Patrick G McLean

I have been writing short stories before I was ten, but my stories have been in comic book forms upon till the early 1990s. In my modest teenage years, I loved reading comic books and was also an avid reader of the comic strips in the newspapers. Dick Tracy, Mandrake the Magician, and the Phantom were my earliest inspirations. Weapons were used in the stories but as a deterrent without anyone getting killed, so there wasn’t a sense of violence in the presentations. My earliest comic books in 1963 were about two masked, costumed crime fighters called ‘The Tweet Gang’. Later in 1966, I birthed Lex Payne, an undercover special agent, and in 1968, Duke Elliot who became Lex’s partner was birthed. Fourteen comic books in this series were written and shared mainly with friends. Comic book #10 in the series was published in The Star newspaper in Jamaica between 1989 and 1990.

‘Find a Way’ was the first novel I attempted in 1984 through 1985. FIX, a television drama by the Creative Production and Training Centre Ltd in Jamaica was made out of this story in 1987. FIX, which centers on the dangers of drug abuse, was first aired on the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation (JBC) television on November 26, 1988, during Drug Awareness Week and has been aired on television several times since then. The book ‘Find a Way’ was first published in 2014.

From Y2K, I began converting all my Lex Payne and Duke Elliot comic books to action-packed novelettes and novellas. The Jamaican dialect is smartly used in the majority of my books to reflect the Caribbean reality.

In 2010, my first publication with CreateSpace featured ‘Andrew the Fisher of Men’, a religious book. Since then, more inspirational books have been published as well as a new mystery series, e-ELectricus. On Amazon.com, you will find the soft-cover and the digital versions of all my books.

I have grown and matured somewhat as an author, appreciating there is a huge difference between doing a comic book and doing a novel. Thanks to family and friends who have encouraged me over the years. I’ll remain modest and humble in what I do as an author.

Having retired in 2013 from being a TV and radio studio engineer and doing other electronics repair work, like TV repairs, I can now be considered a full-time writer. My mystery books are flavored to entertain ... so, they can be referred to as 'Reggae Books'.