The start of this month saw the publication of THE MERMAID’S SCREAM, Wesley Peterson’s twenty first investigation.

THE MERMAID’S SCREAM begins with an author visit to a library (something very close to my heart!) by a young writer who’s working on the biographer of Wynn Staniland, a reclusive author who took the publishing world by storm back in the 1980s and then cut himself off from the world after his wife’s mysterious death. The young biographer later goes missing and his disappearance appears to be linked to the apparent suicide of a middle aged couple at a caravan park. Then Wesley finds that Wynn Staniland is the connection between his two cases. The historical case lurking in the background is the Victorian cause celebre (acted out by a group of sinister nineteenth century puppets) that inspired Wynn Staniland’s most famous work.

mermaids scream

I dedicated the book to ‘all library staff everywhere’ but, unfortunately the dedication was accidentally left out of the hardback. However, it is in the e-book and I’m assured that it will be in the paperback (out in August).

Talking of libraries, a couple of weeks ago I was thrilled to receive an email telling me that I’ve been longlisted for the CWA Dagger in the Library award. This was extremely exciting for me because I’m a great supporter of libraries (I’ve got many library visits lined up already this year – see my events page for details) and to be considered for this particular award is very important to me.

Another piece of good news is that I’ve had the go ahead to write the next two books in the Albert Lincoln trilogy. A lot of you have told me how much they enjoyed A HIGH MORTALITY OF DOVES and it will be satisfying to continue Albert’s story. A HIGH MORTALITY OF DOVES is out in paperback on 4th May and I’m visiting Bolton and Bury libraries that day to celebrate the occasion.

I was delighted to be asked to take part in CLICSargent’s ‘Get in Character’ auction again this year (in which the winner has a character in my next book named after them). I’ve just sent a signed copy of THE MERMAID’S SCREAM to last year’s winner, Julie Shepherd (who became a very nice librarian for the purposes of the book – I hope she enjoys her ‘role’) If you’d like to see your name in my next book please go to  http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/401280842933 and make a bid. CLICSargent is a children’s cancer charity so it’s for a very good cause!

Better get back to Wesley’s next case now.