The Leiston Riddle Was Only the Beginning!

Legends, saints as well as forgotten communities who shape the land abound in The Iken Icon. Their presence lingers like ghostly whispers...

The soil, the water and the ruins reveal fragments of the past like clues left by an unreliable narrator, thus commences the journey I am taking with the Iken Icon.

The sequel, The Iken Icon, is beginning to take shape. I’m not ready to reveal too much yet – the story will decide what it wants to be told – but I can say this: Iken itself will be more than a backdrop. With its ancient church and its long memory, the land feels like a character waiting to speak and something I haven’t really tried to do as I am an urban writer at heart.

This is only the beginning of the journey. As the writing unfolds, I’ll share more here – about the challenges, the surprises, and what I discover as I progress.

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From revelations to red herrings - what makes a good clue in a crime novel?!

A good clue might seem minor or unrelated at first, but later, when the twist is revealed, it becomes obviously significant . Example : A dog that didn’t bark during a break-in later reveals the intruder was someone known to it. The best clues aren’t hidden, they’re right there, buried among distractions or filtered through character assumptions. T echnique : Use red herrings or multiple interpretations to mask the true meaning. The clue should emerge naturally from character behaviour or choices and not be dropped in arbitrarily. Example : A suspect unconsciously straightening a crooked picture frame may link them to a ransacked room later. Make clues reflect the larger emotional truth or moral question of the story. Example : A discarded child’s toy at the crime scene isn’t just a clue, it hints at the victim’s broken home life. No clue should exist in isolation. It should tie into at least one other clue, forming a web that readers can eventually untangle. What Fee...

Good news for 2026!

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Old houses and atmosphere

The Green Knowe books have such a distinctive atmosphere. The old house sits at the centre of everything, and time there never feels fixed. Instead of dramatic time travel, the past seems to slip quietly into the present. In The Children of Green Knowe , when Tolly stays with his grandmother, he encounters the children who lived there centuries earlier; Toby, Alexander and Linnet: as if the house itself allows different periods to overlap. In The River at Green Knowe , Tolly experiences the house in the Middle Ages in the same gentle way. There’s no explanation or mechanism; the house simply seems to hold those earlier lives within it. That sense of time folding softly back on itself gives the stories their quiet enchantment. Inspired by Hemingford Grey Manor where the author lived, the house feels ancient, calm and full of memory; a place where the garden, river and rooms all carry traces of the past. It’s the kind of atmosphere that stays with readers for decad...

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