Hi from Cambridge!



Last month was long, gruelling and beset with minor delays, with the result that we only got the one title out - which was then held up by Amazon so we couldn't tell you until now - but it was truly worth the effort. It's John Ferguson's The Man in the Dark - and it's a brilliant read. It's a great mystery, structured in an unusual way for the time, which gives us different perspectives as the action plays out. Before you know it you're sucked in with our unlucky hero and hoping for his deliverance into happier circumstances!

Like other books of the time, it highlights the very real issues those returning from the war faced - physical and mental. Richard and I had a sombre reminder of this as we walked through the grounds of the University Library in Cambridge just after releasing the book. There's an inscription commemorating the First Eastern General (Military) Hospital that occupied the area the library is built on and which treated 70,000 casualties between 1914-18. Very sobering.

However - don't lose all hope for Kinloch just yet...



Also - I thought for this email I'd offer a free ePub of the book for those of you choosing to buy from The Great British Bookshop. They're a very 'small publisher'-friendly retailer and pay me a little more than Amazon - and at the moment every little helps this one-man-band! I know you prefer paperbacks but an ePub backup for travelling etc., might be useful. Send me your receipt from The Great British Bookshop and I'll send you over your free ePub. (Note - these ePubs are not the ones available on Amazon by another publisher. These are the same re-edited and corrected texts as our new paperbacks.)



Then, in the mess that was the last month - I completely forgot to send you news of a favourite new release in February - Fletcher's The Dressing Room Murder. Sir John Riversley suffers the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune when, shortly before opening in Hamlet, he is stabbed with a rapier in - yep - his dressing room. (Probably not that interesting but I based the cover on a pic I took years ago of a favourite coffee bar in Cambridge. I thought it captured the... ambience? Heh.)



And the same deal with this one - free ePub if you buy the paperback through The Great British Bookshop but obviously, all options are on the Oleander page.