Tabloid reporter Jamie Parkes makes up stories, secretly listens to voicemail and uses material from the bins of celebrities and MPs. But after one of his major stories is spiked by scheming editor Warren Fitton, he turns whistleblower to uncover phone hacking and corruption on his newspaper. His whistleblower status turns into an epic battle for survival as the state, police and media hunt him down. Once a seasoned reporter, but now a wanted man, Jamie Parkes becomes the scapegoat for discrediting the tabloid empire.
Wacko Hacko is a political thriller inspired by the phone hacking saga. This authentic thriller will appeal to readers interested in current affairs, journalism and our obsession with celebrity, particularly the recently explosive Leveson Inquiry. Praised for its dark narrative and disturbingly convincing characters, Wacko Hacko is set in the pre-smartphone era, exploring pressing issues in the tabloid world including the rise of celebrity, the treatment of women and the love-hate relationship with the police.
About the author – Nasser Hashmi
Nasser Hashmi is a novelist who has worked in newsrooms for 16 years and is currently part-time sub-editor on a national, while also looking after his children, doing the school run and working on his latest novel.
His north-west England roots influenced most of his early work such as ‘Season of Sid’ and ‘A Fistful of Dust’ but he has recently branched out to tackle more challenging, global issues such as phone hacking (Wacko Hacko) and the Salman Rushdie affair (In a Rushdie Winter). Wacko Hacko is due out in July 2014 and In A Rushdie Winter will be published next year.
At school, Nasser failed all his exams. This may have been because he had epilepsy from the age of 12 and had undiagnosed coeliac disease from pre-age school. Both these diseases are now under control.
But it also may have also been because he wasn’t very academic. Some writers are; some aren’t. Some are daydreamers. Some bang their head against desks because they’ve had a seizure. The only requirement for a novelist is a hazy image and a junkie-like thirst for sentences. Also keeping DVD on loop is handy: Determination, Vision, Determination, Vision, Determination…you get the picture.
After school, Nasser drifted into jobs in restaurants, factories and motor insurance companies before trying to get back into higher education as a mature student. He somehow got a degree and then broke into local journalism, eventually getting a sports sub-editing job on the Sunday Mirror. Along with his novels and sub-editing, he also enjoys writing on his arts blog at nasseronmars.com which has articles on the likes of Sylvia Plath, Ian Curtis and Werner Herzog’.
Leave a Reply