Midlist Writer: Interzone Mystery

Showing posts with label Interzone Mystery. Show all posts

Friday, 30 August 2024

Back to Blogging!

I've been silent on here for a while. For some reason, blogger won't allow me to log in when I'm in Canada. Not sure why, and tech support has been useless. That's why I haven't posted.

Just a quick update on my work. Book Six of my Masked Man of Cairo series, The Case of the Disappearing Dervish, is now in edits. It will be out in the autumn. Now I'm hard at work on A Summertime Murder in Berlin, book three of The Berlin Murders.

Later in the year I'll be coming out with a novella in my Interzone Mystery series.

You can follow the progress of each of my projects on the sidebar. You might also like to sign up to my newsletter. You get two free ebooks and monthly travel articles, short stories, and updates.

Monday, 25 January 2021

Flight to Fez Out Now!

The third and final book in my Interzone Mystery series, Flight to Fez, is now out! This time Shorty has to go to the French sector to solve a murder, with a little help gun, his fists, and his lovely gal. A blurb is below.

Only in Tangier could a literary event turn into a murder scene.
I’m “Shorty” MacAllister, private detective. I’ve investigated all sorts of crazy cases in this lawless town, tracking down con men and Nazi fugitives, anarchists and bank robbers, all the while running my own secret angle.
But I never thought that when I went to hear my friend Jane Bowles read her latest story I’d end with a murdered man in my lap, and an old war buddy getting pinned with the crime.
After that, things got a whole lot more complicated.

You can get Flight to Fez on Amazon and anywhere else ebooks are sold.

Saturday, 28 March 2020

Writing During Lockdown

Hello from lockdown!

No, I'm not locked down in the hypostele hallway of Karnak temple like the photo suggests, I'm locked down in my apartment in Madrid, the hardest-hit city of one of the hardest-hit countries in the world. I'm only going out for essential shopping trips these days. My Easter trip to England has been canceled, as has a planned spring trip to Tunisia.

At least that gives me plenty of time to write. In addition to work for my usual clients, I'm hard at work on the fourth book of my Masked Man of Cairo series, The Case of the Karnak Killer. I should be done with it in a couple of weeks and then it will go into edits. After that I'll finish up the third in the Interzone Mystery series, Flight to Fez. After that I'll be working on a couple of new projects that I'll announce later in April.

My word count has definitely gone up in the last two weeks of total lockdown. Writing is keeping me sane, so I'll just keep doing more and more of it. What are you doing to keep sane?

Stay safe!

Saturday, 12 October 2019

Back from Fez!

I just got back from a ten-day writing retreat in Fez, Morocco. Like my many trips to Tangier, this was to work on a novel set in that city. It's the third of the Interzone Mystery series, and this time Shorty and Melanie have to track down a fugitive who's hiding in the medina of Fez. Shorty has a mission for the Party he's trying to do on the side, and it doesn't help that his old nemesis Chason is hot on his trail. Flight to Fez is a whole lot of fun to write. You can keep track of my progress on the sidebar to the right.

Fez is a fascinating town. It was the seat of many dynasties of Sultans and is filled with historic mosques and madrasas. i stayed in a house in one of the quiet backstreets, trying to get my writing done during the heat of the day so I could go sightseeing in the mornings and evenings.

Attached are some pictures. I'll have a full article on my trip in the next issue of my newsletter, coming out later this month.


My street.

Courtyard of a medieval madrasa.

Neighborhood donkey.

Wednesday, 13 March 2019

My Latest Morocco Mystery Is Out Now!

My latest book has just come out. Three Passports to Trouble is the second in the Interzone Mystery series that started with Tangier Bank Heist. This time Shorty has to cool a tense political situation while causing a bit of mayhem of his own. A blurb is below.

Back in the days when Tangier was an International Zone, the city was full of refugees. People fleeing Stalin. People fleeing Franco. People fleeing the Nuremburg Trials. Tangier offered a safe haven from the chaos of Europe.
The International Council had to keep a delicate balance, tolerating everything from anti-capitalist agitators to Germans with murky pasts. It was the only way to keep the peace, and it worked.
Until an anarchist was found dead with a fascist dagger in his chest.
And I got stuck with the case just when I had to smuggle a couple of Party operatives out of town.

It's available now on Amazon!

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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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