Neil Doloughan was born and spent his formative years in N.Ireland during ‘The Troubles’. He was further educated at university in Manchester, which is where he met his now wife, also from N.Ireland. A career in the police beckoned but so did the bright lights of London so The Metropolitan Police was where he learned his craft but a feeling of wanting to make a difference drew him back to a still troubled N.Ireland and to The R.U.C./P.S.N.I.

A career in CID seemed to be the way forward and murder investigation in particular became his remit but a more business-orientated life was also calling and after 12 years in policing, Neil moved to Lincoln, England and set up a furniture retail business which proved successful from the outset.

It was during this period over the next 10 years that Fornalutx came into the picture. A holiday to Mallorca rekindled Neil’s love of Fornalutx having visited as a teenager and a holiday home was purchased. Holidays over 7 years gave way to a stronger urge to live permanently in the idyllic mountain village with his wife and two sons then aged 6 and 14 years. The business was sold and another house was purchased to live in and renovate.

An idea for a book came to light after a meeting with a man in the placa in Fornalutx who had moved to the village permanently. He was ‘a fish out of water’ and Neil’s gut told him not all was as it seemed. True enough the man proved to be a criminal but from this the plot for a novel grew and so ‘Under a Mallorcan Sky’ was born. The book is semi-autobiographical, indeed the main protagonist is called James Gordon, Neil’s middle names. It draws on his experience as a detective in the police and on his passion for The Soller Valley.

James Gordon is a former police detective who moves, with his young family, to the idyllic mountain village of Fornalutx in Mallorca for a better way of life. Shortly after meeting a new arrival to the village, he discovers the murdered body of his new misfit acquaintance. This starts a sequence of events which makes James and his family the targets of South London's underworld. Gritty, fast-paced and interspersed with a sprinkling of what makes 'The Valley of the Oranges' such a special place, 'Under a Mallorcan Sky' is the debut novel of former police detective Neil Doloughan

James Gordon and his young family had moved to their 'Garden of Eden', that was the idyllic mountain village of Fornalutx in Mallorca, only for the former police detective to inadvertently become embroiled in a murder investigation, which had far reaching consequences for his whole family.

Now, with his nemesis, Danny Kusemi, on remand in Palma prison, awaiting trial for murder, some vestige of normality was returning to his new life abroad and both he and his wife, Charlotte could concentrate on their new business venture. However, on the opening night of his new boutique hotel, James soon realises that the previous incident is far from over and with the Russian mafia now involved, he is once again, in mortal danger.

It has been over three years since ex-Police Detective, James Gordon and his family moved to the beautiful mountain village of Fornalutx in Mallorca, for a better way of life and to open a small boutique hotel.

His arrival had been a baptism of fire, becoming caught up in a criminal feud which resulted in two attempts on his life. With that now all behind him, James’ life in rural Mallorca is idyllic, until a chance encounter with a ‘drugs mule’ sets in motion a sequence of events that will have life-threatening consequences for James once more.