Looking Ahead: A Suffolk Mystery Cycle for the Seasons

I would like to share a brief glimpse of what lies ahead in my current mystery cycle, which will ultimately be brought together as a five-book box set.

The Leiston Riddle – coming by summer ’26.

This novel continues my interest in communities shaped as much by what they withhold as by what they reveal. It will be a story rooted in place, memory, and the unsettling persistence of unanswered questions hopefully fitting reading for a season traditionally associated with renewal and reckoning.

The Middleton Mystery – completing the five book box set

The Middleton Mystery will round out the cycle and complete the five-book box set. This concluding story is intended to draw together the thematic and narrative strands that have been quietly accumulating across the series – offering resolution without neatness, and answers that arrive with their own costs.

Taken together, these books form a loose but deliberate arc: stories connected by place, by moral pressure, and by the slow accumulation of truth. I will be sharing updates here as each release approaches, but for now, consider this an invitation to look ahead with me – season by season.

Thank you, as always, for reading.

Comments

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...

Why I chose Suffolk as the setting for my murder mystery

When I began planning 'The Leiston Riddle', one of the first decisions I made was about where the murder would take place. Not just any backdrop would do. I needed a setting with atmosphere, history, and the kind of quiet menace that makes a murder mystery truly unsettling. That’s when Suffolk called to me. Suffolk, with its windswept coastline, sprawling heathlands and close-knit villages, offers a unique blend of beauty and isolation. It’s a place where the mist hangs low over the fields in early morning, where narrow lanes twist through centuries-old parishes, and where everyone knows each other—or at least thinks they do. That kind of landscape creates the perfect breeding ground for secrets. There’s a certain timelessness in Suffolk. You can stand on the edge of a crumbling cliff or inside a church that’s stood since the Middle Ages and feel history pressing in. It makes you wonder: what stories have these walls heard? What might still be buried—both literally and metaphor...

Good news for 2026!

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