Steve Bruce finally solves the mystery of everyone’s favourite Steve Bruce story

Steve Bruce has finally had his say on his brief stint as a novelist.

The Aston Villa manager's trio of detective tales have gained a cult following recently, thanks largely to the reviews of the novels - Striker, Sweeper, and Defender - by Seamas O'Reilly for The Set Pieces. The novels follow the exploits of Steve Barnes, amateur detective and manager of the fictional Leddersford Town football club. Bruce wrote the books while manager of Huddersfield Town in the late 1990s, and some sleuths reckon that's where he got the inspiration for the team's name. How he settled on "Steve Barnes" as the name of the story's protagonist is anyone's guess. https://twitter.com/thesetpieces/status/783047678037004288 Bruce rarely speaks about his past as a novelist. So, when his son Alex Bruce said last week on BBC 5 Live that the novels were, in fact, not the work of his father, but were penned by the ghost of Ernest Hemingway an unnamed author who approached the former Manchester United captain, fans were crestfallen. https://twitter.com/SportsJOE_UK/status/789670111640711168 "I think he was manager of Huddersfield at the time. And someone approached him and said 'I wrote these books, can we put your name to it?'" Alex Bruce said.

"But no, he can't take credit for writing anything."

The Hull City defender tweeted the following morning, backtracking on his claims. https://twitter.com/AlexBruce84/status/789748190606155776?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw So, naturally, we didn't know what to believe. However, as usual, Steve Barnes Bruce is here to solve this mystery. The Villa manager, speaking ahead of Sunday's game against Birmingham City, has revealed to Sky Sports that he did, in fact, write the books. "They were 10 or 15 years ago, they are genuine," Bruce said When asked if fans should expect another instalment in the series, Bruce replied

"No, have you read them? Go and read them and you'll understand why."

He also seemed surprised that the books are so expensive (Striker is selling for £250 on eBay).

"Are they really? Wow. That's because there were not many published. I think my son went out on Radio 5 and he didn't know anything about it. It was a long, long time ago and there'll be no more. I assure you."