1 week Ago By [email protected] (Deborah Hall)
A Hull-born author whose unique crime thriller books are set in the world of rugby league has released the fourth novel in the series to coincide with the start of the 2025 season. Chris Berry, who is also a singer-songwriter, created the character of Greg Duggan for his Tough Season series. Having been compared to Jack Reacher, James Bond and John McClane (Die Hard), Duggan features again in Tough Season The French Connection.
“Murders, mayhem and mystery mean that Greg’s life is constantly in danger while he tries to juggle his on-field career and his always-complicated love life,” said Chris, who grew up in east Hull, went to Cavendish, Saltshouse and Malet Lambert Schools, and has supported Hull KR all his life. “Greg is a flawed hero. His wife has left him.
He wants to see more of his young son, Kyle, and his girlfriend Susie, and he wants to get fit again, this time to play for a new Super League club in south-west France, but the deaths of prominent people in Aerospace Valley and a mysterious woman called Fortune make achieving any of these anything but simple.” Chris started the series with Tough Season in 2019, when Greg was playing for a down-on-their-luck team in the bottom tier of the professional game. The character has subsequently played in Lanzarote in Tough Season In The Sun (2020) and in Australia and the South Pacific in Tough World (2021).
Keep up to date with all the latest breaking news and top stories from Hull with our free newsletter “Every book sees Greg in tough situations. He’s a great player, but he’s not a detective and somehow has to fight his way out of, well, I’d better not tell you, because that would spoil things. Let’s just say that’s where some readers have talked of Greg as the Jack Reacher of the sports world.
” The thrillers have received acclaim with a nomination in the Crime Writers Association’s Dagger Awards and rave reviews from readers who enjoy the sport and crime thrillers and murder mysteries. “If you like rugby league and enjoy reading thrillers with loads going on, you’ll love Tough Season The French Connection and the others,” said Chris. “I get so many reviews where readers, including quite a few Rovers and Hull FC fans, say you don’t have to be into the sport to love them, which is how I’d hoped it would be.
I have set all of the books in places that I know well. “In Tough Season, Greg is playing for a club that could easily be seen as a rugby league club going through tough times, as Rovers were a few years back. I’ve holidayed a lot in the Canary Islands and the idea for Tough Season In The Sun came from staying in Playa Blanca.
“The locations for Tough World include Byron Bay where my eldest son lives and the island of Efate, part of Vanuatu, halfway between Australia and Fiji where we have stayed while visiting him. Tough Season The French Connection is set in Pau and the Pyrenees. “My wife and I have good friends who live in the countryside there and I’ve used their location, in a wine producing area called Madiran.
” Chris said he has had readers who claim Greg Duggan would make a great Netflix series or even a feature film, but that he has yet to receive news of the books being optioned. “There have only ever been two feature films set around rugby league,” he said. “Those were the excellent, gritty This Sporting Life released in 1963 based on David Storey’s superb novel, with Richard Harris in the lead role and Rachel Roberts nominated for an Oscar; and the fabulous, funny Up ‘n’ Under by John Godber, which did very well at the box office in 1998.
It would be great to see Greg brought to the screen, whatever size. “I had a meeting with someone from one of the major northern funding bodies for television and film recently. You never know.
“I chose a rugby league player as the central character for the Tough series because the sport has always been one I have loved and it still doesn’t get the recognition it deserves. Rovers have always been my team. “It’s great to see how the boys are doing and how the club is moving forward thanks to Neil (Hudgell) and now Willie (Peters).
I’ve started work on the fifth book in the series Tough Return, which is set to be just as explosive as the rest.” Chris’s career as a writer includes 20 books, with autobiographies of Hull-born Joe Longthorne and Tony Christie; Coronation Street’s Bruce Jones aka Les Battersby; and children’s book series Milkman Mike, among them. Tough Season The French Connection and the rest of the series can all be read as standalone books.
They are published by Great Northern Books and available on Amazon, all good bookshops or the publishers. Don't miss a thing. Get all the latest breaking news in Hull straight to your mobile via WhatsApp by clicking here .
If you don’t like our community, you can leave any time. We also treat members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. Read our privacy notice here.
.
