Chris O'Donoghue author: August 2026

Tuesday, 4 August 2026

STEAMING AHEAD!

Tenterden station, May 2026

Sadly, all heritage railways have ceased using steam locomotives while the drought persists and are running their services using diesel traction. This is a shame as there's nothing like seeing, hearing and feeling one of these fire breathing monsters running on rail tracks. Also, it may be having a detrimental effect as passenger numbers are significantly down. So, if you want to see these wonderful slices of our history continuing to operate, I urge you to visit a railway and enjoy a trundle through our lovely countryside.

Lookers hut

However, unlike the railway, I have been steaming along - with book eight in the DI Sonny Russell series of crime mysteries. At the moment the working title is PIKE'S TALE although I suspect it will end up with with BLOOD in the title, like the other books.

So far it involves a character who used to be a Looker on Romney Marsh but now works in the pottery at Nottery. The titular Septimus Pike, is, as you may remember from previous stories, an antique dealer, reminiscent of Fagin, and he plays a large part in this books. I won't give any more away, just to say I have managed to hammer out 32,000 words on the keyboard so over a third of the way through now.

Details of the other titles are on the right, if you haven't already immersed yourself in the world in 1950s crime set around Rye and Romney Marsh.

Blood in the Garden

Supt Stout is desperate to improve his standing in the community by joining the prestigious Nottery golf club and, when two people connected with it go missing, he sees a matchless opportunity to improve his chances. He puts DI Sonny Russell, on the job - much to the officer’s disgust. Russell has more interesting conundrums: why hasn’t dependable WPC Nettie Sharp reported for duty? An antique dealer finds a body in the boot of his car. Whose is it? Is the suspect attempting a foolhardy escape? How much does an unhelpful landowner really know about his wife’s disappearance? As all the strands gradually untwist Russell manages to solve several mysteries - with a cocktail of shocks along the way.

Blood on the Dunes

A long-buried skeleton emerges from the shifting sands at Camber during a raging storm. A badly injured man is found in a derelict warehouse at Nottery. A mixed race boy goes missing from a children’s home in Peasmarsh. Could these seemingly random occurrences possibly be connected? At first, a puzzled DI Sonny Russell can see no link but, as more horrific events unfold, he begins to detect a troubling pattern. Blood on the Dunes is a story of fractured decisions, made years before, that come back to haunt those involved and others who were left to suffer the consequences.

Blood on the Cards

A travelling fair brings fun, laughter and excitement - but when one comes Nottery Quay it brings gruesome death too. The resident fortune teller is found with her throat cut in a damp and dirty WWII pillbox near the Royal Military Canal. The owner of the fairground comes under suspicion but, when a second body is found, DI Sonny Russell begins to have his doubts. Falling foul of his bombastic boss Superintendent Stout yet again, he is taken off the case and replaced by the bumbling duo Bonnie and Clyde. However, assisted by his French opposite number, Inspecteur Guillaume Bruissement, and his ever faithful sidekick DC Weeks, he pursues his own investigation. So begins a gripping tale which criss-crosses Sussex and Kent and ends in a thriller chase along the canal, with disastrous consequences...

BLOOD ON THE STRAND

BLOOD ON THE STRAND is a story of intrigue and drama, set on the sleepy south coast in the post-war mid-fifties.In a raging gale a heavy crate is washed up on the beach near Compass Point. DI Sonny Russell and his sidekick DS Johnny Weeks happen upon it while braving the weather near Sonny’s home. Puzzled, they go to get help to recover it, but when they return it has gone. So begins a thrilling and dangerous search for stolen Nazi plunder. It leads the detectives, ably assisted by an eager young policewoman, Nettie Sharpe, on a twisting trail that encompasses Hastings fisherman, their iconic net huts, ruthless foreign criminals and the shady side of antique dealing.

Followers

Tuesday, 4 August 2026

STEAMING AHEAD!