Hope you and your families are keeping well. We’re living in strange times.

Lockdown scuppered my book tour which has been frustrating, but a lot of people of course have had far worse to deal with.

However, this week has brought better news: The Trail has been nominated and longlisted for two awards.

First, Not The Booker run by The Guardian. See https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog…

I’m having a crazy day! M.E.N. photographer just left, my book’s now on display in Manchester Waterstones, I've received 150 Twitter messages, and the chickens have laid 9 eggs!

Thanks for all your support. It’s been a fascinating journey – and now I can start worrying about the sequel!

Hope to see some of you at the various events of my Book Tour. In addition to the above dates, I should be…

Dear supporters

Thanks for all the great messages, calls, and photos you’ve sent over the last 10 days. They mean so much to me.

The Trail gets published on 20 Feb, so please spread the word. Available to order in bookshops, and on Amazon.

And if you have a spare moment, please add a review on Amazon (after 20 Feb), Good Reads, Love Reading.

I now have a 19 date book tour (and hopefully…

Dear supporters

Hope you had a good Christmas, and best wishes for 2020.

It's starting with a bang for me! My book will shortly be delivered to you - about a month before the official publishing date at the end of February.

I thought you may be interested in the first reviews:

Paula Hawkins (Girl On The Train)

"Intelligent and pacy thriller . . . a taut, keenly-observed tale of revenge…

Dear Supporters

The book should be out in the spring!

I’m now in the last stage of the copy edit, a process far less daunting than the structural edit. The aim is to remove continuity errors (for example, a yellow car becomes a red car), check the formatting, and to generally polish.

The manuscript is now locked so I can only suggest revisions to Mary (my copy editor); however, I have the…

Dear Supporters

Hope you’re well and had a good summer.

Sorry for the update silence – I’ve been beavering with the structural edit.

                When I hit 100% funding, Unbound assigned me an editor. She read my manuscript and then sent me a 36 page document with ‘things you might want to consider’! I went to bed thinking, No Way, but in the morning set to work. It took me four weeks…

Yes, we’ve done it! Hit 100% funding so it’s really going to happen.

THANK YOU for all your fantastic pledges.

The supporters list reads like a Who’s Who in my life, starting from Rob and Andy in nursery school, numerous schoolfriends and teachers at Whitgift, friends from Cambridge, police officers (from Hendon, and people I’ve worked with in the Met and in GMP), mountaineers from our expedition…

We’re approaching the longest day of the year and the beans and potatoes are growing (and so are the weeds). We’re also approaching 80 per cent funding for The Trail which is brilliant. THANK YOU! I have been very touched by the breadth and depth of support.

One big difference between The Trail and most crime thrillers is that I didn’t need to research being a detective. The result is a crime thriller…

Dear Supporters

We’ve hit 50 per cent in under 3 weeks which is fantastic. THANK YOU! Supporters of The Trail now include friends and family, neighbours, our electrician, the guy who fixed my computer, and even my old English teacher! Most encouraging of all, they now include strangers.

I’m writing this at my desk, listening to the cuckoo in the wood opposite.

Another question I’ve been asked…

Dear Supporters

The BH weekend is drawing to a close. It’s been sunny here in the Peak District, and the honeybees have been collecting brick-red pollen from the horse chestnut tree. The blossom on the apple trees looks promising.

                A BIG thank you to everyone who has supported The Trail so far. The book has reached 15% funding in the first five days which is a great start.