The Great Victorian Cover~up!

The NEW novel

Many people have been asking me (well, a couple ...) whatever happened to the Victorian Detective novels? So here's the answer.

For the past six months, the books have been undergoing a thorough re-edit. This was initially because the new book, Wonders & Wickedness tells the backstory of Lilith Marks, a character we meet in the first novel Diamonds & Dust. WARNING: If you intend to write a series (which I didn't), you need to keep a record of each of your characters' stories, so that you don't suddenly find you have committed them to something in Book 1 that you wish you hadn't by Book 5.

The Victorian Detectives Book 1

Thus the re-edit. And because I wasn't in charge of editing the first three books, it was a good opportunity to visit them all again and check everything else as well. Self-publishing is a never-ending journey, and it has been an interesting experience to 'walk back' through the books ~ sometimes going: did I write this? and sometimes: oh Gawd, did I really write this? in equal measure.

The Victorian Detectives Book 2

Five years is quite a long time for a set of books to be out there, so I took the decision that, along with a re-edit, it was time for a re-launch, and this would involve new covers. I envisaged the final product to be a combination of Steampunk, Victorian London and Crime Fiction. I also wanted them to be unique, slightly quirky and unusual. Given that brief, I went looking for the right cover artist who could work with my ideas and bring them to life.

The Victorian Detectives Book 3

I found her. Enter Gina Dickerson, of RoseWolf Designs ~ check her out at @GinaDWriter . Gina 'got' what I wanted from the first email exchange, and over the succeeding months, we came up with what I think are a fabulous set of covers. They are bespoke, and personal: Rack & Ruin has one of my photographs of Russell Square as a background. Wonders & Wickedness uses an amazingly evocative photograph taken by a Twitter friend Estelle Clarke @Legalimportant 

The Victorian Detectives Book 4

So here they both are: Detective Inspector Leo Stride and Detective Sergeant Jack Cully, two of Scotland Yard's finest. I hope you will enjoy their latest outing ~ it takes them to some very dark and mysterious places indeed, and if you haven't made their acquaintance already, why not dip into their very first adventure? Click on any of the Book links to find them.