2025 is the tenth anniversary of me being a published author. The first DCI Matilda Darke novel was published on October 1, 2015. Since then, there have been twelve further novels in the series, three novellas, four standalone novels and two Dr Olivia Winter novels. Eighteen full-length books in ten years. I’m not sure how that happened, but the evidence is on the shelf behind me in my office. To think it took me almost two decades to get published and then eighteen more come along in ten years.
So, what does 2025 have in store for me? Well, at the very beginning of the year I thought it would be a new Dr Olivia Winter book, The Devil’s Code, the standalone, Chapter One, and the twelfth DCI Darke thriller, Worse Than Murder. Then, something happened in early January that blew my socks off. I’m not allowed to talk about it yet (publishers are very secretive) but there is something being published towards the end of November that I’m currently working on. It’s a tight deadline, but fortunately I rarely leave the house, so I have plenty of time.
As for what I’m currently working on, well, the third Dr Olivia Winter is coming along nicely. Olivia is back in London and there is a new serial killer for her to contend with as well as a new member of the Behavioural Science Administration to settle in. Once that’s finished, I’ll be starting work on the fourteenth Matilda Darke thriller titled First One To Die. This will be the culmination of the story which began in Last One Left Alive and will see a massive shift in Matilda’s team and the departure of a couple of regular characters. I’m currently plotting the story and the murder scenes and I’m researching explosions. I don’t believe I’ve ever had a character get blown up before.
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you all for being with me either from the very beginning in 2015 or if I’m a new author to you, I hope you’re enjoying my work. I appreciate all your feedback (positive, of course) and I am very grateful you’ve chosen my books for your entertainment. Let’s raise a figurative glass to the next ten years.