Hackney photographer’s shot of River Lea used for front cover of Amazon top-100 thriller

An author tracked down a mysterious night time shot of the River Lea using Google, and liked it so much she asked to use it on the front of her top-selling crime thriller.

Casey Kelleher asked professional photographer Kriss Lee to use his image on the cover of her third novel, Heartless, which is set around the Hackney Marshes and even features a chapter about the Hackney Gazette.

The book went straight into the top 100 thrillers on online store Amazon, at number 18.

“The sky is reflected in the river, that’s what caught her eye, the street lights are starred and starred in the river,” said Mr Lee who took the shot at 9pm in the dark a couple of years ago, facing north towards the Lea Bridge.

“I absolutely loved the picture, the River Lea is beautiful.

“I love the fact you can walk up and down the river and it’s fabulous,” added Mr Lee who lives very close by in Lea Bridge Road.

“Every day there are thousands of commuters going up and down that road, and have no idea what’s metres away from them.

“I absolutely love where I live, I really really do, every year I bring out a calendar called “Hackney is a paradise”, very often people see it and say, “That’s very nice,” and ask where it is, I say Hackney and they say, “There are no burning cars.””