The new Tom Morton book is now out:

A Serpent in Paradise is now available on Amazon for Kindle.

This book is a slight change of direction, but still features Tom Morton. The Operation Jigsaw trilogy was a crime/thriller hybrid. This is more of a traditional crime novel.

Tom gets a new work partner — may I introduce you to DC Elaine Fraser. You can read all about the book by Clicking Here.

The second draft of A Serpent in Paradise has been given the seal of approval by Anne. It can now go out for editing…

When people say “Truth is stranger than fiction” what they really mean is “No writer would expect people to believe that!”

I’ve just watched the first episode of ITV’s Real Housewives of Cheshire, so that I can see whether my book is somewhere in the same stadium as the real world. It is.

In fact, it’s quite conservative. One of the main characters has a house that’s much larger than any of those in my book! I can relax and concentrate on getting it finished.

The next book is nearly ready – and the title has been fixed as A Serpent in Paradise. You’ll know why when you read it.

The book is set in an exclusive gated community in Cheshire, populated by footballers, WAGs and other multi-millionaires.

Then what do I see? ITV are screening a programme called Real Housewives of Cheshire. Guess what — it features WAGs, footballers and other multi-millionaires. I shall have to  tune in and see whether the reality matches up to my fictional creation!

Work is proceeding apace on the new book. Originally it was going to be titled Exclusive to Death, and featured counterfeit handbags.

This involved a lot of research into designer handbags – that’s several days of my life that I won’t get back, but it was worth it. Unfortunately, the fake bags were a McGuffin – a way into the story for my main characters. They were not the main plot element. After writing nearly 30,000 words, I realised that the murder was taking far too long – and the reader would care far too much about the handbags and not enough about the victim.

I’ve never done this before, but I stopped, stripped out around 12,000 words and re-wrote the book. It will be better for it.

It gives me great pleasure to say that all three volumes of Operation Jigsaw are now available on Amazon for Kindle.

There are plenty of links above for you to find them.

If nothing else, I’ve got the topic for the next book.

It won’t be set in Whitby because I did some preparatory work on the plot and realised that it was too similar to Operation Jigsaw. Hmm.

Anne said that I should set it in a completely different environment – and so I chose Cheshire – land of rolling hills and rolling-in-it WAGs.

Expect handbags to feature strongly.

I’ve had the final proofread back. Soon…

I received Volume II back from the proofreader and although there were fewer changes, this is going to take a while…

The purpose of this blog is not to bore people with my private life, but we’re in the middle of having an extension built at the moment. A big extension.

When your builders are cutting into the wall of the room where you’re trying to work using a Stihl saw, it’s kind of hard to concentrate.

After the excitement of the trip to Whitby, it’s very much back to the grind of editing, formatting and preparation for publication.

After the shock of receiving Volume I back from the proofreader, I did a substantial amount of editing on the next two books before submitting them.

I hope that this will mean fewer changes next time!

Now that I’m in the middle of preparing my books for publication, there’s no better time to get inspiration for my next two – and that was an excellent excuse to visit one of my old haunts on the east coast: Whitby.

When we lived in Middlesbrough, I used to love going there for the day. If you’ve never been, I can thoroughly recommend it – provided you pick your moment. On a sunny summer’s day, the queues go all the way back to Guisborough.

For its size, Whitby offers more atmosphere than any other town in England, I reckon. This is a fairly typical view (click to enlarge):

As you can see, the town is dominated by the ruins of the Abbey and almost all of the buildings in the centre are worth looking at.

It does also boast England’s best fish & chip shop (2014 winner: The Quayside) and many, many excellent pubs.

It’s going to be a while before the next two books come out (I have to write them first …) but I’ve already chosen the titles:

For the next Tom Morton book: Port in a Storm.

For the first Casebook of Dr Conrad Clarke: The Thirteenth Witch.