The world can wait

 Both of the new Ellery/York books are now out in the big wide world. See How They Run came out on May 24, followed by the sequel See How They Hide on June 7. I would have posted sooner, but a hand injury prevented my typing for several weeks, But now, a month after surgery, all is back to normal. The Headley Cross marathon has been held every year since it was founded in 1983. This time, as well as the full run, a half marathon is being offered, and preparations are well under way. DS Zander Ellery and DC Isabel York have a hectic caseload and could well do without the squad having to run the marathon. When the race is threatened, they and the other members of the MIU/Major Crimes are tasked with neutralizing the threat.  As the day of the race draws near, with ten thousand runners due to take to the streets, time to find the culprit is running out. Lives are at stake, and Ellery and York must succeed in winning this race. --Part 1 of the SEE HOW Ellery & York sub-s...

  When district nurse Octavia Berry arrives to start her new job on a remote Scottish island, the last person she expects to see is her estranged husband. With a population of seventy-two and at the mercy of the elements, the island offers the peace and fresh start she longs for, but considerably more complications than she anticipated. Pastor Ulysses Pine finds the island the perfect spot to assuage the sins of his youth. He spends his days tending many of the island sheep, as well as pastoring his human flock. The arrival of Octavia, the woman he abandoned on their wedding day, turns his ordered life upside down. As Christmas approaches, Octavia and Ulysses face a collision course with the past, whilst they try to navigate through the present.   Extract Ulysses Pine leapt out of his truck as soon as he tugged the keys free from the ignition. He pocketed them as he trotted up to the small building that served as air traffic control, arrivals, departures, and airport...

  It’s Christmas and DS Zander Ellery is buried in work. He’s tried hard to put the events of Jack’s House, an undercover operation, behind him, yet his thoughts keep returning to Kate. She promised to keep in touch, and she hasn’t. Kate Dahlbeck left town after the events of Jack’s House. With her past exposed, no home and no job, she fled to her brother to work for him. Now she’s up to her neck in trouble, on the run and can only think of one person to help. Zander with a zed. Zander and his partner, DC Isabel York, agree to help. It doesn’t take much investigating before Zander understands that Kate’s situation is far worse, far messier, and far more dangerous than he first realised. extract Loud voices drew her attention to two men halfway down the nave. One was Rvd.Reverend Scott. She recognised the profile of the second man along with his voice but couldn’t for the life of her think of his name now. As she drew closer, the second man raised his arm, bringing it down hard and ...

  Billie the elf lives on the bottom of Laurel’s bed. Laurel loves everything about elves and wanted one of her very own. Unfortunately, real elves are very shy. So, over the summer, Gramma crocheted one that Laurel could keep. At the beginning of December, Laurel got an Advent calendar, which started the countdown to Christmas. This got Billie thinking. What was Christmas? And why does so much go on in the four weeks of the period known as Advent? Billie can’t wait to find out as she and Laurel open the Advent calendar each morning. These are their adventures. extract : Billie took a deep breath and admired her handiwork. It needed one more thing. She eyed up the ribbon and the bells, before deciding on the silver bell. She tied it onto the wreath and sighed happily. It was perfect. She lowered the wreath to the chair before jumping down beside it. Then she lowered it to the floor and jumped beside it. Now all she had to do was carry it across the room and up onto the windowsi...

  St. Morien, Cornwall. Beautiful. Peaceful. Deadly. Detective Inspector Aidan Urquhart has a mystery on his hands. Three young women   reported missing back in the summer have been found dead; all still wearing the clothes in which they vanished; all frozen solid on the cold shore. When Jenica Zimmerman realises her sister is missing, she heads to the Cornish coast where the police have few clues. The DI leading the case warns her not to take chances, to go home and leave the case to his team. Determined to stay, Jenica takes a room at a local inn and attempts to find her sister herself. With Christmas fast approaching, all she wants is a happy ending. But when a fourth body is discovered, all tidings of comfort and joy seem far away. Extract: Two girls had been found dead on the beach at St. Morien in the last two weeks. Neither were Thea, but Jenica couldn’t help but worry. On a hunch she checked the photo app on her phone that Thea was addicted to. Her breath...

  In The Bleak Midwinter Blurb: The Adelphi Theatre has been the centre of drama in Headley Cross for one hundred years. Interim manager, Flick Anderson, does her best to juggle running the theatre and directing her first play, Home Is Where The Heart Is . Flick is overjoyed when her best friend and ex-boyfriend, Will Reid, takes on the main male lead—especially as she wrote the role for him. BAFTA winning actor Will Reid prefers stage work to anything else. When the job he should have been doing over Christmas is unexpectedly cancelled, he leaps at the chance of working with Flick. Could this be a new beginning for the two of them? But life is never that simple. Just as Flick begins to thaw, a spanner is thrown into the works that could wreck things forever.   Extract: Flick sighed. Maybe somewhere in the desk was a list of who to call to fix this kind of mess. She headed back to the office with no idea where to look. Twenty minutes later, she’d turned the offic...

  Blurb: You’d better watch out. You’d better not cry. Santa Claus is going to die. DCI Boaz Matthias isn’t a Christmas person. He never has been. Not since he discovered the truth when he was seven. Christmas is a lie and a con and nothing is ever going to change his mind. Being given a temporary six week assignment isn’t helping his mood either—as it means Christmas with the family. Only good thing is the accidental meeting of someone he thinks he could grow very fond of. On the other hand, DC Isabel York on the other hand loves Christmas. So much so that she decorates her desk with lights, tinsel, and a novelty advent calendar. When her boss is called away, his replacement is the last person she’s expecting to see—her fledgling boyfriend. In the middle of a nasty case, Isabel is nevertheless determined to show Boaz the real meaning of Christmas. Problem is work and pleasure just doesn’t mix—at least not according to him. Extract: What was the matter with him? Had Isabel broken t...

  Blurb: It Started With A Typo… While working from home, accountant Carlyle Stevenson is told by his boss to contact a client ASAP by video call, and berate her for not filing her accounts for the last several months—long before social distancing began. Since the request is urgent, Carlyle fires off the email, and sits and waits for her to answer. Only thing is he’s sent the invite to the wrong person.     Being stuck at home is nothing new for candle maker Kristen Lawson, as she usually works out of her garage or kitchen. She’s in the middle of making a new batch of candles for her online business, when she receives the email marked urgent. Even though it’s not her accountancy firms she clicks the link and begins the call.     What begins as an honest mistake blossoms into something more, but can a socially distanced relationship ever really get off the ground? Extract. A second or two later, the call connected. An empty room greeted her. The red office chair ...

  Blurb: Needing a change of pace, elementary school teacher Kelly Seda accepts the school exchange position and flies from Ottawa to London. Exchanging jobs and houses for a year, he and six-year-old daughter Wendy have a less than a day to adjust before starting work.  Single mum Staci Kirk has carved out a life for herself and her young son Tommy. Fiercely independent and self-reliant, she’s found a good place where she can settle in but she’s all too aware that happily ever after applies only to other people—or in the romance books she writes.  The arrival of Tommy’s new teacher, also her next door neighbour, threatens to upset her carefully balanced apple cart but Staci knows it’s only a matter of time before Kelly packs his bags and flies back to Canada. No sense in starting anything she can’t finish.  However, life is never that simple. When the worst happens, there is only one person she can rely on to help. Extract: Staci sat on the couch beside Kelly as Tom...

Down to sleep has finally released. Save repeating myself, you can read all about it over on my new website - clarerevell.com the blog post is HERE

Monday’s Child must hide for protection, Tuesday’s Child tenders direction Wednesday’s Child grieves for his soul Thursday’s Child chases the whole Friday's Child is a man obsessed Saturday’s Child might be possessed And Sunday’s Child on life’s seas is tossed Awaiting the Lifeboat that rescues the lost. That's the poem that sums up this series. And it's a lot better than the version I came up with--fortunately the editor in chief at Pelican Book Group, Nicola Martinez, fixed it. Else you'd have had something a whole lot less brilliant as the series poem. In writing this post, I dug out all my original notes, and wow, things changed. Not just the book order, but characters names and even the stories themselves. Originally Monday was Sara, Tuesday was Liam, Wednesday was Niamh (pronounced NEEVE), Thursday was John (that got taken out of this series and became An Aussie Christmas Angel), Friday was Patrick, Saturday was Aaron and Sunday was Alana who b...