My Travel Year: A Look Back And A Look Forward

The year 2025 was a good one for my wanderlust. I started the year in Egypt, where I spent two months in Cairo and the Fayoum, researching and writing The Case of the Cackling Crocodile. Then I went to Canada for two months to see family.

Summer saw my wife and I in Albano, near Rome, where my wife was teaching a bunch of astronomy graduate students at the Vatican Summer School. I wrote and explored the area, walking the Appian Way and even having an audience with the Pope! He gave a short speech to us on the importance of exploring the universe and then we each got to shake his hand and have a quick word. A Jesuit friend was shaking like he had just met a rock star.

After that it was the usual summer of research at Oxford University, followed by a couple of short trips to Tangier.

Whew! I makes me jetlagged just writing about it. So what's coming up in 2026? I'll be back in Tangier this month, and in the spring will return to Canada. After that, things get a bit hazy. We're juggling several different options right now and we're not sure how things are going to turn out. Whatever happens, another trip to Egypt and Morocco are in the cards!

My Writing Year: A Look Back and a Look Forward

It's been a busy year for me when it comes to writing and publishing.

It may not seem like it to my readers, because I only released two books in 2026: The Case of the Cackling Crocodile (Masked Man of Cairo Book 7) and A Summertime Murder in Berlin (Berlin Murders Book 3), yet behind the scenes I've been working on much more.

To wit, two new science fiction series! Tech Scavengers is a lighthearted space opera, and Bunker is a grim post-apocalyptic thriller. Both will see the light in 2026. I'm also hard at work on more of the historical mysteries I'm best known for, including another Cordelia book, book 8 of the Masked Man of Cairo, and more!

In other news, Tantor Media is releasing my Masked Man of Cairo books as audiobooks. The Case of the Purloined Pyramid is already available wherever audiobooks are sold, and book two comes out in January.

In other news, I've sold the rights to my Toxic World and Moroccan Mysteries series to Vinci Books, a UK publisher that plans to redo the covers, get them in bookshops, and also as audiobooks and foreign language translations. If these two older series do well, I'll be adding to both of them.

You can see the progress of all these projects on the wordcount sidebar to the right as well as via my newsletter. 

Have a great new year and thanks for joining me on this journey!

 

Purloined Pyramid is now out as an Audiobook!

 

The first volume in my Masked Man of Cairo series, The Case of the Purloined Pyramid, is now out as an audiobook. Further volumes will follow once a month. A lot of you having been asking about the audio editions, and they're finally here! It's available through Amazon, Audible, Google Play, and more.

The narration is done by award-winning voice actor Curtis Michael Holland, who lives in Dubai and is fluent in Arabic. I couldn't have asked for anyone better!

The Berlin Murders Book 3 Available For Preorder!

Book 3 of The Berlin Murders is available for pre-order and will come out on October 31! The print edition should come out around then as well, but I have no set date yet. This series is a bit darker than Cairo, although it does have its humorous bits. Explore Berlin of the 1920s and 30s, when it was Europe's wildest (and most dangerous) city!

A blurb is below:

A deadly crash. A dark conspiracy.

When amateur sleuth Katherine Schmidt witnesses the fiery death of champion race driver Manfred von Rauch, suspicion of foul play falls on the pit crew—including two of her friends.

To save them from prison, she’s now in a race of her own to uncover who sabotaged the car and why.

Diving headlong into Berlin’s gritty underworld in pursuit of the killer, Katherine uncovers sinister connections to her own life and to dark powers that want to take over the country.

 

Pre-ordering a book really helps me out because it kicks in the algorithm early and helps my visibility. If you pre-order the ebook, it will be delivered to your device on Halloween! It's available on Amazon US, Amazon UK, and all the other Amazons. 

Enjoy! 

October Writing Update

The year is racing toward its finish, but I'm not finished with writing! 

Right now I'm busy editing A Summertime Murder in Berlin, book 3 of The Berlin Murders. Katherine is back on the trail of her strangest murder yet! I'll be announcing it on pre-order here in a couple of works.

Besides editing, I'm writing the second Cordelia book as well as a post-apocalyptic mystery. Not sure when they'll come out yet.

I don't have much travel planned for the rest of the year, perhaps another trip to Morocco. Most of the next three months I'll be cloistered in my home office in Madrid working on more books for you!

See you next month! 

September Writing Update

Autumn is here and I'm busy writing (because what else would I do?)

The release of The Case of the Cackling Crocodile earlier this month was a huge success. My best launch ever! Thanks to all of you for making this happen.

Right now I'm busy editing A Summertime Murder in Berlin, book 3 of The Berlin Murders. Katherine is back on the trail of her strangest murder yet! That should be out in late October if there is no hitch.

What else is on my plate? I'm writing another Egyptian mystery starring Cordelia, a post-apocalyptic mystery, and some more projects that I will reveal in time. It's been a busy year for me and that's not going to stop!

On the travel front, I just spent three weeks in Tangier, meeting various Moroccan artists and historians and working on the Cordelia book. Yes, Morocco is acting as an inspirational stand-in for Egypt. I don't have time at the moment to go to Cairo but I hope to do so later this year under some rather special circumstances. More on that when I know for sure. 

See you next month! 

My Latest Mystery Novel Out Now!

I've just released Book 7 of the Masked Man of Cairo series.
The Case of the Cackling Crocodile sees Augustus and friends solving a mysterious death in the Fayoum Oasis, along with a few complicating factors . . .

A mysterious death. A troubling promise.
When an eccentric scholar is mauled by a crocodile in the Fayoum, Sir Augustus Wall, antiquities dealer and amateur sleuth, immediately suspects foul play. There haven’t been crocodiles in the lake for a generation.
He sets off for the remote region with his fellow investigators, Sudanese scholar Moustafa Ghani and Faisal, a fiercely loyal former street urchin who has been at his side since his very first case. The investigation is complicated further by the presence of not one but both women in Sir Augustus’s life, rivals whose simmering dislike for each other threatens to set the oasis on fire!
All this is eclipsed by a more personal decision: Sir Augustus has resolved to adopt Faisal. The only problem? No one—not even his friends—believes he’s capable of raising a child. To solve the case and keep his chosen family intact, Sir Augustus must prove that even the most reluctant guardian can rise to the challenge.

It's available on Amazon US, Amazon UK, and all the other Amazons. Thanks to all of you who pre-ordered it. That's help me a lot!