I’m in the final few days of this Crete stretch, and as usual, the end creeps up faster than I expect. One minute I’m settling into a routine, the next I’m counting backwards from three and trying to work out how much I can realistically get done before we start the long drive home.

And then there’s the other world — the one I built quietly, in the early mornings and late evenings, in notebooks, in half‑formed ideas held in my head. The world of stories. The world of DI Matthew Goodwin and Penny Stock. The world where I get to decide the pace, the stakes, the silence.

When readers think of Aloha Goodbye, they picture the Pearl of the Pacific: the ocean, the heat, the endless decks, and the murder that pulls DI Matthew Goodwin into an investigation he never planned to lead.

This week Thai Die is on promo, and Don’t Die for Me, Argentina is heading towards its full launch on 2nd May. Two books set on opposite sides of the world, shaped by two very different chapters of my life — but tied together by one unexpected thread. Horses.