This week, The Big Chill, book three in the Sam Smith Mystery Series, made the top one hundred on the Amazon private detective chart, alongside Sue Grafton, Arthur Conan Doyle and Robert B Parker.
Set at Christmas, and with a snow storm gripping the city, someone is out to murder private detective Samantha Smith. Using her wits and skills as a detective, Sam sets out to track down the assassin leading to a dramatic showdown in her snowbound apartment.
I have storyboarded Boston, book fourteen in the Sam Smith Mystery Series. This story takes place over Christmas and features a range of new characters, including Gabe, a Boston private eye. The picture shows a south-east view of Boston, c1730.
In chapter three of Saving Grace, my forthcoming Victorian mystery novel, Daniel Morgan, my advocate, meets Grace Petrie, his client, for the first time. Grace reminds Daniel of Jean-Baptiste Greuze’s paintings, in particular the sensuality of the lady in ‘The White Hat’, pictured, and the vulnerability of the girl in ‘The Broken Vessel’.
The picture below is from my research into Victorian fashions for my forthcoming novel, Saving Grace. Saving Grace is set in 1876 when slimline dresses, bottom left of picture, were in.
Below, the location for the dramatic finale in Betrayal, Ann’s War Mystery Series book one. This location also features in the Sam Smith Mystery Series.
If you have any comments or questions about my books please feel free to contact me via my website. Thank you.
Here are the five covers for my forthcoming five story Ann Morgan Mystery Series. Set in 1944-5, these 15,000 word novellas will be set four months apart and published four months apart, starting in November 2017, so you can read them in ‘real time’ if you so wish. Each story will contain a complete mystery while the five stories will complete Ann Morgan’s story arc. Ann is a private detective’s secretary who, through a combination of circumstances, assumes the lead detective role.
I am delighted with these covers and only hope that my words can do them justice. More news about the series, including the offer of a free book, in the near future.
Last week, Sam’s Song reached #1 on the Amazon private detective chart for the fifth time (56 on the main chart). This will probably be the last time one of my books tops an Amazon.com chart because I will not be promoting directly to that site in future. Nevertheless, five number ones is a record I’m pleased with and proud of.
Digging in the Dirt was published this weekend. The book broke my pre-order record so many thanks to everyone who pre-ordered it. I hope you enjoy the story. Also published this week, the audio book of Family Honour narrated by Suzan Lynn Lorraine. Please see my Audio Book page for samples of my audio books.
The Austin 10 driven by spy master Charles Montagu in my forthcoming Ann Morgan Mystery Series. Currently, I’m editing Betrayal, book one in the series, for publication in November.
The cliffs at Southerndown provide the dramatic location for the finale of Betrayal, Ann Morgan Mystery Series book one, published in November. Here is a short film showing the cliffs in all their glory.
In case you missed it, here is my appreciation of actress Gene Tierney a woman whose life was far more dramatic than any of the roles she played. Her quotes, taken from her autobiography, are particularly poignant and insightful. This is my most popular article to date.
Sam visits Tintern, in A Parcel of Rogues. The monastery at Tintern was the first Cistercian abbey founded in Wales, on 9th May 1131. In later centuries, after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, many poets and painters visited the abbey, including William Wordsworth and, in 1794, J.M.W. Turner, who painted the chancel.
Page One containing the historical background to my Ann’s War Mystery Series is now complete. This page tells the story of the 28th Infantry Division and their training in South Wales before embarking on the beaches of Normandy in July 1944. Some of the incidents mentioned on this page will appear in the series. Ann’s War: The Army Camp
Sam is in the Wye Valley in A Parcel of Rogues. In the eighteenth century, the Wye Valley witnessed the birth of British tourism when the words and pictures of poets and painters enticed those with spare time and money to visit. This railway poster, c1938, was aimed at ‘everyman’ as people from all classes of society flocked to enjoy the valley’s natural beauty.
Last week, I enjoyed coverage of the St Louis Rapid and Blitz chess tournament in which former world champion Garry Kasparov made a ‘comeback’. The event was won by one of my favourite players, Levon Aronian. You can catch up with all the dramatic action on YouTube
This is John Street, Porthcawl, Wales in 1938. My heroine, Ann Morgan, walks down this street in 1944, just before she discovers a murder. A billboard on the right hand side of the picture advertises a crime movie, Penitentiary, starring Jean Parker, also pictured. Included is a poster promoting that movie.
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Sam is stargazing in A Parcel of Rogues, looking at Pegasus in the October sky. The picture shows Pegasus with the foal Equuleus, from a set of constellation cards published, c.1825. The horses appear upside-down in relation to the constellations around them.
Some beautiful views and background on Sam’s homeland, Wales.
It was Mark Knopfler’s birthday this week. So…
It’s a mystery to me
The game commences
For the usual fee
Plus expenses
Confidential information
It’s in a diary
This is my investigation
It’s not a public inquiry
I go checking out the reports
Digging up the dirt
You get to meet all sorts
In this line of work
Treachery and treason
There’s always an excuse for it
And when I find the reason
I still can’t get used to it
And what have you got at the end of the day?
What have you got to take away?
A bottle of whisky and a new set of lies
Blinds on the window and a pain behind the eyes
Scarred for life
No compensation
Private investigations
Hannah Howe 