Books for Christmas

No book review from me this Tuesday, but a reminder that I have the odd book that you might like to give your friends for Christmas.

The latest, of course, is Dark Magic. I hate the phrase “comedy thriller” because books described like that are generally neither funny nor thrilling, but if I have to put it into genre I guess that’s one it fits. At least some people found it funny according to their Amazon reviews:

I especially liked the author’s dark, sly sense of humour … had me laughing out loud.
genuinely funny
shot through with dark humour

Some (rather to my surprise) seem to have found it quite scary too.

well-written and chilling story … made me shudder

The paperback is on sale at £4.99 and is an ideal Christmas stocking filler.

I’ve been delighted to see that the John Williamson series is selling the odd copy in paperback which is unusual nowadays. Perhaps the retro feel of it (it’s a first person account of Williamson’s adventures in the 19th century) works particularly well on paper. I’ve been offered space in an anthology to bring John Williamson back for one short story during 2020. Because the three stories (although each a separate novel) make up a proper cycle as Williamson discovers himself and returns, changed, to the beginning, there will be no more John Williamson books, but I’ve missed him and the idea of featuring him in a short story is very appealing.

It’s been four years since Burke at Waterloo was published on the bi-centenary of the battle. The books sell steadily, but not well enough to make them particularly attractive to publishers and there are issues about American rights. Like a lot of authors I’m now moving to publishing my own books. (Dark Magic was self-published because there is hardly any interest in novellas from publishers. Even Steven King struggled with selling novellas.) I’m planning to publish the latest James Burke novel next year. Until then, why not catch up with the three already available?