Other writing
As well as writing crime novels, I continue to write for other media. After Henry, the sitcom I wrote for both radio and television, is, I’m glad to say, frequently repeated on the wonderful Radio 4 Extra, along with other of my series like No Commitments, Smelling of Roses and Foul Play.
On Radio 4 I am delighted that my actor detective Charles Paris is having a new lease of life, with the wonderful Bill Nighy playing the part in excellent adaptations of my novels by Jeremy Front. Some of these are available as BBC Audio Books.
I also regularly write an annual short play for the Arundel Festival Drip Action Theatre Trail.
Others of my stage plays which are regularly performed by amateur dramatic societies include ‘Murder in Play’ and ‘Silhouette’ (both in Samuel French acting editions) and ‘Murder with Ghosts’ (published by StageScripts.
So I hope to continue to keep the same variety in the stuff I write. Crime novels are enormous fun, but writing books is a solitary activity. Writing scripts to be performed by actors is much more sociable. So are those moments when I actually do a bit of acting myself. And, like all writers, I do need to get out of the house more!
Waste of a Life
Declutterer Ellen Curtis has been working to bring order into the life of Cedric Waites, a recluse in his eighties who hasn't left his house or let anyone inside it since his wife died. On one of her regular visits, Ellen finds the old man dead.
Sad but, given his age, perhaps not unexpected. Nothing to get worked up about . . . until the police raise the suspicion that Cedric might have been poisoned! The cause seems be something he ate, and as Ellen cleared away the old man's food containers, she is under suspicion. As is Dodge, who works for Ellen and has unhelpfully done a runner . . .
Meanwhile, a rival declutterer is out to sabotage Ellen's reputable business, her two grown-up children are back home and in crisis, and she has a potential love interest. Ellen's life has taken on a chaotic turn of its own! Can she uncover the killer and bring order back to her own life?