Some interesting facts about Book 3

Firstly, let´s just talk about the subtitle of my books, the Morgan Morales Murder Mystery Series. Breaking that down we know that Morgan and Morales are the two detectives that appear in each book of the series and that we already have the first two books, so it is confirmed it is a series.

The other two words in the subtitle are murder and mystery, and yes, it is true that each book contains a murder and that the detectives try to solve the mystery of whodunnit!

However, I do not consider that my books are just classic murder mysteries. In a classic whodunnit the murder or murders appear at the beginning, and others may occur during the time that the detective/s are busy trying to find the murderer. The climax is when they do, and it always makes me laugh (not aloud) when in a book or on a TV programme there are multiple homicides, and the cop/detective is praised for their work. Er … shouldn´t they have caught him after murder one? And do not forget all the people they have questioned, detained, arrested only to find they are innocent! Of course, if there was not all that action, they could not fill a programme or a book! I am not really knocking it, as I enjoy a classic UK TV programme that works exactly on that premise, Midsomer Murders, I mean seriously, whoever would move to Midsomer? You would be putting yourself in the line for being murdered, surely? So, it is not that I don´t like that format, it is just that it is not my style of writing.

So, if they are not classic whodunnits, then what is my genre/style of writing? I believe I write a good story with interesting characters and that it is impossible to slot my book in any one genre heading. Those characters that have a major part in each story have history and background; they are not faceless names with no substance.

Another thing is that, although the detecting part always takes place in Almeria Province, not all of the action happens there. In book 1, ‘A Woman Scorned’, we had two English married coupes that moved to Spain, incidentally to the same town. The first chapters are about their lives in England, how they met, and how they eventually moved to Spain. I could have started the book at the point where they did move to Spain, but I did not think that would be as interesting as building up their characters, so you understand why and how they do certain things.

In book 2, ‘O! What a Tangled Web!’ the new characters are Spanish, so that allowed me to introduce another person who would appear in book 2 and future books, Sarah the interpreter. Once again, I develop the characters by giving them a background, and none of this background is in Almeria, I take the reader on a journey up to Murcia to start, and then along the length of Andalucia to Sevilla and Jerez de la Frontera.

So now, having titled this blog “Some interesting facts about book 3” I had better give you some! First the name, ‘Deadlier than the Male`. It could be subtitled, `3 weddings and er how many funerals`? However, I must not give too much away. The murder in book 3 happens in Aljariz, a village just up the road from where I live! Much of the book however deals with the character, Rose and her husband Joe, and how they arrive at the point where they move to Spain, way up North, nowhere near Almeria, to start with!

I will also confirm that Sarah appears again and in fact, becomes a major character in this book. At the end of book 2, after Morgan and Morales saved her from Raoul, Sarah was asked if she liked detective work, but she said that she thought she would stick to translating. Would she keep to her word? Or muscle in on Morgan´s detective agency?

You shall not have to wait too long as book 3 will be published next month. Currently in editing, we have a cover to design, the text to be formatted, and all the other trivial matters dealt with before I self-publish on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Apple Books. I promise to let you know the actual publishing date as soon as I know! Watch this space!