The book launch for Dead Man’s Legacy at Bookworld Puerto Banus on February 4 was a great success. Alex and his staff from La Taberna del Pintxo next door kept the wine flowing and the tapas coming. John Smith from Euroweekly News was there. John took some fantastic photos and gave me extensive coverage before and after the event. Thanks so much, John, and to Euroweekly of course!

Since then, my books have been featured in numerous Costa del Sol publications, including Costa News, Society Marbella, The Sur in English, Home and Lifestyle, and the March edition of Essential Magazine.   

As an author, I spend hours alone at my desk, so it’s a real treat to get out and meet supporters and fans of my Petra Minx thrillers. I was particularly touched when Spanish author Francisco Miranda de Rojas (pictured with me in...

I was shocked to learn that Peter Brookes, the founder of Rudling House Publishing, passed away a few weeks ago after suffering a massive stroke. Peter was instrumental in bringing my first novel in the Petra Minx series of adventure thrillers, The Politician’s Daughter, to market. He was a delightful man, full of stories of the days when he had been a figure skater, a drummer in a band, the editor of a surfing magazine, a bookseller and the owner of a vegetarian restaurant in London, England.

I was introduced to him on the Costa del Sol where he had settled after touring Europe in a camper van with his partner, Merle King, author of Silver and Time. This was in the early days of Rudling House. In addition to Merle’s book, Peter had published Bloodlines by Celia Honnywill, Living Proof by Mavis Schmid, and...

At the end of Dead Man’s Legacy, Petra Minx makes a surprise announcement. She tells Betty Graceby she is going to a wedding in South Africa with her friend Carlo, much to the chagrin of her ex-boyfriend Martin. Hence the working title of Petra’s third adventure: Destination Wedding. No doubt it will change as the story takes shape. The Politician’s Daughter started out as The Lazzara File, while Dead Man’s Legacy had two prior titles – The Killarney Connection and The Man in a Black Shirt.

I never tire of visiting South Africa, despite the six-thousand-mile overnight flight from the UK. While I’m here, my aim is to research settings for the book, develop the plot, and write a synopsis. The fun part is researching the settings. Popular wedding venues in and around Cape Town include Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, iconic hotels like The Cape Grace with...

Petra Minx loves the water and loves boats. As a Marine Unit Sergeant in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, she is involved with vessels of various kinds on a daily basis. The boat she dreams of owning, as she tells her mentor Tom Gilmore in The Politician’s Daughter, is a “Lazzara 84 motor yacht … walk-around side-decks, 1,150-hp MTUs”. My preference would be for a Lazzara 76 from the mid-90s: a timeless design that to my mind outclasses the Lazzaras of the last decade with their predatory swooping windows.

In Dead Man’s Legacy, Petra climbs aboard Betty Graceby’s motor yacht Glorianaas soon as the boat docks and Captain James Freedy issues his rather rash invitation to show her around. Gloriana is a classic tri-deck Burger over 30 metres in length, but she’s only half as long and nowhere near as opulent as Titania, the megayacht used by Don...