Transformations, Faded Hopes and the Trauma of Change

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With Murder Amidst the Rushes, DCI Arthur Ravyn and DS Leo Stark begin their fifth adventure in the legend-haunted English County of Hammershire, and it starts with two men leaving the Mad Badger pub, walking onto the old brick bridge crossing the River Dresal, and only one returning to the pub's car park.

Arthur Ravyn has finally recovered from injuries received during the course of events related in Murderer in Shadow. And, finally, Sgt and Mrs Stark have been blessed with their long-anticipated baby, whom they have named Catherine. For once, Ravyn and Stark begin a case without the shadow of Superintendent Heln looming over them; the little fellow has been sent to Paris to attend a crime prevention conference...ah, we can only pity the French.

Each of the previous books in the series had a specific theme, and this book's is Transformations. We all look for ways to change our lives, but change is never as easy as it should be. All too often, any change we might effect has results neither intended nor anticipated. All of us has been so wracked by changes over the years, either through our own efforts or by the actions of others, that it's hard not to hold the belief that, "All change is bad." And it gets worse as we go along. What might have seemed adventurous in our salad years now seems traumatic. I have to admit, however, I am the wrong person to judge the necessity of change...these days, even moving a chair from one side of a room to another is enough to send me into a glassy-eyed stupor. Yeah, change is never good.

But, as the characters in Murder Amidst the Rushes find out, there is no escaping the whims of a cruel and often capricious universe. Some hope for relief from a wretched home life, yet have no idea how to escape. Others try to hold on to what they have, yet events beyond understanding or control take away the dreams and aspirations they had achieved. Then there are those who know what they want, think they know how to achieve those goals, and will not let anything, or anyone, get in their way. When greed and ruthless pursuit become the paramount drivers of a man's life, can murder be far behind? As Stark comes to realize, "Gold makes monsters of all men."

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The book is available in both digital and print editions on Amazon. If you have a Kindle Unlimited subscription ($9.99/month and well worth it, according to the Wife), you can download it to your e-reader and read it at no extra cost...considering you're paying a subscription fee, I don't use the term "free" as others, including Amazon, do. If you have Prime, but not Kindle Unlimited, I think you can still borrow the book as part of the one book a month you're allowed.

Murder Amidst the Rushes has been out for about a month now. The response to it has been very encouraging, and it seems to have sparked renewed interest in the entire Ravyn series by those encountering it for the first time.

For those who have contacted me over the past year with comments and questions, I apologize for the delay in bringing the book into print. It has been a very difficult couple of years, marked by death, illness, surgeries and traumatic events of all sorts. Some I have handled better than others, but each new situation played its part in overcoming my best intentions. Thanks for your patience and encouragement. I truly appreciate your support.

Click HERE to purchase the entire series

Ravyn vs Magic

The fourth book in the DCI Arthur Ravyn Mystery series, Murderer in Shadow, is now available. This time DCI Ravyn and DS Stark find themselves in the village of Knight's Crossing, where magic is an everyday part of life...and death. The search for a missing boy leads to the reopening of the Stryker Case, the murder of a family of malevolent magicians more than three decades earlier. For those who'd like a little peak at the story (best viewed full screen)...

Though the magical universe as portrayed in the novel does have some Lovecraftian underpinnings, it's actually based on "real" magical systems used by magicians and sorcerers. Though I don't write many fantasy stories, except the Kira Series and the Cthulhu Mythos stories (which I treat, really, as science fiction and/or mystery), I still conduct reams of research, to the point where less than 10% of the research actually makes it into the story. In crafting the worldview of the villagers of Knight's Crossing I used perhaps a dozen reference books, but three in particular.

Just because something isn't real doesn't mean it shouldn't be exhaustively researched. In my early years (pre-junior high school), that penchant tended to hold me back. I found it hard to write about subjects I could not describe right down to the nuts and bolts, such as time machines and faster-than-light spaceships. Fortunately, I learned I didn't have to tell the reader how to build one in order to get him to believe it was real in the context of the story. Though Murderer in Shadow is not a fantasy story, it does have some fantastic elements, especially for the down-to-earth Detective Sergeant Leo Stark.

Anyway, it feels good to have Ravyn and Stark back on the job protecting victims, nicking villains, and balancing the letter of the law with the spirit of the law. Though Arthur Ravyn would certainly downplay their importance in the scheme of things, one shudders to think what chaos their absence would cause in Hammershire County, a place where change comes slowly, if at all, the past often intrudes upon the present and old things sometimes refuse to die.

Stay Out of the Woods

If there is anything I've learned from a lifetime of watching films, it's that very few good things take place in the woods. From being stalked by the Blair Witch to attacked by blood-drinking Druids to running into the Jersey Devil, bad things happen in forests. The deeper you venture into those dark woods, the worse the dangers become, till the very trees themselves turn against you and try to suck your life force from you...that was a British film. The point is, you don't have to be named Hansel or Gretel to come to no good end when ancient/forbidden/cursed/haunted woods are involved. And it's not merely a modern motif. Storytellers have been warning us to stay out of the woods for at least four thousand years...obviously we are slow learners. In Beast of Robbers Wood, third book in the DCI Arthur Ravyn Mysteries, I add my own voice to those warning of dangers lurking among those seemingly peaceful sylvan settings.

Just outside Midriven village, in myth-haunted Hammershire County, is the vast, mostly unexplored tract known as Robbers Wood. The forest acquired that name through the depredations of notorious highwayman Ned Bly, who made his living by taking purses and heads along the Old Road. Even though his neck got stretched by Jack Ketch in 1837, his spirit still gallops the road. As if that were not reason enough to stay out of the woods (not to mention avoiding the lane that skirts the woods), there is an even older legend going back at least to the time of the Druids. A nameless Beast occasionally awakens from its slumber ("when the stars are right" of course) and takes victims back to its lair in the heart of the woods. Personally, I'd move to another village. When a girl vanishes from Midriven (only the first of several) it falls to DCI Arthur Ravyn and DS Leo Stark to investigate. None of the village old timers are betting on the detectives to survive, much less solve the baffling mystery -- what chance do two country coppers stand against the Old Gods?

If you're interested in a preview of the book, please click below:

Although Midriven and its legends are central to the mystery, it's really the characters that propel the story. We learn a bit more about Ravyn's past, as well as the crisis that has assailed Stark's life since we met him in Murder in the Goblins' Playground, but each person we meet in Midriven has a story to tell, and perhaps a destiny to meet. I hope you enjoy this and the other books as much as I enjoy writing them. Currently, I am working on the fourth in the series, Murderer in Shadow, which will center around the theme of solitude and loneliness...and, of course, murder.

To be taken to the series page on Amazon, please click here

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Back to Hammershire County

A few months ago, I completed the long-held goal of writing a traditional British mystery. It was titled Murder in the Goblins' Playground, featured DCI Arthur Ravyn, and was very well received by readers who enjoy British mysteries in the "village cozy" genre. I've finished the second book in the series, again set in legend-haunted Hammershire County, and you can get a preview of it here:

Nearly forty years ago I found myself in Adams, Tennessee. It's not a well-known place anymore, except to students of the strange, but in the Nineteenth Century it was one of the most celebrated towns in the United States. It was the site of the Bell Witch incident. Despite the name, it was actually a ghost haunting. When I was there, more than a hundred years later, the town was still under the shadow of the Bell Witch. Businesses used Bell Witch-influenced logos in their signs. Not only could every single resident give detailed instructions on how to reach the original farm where the haunting took place, they all had stories passed down through the generations. And it was a fine irony that the mayor's surname at the time was Strange.

When I began developing Little Wyvern, the village at the centre of "Village of Ghosts," I took some cues from Adams, Tennessee. Anyone looking to develop a village as a ghost-themed tourist destination would want as many ghosts as possible, which would mean dragging every single family skeleton out of its closet, kicking and screaming if necessary. Secrets would be bared. All secrets. More than enough motive for murder...which is exactly what happens in the formerly sleepy village of Little Wyvern. Add in some quirky English characters, a hidden adversary, and a Warlock back after more than 350 years, and you have a mystery worthy of DCI Arthur Ravyn and DS Leo Stark from the Hammershire Constabulary.

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