Excerpt from Double Stakes

Double Stakes banner Read an excerpt

The first few pages…

The ringtone echoed through the trees around the lake.

Mel grabbed her phone.

‘Des Pittones. Bonjour.’

‘Mel! Mel!’

‘Mum?’ Mel turned over and pulled herself up on her elbows. Her fair hair, damp from swimming, fell both sides of her face. […]

Why I wrote Double Stakes

Double Stakes banner Read an excerpt

Double Stakes is the third book in the Mélisende ‘Doubles’ series and has the most difficult one to write. Thrillers are my thing, both as a reader and a writer. Mel and Jeff are characters I love to share with you as I do the whole des Pittones clan, the enigmatic EIRS director Patrick […]

Are 'what if' stories coming into fashion?

A recent post in The Economist magazine congratulated Francis Spufford whose Cahokia Jazz won this year’s long-form class of the Sidewise Awards for Alternate History. The Economist went on to state: “The what-if genre of fiction is growing fast, with work of startling quality and originality. [Cahokia Jazz is] A noir thriller that takes […]