AN EAST Lancashire-born author looks set to become one of the new stars on the British crime fiction scene -- with the first print of his debut novel selling out within five weeks.

Rights to the book 'Black Dog' have been sold worldwide and Burnley-born journalist Stephen Booth, 48, is currently receiving phone calls from TV companies and Hollywood film producers.

Stephen, who now lives with his wife Lesley in Retford, Nottinghamshire, saw the book released this summer and is being hailed as the successor to crime writers Minette Walters and Barbara Vine.

'Black Dog' is the first in a series set in the Peak District, featuring young Derbyshire police detectives Ben Cooper and Diane Fry, and a second book is due out next year.

He said: "The last 12 months or so have been pretty amazing for me. A year ago I was an aspiring novelist like thousands of others and now everything has suddenly taken off. My life has changed completely.

"The most exciting thing is when the enquiries started coming for television rights and when my agent took the first phone calls from Hollywood.

"That was unbelievable. It's like living a dream."

'Black Dog' has already been nominated for the John Creasey Dagger for the best first crime novel of the year and Stephen attributes some of its success to his fascination with the Pennines. He said: "Although I have lived and worked in several places during my newspaper career, I have always tended to come back to the Pennines whenever possible -- although at one stage this did involve having to live in Yorkshire."

He still has family in Burnley and continues to follow the fortunes of Burnley Football Club -- thanks to childhood memories of being taken to Turf Moor many times by his grandfather during the 1960s. Currently deputy editor of a group of local newspapers in Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire, Stephen was interviewed early in his career for a job as a reporter at the Burnley Express but was turned down.

He trained as a teacher in Manchester before deciding to embark on a career as a newspaper journalist 25 years ago, including shifts as a sub-editor on the Daily Express in Manchester.

'Black Dog' is published by HarperCollins, priced £9.99. Stephen will be appearing at the Dead on Deansgate crime writing convention organised by Waterstone's bookshop at the Renaissance Hotel, Manchester, at the end of October.