⛵Rotting Hulls and Fresh Corpses⛵

Hello from Lancashire

It's been a crazy couple of weeks, and I couldn't be happier with the response to The Boatyard, Book 1 of the new Whaley & Gaskill series. Thank you all so much for your messages and emails - and for clicking that preorder button!

You know when someone mentions a car - a Vauxhall Astra, say - and you start to see Vauxhall Astras everywhere? Well, that's what's happened to me, only it's not Vauxhall Astras, it's boatyards. I've spend more than half a century not really noticing boatyards, and now I seem to be drawn to them like a bent cop to brown envelopes. The boatyard above is in the town of Omiš, in Croatia - home of the Cemetery Cats from one of my recent emails. It's completely derelict, but there's something about the sky and the ripples of the Adriatic Sea that lends it a certain glamour.

Below is the boatyard from The Boatyard, which is also derelict. It's definitely not glamorous, but between the rotting hulls lurk fresh corpses, and who needs glamour when you've got gore?

Is that a spoiler? Are you really surprised that one of my books, calledThe Boatyard, is going to feature a boatyard with a dead body in it?

If you are, you shouldn't be. Maybe you should be wondering whose body it is, and how it got there, and if that's where your mind has taken you, you should consider a job with Cumbria CID.

If, on the other hand, you're thinking about the police officers who attended the scene, or the ones who didn't attend the scene but could have done; if you reckon you could sniff out a bent cop at thirty paces....

...then perhaps you belong in PSD.

Can you can see yourself trawling through the data until you spot something that's just a tiny bit out of place, like DC Harriett Barnes? 

Or are you more of a DS Denise Gaskill, unnerving a suspect into making a crucial slip with the power of your icy stare? 

Perhaps you're a strategist, like DI Carl Whaley, moving pieces around the board until everything is just where you want it. 

You could even be the consummate politician, like DCI Branthwaite, although that's not for everyone. Better, perhaps, to try on the role of a DC Marcus Hosgood, hungry to impress and burning with a fire for justice.

As you'll discover, PSD is for everyone. As long as you're completely paranoid, (mostly) law-abiding, and don't trust a word anyone tells you, you can make yourself a comfortable home there. 

Don't believe me?

Preorder the book. You'll see.

The Boatyard on Kindle UK

Tha Boatyard on Kindle US

The Boatyard Paperback UK

Last time I was in touch I said I'd be describing the most bizarre tourist attraction I’ve ever experienced, but that's going to have to wait because the place in question deserves proper care and attention. 

So instead I'll leave you with the exciting news that my brand new website has launched. It's been built by a genius who understands not just technology but beautiful design, and it's filled with news and information on all my books, past, present and future, as well as a back catalogue of blog posts in case you've missed any of these emails. You can find it at www.joelhamesbooks.com.

I’ll be in touch again soon, with more tales of killings and corruption in Cumbria. 

In the meantime, happy reading,

Joel