The holiday season is a distant memory, and the weather has taken a distinct turn for the worse. I hope you’re safe and well. What news do I have at the start of a New Year?
The first audiobook in The Phoenix Series of ‘The Olympus Project’ is available from the 16th of JANUARY. Five and three-quarter hours of gripping entertainment brought to you with narration by the excellent Marston York.
It has been almost two years since I finished my last book. I’ve tried and failed to get further than five to ten thousand words into the first book for several new series. I couldn’t convince myself I had what it took to master a different genre. We’ve all heard the joke about what a critic said after an author claimed to have written one hundred novels. No, said the critic, they’ve written the same novel one hundred times.
At the risk of getting a similar response, I’ve decided to stick to what worked best for me. I’ve researched ten unsolved murders and selected six to be handled by Gus Freeman when he returns to the job he loves. We left him at home in Urchfont in March 2019 with his young son. His partner, Suzie Ferris, had returned to work. Fast forward five years, and the sixty-seven-year-old former detective gets a call from DI Alex Hardy at Gablecross police station in Swindon.
Alex and Neil Davis are struggling with a cold case from 2004 where the forty-year-old female victim was beaten to death in her remote home in the country. Gus looks out of the window at the wet, cold weather and decides his regular trip to the allotment is out of the question, so what did he have to lose? A chat with Alex would beat daytime TV hands down.
The working title for the series is ‘Murder Never Retires’, and the first title is ‘Back In Business’.
The Crime Review Team won’t be getting back together but Gus will work with Alex Hardy and Neil Davies in Swindon, Blessing Umeh in Salisbury, and Lydia Logan Barre in Dorchester. Each story will give me the chance to introduce new characters, or reintroduce familiar faces from the Freeman Files. A new Chief Constable was about to take charge at London Road in Devizes at the end of the previous series, and feathers will be ruffled when Gus comes out of retirement. What’s life without a little conflict?
We’ll see how things progress. I can’t rule out Amazing Grace needing a helping hand with a cold case at the Met, and many of the regulars from the series are still around at London Road or in the village of Urchfont, so there will be ‘the perfect blend of detective mystery and everyday life with Gus Freeman, The Wiltshire Detective’ that so many of you have enjoyed.
I’m more excited about writing than I have been in two long years. The response to my newsletter announcing Gus’s return was humbling. I hadn’t realised how much he was missed.
I look forward to bringing news of promotions and special offers from Vinci on the 50 books they have on their bookshelf.
Best wishes – Keep reading – Tell more of your friends about me.
Ted Tayler
