I was talking with my very good friend Trevor Belshaw yesterday. A fine writer, creator of the bestselling Amy Rowlings Mysteries (link to the latest is below). During the course of our conversation, he pointed out that quite often I can’t make my mind up whether I do better with light-hearted, amateur sleuth style, traditional mysteries or the more serious works such as the Feyer & Drake series or the really deep and dark, psychological thrillers produced under my pen name Robert Devine.
I’ve much to thank him for, because the observation is accurate. I do chop and change, and it’s all about those mood swings. When I’m on the up I’ll work with Joe Murray and the Sanford 3rd Age Club, or Christine Capper. But for an ageing workaholic like me, there are those times when I go down, and that’s when the dark side emerges. It’s during such periods that Robert Devine comes to the fore, or the traumatic history of Sam Feyer and Wes Drake takes over.
It’s ancient history but I started with the really deep, dark stuff, put together then as a five-hour TV series. We were promised a commission, but it never happened, and that’s when I switched to writing novels in preference to scripts. It was only later as I turned 50, and my wife and I finally settled into a placid middle age, that I began to look at one of my major assets: my sense of humour. Coupling that to murder mysteries brought Joe, Sheila, Brenda out into the open, and a few years later, Christine Capper followed.
If I’m brutally honest, I’m far happier with the adventures of Joe and Christine, and the natural humour which stems from Dennis’s obsession with work, or Brenda’s habit of winding Joe up.
Judging from the feedback, the same can be said of my readers. They’re far happier with the light-hearted mysteries than the serious stuff. And by the way, I do love your feedback. If nothing else, it drags me back on the right track.
Even so, I still turn to darker works now and again, and I recently posted 2 of Robert Devine’s full-length, psychological thrillers to Amazon: Dominus and its sequel The Power. In fact, the main reason I put them up was because they were the only two books in my entire catalogue which were not represented. I don’t expect miracles from them, but again the links are at the bottom of the page.
Beyond that, of course, I have two Feyer & Drake titles published with Bloodhound Books: The Anagramist and The Frame, and more are in the pipeline.
What’s the solution to this up, down, up, down, up, down situation? Well, if I had the answer to that, I’d probably be a psychiatrist and even crazier than I am right now.
For now, however, I can tell you that Trevor’s observation has caused some serious thinking, and just to cheer you up, I’m now working on the 12th of Mrs Capper’s Casebooks and the 27th Sanford 3rd Age Club Mystery. Both should be with you very shortly.
And just to finish off this post, here are the links.
The Sanford 3rd Age Club Mysteries: https://mybook.to/stacser
Mrs Capper’s Casebooks: https://mybook.to/cappseries
Allan Cain thrillers (written as Robert Devine): https://mybook.to/cainser
The Feyer & Drake series. https://geni.us/TheAnagramist
And finally, as a thank you to Trevor, here’s the link for his 5th Amy Rowlings mystery, Ten Years After, which is due for release by Spellbound Books on September 25. It’s available for preorder now at: https://mybook.to/hCWb3h