As of this writing, we have about FORTY-TWO HOURS LEFT on the Inkshares Mystery & Thriller contest. If you haven’t placed a pre-order yet for "Cat’s Paw", now would be the time to do it.

From the last will and testament of Sir Lawrence Linwood, dated 14 September 1914:

...However, in the event that I should die from unnatural causes, that is, by another’s hand; and, assuming the identity of my killer remains a mystery to the police; then, in lieu of the above, I bequeath the entirety of my residual estate, less the bequests listed in the first section, to whichever of my three children (Alan, Roger, or Caroline) first identifies my killer to the police....

From Sir Lawrence Linwood’s letter to his younger son, Roger Linwood, dated 28 March 1921:

...As such, I will be contacting my solicitors within the next week to alter my will in your favour. I’m afraid Alan will not be pleased, but as he has no time for England, I have no time for him; and Caroline, of course, never expected anything to begin with. Keep this information close to your chest. If anything should happen to me....

Less than one week to go!

Ladies and gentlemen, we have less than one week before the end of the Inkshares Mystery & Thriller contest. We’re currently at second place with 119 readers, but anything can happen in a week, and our friends down in 3rd and 4th are just hitting their second wind. Do we have a second wind? I hope we do. If you know anyone who might be interested in a tale of suspense -- of murder, conspiracy, and suspicion -- be sure to point them this way. Don’t forget to check to see if you really have placed your order.

And remember, pre-ordering a physical copy of the book also gets you the e-book bundled in together!

IN THIS UPDATE:
It’s the final stretch! | Online order problems fixed, yay! | Part 9 on its way...

One more week to go... 190 pre-orders left to sell!

I’m still very confident we can hit that. Pre-orders have grown exponentially this week, from 1 on Tuesday to 6 yesterday. If that rate keeps up, we’ll smash the 250 target by next Thursday.

But I can only do this with your help! Please reach out to everyone you know – even if they’ve already expressed interest, as it may be that they haven’t yet got round to placing their order.

I’ve also now had confirmation from Inkshares that their online order system is fixed. This was shortly followed by a reader saying they’d finally been able to pre-order, having had numerous failed attempts over recent days – so we’re definitely good now!

I’m very keen to share the next part of the book with you, so I’m going to get back to editing it right now. I’m very excited about letting you get your first encounter with "the Sympathiser"... sharing this with you and the many readers to come!

Catch y’all again soon. Ciao for niao...

December is upon us, which means that, for a lot of us, Christmas is around the corner. Don’t forget to get your shopping done early; and if you haven’t yet, don’t forget to give Amazon or GoodReads (or whatever your preferred online bookstore is) your two cents’ worth of thoughts on "A Gentleman’s Murder". Other readers will want to know about your experience. We’re currently at 39 reviews on Amazon -- not too far off from the 50 review mark, which is when Amazon supposedly begins to take a book seriously.

December also means that we have just two weeks before the end of the Inkshares Mystery & Thriller contest: two weeks to try for that magic 250 reader mark for "Cat’s Paw". We’re still a good distance off, but, well, ’tis the season of hope. If you haven’t checked it out yet, I urge you to do so. Every little bit counts.

And of course, don’t forget to have a great weekend! I know I will: I’ve got a carton of eggnog waiting for me.