I’m welcoming The Vision Board by Siobhan Murphy to the blog #romance #blogtour @rararesources @rachelsrandomresources
Here’s the blurb
Two best friends. Two one-way tickets. And a future that might just surprise them. Bex and Amy are best friends and total opposites. Bex is cynical, Amy is romantic. Bex is chaotic, Amy is organised. With the prospect of turning 34 just around the corner, neither is where they expected to be at this point in their lives. Bex is exploring her sexuality and has a string of failed relationships, while Amy is newly single and desperate to fall in love. Armed with a photographic vision board of the future, Bex and Amy put their trust in ‘The Universe’ and fly from London to Bali, then on to Australia in search of adventure, cocktails on the beach and maybe even love. Almost immediately, Amy finds someone who is the perfect fit for her dream life. While Bex is stuck playing double dates with his best friend, the most pompous man she has ever met, but also one of the hottest. Travelling via white sand beaches, lush rainforests and road trips through idyllic scenery, the images on their vision board begin to transform into reality. However, people are not always what they seem, and first impressions are not always accurate. Add in a queer, charismatic love interest and a vindictive ex-girlfriend, and the path of true love begins to get a little more complex. When ‘The Universe’ has its own agenda, is it possible to manifest a happy ever after? An Enemies to Lovers destination romance with a sprinkling of Pride and Prejudice vibes.
Siobhan Murphy is a writer and photographer based in the UK. She writes (and reads) both light-hearted romantic comedies and contemporary women’s fiction/Bookclub fiction.
Her writing hours are sponsored by Earl Grey tea, chocolate bars several glasses of wine. When she is not writing, reading, or working in her photography day job, her hobbies are eating haribo sweets, talking nonsense and walking into rooms wondering why she is there.
She loves to travel, laugh at the absurdity of life, and enjoy a glass of wine with good friends. She loves a good TV binge session, especially shows like Grey’s Anatomy, Virgin River, Emily in Paris, or This is Us. She can be an emotional wreck who often runs out of tissues and when she was a child, her dad had to constantly reassure her that programmes on the TV weren’t real. The upside of this is that she can legitimately class her habit of binge-watching RomCom films as ‘research.’
Siobhan loves to escape into books and live in other worlds. Like most writers, she has been an avid reader from the second she hurtled into the world (well perhaps a little bit after that). Over the years she’s drifted around the world in search of adventure, hoping to figure out what to do with her life. She is not sure if she has the answer yet but writing certainly comes close. Though she suspects her long-suffering family, and her liver might not agree.
She’s impulsive and easily bored, so she’s turned her hand to many jobs over the years. She’s worked in places as diverse as the High Commission in Nairobi; a market stall selling cheese in the UK and an 80ft racing yacht in Australia. Been a secondary school English teacher and a Barista with no discernible talent for making coffee. She’s done admin work for a number of businesses but discovered that offices aren’t really for her. Her favourite job was as a bookseller for Waterstones, she loved recommending books to customers and applying those 3 for 2 stickers that people find so hard to remove. For the last 19 years she’s been a professional photographer, taking portraits of humans – often the really, really small ones.
I’m delighted to share my review for Mrs Hudson and the Spirits’ Curse by Martin Davies, an intriguing Holmes-esque mystery #bookreview #mystery #HistoricalFiction
Here’s the blurb
An evil stalks London, blown in from the tropics. Stories of cursed giant rats and malign spirits haunt the garrets of the East London neighborhood of Limehouse. A group of merchants are dying one by one. The elementary choice to investigate these mysterious deaths is, of course, the team of Holmes and Dr. Watson. But the unique gifts of their housekeeper, Mrs. Hudson, and her orphaned assistant Flotsam, will also be needed to solve the case. Can she do it all under the nose of Sherlock himself?
Mrs Hudson and the Spirits’ Curse is an intriguing Holmes-esque tale where Sherlock Holmes is perhaps not the sharp observer of human nature we might expect, because that role goes to Mrs Hudson, his shadowy but exceedingly well-connected housekeeper. She has Flottie as her assistant, and Flottie has her own story running concurrently with the mystery brought to Holmes’ door.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It has a very Sherlock Holmes mystery to solve, and no end of obfuscation to contend with, while adding an ever greater element of grimy, Victorian London, and its denizens, to the mix through Mrs Hudson’s many connections with the mighty and the lowly..
That said, I did feel as though the resolution to all the mysteries were a little too elongated, although the final chapter, with Dr Watson bringing his accounting of the case to Mrs Hudson for her thoughts, did have me smiling once more.
A fine mystery, very Holmes-esque but with another side to it, that of Mrs Hudson.
Meet the author
Martin Davies is a writer and media consultant based in the UK.
He is the author of nine novels, including international bestseller ‘The Conjuror’s Bird’ which was a Richard and Judy Book Club selection, and which sold over 100,000 copies in the UK alone. ‘The Unicorn Road’ was chosen as one of The Times/WHSmith top paperbacks of the year, and ‘Havana Sleeping’ was shortlisted for an Historical Dagger award by the Crime Writers’ Association. Martin is also the author of a series of mystery stories about Sherlock Holmes’ housekeeper.
Martin Davies has travelled widely, including in the Middle East and India; substantial parts of ‘The Unicorn Road’ were written while travelling through Sicily, and his plan for ‘The Conjuror’s Bird’ was put together on a trekking holiday in Greenland.
When circumstances allow, he chooses to write in cafes or coffee shops, and often works in longhand on first drafts.
Martin Davies’ books have been translated into ten languages.
I’m delighted to share my review for Adam Lofthouse’s Wolf and The Crown, which is released today #historicalfiction #bookreview #RomanEra #WallOfHadrian
Here’s the blurb
Wall of Hadrian. Britannia, 382 AD. War is creeping back into the land. As silent as snowfall, as inevitable as winter. They’ve had sixteen years of peace, but all things must end.
Tribune Sixtus Victorinus has grown old, complacent. Blind to the truth that stares him in the face, he contents himself with what he has. He runs errands for the Dux Britanniarum Flavius Maximus and watches with joy as his boys grow to become men.
It is his friend, Prefect Gaius Felicius, who first spots the signs. Once more, the Caledonian tribes are rearing their heads in the north, but the greatest danger does not lie with them.
For there is a new pretender to the throne of the West. Another man who seeks to drape himself in purple. Caught up in a scheme they cannot comprehend, Victorinus and Felicius must navigate their way through both a war in the depths of winter, and a treasonous plot that will shake the Roman Empire to its core.
A new age dawns on the men of Britannia. For Victorinus, he must fight for the right to see the sun rise over it.
I’ve just been checking my review for book 1 in this series, and I see I also gave it five stars. Adam is a lucky author because I’m always told that I don’t often hand out a 5-star review. (Check out my review for Eagle and the Flame).
And he’ll be pleased to know he’s done it again with Wolf and the Crown.
I will say that this era – the coming end of Roman Britain fascinates me. Adam’s recreation of it speaks to me. We know what’s coming. The people in these books do not, although perhaps they suspect it.
Wolf and the Crown continues the story from Eagle and the Flame, but we move forward 16 years. Our two main characters remain Tribune Sixtus Victorinus and Felicius. Felicius is still a career Roman. Sixtus is not. They are both older, perhaps wiser, and contending with the results of their decisions as younger men.
Sixtus has finally given up the drink, but he is beset with heartache at the breakdown of his marriage and the long-ago death of his small son, which he missed because he was away fighting. Sixtus is a man trying to do his best in a world where the Roman influence of his younger days seems to have bled away. He’s still a friend and ally of Theodosius, the younger emperor, and indeed, they remain in contact via letter – a fabulous device ensuring the reader knows what’s happening beyond the shores of Britannia.
With all that said, this is an action-packed novel. There is barely a chapter that goes by without one fight or another. As we travel from Londinium to many locations on the Wall and even further north, Sixtus gets an absolute beating. Drost makes a welcome reappearance, and conspiracies abound. The set-up for book 3 in this trilogy is impeccably well-paced – I didn’t know how the book would end – although I had some suspicions. It didn’t do what I thought it would, and now I can’t wait for the concluding volume in the trilogy.
It is a fabulous Roman-era action and adventure story that rings with conviction and conspiracy, which readers of the genre will devour.
Meet the author
Adam has for many years held a passion for the ancient world. As a teenager he picked up Gates of Rome by Conn Iggulden, and has been obsessed with all things Rome ever since.
After ten years of immersing himself in stories of the Roman world, he decided to have a go at writing one for himself, and hasn’t stopped since. Check out the books on the website, or follow Adam on Social Media for regular updates.
Follow Adam on Twitter: @AdamPLofthouse Find him on Facebook: facebook.com/AdamPLofthouse Instagram: adamplofthouse
I’m delighted to welcome Francesca Capaldi and her new book, Celebrations at the Beach Hotel to the blog. Francesca is introducing us to the characters #blogtour #histfic #saga
Meet the Characters from Celebrations at the Beach Hotel
Annie and Alice Twine are sisters who work in the scullery at the Beach Hotel. They appeared in the first five novels about the place, but now, with the sixth book, they’ve landed a starring role each. They are twenty-three and twenty-two years old when Celebrations at the Beach Hotel begins.
As scullery maids, their jobs would have included washing up glassware, crockery, cutlery and pans, getting rid of waste food (most likely in a pig bin) and keeping the scullery and stillroom clean. They would have boiled hot water for various maids and even plucked and skinned animals, though we never see Annie and Alice do this.
Both of them started work at the hotel at 15, when they left school, so Annie started a year before Alice, and is now head scullery maid, something she is fond of reminding her younger sister about! Annie does have a tendency to glumness, whereas Alice has a happier personality. At least, that’s how it appears on the surface. Their father, Colin, is a farm manager at a farm in Wick, the village where the sisters live. Their three brothers, Cedric, Cecil and Cyril, who all worked as labourers on the farm before the war, have yet to be demobbed. Wick at the time was a village next to Littlehampton with extensive farmland, but it’s now part of the town. (Growing up, my house was a ten-minute walk away from where they supposedly lived.)
The sisters get on well, when Annie isn’t bossing Alice around. Their mother is keen for them to marry, but, as the sisters say, what opportunity do they have with most of the men still away? But when the men do start to return, that’s when romance comes between the two of them.
A lot of the characters from the previous books in the serious, including Edie, Lili, Helen, Hetty and Fanny, are part of the story, as the men who worked at the hotel before the war, and survived, slowly return. These include Lorcan, who Annie holds a torch for, and Jasper, who Alice is very fond of. Lorcan and Jasper both enlisted and joined Kitchener’s 7th Special Service Battalion in 1914, which eventually became part of the 12th (Eastern) Division. Although the war ended in November 1918, they spent another four months on salvage and clear up duties in France, so don’t return to the hotel until March 1919.
Lorcan’s from Ireland, a place he has difficulty visiting after he returns, due to the civil war brewing there. He walked out briefly with stillroom maid Hetty, who is now engaged to another, but Annie suspects that he hasn’t got over her. Jasper is from Bognor Regis and part of a once well-off middle-class family who owned several grocery stores, but has since had a fall in fortunes. The men’s jobs as porters would have included greeting guests at the hotel, carrying luggage and showing them to their rooms, advising on hotel facilities and that of the surrounding area, making travel arrangements, parking guests’ motorcars and running errands for them.
During the course of the story, there are several marriages. These are kicked off by the real wedding of Princess Patricia of Connaught (a granddaughter of Queen Victoria) to The Hon. Alexander Ramsay, incidentally the first royal wedding at Westminster Abbey since the 14th century. The female staff are reading about it in the newspaper and cooing over it as Lorcan and Jasper return from the war. Although Alice enjoys reading about the event, Annie is typically dismissive of the whole thing.
Either way, this event, and the subsequent weddings, don’t make either sister optimistic about their own prospects. Alice believes Jasper’s too high above her in social standing, even though he’s now just a porter. These beliefs only serve to help scupper their chances further, and they end up having a major fall-out with each other as a consequence, which isn’t helped by the appearance of a third man, adding to the romantic mix…
Here’s the blurb
Sisters Alice and Annie have always been close but will a man come between them?
Annie and Alice love their life working at the Beach Hotel together and each is thrilled to have finally found a sweetheart. Yet the path of true love never did run smooth, and they soon find themselves facing conflict and strife. Could love come between them and the bond they share?
Meanwhile, as men start to come home from the war, the women have to work out how to keep their jobs, although they are delighted to be back with their beaus. Soon, wedding bells ring out in Littlehampton.
Will everything be made right in time for Christmas?
Francesca Capaldi has enjoyed writing since she was a child, largely influenced by a Welsh mother who was good at improvised storytelling and an Italian father who loved history. She is the author of historical sagas, short stories and pocket novels.
The first novel in the Beach Hotel series, A New Start at the Beach Hotel, won the Romantic Saga Award at the Romantic Novelists’ Association Awards in 2024. The first novel in the Wartime in the Valleys series, Heartbreak in the Valleys, was shortlisted for the Historical Romantic Award in the RoNAs in 2021.
Francesca was born and brought up on the Sussex coast, went to London to do a history degree, but has lived for many years in Kent with her family and a cat called Lando Calrission.
I’m welcoming Jill Bray, and her historical mystery, A Brotherly Devotion, to the blog with an extract #blogtour #historicalmystery @rararesources @JillBray67
This extract is taken from the start of Chapter 18 after Lord Fitzwarren has been found to be the killer of Brother Clement.
Katherine found it difficult to believe that, in a short space of time, her whole world had changed once again. She had known the facts and the evidence that was put against Lord Fitzwarren, but she hadn’t given much thought as to how it would end. It was only yesterday that she had started to suspect him, and then earlier today, when she had journeyed with her father to speak with Edward; she had known for certain that he was the one who had so viciously murdered Brother Clement.
The banquet in the hall now felt quite surreal. She looked around at the rest of the guests, who had gone back to feasting and drinking at their tables, as though nothing had just happened. Yet, for her, everything had changed once more. Just a couple of days ago, she had been expecting to run away with Alexander in order to avoid marrying Lord Fitzwarren; and, up until yesterday, she had intended to keep to that plan. She had come to terms with having to give up everything; to lose contact with her sister and to disobey her father, in order to be with the man she loved. After sitting back down at the table next to her sister, she felt quite light-headed and reached out to pour herself a goblet of wine. She needed to consider, just what she was going to do next.
“Well, that wasn’t what I expected!” Angharad exclaimed, leaning over to her sister. “You knew, didn’t you?” She questioned Katherine.
“Not everything, and not finally until earlier today,” she admitted. “But even then, I couldn’t tell you. I hope you understand. Father needed to keep everything quiet, so that Lord Fitzwarren wouldn’t get to know.”
“This explains why you have been so distant. I still can’t believe that the man you were due to marry was a murderer. That’s quite a revelation.” Angharad leaned back in her chair. “So, why did it happen here tonight, at the banquet?”
“We went to Lord Fitzwarren’s manor earlier today to get Edward to safety and for father to arrest Lord Fitzwarren; but he wasn’t there,” Katherine told her. “Father didn’t want to raise any suspicion. And, as he knew Lord Fitzwarren would be here tonight, he agreed with Sir Robert that this evening would be a good opportunity to present the case against him.”
“Did father know before then, that Lord Fitzwarren had killed the monk?”
Katherine thought about it carefully. “He had spoken with Peter Beaumont and found out about Lord Fitzwarren’s sister, so I think he had his suspicions. But he had no proof, and that was the main thing.” Katherine took a drink of wine and relaxed back into her chair with a sigh of relief. “None of us were certain, until yesterday when I met Edward, and he showed me the dagger. Up until then, it was just a story father had been told by Peter Beaumont, who was a close friend of Hughs. One about how William’s devotion to his sister had been so consuming; and how she had taken her own life rather than live without the man she loved. That man was Hugh de Glanville, who became Brother Clement when he took Holy Orders. In Lord Williams eyes, the church took away his adored sister and then denied her a burial in consecrated ground. His grief and anger must have festered away inside him ever since her death and become sort of twisted. Then last week, and quite by chance; he came upon the man who had been the cause of all his sadness.” She took another sip of wine before continuing. “It was an accidental encounter as, from what father has told me, I don’t believe Brother Clement left the walls of the Abbey much. Lord Fitzwarren must have thought it was divine intervention, and he was being given a chance to mete out his own kind of justice.”
“So, he killed him?” Angharad stared at her.
“Yes, in order to avenge his sister.” Then, Katherine added more thoughtfully. “Such was his devotion to her.”
“And to think you were so nearly his wife.”
Here’s the blurb
YORK 1224: On a hot July night, Brother Clement is savagely murdered when returning from administering to Lady Maud de Mowbray.
Simon de Hale, Sheriff of Yorkshire, is in his office when Abbot Robert visits to inform him of the murder, and request that he take responsibility for investigating the killing.
Simon is unsure whether the murder is a crime against the Abbey, or if it is a more personal matter against the monk.
Commencing their investigation, Simon and his deputy, Adam, ride out to see Lady Maud de Mowbray at Overton – the last person to see Brother Clement alive. When they encounter her son, Roger de Mowbray, they both take an instant dislike to him.
Lady Mowbray reveals to Simon that she intends to leave her money to the Abbey, and Simon can see this being a motive for the monk’s murder, if her son was aware of this.
The investigation gathers pace and a murder weapon is found.
A banquet is held at the castle to honour the Royal Justice – during which, one of the guests is exposed as the murderer and apprehended. But that will not be the end of the story for Simon and his family.
Jill lives on the Island of Guernsey now, but is originally from Yorkshire. She has a love of early medieval history which led her to study the subject at Huddersfield College in the 1980’s. Working in Leeds at the time, meant that she had access to the Yorkshire Archaeological Society on their late night opening and following research, she wondered what the lives of the people she read about were actually like. This started a love of writing historical fiction, but her initial stories were never sent to a publisher. Life and work then intervened and writing was put to one side. It was only following a workshop held by the Guernsey Literary Festival in 2024 on writing historical fiction, that her love of writing was reignited. Her first novel ‘A Brotherly Devotion’ was published in July 2025.
The Retired Assassin’s Guide to Orchid Hunting is a fabulous, extremely entertaining mystery, with a wealth of engaging, funny, and quite quirky main characters. This is the second book in the series. I have since gone back and read book one, where we first meet the characters. It is also very good, but I do think the characters are much more fully formed in this second book (which makes a lot of sense). That said, I would probably still advise you to start with book one, because if you read book two first, you’re going to know a lot about the first mystery they solve.
Dante, our retired assassin, is often unintentionally funny as he endeavours to live his life as ‘normal’ i.e. not as assassin’s do. I laughed out loud a few times. He is joined by Charlie, our gardener who also sees and can talk to ghosts (so the paranormal bit) and Eleanor a retired art thief, I think, she’s very mysterious.
And then on top of that we have our crime to be solved, all while the delightfully quirky orchid convention is taking place in the local town.
This mystery is a lot of fun, and very engaging. The storyline manages to do a great deal with our characters, with the beautiful New Zealand countryside, with quirky local town inhabitants, and all without ever feeling ‘overdone.’ If you love a quirky, funny mystery book, this is for you. If you love a small town mystery, this is for you. If you love a hint of the paranormal, then this is for you as well. I highly recommend it, but do yourself a favour, and read the first book first. It’s not quite as brilliant as this second offering, but it will certainly get you hooked on Dante, his cat, and his two friends, in this New Zealand setting.
Meet the author
Naomi is a writer living in New Zealand. When not busy writing or raising her twin son and daughter, she spends her free time (ha!) surfing, kitesurfing, and retrieving her shoes from Max the dog.
It’s time to go back to the beginning of the year and work out exactly how I’ve been spending my time. 2025 has been a pretty decent year in terms of writing, but I have largely missed out on writing for three months this year. Let’s find out why.
In January, I was busy working on what would become Shield of Mercia. In my notes, it’s simply called Icel 8. I started it in December 2024 and finished it in January 2025. It looks like my writing was pretty consistent for this one, and quite often, I was able to write about 4000 words a day, which makes me wonder whether I was maybe a bit behind at this point. I can’t quite remember. I’ve checked, and yes, I was running late with this one. That explains why I was so busy tapping away throughout January. I also completed the proofreading for Men of Iron and was working on some other stuff in the background, for my ‘other’ writing name. January was my most productive writing month in terms of word count gained. It was a good start to the year, but it didn’t continue.
In February, I seem to have been working on a few projects at the same time – one of my fantasy titles, as well as copyedits for Warriors of Iron, and some finessing for Shield of Mercia (I have a feeling this is the point I realised I needed some locations for Icel’s journey through Wessex and hightailed it to the uni library for some research books – somewhat amusingly the one I found was written in 1978). I also started work on what would become The Secret Sauce. It was not one of my most productive months in terms of word count achieved, but I evidently spent a lot of time editing and rewriting things. Sadly, it wasn’t my least productive month, which has ended up being December.
March was a tough month as I lost my Dad, and all writing plans, understandably, went out the window. I had structural edits to work on for Shield of Mercia, and it was very hard going. For a few weeks, I worried I wouldn’t get back into writing, but I did. It just took a while. My writing process is very creative. I pop on some music, ‘transport’ myself to where my characters are, and tap away. It can be hard to achieve when there’s too much going on in my head besides writing. I also managed a bit more work on The Secret Sauce.
April was also very messy – I pressed on with The Secret Sauce, and then after all the stress of March, completely relaxed on holiday in Orkney for two weeks. I definitely needed it.
May marks the start of the exam season at school. But, with everything going on, I was very behind with Lords of Iron (like so behind that there was barely anything there). But I trusted myself to get it done and spent the half-term holiday (9 days in total) writing. I wrote over half of the first draft for Lords of Iron in just those 9 days. It sounds crazy, but it was the final part in the trilogy, and I knew my characters. It was very much a return to my old writing style (you can listen to me talk about my writing process over on my Patreon). I enjoyed it, and I also think it helped me ensure the book (due out on 5th January 2026) flowed really well, with no let-up in tension during the second half of the novel.
I continued work on Lords of Iron throughout June (this was the first, and I hope, only time, I had to ask my editor for an extension). I was also back with The Secret Sauce and had completed copy edits for Shield of Mercia. 26th June was my most productive writing day all year. Away from The Secret Sauce for such a long time with everything that had happened, I bashed out 8989 words in one day (that doesn’t happen very often any more – my most productive day ever saw me clock in over 17000 words over an 18-hour period – crazy).
July saw me concentrating on finishing The Secret Sauce, and also starting work on Icel 9. I completed my proofreading for Shield of Mercia. I do like it when I’m editing the previous book while writing the next one. It ensures I don’t miss any huge details – for instance, when someone has been badly wounded. July was my fourth most productive month in terms of added word count. It also saw the release of Warriors of Iron, the second book in the Dark Age Chronicles.
August saw me working properly on Icel 9 (Storm of Mercia). I also started work on The Barrage Body (another mystery), completed the proofreading for The Secret Sauce (released at the end of the month), and found some time to start playing around with ideas for a new series. I also completed proofreading Lords of Iron and spent a bit of time messing with one of my fantasy titles.
September was a good month. I was working on three projects, the main one being The Barrage Body. I completed the copy edit for Lords of Iron at the start of the month, and structural edits for Storm of Mercia at the end. It was my third most productive month in terms of word count gained. Yay.
October was the month when I had to ignore the draft for The Barrage Body, which should have been complete, but wasn’t, because I’d made it so complicated, I couldn’t solve my own mystery (the curse of being a pantser rarely rears its head these days, (I don’t think it has since I wrote Lady Estrid) but this time it was a real pain). I distracted myself by working on the first book in the next series, the House of Mercia. It was a good writing month, even though I was very frustrated about The Barrage Body.
Since 2012, November has been the month I write whatever I want as part of a writing challenge. But the writing challenge as I used to follow it, is no more, and while I intended to try and do it anyway, that’s not what happened. I did manage to bash out about 20k for one project, but mostly spent the month solving The Barrage Body (which I managed, and could then release at the end of the month) and working on The House of Mercia.
For December, I was once more in school, and have since spent much of the time being unwell, so my writing count is woeful. I need to finish the first book in the House of Mercia, but I have a whole month to go, so I’m not worried. Right now, the biggest problem is not writing too much for this story. I’ve also been toying with a new mystery and trying to get back to my other new project. Hopefully, January 2026 will be as productive as January 2025, and it will be a breeze to get everything done.
So, I’ve not written a new Coelwulf in 2025, but I’m working on something related. I’ve also not written a new Earls of Mercia book, but I will try to get to it in 2026 (we’ve reached the point where events are very complicated). I also need to finish my fantasy title, which I’d hoped to have done months ago, after all, it is half written.
In terms of words written this year, it comes in at about 520k. Considering the three ‘missing’ months where I’ve hardly written anything, I’m pleased with that.
Forthcoming releases for 2026 will be Lords of Iron, Storm of Merica, the new House of Mercia in August, and the second one later in the year. I also hope to write a mystery or two, and I want to finish my November 2025 project about events after The Last King.
So, in 2025, I wrote five novels, give or take 20k or so on some of them, Shield of Mercia, Lords of Iron, Storm of Mercia, The Secret Sauce and The Barrage Body (I’m not counting the House of Mercia book, although perhaps I should, as it is over 70k). (Click the book covers for links to purchase/preorder).
As ever, a huge thank you to all my wonderful readers who allow me to spend my time with my characters. It is a privilege. That said, 2025 has been a tough year in terms of sales (as well as other life related items). Do support your favourite authors in anyway you can. It’s not nice in the publishing world right now and lots of people are worried about the future.
I’ve also been getting new covers for some of my older books throughout 2025, and some titles are now available from platforms other than Amazon. Enjoy.
If you want to follow my writing journey, join my newsletter. I update readers each month on what I’m doing, and it also gives you access to my Exclusive Subscriber page on the blog. And, you will also be able to download a copy of my title, Mercia, a compendium of all things related to the Tales of Mercia. There might be some short stories in there, too (as well as a sneak peek at my new project). And if you’d like a signed copy of one of my books, then visit my online store.
The inspiration for The Barrage Body, book 4 in The Erdington Mysteries (and why this isn’t quite the book I thought it would be) #histfic #mystery
Why did I write The Barrage Body?
I’ve not been quiet about explaining how hard I found The Barrage Body to ‘solve.’ I don’t think I’ve been restrained in explaining why either. Which brings me to the inspiration behind this latest mystery set in the 1940s.
When I finished writing The Secret Sauce, I was sure there was more ‘mystery’ to solve (if you’ve not read it yet, don’t be put off, the mystery is solved in the book, this is more a background element). I checked with a few advanced readers, and their response was reassuring, ‘We just thought you’d get to that in the next book.’ And this was absolutely my intention.
BUT, well, the huge BUT is that after I’d started writing the book, my research led me down a very different path. My intention was to base the fourth book at the Fort Dunlop/Dunlop Rubber Company factory. I found a lot of aerial photographs and a book about memories of working at the factory, and all seemed good. Only then did I discover the barrage balloons. The resource I consulted said they had been situated at Fort Dunlop, or at least one of them had (I am now not quite so sure, but it was too late). So, the original title went out the window, and the story changed quite a bit. The barrage balloons, constructed by Dunlop, although at a different factory, were just too enticing, and so the story veered away from my original intention. It veered so much that I eventually realised I had two halves of two very different stories. My mystery (and you should all know I don’t plan them – if that wasn’t already obvious enough) couldn’t be solved. GRRRR.
Fort Dunlop (a still from one of the PATHE recordings)
So frustrated was I, that I had to put an almost complete manuscript to one side for a month and write something else. I didn’t even think about the book during that month. I was very cross with myself. Eventually, I realised what had to be done (but it was not a single lightbulb moment, but rather many of them) and the mystery became solvable. So, while my inspiration was to base this mystery at another Erdington staple, the Fort Dunlop site, it was even more inspired by the barrage balloons that were flown during WW2 to act as a deterrent to enemy aircraft. Curious, you can watch a fabulous video over on the PATHE website https://cutt.ly/NtpYVUD8.
Chief Inspector Mason of Erdington Police Station is summoned to the Dunlop Rubber Company by an irate Mrs Adams from the Buying Department on a cold Tuesday morning in December 1944.
No sooner have he and O’Rourke managed to uncover the cause of Mrs Adams’ telephone call to the police station, than events take a far more chilling turn than the rogue situation’s vacant advertisement first alluded. It might just be that they’re in the right place at the right time to prevent a terrible tragedy. Or are they?
As the barrage balloon threatens to break free from its winch truck in the terrible wind, Sam Mason makes a most unwelcome discovery. Who killed the man, but more importantly, how did he end up, roped to the barrage balloon? And with the WAAF denying their involvement, how was the barrage balloon even floated? What does it all mean? And when they discover the secret tyre formula from the Testing Department has also been stolen, Sam starts to fear there is even more at stake.
Join Mason and O’Rourke for the fourth book in the quirky, historical mystery series, as they once more attempt to solve the impossible in 1940s Erdington.
Buy The Custard Corpses here, available in ebook, paperback, hardback and audio. Or, check out the signed editions page to get a copy directly from me. Book 3, The Secret Sauce, is available now, (as is book 2, The Automobile Assassination).
Haunted by the memory of a secret love affair in Nazi-occupied Prague, American intelligence officer Julius Orlinsky is caught in a deadly web of espionage when a routine assignment in Washington, D.C., disintegrates into murder, attempted murder, and blackmail.
Determined to uncover the truth, Orlinsky’s quest takes him from the halls of the Pentagon to a prisoner-of-war camp in Maryland, and, finally, to the city of Budapest under siege. It’s a shadow world where a lifetime of loyalty can be undone by one secret revealed. Orlinsky soon learns the personal stakes couldn’t be higher. His investigation threatens to expose a betrayal by the woman he believed was the love of his life.
But Orlinsky has no choice. Charged with an assignment critical to ensuring America’s safety, he must confront the ghosts of his past as he navigates a terrain of double agents, war-hardened German and Russian soldiers, and fanatics who will stop at nothing to silence him.
Praise for Red Snow in Winter:
“Red Snow in Winter is a gripping, ingenious cat-and-mouse political thriller. A young U.S. Army Intelligence officer finds himself caught up in a deadly espionage battle involving Americans, Nazis, and Russians that he can only survive by finding out who to trust–and also by finally uncovering the truth about long-buried secrets from his own shadowy intelligence past. Smart writing, a high stakes plot, and fascinating historical background. Author Max Eastern really delivers the goods in this must-read page-turner of a novel.“
— R.G. Belsky, author of the Clare Carlson mystery series
“I found a great new-to-me author in Max Eastern. I love how he brought his characters to life and made the situations in this novel seem as though they were happening in front of me.”
— Terrie Farley Moran, national bestselling co-author of the Jessica Fletcher Murder She Wrote mystery series
“Red Snow is a well-paced thriller capturing the paranoia and moral complexity of WWII’s twilight hours. This is spy fiction that respects its readers’ intelligence, offering a nuanced exploration of loyalty, betrayal, and a little romance.“
–Emilya Naymark, author of Behind the Lie
“A masterclass in espionage and moral ambiguity, it’s an atmospheric ride of a thriller with plot twists worthy of Hitchcock.“
–Mally Becker, author of The Turncoat’s Widow
“This is a fast-moving, page-turning espionage thriller set just after the war. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to be kept up at night!“
–Deborah Swift, author of The Shadow Network
“Max Eastern attacks his story with dry aplomb and a stripped-down journalistic surety, yet it’s got more switchbacks than San Francisco’s Lombard Street, and every curve is taken with his foot on the gas.“
— Timothy Miller, author of The Strange Case of the Pharaoh’s Heart
This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.
Meet the author
The stories his father told him about his time as an intelligence officer in World War II inspired Max Eastern to write Red Snow in Winter. He has written about history for several magazines and online publications, with subjects ranging from Ulysses Grant and Benedict Arnold to Attila the Hun.
His modern noir novel The Gods Who Walk Among Us won the Kindle Scout competition and was published by Kindle Press in 2017.
A lawyer specializing in publishing, he resides in New York State. To learn more, go to maxeastern.wordpress.com.
I’m welcoming The Falconer’s Lost Baron by Susanne Dunlap to the blog #blogtour #RegencyRomance #bookreview
Here’s the blurb
A sweeping Regency tale of identity, devotion, and unexpected romance.
Lady Antonella thought she knew who she was—until a shattering family secret strips her of her name, her place in society, and her future. Cast adrift in Cornwall, she finds an injured goshawk in a poacher’s net and begins to nurse it back to health. But the hawk belongs to the war-scarred Lord Atherleigh—a man haunted by loss, determined to dismantle his mews, and certainly not expecting a spirited young woman to upend his solitude.
In London, her twin sister Belinda—radiant, poised, and newly on the marriage market—has only one goal: to find a worthy match… for Antonella. But when Hector Gainesworth, a charming rogue with laughter in his eyes and secrets of his own, turns his attention to Belinda instead, her heart begins to spin in an altogether unexpected direction.
As the sisters navigate betrayal, desire, and the demands of their hearts, two men must decide whether to risk everything for love. And Antonella’s goshawk may be the wild, winged thread that binds their fates.
The Falconer’s Lost Baron is the third of Susanna Dunlap’s Regency romances I’ve read, and I’ve enjoyed all of them (see my reviews below for the previous two books). Every book offers something a little different, while still delivering on what we all expect from a Regency romance.
This new title will delight fans of the genre (there is no need to have read the previous two titles, although you will be missing a treat.)
Susanne Dunlap is the award-winning author of over a dozen historical novels, as well as an Author Accelerator Certified Book Coach in fiction, nonfiction, and memoir. Her love of history began in academia with a PhD in music history from Yale. Her novel THE PORTRAITIST won first prize in its category in the 2022 Eric Hoffer Book Awards, and was a finalist in the CIBA Goethe Awards and the Foreword Indies Awards. THE ADORED ONE: A NOVEL OF LILLIAN LORRAINE AND FLORENZ ZIEGFELD, won first place in its category in the 2023 CIBA Goethe Awards for Late Historical Fiction. Today, she lives, coaches, and writes in beautiful Biddeford, Maine.
MJ Porter 