Dear readers, an announcement: A Pretender’s Murder, sequel to A Gentleman’s Murder, is set for release on 24 February 2026!

Colonel Hadrian Russell before the War had four sons. Now he has four widowed daughters-in-law, who lunch at the Britannia Club every Friday as his guests. Popular and personable, why would anyone want him dead? But he’s shot and thrown through one of the club’s front windows one night, and Eric Peterkin, newly appointed as club secretary following the events of A Gentleman’s Murder, must step in again and investigate.

We’re not doing the whole pre-order campaign thing this time, so feel free to head on down to your local bookstore and have them order in a copy or three. I’m really proud of this one, and I hope you enjoy it even more than our first outing with Eric. Meanwhile, it’s back to the writing for me as I work on a third Eric Peterkin mystery.

And if you’d care to check out what’s going on at Inkshares, maybe check out The Last Beacon by Matt Farley, which starts as a murder mystery (you know I love those) before expanding into ... something else. Just be aware that if you want to place a pre-order, you might have to create a new Inkshares account: a bug in the system is preventing expired credit cards from being updated.

Anyway, until Peterkin 3, adieu!

Hi everyone,

Thanks so much for your support during the first couple weeks of the funding campaign. We’re approaching 20% of the goal with three months to go, so we’re in good shape thus far, but admittedly I am running out of friends and family members to contact. So, even though you’ve already helped so much, I’d like to mention a couple of ways you can assist me in keeping the momentum going so this book can end up in your hands and in bookstores nationwide:

Spread the Word: Share a link to The Last Beacon with some friends and family members and let them know a bit about how the funding campaign works (if we’re friends on Facebook, I have a post up that you’re welcome to share).

Pre-Order Another Copy: Obviously, if you’ve already ordered one copy, you’ve gone above and beyond most people, and I’m incredibly grateful for your support. I know disposable income is hard to come by these days, but if you’re able to order another, I wanted to point out that the cheaper, $10 e-book option equally counts toward the 750 goal, and you can place multiple orders.

I’ll periodically keep you updated on my progress as we hit major milestones without overly spamming your inbox. As always, if you’d like to reach out, you can contact me on Inkshares or directly at mtf1008@gmail.com

Thanks again for your support.

Sincerely,

Matt Farley