitmenpoets.co.uk/listen-buy It will also be available at all the shows on the tour, details of which are listed on this website.