Jun 26, 2016

Dear friends and followers,

It has been an exceptionally slow week, but I did say I was going to sit back a bit and consider my next steps. So ... with the manuscript for "Murder at the Veterans’ Club" done, what have I been up to?

Those of you with a taste for Interactive Fiction might be interested to know that I am putting together a little game for our friend Eric Peterkin. Join him--well, BE him--in a little investigation! I expect to have this out in a couple of weeks, so watch this space.

With all the news currently coming out of the UK, I’m reminded that the action of "Murder at the Veterans’ Club" is supposed take place in November 1924. Among other things, this is the month immediately following a general election in which the Conservative Party ousted the incumbent Labour Party with a landslide vote. Much of the Conservative victory was attributed to the publication of the Zinoviev letter a few days before the election, fanning fears of communism and suspicion against the left-leaning Labour Party. Interestingly, this seems to have hurt the Liberal vote more than the Labour vote: perhaps the non-Labour partisans of the day were voting strategically by throwing their collective weight behind the stronger of the two remaining parties.

Was the Zinoviev letter a forgery, though? And would anyone at the Veterans’ Club have cared? The military branches seem to tend towards the conservative, but that’s not exactly a rule. And conscription in the Great War meant that a lot of men, of non-military backgrounds, now qualified for membership at the Club....

I suppose we’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime, what’s on the shelves at Inkshares?

1) "American Art Killers", by Andrew Oye. This has some very slick production art, and Oye appears to really know his stuff. I’m honestly a little surprised that this hasn’t had more traction over the course of its campaign.

2) "Falling from Grace", by Felecia Downing. A supernatural mystery, rather than a straight-up murder mystery. The sample is very well executed and shows personality right from the first paragraph.

And now, friends ... it is a glorious afternoon, and I intend to take full advantage of it. Until next week: have fun, and keep reading.