Well it’s been a mad, mad couple of weeks – and some of you will know a lot of the news already – but I think it’s worth setting down what’s happening over the next few months and beyond.

If you’ve pre-ordered “Vengeance in Venice” you’ll probably have received an email saying that publication has now slipped a week to April 12th. This is for the happiest of reasons as Waterstones have requested a few more thousand copies, and the cover finish is being tweaked slightly in terms of embossing etc. I can’t be more precise than that as I haven’t seen it myself yet, but I’m assured it looks lovely.

Moving forward, I’m absolutely delighted to say that “The Venetian Masquerade” will follow in the spring of 2019, and that a fourth Nathan Sutherland novel is confirmed for 2020.

As I said, it’s been a mad couple of weeks, but in a good way. My agent emailed me last Saturday morning to tell me that “The Venetian Game” was #4 in the Times bestselling paperback fiction list (*). Caroline was out, so I had no-one to hug. I picked up Mimi and gave her a cuddle. She gave a confused little n’yeep sound and her paws flailed through the air, albeit in a non-destructive way. In the end, I went to the wine shop and hugged the guy there instead.

A very, very big thank you to all of you!

(* It’s since made it as far as #2. And #1 in The Bookseller’s “Heatseeker” list. I am running out of people to hug.)