The Dog Sitter Detective Takes the Lead: on sale! š¶š
Gwinny (and a new dog) solves a brand new murder mystery
A new case for Gwinny
The Dog Sitter Detective Takes the Lead, the second in the series, goes on sale tomorrow.
Gwinny Tuffel is preparing for her first acting role in a decade in the West End, but she is still dog-sitting on the side to keep the wolf from the door. So, when ageing rock star Crash Double needs help with his Border Collie, she jumps at the chance. After all, looking after the charming Ace on Crashās Little Venice houseboat shouldnāt be an onerous task. But thatās before the singerās dead body surfaces during the annual Canal Carnival festivities.
While the police dismiss the death as an accident, Gwinny suspects murder most foul. With a medley of suspects and some far-fetched motives to make heads or tails of, it is up to Gwinny, with Aceās on the ground knowledge, to make sure the killer faces the music!
In addition to the hardback thereās an ebook and audiobook, which is once again narrated by fan-favourite Nicolette McKenzie.
As always, I encourage you to order from your local bookstore where possible, but itās also available online at all the usual places: see dogsitterdetective.com for details.
If youāre on Twitter, keep an eye out tomorrow for the hashtag #TheDogSitterDetectiveTakesTheLead š¶š āĀ instead of a traditional week-long blog tour of reviews, publisher Allison & Busby has arranged a āblog blastā for release day. I canāt wait, especially if we get more pics like this š
The Dog Sitter Detective paperback
In addition to the new book, the original The Dog Sitter Detective is also published in paperback tomorrow.
You may have noticed the big āWINNERā roundel up there; this is the book that won the Barker Book Award for fiction (all fiction, not just crime š¤Æ) and weāre very proud to shout about it on the cover of this new edition.
(*Later in North America, sorry)
Although the ebook and audiobook versions of The Dog Sitter Detective Takes the Lead are available everywhere tomorrow, the hardback (and the paperback of The Dog Sitter Detective) wonāt hit North America for a while. The paperback of book one will be released in March, and the hardback of book two will follow in May.
Book launch: tomorrow in Romily!
The book launch event for The Dog Sitter Detective Takes The Lead takes place tomorrow, Jan 25 @ 6pm at Serenity Booksellers in Romily, Stockport.
Serenity is a new, community-focused bookstore and I was honoured last year to be their first ever guest author. It went so well that as soon as they learned thereād be a second Dog Sitter Detective book, they asked me to return. Tickets can be booked via this link:
Barking loud and clear
As is so often the case, with a new book comes a round of new articles and publicity interviews.
I was featured in Booktime, a magazine published by the Booksellersā Association and available for free in independent bookstores.
I wrote a piece for The Bookseller, āThe Case for Cosy Crimeā, exploring why some readers ā and authors ā should give this flourishing subgenre a chance to draw them in:
I was a guest on the podcast The Conversation with Nadine Matheson, where Nadine and I had a really wide-ranging chat about my career, how much of it was planned (š ), writing different genres, and lots more:
Apple: https://apple.co/4aZx6bY
Buzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2085770
I wrote a piece for Writing.ie, āSomething Old, Something Newā, on creating a series and the choices authors must make when deciding what to keep or discard when writing sequels:
Finally, I was interviewed (in fact, I was the first-ever guest) on the Criminally Inspired podcast, in which crime writers talk about who and what inspires us, what inspiration itself means, and of course how that affects our writing.
And there are more pieces still to come, including a fun one for Crime Time on āThe 5 Crucial Ingredients of Cosy Crimeā.
As always, follow me on social media to stay up-to-date. See the foot of this newsletter for links.
Upcoming appearances
Two upcoming live events for your diaries:
On Friday 2 February at 7pm Iāll be interviewed by Samantha Brownley of the UK Crime Book Club, live on Facebook. I donāt think I can give you an advance link for the event itself, as itās not generated until it happens. But you can watch it on the day at the UKCBC group page:
And then on Thursday 7 March at 6.30pm Iāll be appearing at Waterstones Leeds in conversation with the fabulous JM Hall, author of the Thirsk Garden Centre Mysteries, where weāll both talk about our books. If youāve ever seen Jonathan in action youāll know heās a hilarious and outgoing personality, so that one should be a really good time. More information and tickets:
No rest for the wicked
Phew! Thatās a lot. But the world keeps on turning, and the words keep on forming, so thereās plenty more on the horizon. Iāll tell you all about it when the time is right, of course.
And remember: this newsletter is and will always be free for everyone to read. Feel free to share it with your friends.
It Was a Shame How He Carried On
Authors are still scrambling to figure out which social media platform will eventually win the ongoing battle for supremacy. For the moment, you can find me on most of them.
Search for my username @antonyjohnston, or check the Contact & Follow page of my site for links to the most popular networks: https://antonyjohnston.com/contact/