Something or Nothing

Fingers are crossed, and toes, that tomorrow I will be able to make an exciting announcement. If you come here often, you can probably guess what it is – I am hoping to publish my next paperback, my new Thomas Radwinter adventure, having already launched the Kindle version today. The whole thing has been somewhat fraught, I started writing it just before lock-down and so it is set in 2019, because a Radwinter story during lockdown would be very, very different. As it is with my new book “Something or Nothing”, although it is a completely new story with new characters, it is a typical story of Thomas taking on seemingly ordinary and possibly slightly boring commissions, only to find they lead him into some strange and quite dangerous places.

He says:

“I’m an independent solicitor, but over the last few years, I’ve been asked to do odd little tasks, finding a dodgy Moroccan, investigating a haunted hotel, tracking down a mysterious Tibetan Lama, for example. Most recently, I stayed with an immensely wealthy family, supposedly to undertake genealogical research, but in actual fact to solve a century old crime. This seemingly innocent assignment put me in danger of my life and it all got a bit hairy. I was totally in the dark – and at the end literally so. Thankfully, by good fortune and chance I survived what seemed at the time to be a terminal situation. I escaped, but there were a few more nightmares added to my night-time inventory.”

Thomas has promised his wife he will never put himself at risk again. This new story starts in a strange, but thankfully for Thomas, quite harmless way:

“All I could hear was the car alarm almost deafening me. I was engulfed by the airbag and so shocked I could barely think what to do.

Then the door was opened and someone was shouting was I alright. Yes, I believe I was and I managed to take the key out of the ignition, undo the seatbelt and crawl out. I was on my hands and knees and someone was helping me up asking again if I was alright. Winded and a bit shocked but yes, unharmed… and my car? Yes, that also was completely unscratched, unbumped, undamaged… which was more than could be said for the deceased beast which lay in the carriageway, its dead legs stiffly in the air, its dead eyes looking accusingly at me.

I was in no way responsible, I assured it silently.

A crowd had gathered and it too was silent, phones out, taking pictures and videos of the extraordinary scene.”

Later, back at work, a friend from his school days asks him to check up on an elderly neighbour who seems to have gone missing – nothing dangerous in that, obviously! After work, Thomas decides to investigate a newly opened micro-pub, only to be confronted by a big angry man who mistakes him for someone else who’d insulted him. Fortunately, the angry man is pacified, and Thomas goes for a swift pint, wondering who his drunken double is. These seemingly simple and harmless incidents have repercussions… as Thomas soon finds out!

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I will share links to the paperback and the Kindle version as soon as they are available!