The Masked Man of Cairo Book Eight is out Now!

 

The eighth volume of the Masked Man of Cairo series, The Case of the Poisonous Papyrus, is out now in ebook and print! Now I'm hard at work on book nine. . .

 

A fatal delivery. An unspeakable crime.
Moustafa Ghani El Souwaim has always trod a fine line between supporting Egyptian independence and being a law-abiding citizen. When a frame-up job lands him in trouble with the law, he finds that he can no longer keep silent, and that only lands him in greater danger.
Sir Augustus Wall and his adopted son Faisal rush in to help, but Faisal finds he has his own choices to make, and that he cannot escape his past of living on the street.
Will their crime-fighting team split up for good? Find out in the latest adventure of the acclaimed Masked Man of Cairo historical mystery series, which takes you from the sordid back streets of Cairo to the grim fastness of the Citadel!

 

You can get it on all Amazon stores. 

June Writing Update

It's summer already???

Where has the time gone? So far, I've only published one book this year, Cordelia Catches A Count, which was well enough received that there will be a book three in that series. Even so, I need to get cracking!

The Case of the Poisoned Papyrus, Book 8 of The Masked Man of Cairo series, will come out later this summer. Watch this space for pre-order info. An Autumn Murder in Berlin, book four of The Berlin Murders, will, appropriately enough, come out in the autumn.

Also, Vinci Books will release the first two volumes in a new series titled Bunker, mysteries set in a network of billionaire bunkers after World War Three. That's right, post-apocalyptic mystery. After eight billion people die, does one murder more really matter? It does if you're stuck in a bunker with the murderer! They haven't given me a set date yet. I'll share it when I get it.

Besides this blog, the best way to follow my progress is by subscribing to my newsletter, Sean's Travels and Tales, which gets your two free ebooks as well as a monthly magazine with coupons, updates, and travel articles. 

The Case of the Disappearing Dervish Now Available As An Audiobook!

 

Tantor Media just came out with Book Six of my Masked Man of Cairo series, narrated by the talented Curtis Michael Holland!

The Case of the Disappearing Dervish sees Sir Augustus, Moustafa, and Faisal head south to the Sudan. A blurb is below.

 

A religious scandal. A deadly homecoming.

Moustafa Ghani El Souwaim has come far in life. Raised illiterate in a remote village in the Soudan, he set out at sixteen to better himself. His journey took him to the great archaeological sites of Africa, where he became a leading researcher versed in several ancient and modern languages. His life took an even stranger turn when he teamed up with Sir Augustus Wall and his street boy sidekick Faisal to solve murders.

Now there's been a murder in his village. A local religious mendicant has been found bludgeoned to death and Moustafa's cousin, who is in the same religious order, has vanished and is assumed to be the killer. Moustafa must return to his roots to clear his cousin's name and reunite with the family he left behind.

But can Moustafa really go home again after having changed so much, and does that home even want him? 

 

Available wherever audiobooks can be purchased or rented. 

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!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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! 

Book Six of The Masked Man of Cairo Out Now!!!

 

It's been a while since I posted, and that's because I've been busy traveling and writing. I have just released The Case of the Disappearing Dervish in ebook and paperback. A blurb is below.

A religious scandal. A deadly homecoming.
Moustafa Ghani El Souwaim has come far in life. Raised illiterate in a remote village in the Soudan, he set out at sixteen to better himself. His journey took him to the great archaeological sites of Africa, where he became a leading researcher versed in several ancient and modern languages. His life took an even stranger turn when he teamed up with Sir Augustus Wall and his street boy sidekick Faisal to solve murders.
Now there’s been a murder in his village. A local religious mendicant has been found bludgeoned to death and Moustafa’s cousin, who is in the same religious order, has vanished and is assumed to be the killer. Moustafa must return to his roots to clear his cousin’s name and reunite with the family he left behind.
But can Moustafa really go home again after having changed so much, and does that home even want him?

 

You can get it here. Kindle Unlimited members get to read it for free! 

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 

Writing Update!

Hello everyone!

I just got back from southern Egypt, where I was researching Book Six in my Masked Man of Cairo series, called The Case of the Disappearing Dervish. Moustafa has to go back home to the Sudan in order to solve a mystery, and of course Sir Augustus and Faisal come along. It will be out later this year.

I'm also launching a parallel series starring Cordelia, who doesn't get as much page time as she deserves in the main series. Tentatively called Cordelia's Cairo Casebook, it starts with Cordelia Cracks the Case. That's in production and will be out in a couple of months.

I'll soon be diving back into the The Berlin Murders with book three, A Summertime Murder in Berlin. Katherine and friends get tangled up in some pretty nasty business! I'm also (slowly) working on the Tech Scavengers science fiction series.

You can watch the progress of all these projects on the sidebar to the right. You can also follow along by subscribing to my monthly newsletter.

If you want to see more photos of my travels, check out my Instagram!

Book Two of The Berlin Murders out now!!!

 

While my blog was locked down, book two of my historical mystery series The Berlin Murders came out. A Springtime Murder in Berlin sees Katherine solving another mystery with the help of her friends. A blurb is below.

A chance at stardom. A murder on the set.

Katherine Schmidt has always dreamed of being an actress. An opportunity arises when her flamboyant cousin Anton gets her a role as an extra in a major German motion picture. But those dreams come crashing down when the leading lady drops dead.

Anton is arrested for her murder. His family disinherited him years before due to his lifestyle and the studio thinks he’s guilty. Katherine knows she’s the only one who can help.

Now she must find out who’s behind the brazen poisoning and clear her cousin’s name—before she becomes the next victim.


Katherine and her friends are on the case again in the second installment of The Berlin Murders, set in the Weimar era’s decadent Berlin.

Check out A Springtime Murder in Berlin today!

My Writing Year: A Look Back And A Look Forward

This past year has been an interesting one for me, being both productive and unproductive.

How so? Well, I wrote the least amount I ever have under my own name in a long time, coming out with just two books in 2021. This is due to getting a lot of ghostwriting work. While remunerative, it kept me from doing as much as I would have liked under my own byline.

I still wrote a lot. Although I once again missed my goal of writing a million words in a year, I did get well past 900,000 and made the most money I ever have in this career or my previous one, so that was nice.

I did come out with two books under my own name. The first was Flight to Fez, the third book in my Interzone Mystery series. The second was The Case of the Asphyxiated Alexandrian, book five in my The Masked Man of Cairo historical mystery series. So a good year for mysteries!

What's coming up in 2022? My ghostwriting work is still going strong, and I have managed to get on a saner publishing schedule that will allow me to build up my own career a bit more. My new year's resolution is to write 1,000 words a day of my own stuff. A trio of short prequel novels for The Masked Man of Cairo series are in the works, as are two new series. These are Tech Scavengers, a space opera series, and an as-yet-untitled mystery series set in Weimar Berlin. I'd also like to squeeze in book 5 of Toxic World, titled Election Day. If you have any preferences about what you'd like to read next, tell me in the comments section!

You can follow my progress with the word count bars to the right and also by signing up to my newsletter.

It's going to be a fun year!

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.