Midlist Writer: Cordelia Cracks the Case

Showing posts with label Cordelia Cracks the Case. Show all posts

Friday, 11 July 2025

July Writing update

Hello again!

It's summer, and up in Oxford on my annual research trip. I'm delving into the archives of the famous Bodleian Library to research the 1930 election in Germany and the independence movement in Egypt. I love doing research for my historical novels.

New books in both the Masked Man of Cairo series and The Berlin Murders will be out by the end of the year. I also intend on having a sequel to Cordelia Cracks the Case. Currently I'm working on a post-apocalyptic thriller called Bunker. Those should be out by the end of the year too More on that soon!

In the meantime, Radio Hope, book one of my post-apocalyptic series Toxic World, is only 99 cents through July 16, so if you might want to give it a try.

See you next month!

Friday, 28 February 2025

Expect Lots More Books From Me In 2025!

Hi everyone! Big news!

I just quit my day job and will devote all my writing time to my own books. For the past five years, I've been ghostwriting novels for a New York publisher. The money was good, although the production schedule was grueling. I've decided that this is the point in my life to strike out on my own.

That means you'll be seeing a lot of new books from me from now on. First up will be book 7 of the Cairo series, followed by book 3 of the Berlin series, and then probably Cordelia book 2. Then there will be some more mystery novels and a brand-new science fiction series!

I'm heading into uncertain waters and I could use your help. You're already buying my books and for that I'm deeply grateful. What would also help me is if you left a review on Amazon or Goodreads. Mentioning my books on your page would also be a big boost. If you know a podcaster or blogger who covers the kind of topics I do, I'd love to be introduced.

To keep up to date on what's happening, you might want to join my newsletter and Facebook page. There I give regular updates plus photos of my travels and articles about places I've been.

Thanks for coming along with me on this crazy ride, and I hope you'll like all the books I'll be coming out with in 2025!

Sunday, 5 January 2025

My Writing Year: A Look Back and a Look Forward

The year 2024 was a busy one for me. In addition to a heavy workload of ghostwriting, I came out with three books under my own name.

The first was A Springtime Murder in Berlin, book two of The Berlin Murders. Katherine and her friends are faced with another murder, this time on the set of a movie.

Next I published Cordelia Cracks the Case, the first in Cordelia's Cairo Case Files, a new spinoff series from my Masked Man of Cairo books. A lot of you told me you wanted to see more of Cordelia Russell because the male characters underestimate and overlook her. Hey, it's 1919! So now she's getting her own series of cases.

I also kept my most popular series going with Book 6, The Case of the Disappearing Dervish, which sees Moustafa having to return to his village in the Soudan to solve a case implicating his cousin. Sir Augustus and Faisal come along too, of course!

So now it's 2025, and later this month I'll be heading to Egypt to write book 7, The Case of the Cackling Crocodile. Our heroes are off to the Fayoum this time, and Cordelia is coming along. I'll also be working on the next Cordelia book.

In the summer I plan to release A Summertime Murder in Berlin, followed closely by An Autumn Murder in Berlin, which will round out The Berlin Murders except for an epilogue that I plan to release in 2026.

There will be a big change in 2025 as I take fewer ghostwriting assignments and eventually stop before the end of the year. Hopefully that will free up time to come out with some more titles. Stay tuned!

A big thank you to all of you who bought my books in 2024, and a special thank you to all those who reviewed them. As a working writer, that helps a lot!

Happy 2025!!!

Sunday, 21 April 2024

Cordelia Cracks the Case out Now!

My latest Cairo mystery is out now. Many of you wanted to hear more about Cordelia, the chief of police's younger sister. She gets a bit overlooked by the guys in the series, even though she's literally been a life saver, so I've given her a case of her own. Cordelia Cracks the Case! If it does well, I'll write more of her adventures. A blurb is below.

Proving yourself can prove deadly
Cordelia Russell hates living life in the shadows. After the Great War, the soldiers got victory parades while the nurses got forgotten. Moving to Cairo to live life on her own terms, Cordelia finds herself overshadowed by her older brother, the chief of the colonial police.
So when she uncovers evidence of a murder at her hospital and no one believes her, Cordelia sets out to solve the case herself. As the Egyptian streets convulse with independence demonstrations and the murderer seeks to silence her, Cordelia finds herself in more danger than she’s seen since the war.
A favorite character from the award-winning Masked Man of Cairo series gets her own series of cases! Join the adventure today!

Click here to check it out

Sunday, 6 November 2022

When is my next mystery coming out?

A bunch of people have asked me when my next mystery is coming out. I haven't come out with anything since May when I released The Case of the Dastardly Djinn (A Masked Man of Cairo Prequel).

So what's going on? Have I gotten lazy? Is my ghostwriting career taking up all my time?

Fear not! I have two mysteries in the works. First off, I'm working on Book One of The Berlin Murders. Titled A Winter Murder in Berlin, it follows the adventures of Katherine Schmidt, a young German-American woman who decides to visit her parents' homeland for the first time in 1929, and gets caught up in a murder investigation in which she is the prime suspect! There's lots of intrigue set in Berlin's decadent nightlife and increasingly brutal politics. It's a bit more serious than The Masked Man of Cairo books, but does have its lighter moments.

The next Masked Man of Cairo book will actually be a novella titled Cordelia Cracks the Case. A character who did not make a very good first impression, Cordelia has been coming more and more into her own in recent books and it's time she got the spotlight. After that, it will be back to another adventure focusing on our three regular heroes. They might be going to Sudan for that one, and so will I!

I hope to have both A Winter Murder in Berlin and Cordelia Cracks the Case out by the end of February. I'm nearly done with Katherine's adventures, and will wrap it up with a research trip to Berlin later this month. Then I'll set to work on Cordelia when I'm in Cairo in December.

You can keep track of the progress of all my books by checking out the word count meters on the right-hand column of this blog. You can also sign up for my newsletter and get two free ebooks to tide you over!

The Case of the Purloined Pyramid

The Last Hotel Room

He came to Tangier to die, but life isn’t done with him yet. Tom Miller has lost his job, his wife, and his dreams. Broke and alone, he ends up in a flophouse in Morocco, ready to end it all. But soon he finds himself tangled in a web of danger and duty as he’s pulled into scamming tourists for a crooked cop while trying to help a Syrian refugee boy survive life on the streets. Can a lifelong loser do something good for a change? A portion of my royalties will go to a charity for Syrian refugees.

Warpath into Sonora

Arizona 1846: Nantan, a young Apache warrior, is building a name for himself by leading raids against Mexican ranches to impress his war chief, and the chief’s lovely daughter. But there is one thing he and all other Apaches fear—a ruthless band of Mexican scalp hunters who slaughter entire villages. Nantan and his friends have sworn to fight back, but they are inexperienced, and led by a war chief driven mad with a thirst for revenge. Can they track their tribe’s worst enemy into unknown territory and defeat them?

Radio Hope

In a world shattered by war, pollution and disease. . . A gunslinging mother longs to find a safe refuge for her son. A frustrated revolutionary delivers water to villagers living on a toxic waste dump. The assistant mayor of humanity's last city hopes he will never have to take command. One thing gives them the promise of a better future--Radio Hope, a mysterious station that broadcasts vital information about surviving in a blighted world. But when a mad prophet and his army of fanatics march out of the wildlands on a crusade to purify the land with blood and fire, all three will find their lives intertwining, and changing forever.

Refugees from the Righteous Horde (Toxic World Book 2)

When you only have one shot, you better aim true. In a ravaged world, civilization’s last outpost is reeling after fighting off the fanatical warriors of the Righteous Horde. Sheriff Annette Cruz becomes New City’s long arm of vengeance as she sets off across the wildlands to take out the cult’s leader. All she has is a sniper’s rifle with one bullet and a former cultist with his own agenda. Meanwhile, one of the cult’s escaped slaves makes a discovery that could tear New City apart. . . Refugees from the Righteous Horde continues the Toxic World series started in Radio Hope, an ongoing narrative of humanity’s struggle to rebuild the world it ruined.

The Scavenger

In a world shattered by war, pollution, and disease, a lone scavenger discovers a priceless relic from the Old Times. The problem is, it's stuck in the middle of the worst wasteland he knows--a contaminated city inhabited by insane chem addicts and vengeful villagers. Only his wits, his gun, and an unlikely ally can get him out alive. Set in the Toxic World series introduced in the novel Radio Hope, this 10,000-word story explores more of the dangers and personalities that make up a post-apocalyptic world that's all too possible.

Trench Raiders

September 1914: The British Expeditionary Force has the Germans on the run, or so they think. After a month of bitter fighting, the British are battered, exhausted, and down to half their strength, yet they’ve helped save Paris and are pushing toward Berlin. Then the retreating Germans decide to make a stand. Holding a steep slope beside the River Aisne, the entrenched Germans mow down the advancing British with machine gun fire. Soon the British dig in too, and it looks like the war might grind down into deadly stalemate. Searching through No-Man’s Land in the darkness, Private Timothy Crawford of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry finds a chink in the German armor. But can this lowly private, who spends as much time in the battalion guardhouse as he does on the parade ground, convince his commanding officer to risk everything for a chance to break through?

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