April Writing Update

Spring has sprung, and I'm busy writing!

I just finished the first draft of The Case of the Poisonous Papyrus, book 8 of the Masked Man of Cairo series. It's now in edits and will soon go to the beta readers. I'm also working on a new series called Bunker, murder mysteries set in a network of billionaires' bunkers after World War Three. Locked room mysteries on another level! Those will start coming out this summer.

Vinci Books has now made new covers for my Moroccan Mystery and Toxic World series. You can see a couple here.

My next project is to finish book four of The Berlin Murders. It's time to get back to Katherine's adventures, but I have to warn you, as 1933 draws closer, it's getting a bit darker.

(How couldn't it?)

Plenty more to come, and you can follow it all by checking this blog every month or signing up to my newsletter. That bags you two free ebooks!

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Latest Historical Mystery is Out!

 

My latest historical mystery, Cordelia Catches A Count, is out now. It's the second book in Cordelia's Cairo Case Files, following the adventures of an English nurse in Cairo right after World War One. Fans who like amateur female sleuths will like this one. A blurb is below.

 

A drowned scholar. A count with secrets. A treasure worth killing for.
When a Hungarian Egyptologist disappears from his hospital bed in the middle of the night, Nurse Cordelia Russell is certain something is amiss. Feverish and weak only hours before, he could not possibly have slipped out unnoticed—yet by dawn his body is found in the Nile.
The police, including Cordelia’s own brother, are satisfied with a verdict of tragic accident. Cordelia is not. She spots clues that point to something far more sinister.
Cordelia follows a trail that leads from hospital wards to grand hotels, from ancient tombs to glittering cafés—and into the orbit of the enigmatic Count János von Hohenstat, a charming aristocrat whose interest in the dead man may not be entirely innocent.
As secrets surface and loyalties blur, Cordelia must decide whom she can trust before the killer turns his attention on her.
Join Cordelia in the thrilling second installment of her Cairo mysteries!

 

 

You can get it here! 

 

 

 

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!

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!

June Writing Update

Hello from Italy! Here's a photo of a lovely old house I came across on the Appian Way. I'm here doing some initial research for an upcoming historical mystery series. I won't say more because it will be a while before I publish anything. I have to finish five-book series The Berlin Murders first!

Speaking of, I'm nearly finished writing book three of that series, A Summertime Murder in Berlin. Also, book seven of my Cairo mystery series, The Case of the Cackling Crocodile is about to head off to the beta readers. If you want to be one, hit me up. 

To keep up with my progress, check the word count meters on the sidebar. You can also subscribe to my monthly newsletter via the left-hand sidebar, and also check out my Facebook page and Instagram feed. Plenty of travel photos on there lately!

April Writing Update

 

As I mentioned in a previous post, I quit my ghostwriting job to free up time for my own projects and I've been loving every minute of it. It's sooooo nice to only work on my own stuff!

Mostly I've been working on book seven of my Cairo mystery series, The Case of the Cackling Crocodile. That should be done by the end of the month and then it will go through edits before heading off to the beta readers. If you want to be one, hit me up.

Once that book is in edits, I'll be working on A Summertime Murder in Berlin, book three of The Berlin Murders.

To keep up with my progress, check the word count meters on the sidebar. You can also subscribe to my monthly newsletter via the left-hand sidebar, and also check out my Facebook page and Instagram feed.

March Writing Update

As I mentioned in my last post, I quit my ghostwriting job to free up time for my own projects. It's been a month now and I've gotten a huge amount done! It feels very liberating working only for myself. You can track my progress on the sidebar.

Mostly I've been working on book seven of my Cairo mystery series, The Case of the Cackling Crocodile. I've also been editing the prequel for my Moroccan Mysteries series and working on a couple of other projects I'll reveal at a later date.

To keep up with me, you can also subscribe to my monthly newsletter via the left-hand sidebar, and also check out my Facebook page and Instagram feed. 

Enjoy!

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!!!

 

 

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.

My Latest Historical Mystery is out Now!

A Winter Murder in Berlin, Book One of The Berlin Murders, is now available. This is a slightly darker take on historical mystery than the Masked Man of Cairo series, although there are lighter bits. A blurb is below.

The voyage of a lifetime turns into a nightmare.

When Katherine Schmidt sails for Europe in late 1929, she looks forward to a year of carefree travel thanks to an unexpected inheritance. But when a companion on her steamer is murdered and she becomes a suspect, she needs to find the real killer before the police close in. Now she must delve into Weimar Berlin’s decadent nightlife and radical politics in order to clear her name.

Can an innocent young woman from Missouri outwit fascists, communists, and the denizens of Berlin’s notorious shadow world?

 

A Winter Murder in Berlin is available at Amazon US, Amazon UK, and all the other Amazons. If you have Kindle Unlimited, you can read it for free! Book One is a standalone, but the series will continue with Book Two, coming out this summer.

My Latest Cairo Mystery Novel Now Available in Print!

 

 

My latest book, The Case of the Dastardly Djinn, prequel to the Masked Man of Cairo historical mystery series, is now available in print. While the bulk of my sales are in ebooks, some readers do prefer print so I try to serve these readers as well. You can get in on Amazon US, Amazon UK, and all the other Amazons.

The first in my Weimar mystery series, A Winter Murder in Berlin, should be out soon. I'm just waiting for the cover artist. Later in the year I'll come out with book two in that series and another Cairo novel. Stay tuned!

Faisal is Growing!

Everyone's favorite street urchin has been slowly growing up through the Masked Man of Cairo historical mystery series. Now he's growing in a different way. As I mentioned in a previous post, my plans for book 6 were put on hold thanks to a coup in the Sudan, so I'm working on a set of prequel novellas about each character before they met.

The Case of the Dastardly Djinn, in which a younger Faisal has to solve a case without the help of Moustafa or Sir Augustus, was supposed to be a 30,000 word novella, but now it looks like it will be a short novel coming in at about 40,000 words. I figured that since the average Masked Man of Cairo book comes out to about 90,000 words and each of the three characters gets an equal share, that 30,000 words would do. Now I realize that since they are in lots of the chapters starring one of the other characters, that their page time is much greater.

Live and learn!

The Case of the Dastardly Djinn will come out some time in the first quarter of 2022.

Book Five of The Masked Man of Cairo Available for Preorder!

Book Five of my Masked Man of Cairo historical mystery series is now available for preorder and will be released September 10. The Case of the Asphyxiated Alexandrian was written in Cairo and Alexandria and edited in Madrid and Oxford. Only the first two locations show up in the book, though. A blurb is below.

A mysterious murder. A lost pharaoh.
Sir Augustus Wall came to Egypt to escape his old life, but when a comrade from the trenches is found murdered in a Cairo hotel, Augustus realizes his past has finally caught up.
Now he must discover the reason for the baffling murder, leading him and his friends Moustafa and Faisal on a dangerous hunt for the most sought-after treasure in Egypt.
The long-awaited fifth book in the Masked Man of Cairo series sees the trio on their greatest adventure yet!

 

I'm back in Cairo later this year and will be working on the further adventures of Sir Augustus, Moustafa, and Faisal.

My Latest Historical Mystery Novel is out Now!

The fourth in my Masked Man of Cairo series, The Case of the Karnak Killer, is out now as an ebook. The print edition is coming in July. A blurb is belo.

A scandal in America. A murder in Cairo.
Sir Augustus Wall, antiquities dealer and amateur sleuth, is hired to track down a blackmailer who threatens the reputation of an American millionaire. When blackmail turns to murder, he must travel up the Nile by steamboat to find the killer.
Joining him are Faisal, a street urchin who makes himself equally useful and troublesome; Heinrich Schäfer, a leading Egyptologist; and Jocelyn Montjoy, an adventurous woman who has captured his heart.
But complications set in before the hunt even begins. Unwelcome fellow passengers threaten to derail the investigation, and Augustus has fallen out with his right-hand man, Moustafa Ghani. Can a new team of investigators help him solve his most challenging case yet?

You can get the book here.

My Third Cairo Mystery Novel is out Now!

The Case of the Golden Greeks, the third in my Masked Man of Cairo historical mystery series, is out now. A blurb is below.

They thought the case was solved.
When an eminent Egyptologist is murdered giving a lecture in front of a packed hall, Cairo’s chief of police quickly rounds up those responsible.
Or at least some of them.
Sir Augustus Wall, antiquities dealer and amateur sleuth, knows there’s more to the crime than it seems. With little to go on but an exotic murder weapon, a map of a desert oasis, and some gilded Greek mummies, he sets out across the Sahara with his assistant Moustafa Ghani and the street urchin Faisal, who is the only person to have seen the killer’s face. They soon find themselves in the midst of international intrigue on Egypt’s remote border with Libya.
Can they discover what mystery lies beneath Bahariya Oasis?

The Case of the Golden Greeks is available on Amazon, Amazon UK, and all the other Amazon branches.

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!

Tangier Bank Heist is out now, at an introductory price!

My latest mystery novel, Tangier Bank Heist, is out now, and as a thank you to my readers it's at 99 cents until the end of October!

Right after the war, Tangier was the craziest town in North Africa. Everything was for sale and the price was cheap. The perverts came for the flesh. The addicts came for the drugs. A whole army of hustlers and grifters came for the loose laws and free flow of cash and contraband.
So why was I here? Because it was the only place that would have me. Besides, it was a great place to be a detective. You got cases like in no other place I’d ever been, and I’d been all over. Cases you couldn’t believe ever happened. Like when I had to track down the guy who stole the bank.
No, he didn’t rob the bank, he stole it.
Here’s how it happened . . .

This title is available at Amazon US and all other Amazon stores.

Tangier Bank Heist Cover Reveal

My cover designer has come up for two designs for my upcoming Tangier mystery novel. Which do you prefer and what would you change?

The Case of the Shifting Sarcophagus Out Now!

The second book in my Masked Man of Cairo series, The Case of the Shifting Sarcophagus, is out now. It's the next adventure for Sir Augustus, Moustafa, and Faisal, who we met in The Case of the Purloined Pyramid. I'll be writing the third book in the series late this year when I go back to Egypt. A blurb is below.

An Old Kingdom coffin. A body from yesterday.
Sir Augustus Wall had seen a lot of death. From the fields of Flanders to the alleys of Cairo, he’d solved several murders and sent many men to their grave. But he’s never had a body delivered to his antiquities shop encased in a 5,000 year-old coffin.
Soon he finds himself fighting a vicious street gang bent on causing national mayhem while his assistant, Moustafa Ghani, faces his own enemies in the form of colonial powers determined to ruin him. Throughout all this runs the street urchin Faisal. Ignored as usual, dismissed as usual, he has the most important fight of all.

Available as an ebook on Amazon, Amazon UK, and all the other Amazons. Print edition coming soon!