Over The Line

"With each passing month, the themes in Over The Line become more relevant." - Sean Ingle, The Guardian. Published in February 2015, Over The Line anticipated the doping crisis in sport and exposed the over-lapping epidemic of steroid abuse for appearance-enhancing body-building. A gritty and poignant thriller, it’s a story of suspicion, denial and betrayal set in and around the drug scene in a south Wales gym. It’s the eve of Rio, and Britain’s Olympic poster girl, Megan Tomos, seems destined for a gold medal. But detectives investigating the steroid-fuelled death of her childhood friend, Matt, have other priorities and want to find out what she knows. In panic and riddled with angst, Megan disappears, only to resurface arm-in-arm with Will, an old boyfriend who was banned from rugby after failing a drugs test. Her coach, Liam, is dumbfounded and doesn't know what to think. He wants to trust her but has to wrestle with his doubts under growing pressure from the police and media. As layers of Megan’s past are peeled away, she has to face up to some big mistakes - but the biggest of them is a surprise even to her. Dozens of reader reviews/ratings of the book can be found on Good Reads as well as Amazon. ‘The heroine of British athletics, tainted by doping and death. Couldn't happen? Read Over The Line and decide. Absorbing.’ - Michael Calvin, Independent on Sunday. 'What a great read.' - Katharine Merry, Olympic bronze medallist, Sydney 2000. ‘This is not just a book sports fans, it weaves some links to other interesting themes. Read it in one sitting on the flight to Rio. Excellent.’ - Ian Gordon, sports writer. 'Over the Line is a good old-fashioned story, with characters you will care about and a plot that will keep you turning pages until the very end' - Dylan Moore, writer and critic. 'The author set out to make a statement with this novel and has done so successfully.' - Buzz Magazine 'A gripping tale from a masterful storyteller' – Jamie Owen, broadcaster and author.

About the Author Steve Howell's debut novel, Over The Line, has won wide praise for its portrayal of a young woman haunted by the steroid-linked death of a childhood friend and troubled by her own reaction to it. Drawing from his experience as a journalist, he has set the novel in south Wales and constructed a plot that's rooted in the reality of an epidemic of steroid abuse for both appearance-enhancing bodybuilding and sport. Steve was born on Merseyside and brought up in north London. He studied at the University of Sheffield before moving to Wales where he has worked for the South Wales Argus and BBC Wales. He and his wife brought up three children in Newport and now live in Cardiff. In recent years, he has turned his attention to fiction, producing short stories as well as writing Over The Line. He is now working on another novel. For more about Steve and his writing, visit www.steve-howell.com and follow him on Twitter @fromstevehowell