Archives April 2026

You haven’t heard from me for the last couple of weeks. As always, there’s a reason for that.

On 23 March we went away for four days on the Yorkshire coast, a break from the terminally tedious routine of home life.

A break, did I say? It was a bloody disaster from the word go. We’d gone barely 10 miles when we ran into a humongous jam on the M62. That resulted in us getting to Filey late, and it was at that point that we learned just how serious my wife’s mobility issues have become. Slow? I’m certain a couple of tortoises past us as we made our way through around the town.

When we got to the holiday park, the caravan we chose was totally unsuitable. Nice van, but the access was too far from the car.

From there, things could only get worse. Whitby on the Tuesday was freezing cold, so too was Bridlington on Wednesday, and as if that was not bad enough, Wednesday evening saw a huge hailstorm accompanied by thunder and lightning. The image below shows the grounds of the holiday park immediately outside the main entertainment centre after the hail stopped. And we got caught in the storm walking from our van to the car when we were making our way to the entertainment centre.

By now, we were getting fed up of everything and eventually we decided to come home on Thursday afternoon, and Carol came down with a severe cold. She was ill for several days, and she successfully passed it on to me, and I’ve been down with it all week. Come to today and I’m just about getting over it.

What you do after such a catalogue of catastrophe? Well, as a writer, the answer is simple. I will make Joe Murray, Sheila Riley, Brenda Jump, possibly Christine Capper, perhaps Feyer & Drake suffer all the ills we had to put up with.

Watch this space.

As a final note, I’ll be posting to this blog more frequently, and right now, can I remind you that three of the Sanford 3rd Age Club Mysteries are on offer at 99p for the Easter period.

The relevant titles are:

The Chocolate Egg Murders

Death in Distribution

Bridlington Bedlam

The best way to find them is to follow this link which will take you to the full series on Amazon, and you can cherry pick them from there.

https://mybook.to/stacser

Until next time, enjoy.

It’s been a while since I was active on this site, but I’m about to change that, and I’m starting with three special offers for the Easter period.

From today until midnight next Monday, the following three Sanford 3rd Age Club Mysteries, all set around Easter, are DOWN IN PRICE to just 99p each.

THE CHOCOLATE EGG MURDERS

It’s Weston-Super-Mare for the Sanford 3rd Age Club, and it doesn’t take long for Joe, Sheila and Brenda to become embroiled in the murder of a local charity volunteer and the danger of organised crime somewhere in the background. Will that stop them? Of course not.

Learn more at: https://mybook.to/cheggs

DEATH IN DISTRIBUTION

It’s Easter and it’s Blackpool and after their coach is involved in a run-in with a lorry on the motorway, Joe is mixed up in a double murder at a large distribution warehouse on the outskirts of the town. And it’s not as if he doesn’t have enough trouble back home in Sanford with plans to demolish The Lazy Luncheonette, the weekend made worse when the planner turns up in Blackpool. His only consolation can be found in the arms of the lovely Amy Willows, but will it last?

Find out at: https://mybook.to/dindis

BRIDLINGTON BEDLAM

After the nightmare of her abduction, the Sanford 3rd Age Club is hoping a weekend in Bridlington will bring Brenda back to her old self. For Joe, it’s something of a busman’s holiday after being hired to spy on a member of the Sanford Bulls rugby team suspected of cheating on his wife, who just happens to be the daughter of the Bulls’ chairman. With his gastric system playing havoc, mysterious text and social media messages driving him up the wall, Joe finds the chaos aggravated when a young woman, a serious Bulls’ fan is found murdered on the beach.

You can find it at: https://mybook.to/brib

Prices fixed at £0.99 (or whatever that is in your local currency) until midnight Monday 5 April, so get over there and get them while they’re hot and cheap.