Tim's Newsletter - February 2024

A busy month

Welcome to the February newsletter. Not much sunshine or dry weather this month, but that’s meant plenty of writing time. Read on for news of Barcelona crime, promos and some reading recommendations.

Casanova Street is coming!

Readers impatient to get their hands on the second instalment of the Barcelonoir trilogy (steady now, both of you…) will be delighted to know that Casanova Street is out on 25 April. It’s not yet available for pre-order, but I’m working with my editor at SpellBound on the final version of the text and the cover. Here’s a teaser and promo graphic:

Rivas steps forward and punches me again, this time in the stomach, and hard. It’s as if I’ve been hit by a train. I don’t even try to get up. Instead I lie on my back, looking up into the cloudless blue sky. I think I can see vultures circling, but more likely it’s black spots on my vision where he’s hit me. Anton looks into my face incuriously. Ilya doesn’t even bother with that.

Grigoriev reaches out to clasp my forearm and pull me up. He brushes some dust from the Massimo Dutti suit I know I’ll never wear again.

“Sometimes a lesson gotta be painful so you remember it. You don’t freelance, OK? That’s the lesson.”

Things are looking up for Dexter. He’s in line for a promotion at the bank where he works, he’s found a new girlfriend, and life’s good. If his new client Viktor Grigoriev is a bit shady, well surely that goes with the job.

But before he knows it, he’s caught up in a murder investigation, and so deep into a money-laundering scheme that it looks like he might be the next victim.

How did it come to this?

I hope you enjoy it as much as Catfish Alley.

Fantasy Promo Week

You might have missed my Fantasy Promotion Week, which ran discounts and freebies on my two fantasy series, The Annals of Mondia and The Fractured Empire. If you read this newsletter you probably already have them, but if you missed out, make sure to follow me on X (@timstretton) or Instagram (@tim_stretton) where I publicise occasional deals, alongside more frivolous material. (And if you missed the free copies of Bitter Sky and A Little Poison - between ourselves, there’s another free promo coming next month, so sit tight…)

And since this is my own newsletter, and some self-promotion is permissible, perhaps even obligatory, here’s what Bookmarked Reviews had to say about Dark Canvas:

It was such a pleasure to return to the intricately built world of warring duchies, airships, deranged rulers, degenerate aristocrats and suppressed passions!

What I’m working on

Last month I was digging into the Congress of Vienna to see if I could get a novel out of it. The answer, for now at least, is ‘no’, so I’ve parked this project. I made better progress on my Fractured Empire novella, but I’ve also set that aside for now.

That’s because I’ve started drafting a new Barcelona mystery, and I’ve written about 20,000 words of the first draft. It’s not a continuation of the previous series although there are some characters in common. A British tourist visits Barcelona with his Spanish girlfriend. After an argument on their first night, she disappears. The police aren’t interested - until a bank is hacked with a connection that can’t be coincidental. Can it? I’ll have to carry on writing to find out.

What I’ve been reading

My hot streak continues with some strong reads over the past month. Freya Berry’s The Birdcage Library is an atmospheric modern Gothic mystery. It’s very different to her debut The Dictator’s Wife but still excellent. I also enjoyed the final two books in Anna Legat’s Goode’s Law trilogy, which skilfully mix an investigative lawyer with a slow-burn mystery stretching back to 1990s Communist China. You won’t go far wrong reading any of these (while you wait for Casanova Street, of course).

Cat Pic of the Month

This month an extra treat - Cat Pic of the Month is a video. Let’s see how well this works in Substack! Even though you can guess what’s coming, it’s still fun.

Until next time

I’m off for some welcome winter sun (and some perhaps less welcome strenuous exercise). Be nice to each other while I’m away, and see you in March!