Today, I’ve been amusing myself by making advertisements for some of my books. I love messing about in Photoshop and, at one time, I would have been using my own photographs as backgrounds but macular degeneration put paid to that so, nowadays, I’ve made friends with Getty Images instead. Anyway, these are the results of today’s labours.
On the left, we have an attractive lady relaxing on the beach, reading Circles of Confusion, the first to feature Jilly, a photographer; Tina, a sex worker; and Tina’s pain-in-the-ass son, Leon. It’s a sordid little tale to be honest which explores themes of prostitution, domestic abuse and brutal revenge. Jilly, Tina and Leon pop up again in Forever Night: Circles of Confusion II and there’s a third book in the offing called Sylvie’s Story, which delves more deeply in Jilly’s past and her relationship with her mother.
The Live and Deaths of Max de Pauley (centre picture) takes us into the world of drag queens and is written over two timelines, one of which stretches back to the 1950s. It begins and ends with a death and in between you’ll find a very twisted story involving, murder, betrayal and deception. It has a rich cast of characters, not many of them likeable and all with an axe of their own to grind. Maybe one day I’ll go back and re-visit this dark world. Or maybe they’re best left where they are.
Just to prove that not everything that comes from my grasshopper mind is doom and gloom, Albert’s Garden: A Binky Earle Cosy Mystery (pictured right) has a heroine who is a lady of a certain age, a little irritable and more than a little opinionated. Binky likes a glass of chilled white wine and loves her Siamese cat, Phoebe-cat. She lives in a sleepy village called Lesser Puddlestone and, when the ladies of her knitting circle are suspected of murder, Binky takes it as a personal affront. She and Phoebe-cat set out to exonerate them, not quite prepared for the well-hidden secrets they will uncover.
JJ Grafton 