A rugby league crime thriller series has been nominated for a Crime Writers Association Dagger Award.
The series, written by Chris Berry, follows the character Greg Duggan, who has been compared to Jack Reacher, James Bond, and John McClane from Die Hard.
The fourth book in the series, Tough Season: The French Connection, was released at the start of the 2025 season.
The series has been praised for its action, suspense, and plot twists.
Mr Berry said: “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.”
“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.”
(Image: Supplied) The series began in 2019 with Tough Season, when Greg was playing for a struggling team in the bottom tier of the professional game.
He has since played in Lanzarote in Tough Season In The Sun (2020) and in Australia and the South Pacific in Tough World (2021).
Mr Berry said: “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.”
Mr Berry said he has had readers saying that Greg Duggan would make a great Netflix series or even a feature film, but that he’s yet to receive news of the books being optioned.
He said: “There have only ever been two general release feature films set around rugby league.
“Those were the excellent, gritty This Sporting Life released in 1963 based on David Storey’s superb novel, which saw 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 the size.
“I had a meeting with someone from one of the major northern funding bodies for television and film recently, so you never know.”
Mr Berry said he chose a rugby league player as the central character for the Tough series because the sport has always been one he has loved and it still doesn’t get the recognition it deserves.
He said: “I have lived in the north of England all my life, my publisher Great Northern Books is based near Warrington.
“I was born and grew up in Hull in East Yorkshire.
“Rovers (Hull KR) are my team and we have been riding high recently just like Warrington, but it’s a new season and, just like it is in Greg’s world, the games are always tough.”
Mr Berry said he has started work on the fifth book in the series, Tough Return.
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