Blood on the Rails
I was on vacation last week* when the news broke in The Bookseller, so apologies for getting to this a bit late: it is my great pleasure to announce that Transworld have acquired a third Can You Solve the Murder? book.
Transworld acquires third Can You Solve the Murder? novel from Antony Johnston
Transworld has acquired Can You Solve the Murder?: The Deadly Train, the third book in Antony Johnston’s interactive mystery series.
Finn Cotton, acting publishing director, bought world English-language rights from Sarah Such at Sarah Such Literary Agency. The book will publish in trade paperback, e-book and audio in July 2027.
The series, described as “half gamebook and half crime novel”, sees the reader play the detective and make choices at the end of every chapter that lead to multiple different endings. The Can You Solve the Murder? series has sold 23 foreign rights deals in 15 territories, been a top 10 Amazon UK Kindle bestseller and won Waterstones Paperback of the Year 2025. The Forest of Death will be published in July 2026.
Johnston is the New York Times bestselling author of more than 50 books, graphic novels and comic series. His graphic novel The Coldest City was adapted into the film Atomic Blonde.
Johnston said: “The reaction to Can You Solve the Murder? from readers and bookstores has been amazing. Finn and all the team at Transworld have worked hard to make the books a success, so I’m excited to continue the series with a third instalment. I look forward to testing readers’ wits with another brain-teasing murder mystery!”
Cotton said: “I’m thrilled to be working with Antony on the third mystery in the Can You Solve the Murder? series. It has been a joy helping him introduce these books to readers. Each novel in the series is more gripping and original than the last. It’s no surprise they have found a readership and inspired so many game fans and crime lovers around the world.”
*Vilnius, in Lithuania – highly recommended
Thoughts on AI, and trust
Meanwhile, I’ve been thinking about AI controversies in writing, and all the cautionary instructions to not use em-dashes, or semicolons, or short sentences, so that readers don’t think your book is AI-generated, and… well, first of all, get knotted with that rubbish.
I won’t change my writing style just because some online rando might claim it’s AI. The whole reason AI uses those traits is because it was trained on things written by people. And tomorrow it’ll just be something else, anyway. “Don’t use whole words! Sure sign of AI!” 🤡
It also doesn’t matter what changes we make, what assurances we give readers, or what “Human written!!!” badges we put on our covers, because the people publishing AI-prompted nonsense can do all those things too.
So what does matter? More than anything, I think it’s about trust.
A readers’ relationship to an author is, in the modern parlance, parasocial. We have no knowledge of our audience, but they – that is, you – read our words, and through them come to feel you know us, at least a little.
More importantly, you come to trust certain authors; trust that they’ll entertain you, that you’ll enjoy their work, that they put the requisite time, effort, and attention into the words you’re reading to make it worth your while.
I know this because I’m a reader too. Every good author is. Reading is part of the job. And while I’m fortunate to call some of my favourite authors friends, there are many others whom I’ve never met and never will, yet have those same feelings of kinship and affection towards.
That trust is really all there is between us, all that matters. It influences your decision to pick up an author’s next book, or not. It might be the strongest influence there is on that decision.
You can’t buy trust. You can’t force it. You certainly can’t generate it with an AI prompt. And you can lose it in a heartbeat, as many have found to their cost.
But when it exists, it’s what makes a reader pick up a book, confident they’ll enjoy it, without ever wondering whether or not the author actually wrote it.
Live Events
With promotion for Can You Solve the Murder?: The Forest of Death starting to ramp up, I expect to be doing a lot of live events over the coming months.
This year I’ve already run sessions at the Agatha Christie Festival Spring Gathering (pictured above), York Literature Festival, Stockport Noir, and at Waterstones in Lincoln.
Coming up on the calendar are events at Cheltenham Science Festival, Bloody Scotland, and Fatal Shore. I’m also running it at Keighley Library and Barnoldswick Library, both for National Crime Reading Month, and I expect to be doing a whole bunch more Waterstones events throughout July as well. Once I have dates for everything I’ll let you know in a future newsletter.
The Sky Above the Podcast
I’ve poked my head in a few times recently on The Incomparable Mothership podcast, to talk about some of my favourite cyberpunk media: specifically William Gibson’s seminal Sprawl novels (two down, one recording soon), and the Final Cut version of Ridley Scott’s visionary film Blade Runner.
Listen to them at these links:
Sweet Nectar, For a Thousand Young
In addition to this newsletter, you can follow me on most social media platforms – either search for my username @antonyjohnston, or check the Contact & Follow page of my site for links: https://antonyjohnston.com/contact/
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