News About ‘Bobby’ and a Visit

Posted on 08/04/2026 by Jack Marsh

Hi all,

While we wait for ‘A Night of Opposites’ to come back from being set out and made ready for publication, I have two pieces of news to tell you. Firstly, the island has just enjoyed a visit from a keen Jackson Marsh reader from the USA, who called in for a few days while on his travels. I often meet readers who come here regularly on holiday. These are kind folks who have supported my James Collins books, such as my travel tales and the Saddling series, the older novels I wrote when I was first starting out, and my other blog, the one about living on a Greek island. It’s always great to see them and chat, but it’s more unusual to meet someone who came here because of reading my books and blog. Here we are up on the roof with the island view behind us.

I’m casually dressed in my old faithful sweatshirt that was once black, I think, or certainly a different colour, and which I can’t bring myself to throw away. It’s my hanging-at-home look. The weather has been good for the visit, and here on the island, the annual summer season is starting to get underway, with Greek Easter taking place this weekend.

In the meantime, I have had an approach from a major publisher (in the USA) interested in reading a second edition of ‘Bobby, a Life Worth Living.’ In order for them to consider this, I need to a) expand and refresh the book, and b) have it represented by an agent. In this case, the publisher was very helpful and pointed me to an agent they recommended and he/she/they have agreed to take a look at the second edition when I have completed it, with a view to representation.

So, as well as finishing the Delamere series, I am now to start work on ‘expanding and refreshing’ Bobby. There is no deadline, but I intend to start on the project tomorrow afternoon. (I would start today, but I play the piano on a Wednesday afternoon.)

The mornings will be taken up with ‘The Delamere Dilemma’, the final instalment in the series, and a story which will bring the Clearwater, Larkspur and Delamere series full circle. At least, that’s the intention. In the meantime, ‘A Night of Opposites’ should be back with me soon (the guys have been really busy), and all being well, I will upload that as soon as I’ve checked it. Hopefully, it will appear within hours, as all bar one of the others has done (with one, I had to wait over a week for it to appear, and that’s very unusual).

When the chairman of London’s Thirteen Club wakes to find 13 dead rabbits in his bedroom, he hires Jack Merrit to track down the intruder. The questions are many: Why were the rabbits each missing a foot? How did someone break in through bolted doors, and what is the criminal’s goal?

Jack and Baxter face a table of thirteen suspects. Among them are Jack himself and his lover, Larkin Chase. The case becomes a personal minefield as the mystery thickens, and when a more chilling threat appears in the same impenetrable house, a disturbing story from the property’s past intrudes into the present.

As Will Merrit investigates suspicious events from thirty years ago, the other Delamere men move in on their only suspect. Except, this is a game of opposites, superstitions and deception, and when the truth finally comes to light, Jack faces the most difficult decision of his career.

So, a new Delamere out soon, the 12th in the series already started, work on ‘Bobby’ to start again tomorrow (Delamere in the morning and Bobby in the afternoon), visitors from abroad, agents, publishers, and all the while still trying to sell what I have already written. I tell you, being an indie author is an ongoing battle of adventures and challenges.

Also, I have several promos to send you to this month, and most are MM Romance, but a couple are also historical mystery and mystery/thriller reads. All are ideas for new reads. Let’s start the list with this one:

Crime Fiction – Sequels

Genres: Mystery & Suspense / British Detectives, Mystery & Suspense / Crime, and Mystery & Suspense / Thriller

You know when you read one book and want there to be another? This collection of 26 titles from a variety of crime authors tells you straight off that these are sequels or another book in a series, meaning there are others that come before and possibly after.

https://books.bookfunnel.com/crimesequelsapr26/kquu04cym5

1893

Posted on 08/11/2025 by Jack Marsh

I’ve been tinkering with some ideas for another Clearwater Tales. This time, it would feature five characters from stories from Clearwater, Larkspur and Delamere, and a station master. So far, I have managed to write one complete story, and the prologue. I wanted to have this ready for Christmas, but I fear that it may be next Christmas, as another Delamere idea is starting to form, and I may have to work on that instead. So, I am dithering, and ‘1893’ is not progression, but it might.

That is currently where I am at with writing anything, pottering with bone and researching another. We have a trip coming up over Christmas so I will be away, and I will probably get straight back to the next story after that, and continue to potter in the meantime.

1892, The Clearwater Tales, Volume One

Five characters from the Clearwater, Larkspur and Delamere Mysteries find themselves taking the train to Cornwall for the 1892 Larkspur Hall Christmas Eve ball. To pass the time, they each tell a story from their past.

1892 can be read as a short, standalone novella, and there’s no need to have read the Clearwater, Larkspur or Delamere series to enjoy the story. However, you might gain more from reading 1892 if you already know the characters and their histories.

Read, 1892, The Clearwater Tales, Volume One.

In the meantime, why not read the opening of Baxter’s tale (very much a first draft), and then have a browse through the promo at the bottom of the page, and after that, have a good weekend.

THE INVESTIGATOR’S TALE

That was the year of the dear Queen’s Jubilee, and I was sixteen. I’d not long been chucked out of me home by me dodgy parents, and it was a bit before me mum got done in and my dad went off the wrong end of mental. I’d got myself all set up with some, er, night work that we’ll say no more about, but thanks to that, I was able to afford a room in a court in Bluegate Fields.

Now then, that’s not an area for everyone. Well, you’d think it was an area for everyone in the flippin’ city, what with the rooms kipping ten bodies, and the kids at your feet like swarms of hungry ants. So many people crammed in, finding a room wasn’t easy, but I managed it. Yeah, so they called it a slum, and a couple of years ago that Booth do-gooder called us all “lowest class, vicious, and semi-criminal,” but there you go. Anyway, he didn’t know what he was talking about. We might have been low class and some of the Irish girls were vicious, but no-one was “semi” criminal. We were all good at what we did. Not only that, but we didn’t mind the noise and the stink; you got used to that in Shadwell. So, I moved in.

Thing was, the place was not far from St George’s church, and the bells kept me awake at first. Mind you, so did the fights downstairs.

Mrs Scratch, see, she’d somehow got the whole ground floor where she had a kitchen she let the others use. She rented out the rooms down there to a couple of Polish in with a German family, and Stalking Ken, the yard-docker who did the fencing, was down the other end, sharing with a horde of little whatnots he’d got from somewhere dreadful. France, probably. Oh, and her name wasn’t really Mrs Scratch. I never knew her real name, but she used to scratch herself around the madge area. Sniffy Sid, one of the whatnots Stalking Ken had taken in, he used to stand at her kitchen door all day watching her thump bread dough about, scratch her whatsit, sniff her fingers and get back to work. He was fascinated, young Sid. So fascinated, he came to think it was what every woman did when they were making bread, and when he was eight, he got himself a job sweeping the bakery floor. That’s the big one off Cable Street. Still there should you want to visit. They’ve stopped putting chalk in the flour now, so the bread’s almost acceptable.

Anyway, Sniffy Sid, he sniffed himself to work on his first day, sometime around three in the morning, I think, because I was just coming in from turning a few bob, and I wished him luck. Well, he didn’t have much of it, but then, he didn’t have much of a brain either, not Sid. There he was, sweeping up, when he sees one of the women has started banging her dough about, and that’s not a euphoniumism, I meant she was knocking back her bread. Seeing that her hands were covered in flour, Sniffy Sid gave a sniff and went into action. Knowing women liked to scratch down there when baking, and seeing as she couldn’t, he did it for her.

Next thing he knows, he’s dazed, bleeding, and out on the street. Poor lad, and all that before four in the morning. Some people, eh?

PROMO

MM Romance & Fiction Pure MM romance is on the cards with this select selection of titles from some old friends, such as Anne Barwell and Jem Wendel.

WIP Update: A Depraved Indifference

Posted on 17/09/2025 by Jack Marsh

The work in progress news this week is that I am now up to 63,000 words of the first draft of A Depraved Indifference. The mystery has thickened, and finding a solution has become more urgent because there have now been two major incidents to which Jack and Baxter have been called. So far, they have visited four churches around London, and if you want a clue as to why, then take a scroll down to Saturday’s post. We have also met a couple of new characters from the City of London Police who may survive the story or who may not, and we have also met our villain. Sort of.

We still don’t know who he is, but we know why he is doing what he is doing. I wanted a subplot for this story; otherwise, it’s simply a mystery, and wouldn’t have enough depth, so I thought the subplot could be the villain’s backstory, and the explanation for why he is doing what he is doing. I want the reader to feel sorry for him, yet not. To empathise with him, but wish they didn’t, because of the things he does. That’s the idea I am playing with, yet I still don’t know his name. Maybe we never will. Maybe I will save that for a future story.

That’s the joy of ‘making it up as you go along’ aka writing; you can do what you want because, after all, you are writing a novel, and it is meant to be novel.

So, I shall get back to it and keep you up to date in future posts.

Meanwhile, my Wednesday suggestion for additional reading has to do with stories where characters start off as friends and end up as lovers. Your kind of story or not? Why not check out these:

MM Friends to Lovers. This much-loved and classic MM genre is getting an airing at this promo with 24 cute titles where mates become more than mates. Included in there are my Students and Mentors of Barrenmoor Ridge, one of my best-selling titles (Mentor), and, with Students, I think my only F-to-L book… Then, I just remembered ‘The Blake Inheritance’ and ‘The Stoker Connection,’ which are also F-to-L, so maybe I should consider adding them next time.

Research: British Newspaper Archive

Posted on 30/08/2025 by Jack Marsh

British Newspaper Archive

You may know that I use old newspapers and publications a great deal when researching for my 1890s mystery novels. Sometimes, I use them for inspiration and turn to the Illustrated Police News to find ideas for stories. At other times, I use them to find advertisements for things so I can use props that were real at the time, soaps, hair products, and in the case of ‘A Depraved Indifference’, a watch.

Here’s the front cover for the Police Illustrated News of 137 years ago on September 8th.

Click to open a PDF of the page (larger)

The central illustration is headed ‘Revolting and mysterious murder of a woman – Buck’s Row, Whitechapel.’ This is coverage of Mary Ann Nichols, a Jack the Ripper victim killed on 31st August 1888. Just out of interest, my grandfather was born on 8th September 1905, and my husband on 8th September 1967, and if you have read the Clearwater series, or Delamere, you will know that both houses stand side by side in Buck’s Avenue. It’s a made-up street in Knightsbridge, just about where the barracks are, overlooking Hyde Park, but I chose Buck’s on purpose. Anyway…

Morley’s Hotel

One of the places I wanted to know more about was Morley’s Hotel, so I have turned to the newspaper archive again to see what I could see. So far, I’ve not had much luck, but I have discovered that the hotel, which was in Trafalgar Square, was, in 1893, owned by the James brothers, so I have dropped them into Jack Merrit’s investigation. Currently, I am on chapter eight of the new story and it’s going along well. I am a quarter of the way through, and we have had two seemingly unconnected discoveries, a birthday, and Will has solved two cases, once while getting out of a carriage.

Morley’s Hotel stood where South Africa House now stands on the east side of Trafalgar Square and was a massive building. However, there seems to be very little information about it. I found out that Buffalo Bill once stayed there and an American soldier shot himself there in 1892, but that’s about it. I couldn’t help wondering how much of a rival it was for D’Oyly Carte and his Savoy Hotel up the road, or the Charing Cross station hotel. I will keep researching. The newspaper archive does cost a little to subscribe, but there is some free material, and you can find out all about it here:
https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

Excellent Promo: Thrillers and Mysteries

Next week, my newsletter will be out, and new promos will start. One, though, is already up and running and since it started, sales of my series have begun to rise – which is excellent news for me! This promo runs into September, so there’s still plenty of time to browse and maybe find new authors to read and follow. It’s a collection of mystery and spy thrillers, and there are 46 titles to check out. Have fun!

WIP Update: Delamere Nine

Posted on 09/07/2025 by Jack Marsh

Hi folks, just a quick update on Delamere Nine (untitled).

I am now up to 60,000 words of the first draft, and the story is chugging along. I am at that point of thinking, ‘Is this going in the right direction?’, but I never let that worry me for long. If it’s going in some direction, at least it hasn’t run out of fuel, so let’s see where we end up. It is, after all, only a first draft. I have a climax to head to, and I have no idea how I’m going to get my heroes into that tricky situation without it reading as contrived, but I will manage something. The joy then comes in the editing and rewriting in draft two onwards. All the hard work will have been done (the blasting out of the words), and I can then play around with the details and descriptions.

If you like, the first draft is like building a house on your own by hand. Once you’ve done the hard graft of putting it together, though, you can then decorate and furnish it, and finally, when yore happy with it, live in it.

So, right now I have got foundations and a ground floor, but have two more floors to build. So, I’ll get on and leave you with another promo idea. Click the banner for more details of these historical mystery and romance novels.

The Final Chapter

Posted on 21/05/2025 by Jack Marsh

I’m on it – the final chapter of Holywell Street. I’ve reached 95,000 words of the first draft and for the last couple of days, have been struggling with the last chapter, only because I wasn’t sure of the best order in which to do things, and which point of view to do it from. Still, within the next few days, I can commission a cover and an illustration, set about the blurb and rewrite/edit, and book in my proofreader. I aim to get this draft to Neil to start beta reading later today. Yay!

Meanwhile, you may have seen from my Facebook page that I have been experimenting with technology that brings the characters on the covers to life. Basically, it makes them move, and some of these have been more successful than others. I’ll be dropping more on the FB pages in due course, but I wanted to share one here with you as a Wednesday treat. I love the way the water moves here, but something very strange happens with the hands, and the wrong man goes under the water, lol. It was fun spending half an hour experimenting with the thing though, but I am a long way from taming it completely. I’ll leave you with this moving cover and get back to the final chapter.

Chapter Seven

Posted on 16/04/2025 by Jack Marsh

In today’s work in progress blog, I am pleased to tell you that I am now working on chapter seven of ‘Holywell Street’, and the story is progressing well. Hopefully, those aren’t famous last words and the story will continue to flow. It should do because I know where I am going (to a certain point) and by the time I get there, I will have discovered where I am to go after that, and so on until the end. I am already 25,000 words through it and that’s only in about a week, because I have little other work to contend with right now. That, in turn, means I’m pretty poor, but I continue to promote indie authors through my promotions (there’s another on to check out at the bottom of the post), and my loyal fans continue to read, while I pick up a few new readers along the way.

So far in ‘Holywell Street’ we have met two unscrupulous characters, and then we have started the story in Delamere House, where there have been some changes, mainly in the layout of rooms and in the staff. There are now five detectives, two of whom are in charge of research and records, and the other three are more out-and-about, Jack and Baxter included, and the boys still haven’t grown up. Soon, I aim to put on the blog a description of how the house is now organised. I wrote this for myself rather than to go into a book, but I will share it with you when I’m sure that’s how things are going to be.

A character in the new book and the cause of the mystery…

While I get back to creating book eight of the series, I’ll leave you with this promo. It’s a new one and only started on 9th April, so it has a while to run. Have a click, have a browse, and you never know, you may find another new and exciting author to follow.

Tales to Devour. Begin Reading This Hour!

April 9th through to May 10th.Genres: General Fiction / Literary Fiction, Mystery & Suspense / Mystery, and Sci-Fi & Fantasy / Science Fiction

https://books.bookfunnel.com/blindsidemysteries/2uwlpo9v4n

Release Day: Acts of Faith

Posted on 26/03/2025 by Jack Marsh

The Delamere Files book seven is now available on Amazon in Kindle format and in KU. As I write, I am waiting for the paperback version to go live too, but this can take a few days longer than the Kindle version. Here’s the universal link:

https://mybook.to/ActsOfFaith

Click that, and you should reach the Kindle page for your local Amazon online store, though, I believe, you can buy Kindle books from any Amazon site.

What’s Next?

That’s a good question. I have some ideas floating around, but right now, I am finishing a re-edit of an old James Collins horror novel called, Lonely House. I hope that the version I am editing is the original unedited version because it’s riddled with typos – and I also hope I catch them all. This ancient story was written in 2014 and released in 2015, and it’s in a completely alien style. I mean, the style is nowhere near anything I write these days. It’s very ‘filmscript black stuff’, with much being in the present tense, and lots of ‘He sees…’ and ‘He hears…’ Which I hate to do these days. So, I am trying to edit while remaining true to the original and will rerelease it, hopefully, next month. I need to save for a new cover and then attempt to format it myself via Kindle Create, as it’s never going to make its money back otherwise. I’ll let you know when it’s ready, in case you have a taste for twisty, creepy, modern, strangely written horror (with a kind of bromance feel).

What’s Next for Jack Merrit and Co.?

I can’t give too much away about how ‘Acts of Faith’ finishes, and how things develop at Delamere, not until enough time has passed for you to have read the story, but…

I am thinking about hot air ballooning, Holywell Street (home of seditious publications and Victorian porn), while also scouring the newspapers of the time for ideas and thinking about something cosier than the last few mysteries have been.

So far in the Delamere series, we’ve covered:

Criminal gangs and kidnapping (East End gang culture)
Historic murder at a public school (Private school homo-relationships)
Police crime, gangs and assassination (The music halls)
Feuding brothers, wills and murder (Creepy isolated castle and family feuds)
Child kidnapping and murder (Theatre of the Grand Guignol)
Graverobbing (Gay cruising grounds of the late 19th century)

And, in ‘Acts of Faith’ more weird and wonderful ways to kill someone, as you will see, plus, the difficulty of men securing relationships in a time of extreme discrimination.

My Amazon page for all my titles (click the banner)

So, what next…? Ideas on a postcard to jack@jacksonmarsh.com...

Actually, that’s not a bad idea. If there’s a subject you feel might work for a Victorian, gay, mystery series, drop me a line.

Meanwhile, be sure to join my mailing list for monthly news of new books and promotions and ideas for other things to read while you wait for the next Delamere, whatever it turns out to be.

The Book with no Title (as yet)

Posted on 15/01/2025 by Jack Marsh

As usual, I am still unsure about the title of the next Delamere story which is now up to 27,000 words – so just over a quarter of the way through, if it is to be a standard length. The characters are all in place, and the mystery has been set, though it is soon to lead to another, and then another until someone realises what’s going on and that someone may well be me.

I have been looking through old newspapers trying to discover if there were still any paddle steamers working on the Thames in 1893, but I haven’t had any luck so far. (Anyone? Any idea?) I discovered there were still paddle steamers for sale, but I think these were probably for scrap or refurbishing. I’ve not delved into this in much detail as yet, but here’s a piece I pulled from a London newspaper of March 1893:

The things aren’t integral to the story, but I wanted to use one for… some reason, so I went off on the distraction tour and spent a happy hour reading all kinds of advertisements and snippets. Also, in the process of writing a character’s backstory the other day, I mentioned the dance card, and went off to see if I could find an image of one to share.

Here’s a potted history of the dance card from the Newberry Library:

Popularized in Vienna in the nineteenth century, dance cards continued to be used throughout the early twentieth century. Names could be filled in just after a dance to keep as a memento, or early in the evening to ensure one had a partner planned for each dance, thus eliminating the risk of being labelled a wallflower.

Which of the characters used a dance card, you may wonder, and you will, one day, find out. I have a piece of work to do for someone else today, and then, I shall be continuing with chapter 10. Meanwhile, if you are looking for some new romance reads to start the year, I have several promos to share with you. Let’s start with this one, LGBTQIA+ Romance = the January Bookfair. Simply click the banner to check out over 45 MM romance titles.

Grave Developments

Posted on 04/12/2024 by Jack Marsh

After what seems like months, Grave Development will be off to the proofreader this weekend. I have a little tidying up to do here and there, but yesterday, I started really thinking about the blurb, which is a sign I am nearly at the end of this particular path.

If you signed up for the newsletter, you would have received a link to the cover. I sent this out on Monday and will reveal the cover to everyone else on Saturday, here and on my Facebook page.

Also in the newsletter was news of this month’s promos. These are where you can find new authors and titles in my chosen genres, and all you need to do is click and take a look. Doesn’t cost a thing to browse. Many of the titles are on offer, or reduced in price, or simply craving a little attention.

Here’s one to highlight this month, Kindle Unlimited Mystery Novels. If you’ve already signed up for KU, you can add any of these to your reading list. If you’re not in KU, you can buy them for as little as $2.99.

While you’re doing that, I will set about fixing a couple of minor things in Grave Developments, have another bash at finalising the blurb, and check through my author’s notes. This time, they include a couple of personal anecdotes which concern a couple of the places mentioned in the story.

Don’t forget to be here on Saturday for the cover reveal.

Jackson Marsh Author

Gay Historial Mystery

Tag Archives: Delamere