Making space, debuts and sequels, and something very special...

Something very special will happen in the lead-up to Christmas this year.

Well…it’s happened for the last couple of years, truth be told.

It has nothing to do with Santa. Or elves. Or a certain red-nosed reindeer. (Although that comes a close emotional second.)

It has nothing to do with lots of bank balances involuntarily emptying (including mine) pretty much all over the world. (Although that comes a close financial third).

And it has nothing to do with wise men, donkeys, virgin births, and once-in-a-lifetime astronomical events. (Although that comes a close religious fourth... maybe some would say it should come a lot higher up the ladder).

This special something has nothing to do with any of the above…and everything to do with paper. More specifically books. Especially books that have anything to do with crime. And precisely anything to do with crime fiction.

According to The Guardian, sales of crime novels in the UK have soared, overtaking general fiction for the first time.

Every other genre of fiction is being well and truly murdered, according to those in the know at that global purveyor of investigative journalism.

As you can guess, this is very good news for best-selling British (well…Scottish actually) authors such as Queen of Crime Val McDermid, King of Crime Ian Rankin, and a whole host of Royal scribblers sitting somewhere lower down the ranks North of Hadrian’s Wall (or South).

As you can also guess, I have a somewhat vested interest in this literary growth.

This time last year, my debut crime novel A Time for Dying hit the bookshop shelves with a resounding thud…and then came flying out again fast leaving lots of vacant spaces behind it.

And now, in a ‘history repeats itself’ moment, the sequel, A House for Monsters is sprucing itself up and getting itself ready for publication in February of next year. It’s also available for PRE-ORDER before Christmas…in fact RIGHT NOW!! Santa could be involved in an important capacity.

For those of you who missed the boat first time around, both books are part of a brand spanking new series featuring jazz-loving DI Tom McHale and his team of highly unconventional and memorable serial killer hunters who spend their lives either putting the worst serial killers on the planet either behind bars or below ground.

Suffice to say that if crime fiction with a seriously big difference is your bag…then you really need to make space for A Time for Dying and A House for Monsters in that bag (or on your bookshelf) right now, or even sooner.

Delaying the ordering and reading process for both books (and the third in the series, presently being written) would be a murderously bad idea…