From comic book to full-blown international thriller, this Jamshed Khan reboot is a story that’s been 30 years in the making
A relentless chase. A deadly secret. No way out. That’s the promise at the heart of Silent Ruin, my brand-new international spy thriller and the first in a new series featuring Jamshed Khan. This is a character I originally created over three decades ago, now reborn into a far more grown-up, high-stakes world of espionage, danger, and consequence.
Set in 1996, this is a story that moves from the heat and chaos of Karachi to the cold, indifferent streets of London, where a routine mission spirals into something far more dangerous when a powerful piece of classified technology falls into the wrong hands, and a flamboyant, unpredictable arms dealer decides to use it to reshape the balance of power itself.
What follows is a fast-paced, cinematic pursuit through shadow networks, shifting loyalties, and moments where every decision carries weight, because in this world there are no easy choices, no clear allies, and no guarantees of survival.
If you enjoy thrillers that pull you in quickly and refuse to let go, blending action with character, tension with emotion, and spectacle with substance, then this is very much written with you in mind.
It’s a story about trust and betrayal, about identity and purpose, and, at its core, about a man forced to navigate a situation that keeps slipping further out of his control, especially when an unexpected connection begins to complicate everything he thought he understood about the mission.
How to get your copy!
👉 Silent Ruin – A Jamshed Khan Thriller is available now on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited:
https://amzn.eu/d/0eJ6shln
👉 And if you’d like to see where it all began, you can download the original 1996 comic Let’s Jam! completely free here: https://bcguy.kit.com/jamshedkhan
Because this isn’t just a new book. It’s the beginning of something much bigger. And the truth is… it’s been a long time coming.
Where it all started
As soon as I learned to read, I devoured everything I could find, from Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton to Agatha Christie and the boundless imagination of Arthur C Clarke and Douglas Adams, but alongside novels there was always another obsession running in parallel, comic books!
Graphic storytelling, bold characters and bigger-than-life ideas, whether it was Superman, Batman and Spider-Man, or the irreverence of Mad Magazine and the distinctly British charm of The Beano and Look-In Magazine. Those early influences didn’t just entertain me, they shaped the way I thought about stories, about pacing, about character, and inevitably, about creating something of my own.
There was just one small problem. I couldn’t draw. So instead, I wrote.
Small Press Comics
In the mid 1990s, parallel to my career in journalism, I threw myself into the comic book scene, learning scriptwriting, collaborating with artists to produce short comics and even a Small Press Comic book.
And that involved bringing to life a character called Jamshed Khan, who at that stage was very much a playful take on the spy genre, part tribute, part tongue-in-cheek commentary, inspired by a certain British agent with a licence to kill, but seen through a different cultural lens.
The result was a small self-published comic called Let’s Jam! I say self-published, but really it was just churned out on the office photocopier after hours, and stapled together myself!
I took it to a small press comic convention and sold a few dozen copies. A modest effort by any standard, but one that meant everything at the time, especially when it earned a very positive unsolicited actual review by a Rik Hoskin, who described the character as an “Asian James Bond” and, more importantly, recognised that there was something in the idea itself worth exploring further.
But then, as tends to happen, life moved on.
Shelving the Scriptwriting
The day job took over, priorities shifted, and that early creative ambition quietly slipped into the background, filed away somewhere between “one day” and “maybe not”, with Jamshed Khan going with it. Or at least, that’s how it seemed.
Because in reality, he never really disappeared. He lingered in the back of my mind, resurfacing from time to time in half-formed ideas and unfinished storylines, a character with potential that I hadn’t quite been able to realise at the time.
It was only after finally self-publishing my debut novel, The ULEZ Files, followed by Quantum Races (a collection of my short stories) and a non-fiction book on automotive content creation, that I found myself looking back properly, not out of nostalgia, but out of curiosity.
When it came to Jamshed Khan, there was clearly unfinished business. A voice that hadn’t quite found its full expression. A story that deserved another shot, this time with more experience, more perspective, and a clearer understanding of what I wanted to do with the character.
Jamshed Khan Rebooted
So I brought him back.
Not as a spoof or a parody this time, but as a fully-formed character. Something more grounded, more mature, and, I hope, more compelling.
Silent Ruin takes the core DNA of that original comic and builds on it in every possible way, retaining the setting of 1996 but expanding the scope into a fully realised international thriller, complete with layered characters, moral complexity, and a narrative that balances action with emotional stakes.
This is very much a reboot, but also a continuation in spirit, the beginning of a series that will follow Jamshed Khan across different stages of his life, allowing him to grow, evolve, and face increasingly complex challenges, ultimately leading into a present-day storyline that brings everything full circle.
Because this time, I don’t plan on leaving him behind. And I’m already plotting and researching book 2, Shattered Faith.
Some ideas take time. Some characters need space to grow. And some stories… perhaps they just need the right moment to be told. And I feel this is that moment. I hope you feel the same when you read Silent Ruin.
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