When I set up this Substack last year I listed it on my website with the following description: “For now, at least, this will be a low-traffic list.”
True to my word, although I’ve sent a few bits and pieces out, this is my first proper newsletter.
Just in case you don’t remember who I am, or why you might have signed up for this, I’m a crime fiction author based in Suffolk, on England’s east coast. My short fiction is appearing regularly in some good places, and I’m working on a novel series, also set in Suffolk. I also help run Dead East, a collective of crime authors based in East Anglia.
“News?” you ask. Well yes, I have some of that…
The big news is that I’ve just agreed a two-book deal with editor Maxim Jakubowski at No Exit Press. Both novels feature off-beat Detective Inspector Bolam, and are set in coastal Suffolk. The first is scheduled for November 2026 publication.
Severed fingers delivered in the post, old and tragic memories stirred… someone is stage-managing the reopening of long-forgotten cases, manipulating the victims’ families’ grief decades after their loved ones went missing. And DI Bolam, newly appointed to the town’s Serious Crimes team, finds himself in the thick of it, in a job he had never wanted, in a town that holds only sadness for him and reminders of all he has lost.
A police procedural mystery, full of twists and turns, following DI Bolam as he attempts to unravel the dark history of the town where his late wife grew up, even if it means tearing apart what remains of his own family.
Severed fingers in the mail, dark and convoluted family relationships, a Suffolk town that’s turned a blind eye for far too long, and maybe a serial killer who’s decided to step things up a notch or two. What’s not to love?
I’ll be writing more about DI Bolam here over the coming months.
News of the book deal comes on the back of a highly successful run in short fiction for me, with back-to-back-to-back stories in the top two English-language crime magazines:
“From Grace” in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine (Nov/Dec 2025)
“Where’s Pete?” in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine (Jan/Feb 2026)
“It’s Complicated” back in Hitchcock’s (Mar/Apr 2026)
I also finished 2025 with short story acceptances for “Old Friends” in the Crime Writers’ Association anthology Guilty Secrets, and “In the Ruins”, to appear in Cold Caller magazine, both due out later this year.
Then 2026 started with a piece of flash fiction, “The Youth of Today”, accepted and very rapidly published by the excellent Ipswich-based indie publisher and webzine, Urban Pigs Press. They followed up with a quickfire interview. In February, another short story of mine, “Wrong Notes”, was published in Black Cat Weekly.
I’ve been writing monthly reviews for the Dead East newsletter, and reposting them in my own Substack area. Here are the ones I’ve posted so far:
I’ve written lots of reviews over the years, including close to a hundred for the Guardian, and in my time I’ve given bad reviews as well as good. I’ve reached a place now where I think there’s too much negativity around, so if I write a review it’s because I’ve liked at least something about a book. They’re not always raves, but if I don’t enjoy something I’d rather move on than spend time slating it. So read these reviews as recommendations where I try to write about why I liked what I like.
I’ve never been to a crime fiction festival before, but it’s about time, isn’t it? So I’ve booked accommodation in Harrogate in July for the annual Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival. I don’t expect to be taking part in any events this time, but if you spot me there do come and have a chat. I’ll be the one in a corner with imposter syndrome.
In the meantime, I continue to be involved with Dead East, the Anglian Crime Authors Collective. I coordinate the monthly Dead East newsletter, also on Substack. While this is the group’s public-facing newsletter, it aspires to much more: it’s an international crime and mystery fiction newsletter for readers and writers, with a UK focus.
My writing plans this year revolve around the DI Bolam novels. We’re currently exploring options for the cover of the first book, and there will be editing to do at some point. Right now I’m deep in the first draft of the second novel in the series. When that draft is finished, I’ll work on some more short fiction before returning to the novel for rewrites.
We’re very lucky to live in such a beautiful part of the world, surrounded by nature, and with wonderfully dark, starry skies. This winter we’ve had some fabulous displays of the Northern Lights, and some lovely wildlife visitors to the garden, so I’ll leave you with three of my favourite images from the first few weeks of this year.
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