shalom JOSEF!

I realise it’s been a while since I last wrote, so I thought I’d better get pen to paper! I hope you’re 2025 has gotten off to a good start. I finally typed ‘Fin’ on ‘Bertram Hervé’s Final Case’ this week. It’s actually taken me longer than usual to finish this one, but I put that down to the fact that it’s an investigation that takes place over four decades with five murders! Oh, and on top of that, we have a whole roster of past, present and future detectives fighting for centre stage. No wonder it’s nudging 550 pages. Working with all these different characters was a little tricky, but I enjoyed it. It was good to have Hugo working alongside Coco, Bertram and Caspar, along with two new detectives who might one day have a series of their own…

Now that the book is finished, I’ll put it to one side for a month or two before picking it up and starting on the second version. So, what’s next? I have a little work left to do on the next release, and then I’ll turn my attention to the forthcoming French releases before starting a brand new novel (Coco’s up next, yay!)

Which brings us to ‘Josef.’ We’re looking at a May release of this novel. It’s an interesting one. I originally envisaged it as a direct sequel to ‘Hugo & Josef,’ but my husband, a big fan of the trilogy, convinced me to relook at the idea after I finished that novel. The trouble was it couldn’t really be a part of a Hugo Duchamp prequel trilogy because, as is evident if you read the end of ‘Hugo & Josef,’ Hugo would not appear in the sequel. Therefore, I put ‘Josef’ to one side and instead came up with what would end up being ‘Club Video.’ I knew I would have to return to ‘Josef’ one day because I already had the entire story plotted out. It was only when I thought of a book combining characters from the different series that I realised I could start a whole new series just by rewriting the premise of ‘Josef’ a little. I’m so glad I did. It’s an interesting little story that begins in modern-day Israel but flashes back to 1996 when young Josef Levy arrived in Israel after the dramatic events with Hugo we witnessed in ‘Hugo & Josef.’ Josef is lost, heartbroken and lonely, but as he attempts to adjust to life on a Kibbutz, he has no time to wallow in the past because there’s a… well, I won’t spoil it too much, other than to say in modern-day Israel a skeleton is discovered, a skeleton that has been lying undisturbed since, you guessed it, 1986!

I can’t wait to share this new adventure with you. Stay tuned because there’s lots more to come in 2025, our official tenth anniversary!  Take care of yourself, and thanks again for your support and appreciation.

Gx