The Seventh Wave concept came to fruition after a real-life incident at an international airport in August 2008 - a chance meeting with a mysterious Bulgarian female hell-bent on revenge and wanting to tell her story.
And what a story, a tale straight from the big screen; of love, lust, revenge, the worst kind. Of borderless Europe, fast cars, diplomatic undoings, cruelty, excess, debauchery, trust, betrayal, financial crime, capital cities and a solitary police officer, prepared to listen to her ludicrous account - she provided him with the storyline - all he needed to do was craft it.
What of course makes the story credible is that it is 100% accurate and 90% true - with many of the main subjects still very much alive and in a few notable cases still working within law enforcement, there was a need for a cloak of anonymity. Therefore, technically whilst the characters are fictitious, they are based upon influential people in the life of the author.
Their involvement is with their enthusiastic permission. They know who they are and the author is eternally grateful for allowing him to carve out their personas from a simple endorsement - "Go for it, but make me look good, or at worst interesting.."
Hopefully they grow to love watching their characters unfold during the series as much as the author has enjoyed and endured their developing senses of adventure, arousal and downright dangerous interactions.
After much deliberation the original story became a trilogy - under the banner of The Seventh Wave. The first, Seventh was published in 2017, the second Seven Degrees in 2018 and the final installment Seven of Swords in 2019.
In 2020 the trilogy ended and yet there was a lot more to come - the new standalone Cade novel The Angel of Whitehall was released by Lewis's new and exciting publisher Hobeck Books and quickly grabbed the attention of readers across the world for its timeliness and handling of a genuinely modern form of slavery - people trafficking.
Another new standalone Jack Cade novel The Chemist was released in February 2022...originally viewed as a novella it has been decided by publisher and author alike to be too good to ignore as a new and compelling novel, bringing an old foe back for one last adventure...
Hastings' critics, his wife, children, friends, colleagues, complete strangers, people paid to agree and the army of brilliant book bloggers who tirelessly proof read and offer an unbiased but naturally agreeable opinion all love the Jack Cade novels.
Some even going as far to say it is the best crime series they have ever read.