A big thank you to my readers


It's always great to get positive feedback on one's novels and I am delighted to have received some lovely comments from readers over the last couple of weeks concerning the latest Inspector Horton Marine Mystery crime novel, Dead Man's Wharf.

I've also had some great comments from readers who have just discovered my earlier crime novels, Tide of Death, Deadly Waters and The Suffocating Sea, as well as my thriller In For Kill. If that sounds like bragging then please it's not - far from it. I am just soooo grateful for a kind word or two...

When a new novel is published, us authors wait with baited breath, not to see what the 'official' reviewers are saying about it but what the real readers think about it. We are nervous, sensitive souls who have lived, breathed and eaten that last novel. We've shared our characters fears, thrills, sorrows, joys and more, so much so that it feels as though a part of us has been laid bare. We want the book to be good - great even. And we really want people to enjoy reading it.

By the time I have finished writing, and endlessly revising a novel, I know it inside out and back to front. And that's not the end of the matter, you then have to go through the proofs. You are so close to it that it is difficult to be objective. There comes a time, I am sure with most writers, when you believe that everything you have written is rubbish, so when feedback of a positive nature comes through you have to be scraped off the ceiling you're so excited. It's a great motivator to carry on.

Giving pleasure to my readers in the form of a thrill, a good mystery novel, a gripping and enjoyable crime story is what I love doing. I adore my central character, the flawed and hunky Inspector Andy Horton with all his faults, and I am delighted to say that my readers also love him.

The comments I have received over the last fortnight are:

"When will Andy be allowed to see his daughter?" (You'll have to keep reading to find out)
"Andy's wife's a bitch - how can she do this to him?" (I just don't know!)
"I so want Andy Horton to find a nice girl." (I believe there's one called, Jane, in Darlington who wouldn't say no)

And the other comments:
"I love the central character and also the local colour."
"Well done – great stuff!"
"The murder plot is really engrossing"
"Brilliant!"
"Great! I cried at the end!"
"Thrilling. I'm now going to read all your novels."

I know I'm probably opening myself here to adverse comments because there's bound to be others who don't like the books - but then that's art for you - it's subjective, and although negative comments hurt I know that I can't please all the people all the time. I'd just like to!

A big thank you to everyone who has been kind enough to let me know that you are enjoying my crime novels. And, yes, I have written the next Inspector Horton, but I'm not sure when it will be published. I'll let you know as soon as I do, here, and on my official web site.

Now I'd better get back to writing number six. I left Inspector Horton in a tricky situation... but then when isn't he?

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