Audible 1892. Visual Holywell Street.

Posted on 04/06/2025 by Jack Marsh

My update this week concerns two things: The Clearwater Tales Vol 1, ‘1892’, and the Delamere Files book eight, Holywell Street.

1892

This short collection of short stories, as told by five Clearwater characters, is now available as an audiobook. As I have explained before, I had to go with the virtual voice option. Although I have been in touch with a talented VO artist who is willing to profit share my Clearwater series, I can’t take him up on the offer because of where I live. At the moment, you can only upload your own recordings to Amazon if you live in certain countries, and Greece is not yet one of them. So, I have used the best of what Amazon have on offer.

Sadly, I can’t change the accents of characters when they speak, and not all the subtle nuances are there, but it’s the best I can do right now. Here’s the link.

Holywell Street Cover

The exciting news here is that I have the cover for Holywell Street, and you will be the first to see it. The MS is with the proofreader, Andjela has the back cover text and will be making the full cover soon, and all being well, we’re looking at publication around the middle of the month, if not before.

So, to be the first to see the cover, click the title that I’ve put after the blurb. And the blurb is this:

Act for all of us.

Respected dentist Harold Eskell writes a list of cryptic references for Jack Merrit to find and then takes his own life.

Now leading the Delamere Agency, Jack is determined to uncover the truth behind Eskell’s final act. Enlisting the help of Baxter and his loyal team, he embarks on an investigation that uncovers shattered lives, unexplained suicides, illicit photography, underground erotica, and blackmail.

It’s all leading him somewhere, but where?

All things are unrelated yet connected, and the only way to do the right thing is for Jack to risk his liberty and fight crime with crime.

What Next?

Posted on 31/05/2025 by Jack Marsh

I now have the cover for Holywell Street, book eight in the Delamere series, and I am waiting for the proofed copy to come back so I can do a final check and send it off to be formatted. Not long now, which leaves the question, what next? Before I answer that rhetorical question, here’s the cover title:

1893

A while ago, I started on something called ‘1893, The Clearwater Tales Volume Two’ to accompany ‘1892’, which is volume one. I’ve written the first two chapters of what may one day be another anthology connected by a situation, and I have gathered some characters together. I have an observer and his backstory, the setting – a foggy night in a Wiltshire railway station where the Penzance special is delayed. The characters tell stories while they wait out the night. I have the station master, Harry Carnforth, a character who made a brief appearance in ‘Grave Developments’ and was then cut, his name is Martin Dewhurst, and he wants to attend the Larkspur Academy. Also waiting for the train are Silas Hawkins, Sir Easterby Creswell, Chester Cadman, and Benjamin Baxter.

The trouble is, I don’t know what the short stories are that they will tell each other to keep themselves amused as Harry Carnforth caters for them through the night.

That’s one idea.

1892 the Clearwater Tales Volume One

Another Delamere?

For sure, but what’s the hook, the gimmick, the subject…? I was talking about this recently, how a subject comes to me and I explore it from there. So far, we’ve had: being a cabman, the old school network, music halls, family feuds, magicians, a serial killer, and coming soon, Victorian erotica. Included in those eight books so far are also sewers, saints, singers and sinners, and a little sex, though I must admit, I am writing less of that these days.

So, I think my next task will be to return to the Police Illustrated News and other publications of summer 1893 and see what was going on in the world. I had thought of a kind of Oscar Wilde type trial, which is coming up in 1895, and the cover of Hollywell Street gives us someone foppish who could well be a Dorian Gray, but I don’t want to get into all that as it’s been done.

Therefore, I guess the current answer is, ‘I’m not sure’, but I’ll be along with something as soon as inspiration strikes. Meanwhile, I have some more promos coming up, so look out for a newsletter next Saturday, I need to do more publicity somehow, so I can sell a few more copies, and I continue to play with animating the covers, as you will see from this next one pulled at random from my growing collection. Have a good week, I’ll pop back on Wednesday with an update on ‘Holywell Street.’

The Delamere Files

Act For All of Us.

Posted on 28/05/2025 by Jack Marsh

Delamere Book Eight

As the song says, ‘I’ve gone about as fur as I can go,’ with this one. For now, at least. So, I sent the MS off to be proofread, and Andjela is working on a cover. I have an illustration, and all will be revealed in due course. I also have a draft blurb which I will post for you, and I have my usual collection of author’s notes at the end.

For this book, those notes cover such things as Holywell Street itself, a man called William Lazenby who may or may not have penned the book, The Sins of the City of the Plain, the Cleveland Street Scandal, and there’s a brief mention of Fanny and Stella, cross-dressers arrested 23 years earlier.

The couple are only mentioned in passing, but you might be interested to know more about their story, and there’s a great article titled Fanny and Stella: Piecing together LGBTQ+ histories and telling the stories. [Click Here]

Oh, and I have also started a thing called Baxter’s Glossary, which I will put in either at the front or back of the book. There’s a fair amount of slang in use in this one, and I can’t always explain it in the text.

Anyway, here’s the blurb for Delamere Eight:

Act for all of us.

Respected dentist Harold Eskell writes a list of cryptic references for Jack Merrit to find and then takes his own life.

It’s all leading him somewhere, but where?

All things are unrelated yet connected, and the only way to do the right thing is for Jack to risk his liberty and fight crime with crime.

Don’t forget to check out my Facebook Page, where I have been adding new reels and moving book covers like this one:

Here’s Where I’m At

Posted on 14/05/2025 by Jack Marsh

I am currently at 82,000 Holywell Street… Well, 82k words written for ‘Holywell Street’, the Delamere book number eight. Funnily enough, the plot revolves around number eight Holywell Street, mainly so I can say here’s book number eight Holywell Street as though it’s an address as well as part of the sequence. Also, according to the 1891 census, that address was vacant, as were others around it, so I can be more creative with its description. I suspect the buildings were left empty for a good reason, like they were falling down, because the street was demolished in 1901. It was quite picturesque by all accounts and some buildings there were from pre-1700 or very early 1700s.

Anyway, I am having fun and working through the climax, which isn’t really a climax in the usual sense. There’s no death-defying leaps of faith, zip lines onto music hall stages, or people falling off burning towers. What there is, though, is a bit of fun (I hope) as part of the ‘towards the end’ section is seen from Ronny’s point of view, and we know what a little oik he can be. As that’s going on, I am waiting for the first draft of a new reel to come back from the guy who is working one up for me, and I am about to send off for a new pencil sketch to go in the front of the next book. I am also considering the cover, though the final draft won’t be ready for some weeks yet. Meanwhile, I believe Holywell Street will be my 48th book, including my ‘living on a Greek island’ books and those written under my real name. I know it sounds like a lot, but it’s what I do! This is one of my shelves and contains all the Jackson Marsh titles, except for ‘Bobby’ which is on the shelf above.

WIP: Holywell Street Halfway

Posted on 30/04/2025 by Jack Marsh

This week’s work in progress update is to let you know that I have just reached the halfway point in the first draft of Holywell Street, the eighth Delamere file. What can I tell you? It’s a complicated trail of seemingly unrelated clues left by a man who wanted a favour done for a specific group of people, and Jack Merrit is compelled to carry out the dead man’s last wish. While he and Baxter start on the trail, Will and Ned have some research to do, and the new detective is settling into life at Delamere.

There’s a little more of Ronny and Simeon in this one, so a little vulgar comedy from time to time, there are facts mixed with fiction as usual, and, so far, we have been taken to places such as the Old Bailey, Fulham, and, of course, Holywell Street.

What I can also share with you today is a shot of my research. This is a screenshot of a record from the Central Criminal Court at the Old Bailey from September 1876, and forms part of one of my clues. These records are online and available for anyone to trawl, and they make for fascinating reading. You can find them for free at Old Bailey Online.

Now, I must return to 1893 and chapter 14, where I will start at 48,500 words. I last left the team in the new boardroom, with someone having a revelation, so it will be interesting to see what happens next. By the way, there will be another newsletter soon, and a new set of promos to view and push, so keep an eye out for all that on Saturday.

Holywell Street

Posted on 02/04/2025 by Jack Marsh

That’s the working title of the next Delamere Files mystery. Actually, it’s Eight, Holywell Street, because the file I have started is titled 08 Holywell Street, but I am not sure if there was a number eight in that street in 1893. There was a number 10, and it was inhabited by a bicycle shop, but I’ve not been able to find number eight on the 1891 census. I have the rest of the street and will be using some of the occupier’s names when I start to write the first draft, and that will be in about 30 minutes from now.

What’s it to be about? Well, that’s an interesting question. I know the subject, the background, if you like, but not yet the detailed story, except that I want it to present my team of mainly gay detectives with a moral dilemma. They are already solving cases and fighting crime while being inherently criminal themselves (as it was illegal for men to have sex with men), but now, I want them to pick up on another side of that subject. I can’t say more than that or else I will either give the story away or let you down by changing my mind later.

So far in my research, I have been trawling newspapers and publications of the time, looking through the census to get an idea of what businesses were in the street and the kind of people who lived there, and I have been reading some history sites about the area, the churches of St Clement Danes and St Mary le Strand which stood at either end of Holywell Street, and (here’s a hint) I have been reading some papers on male prostitution and the early days of pornography in London.

If you are interested in the former subject, I can recommend this well-written and easy-to-understand thesis on the subject:

Rent: Same-Sex Prostitution in Modern Britain, 1885-1957 Jonathan Coleman.

So, that’s where I am with ‘Holywell Street’, and I shall shortly be typing the first words of chapter one. While that’s going on, I have seven different promos to tell you about this month, so bear with me. They will all be in Saturday’s newsletter, but let’s get the ball rolling by telling you about this one:

April Kindle Unlimited Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, & Crime Reads

April 1st through to April 30th.

Genres: Mystery & Suspense / Crime, Mystery & Suspense / Psychological Thriller, and Mystery & Suspense / Thriller

I have four titles in this one, and every click through to the page of covers and info is greatly appreciated (and free).

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.

Acts of Faith Full Cover

Posted on 19/03/2025 by Jack Marsh

Hi all,

Today, I’m sharing with you the mockup of the full cover of Acts of Faith. I am currently doing my last read through and will book the interior layout process tomorrow. I am still aiming to have the book go live around 26th March. It would be slightly sooner, but I have to be away all day today, so things have got knocked back – but keep an eye out, and there will be more news at the weekend.

As you can see from the cover, Baxter ends up in the Thames not far from where Tower Bridge is still under construction, and if you want to know where the climax of the book takes place more precisely, get a map and have a look for the River Neckinger. This was, apparently, the area in which Dickens set Oliver Twist, and Fagin’s lair in particular. Not that that has anything to do with my story or Baxter being in the river, it’s just something to mention.

So, not long to go now. Thank you, as always, for your continuing support.

A Selection of Other Titles

Posted on 12/03/2025 by Jack Marsh

Lit Fic, Women’s Fic, Memoirs, Historical, Time-travel

A slight change in tack today. I have an update for you and news about the cover reveal, but first, I wanted to draw your attention, and your click, to a collection of varied titles by authors such as Mary Crawford, and RD Kardon. These titles fall under the categories of women’s literary fiction and biographies.

Judging from the covers, many appear to be love stories, but there is also an element of time travel or adventure about them. (I love the tag line for ‘Head Lion’ by Neil Peter Christy, ‘Fasten your deceit belts.’) I can’t vouch for the quality of every single one, but those I have dipped into read well. The proof of the pudding is in the reading, so take a look, and if anything takes your fancy, you will find books are available on various platforms, including B&N and Kobo, depending on each title.

‘Acts of Faith’

Now, to return to my usual Wednesday update… The full MS of the next Delamere book is going off to my proofreader this weekend. All being well, it will be back by the following weekend, and out before the 26th March. Depending on how fast you read, you could start the story on, say, the 24th (as long as it’s ready), and finish on the 26th (Clearwater’s birthday) which happens to be the date of the climax of the story.

Is it a thrilling climax? Is it in the usual Jackson Marsh style of build to the unlocking of the mystery only to discover someone’s in trouble like, right now? You will have to read it and see. So far, it’s got a thumbs up from my husband in its Beta stage, but he may be biased.

As for the cover reveal, I will do this on Saturday. If you are on my newsletter mailing list, you should have already had the monthly newsletter and seen the full cover. The link is on the bottom of the newsletter. If you are not on the mailing list, sign up via the simple box at the top of the right-hand column here. You will ned to verify it’s you and you’re okay to join as it’s not an automatic sign-up thing.

So, why not read some of the titles from the above fiction list while you wait for ‘Acts of Faith’ and why not call back on Saturday to see Andjela’s cover which shows Benny Baxter doing something dramatic, but where…?

Acts of Faith: Cover

Posted on 05/03/2025 by Jack Marsh

This week’s update is about the cover for Acts of Faith. Andjela has again come up with a brilliant cover for the story, and this time, it’s a scene from the climax of the tale. I will be revealing the full cover in due course, but looking at it made me wonder about previous covers and what they showed. It also made me ask the question, should a cover show a scene from the story, or a representation of it as a whole?

When I was looking for a cover for my mystery, The Saddling, the designer (not Andjela) came up with an image of a pagan festival wreath and that kind of summed up the story nicely. I, though, wanted someone walking into the action, and to feature a scene from the village where the story is set, and we ended up with a man, Tom Carey, innocently walking into the village through the mist and heading to the church where… You’ll have to read it to find out.

Then, looking at the Clearwater series I realised we have a mix of covers. Deviant Desire shows the two main characters with the threatening evil behind them, Twisted Tracks shows them running for a massive locomotive, the third book shows a mix of story moment and main character (Silas Hawkins), and the fourth cover, Fallen Splendour, has a grabbing image that also sums up the story. And so on through all books to the Clearwater Inheritance which shows us the Orient Express (kind of) charging through snow which is in fact music.

I often have a person on the cover as I think that helps link the reader to the characters, even though it’s only my image of what a character looks like. In the Larkspur series covers, we see (in order), Joe Tanner, Joe again (on horseback), the baddie for book three, the ghost for book four, Edward Hyde for book five, evil again for six, and finally, the Legacy, Clearwater’s ship.

The theme continues with the Delamere Files, where, so far, we have: Larkin Chase and Jack Merrit, Jack and the four old-school boys from the story (including Larkin when younger), Jack and his brother Will Merrit on book three, Will alone for ‘Where There’s a Will’, the villain and Ronny on book five, Jack and Baxter on ‘Grave Developments’, and, for ‘Acts of Faith, we have…

You’ll have to wait for the full cover reveal in a week or so. Meanwhile, I can tell you that my target today is to finish the last chapter of the first draft. This one has taken a while to get down because of Christmas, a trip away, illness and my knackered shoulders, but we’re getting there.

Before I go, I know people are switching off from Amazon and KU because of the far right politics of the USA, but I must continue to use it because it is from where I get 75% of my income, and I couldn’t survive without it. So, if you’re still okay with supporting authors who have to rely on Amazon, you might like to look out for some new series starters from this list. Click the banner to take a look at all the titles.

Jackson Marsh Author

Gay Historial Mystery

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