Click here to read about Kon-Tiki Coda, written with Keith Brooke, from PS Publishing…
Here I am, on the right, with Keith Brooke, a few years ago at a convention in Harrogate. I’m looking happy – it’s always grand to see Keith, but sadly these days it’s not that often. What with the lockdowns, and living around four hundred miles from each other… That doesn’t stop us collaborating, though.
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Murder Most Vile, the ninth book the the Langham and Dupré series, is out now from Severn House.
“It was not I, but rage, did this vile murder; Yet I, and not my rage, must answer it.” – Thomas Heywood.
April, 1957. When Donald Langham is approached by a retired businessman to find his artist son, what starts as a simple missing persons case soon turns to murder as a body is discovered in a disused warehouse.
While investigating the killing, Langham’s business partner Ralph Ryland must confront his past as a Mosley-ite Blackshirt in the Thirties. In the course of their search for the murderer, Ralph is kidnapped by a gangland boss and Langham must not only attempt to save his friend’s life, but track down a killer who strikes not once but three times…
Murder Most Vile combines a traditional whodunnit mystery with gripping suspense and a thrilling dénouement.
~
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Here’s the cover of the ninth Langham and Dupré mystery, Murder Most Vile, due out next January.
On the short story front, out now is the short-short “A Woman and Her Dog” at Horla, edited by Matthew Rees, and “The Curse of Carmody Grange” in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, edited by Maxim Jakubowski.
Forthcoming are: “Blindside” in Femme Fatales and Dangerous Women, edited by Maxim Jakubowski; “Acts of Defiance” in Burning Brightly: 50 Years of Novacon, edited by Ian Whates; “Assets” (with Keith Brooke) in Night, Rain & Neon – A New Cyberpunk Anthology, edited by Michael Cobley; “Farewell, Pavonis” (with Keith Brooke) in ParSec 3 or 4; “Peril At Carroway House” in Sherlock Holmes: A Detective’s Life, edited by Martin Rosenstock.
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My latest novella, On Arcturus VII, is out now from NewCon Press.
Former pilot and planetary pioneer Jonathan James is tempted out of retirement by an offer he can’t refuse. It means going back to the one place he vowed never to return to: Arcturus Seven. A Closed Planet; a hothouse world where every plant and animal is hell-bent on killing and consuming you; the place that cost him the life of the only woman he has ever truly loved.
Jonathan knows the wealthy tycoon seeking to recruit him cannot be trusted, but he has no choice. If he doesn’t do it, someone else will, and Arcturus Seven has a secret, one which must never be disclosed, so Jonathan accepts the mission even though it means facing memories he has spent years denying.
On Arcturus VII is a fabulous slice of planetary romance from award-winning author Eric Brown. A sparkling tale of intrigue, adventure, and romance; traditional in style but wholly contemporary in its delivery.
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Best of British Science Fiction 2020, edited by Donna Scott, is out now from NewCon Press. It contains my short tale “Panspermia High” as well as some excellent work by the likes of M.R. Carey, Ian Watson, Liz Williams, Neil Williamson and many more.
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The eighth Langham and Dupré mystery is out now from Severn House.
January, 1957. Donald Langham and Maria Dupré have left London behind for the Suffolk countryside. They’re excited about starting a new life in the picturesque village of Ingoldby-over-Water – and about meeting their new neighbours.
They’ve barely settled into Yew Tree Cottage when their new neighbour at Standing Stone Manor, Professor Edwin Robertshaw, invites Donald over to discuss some ‘fishy business’. Then, a few days later, a body is found by the professor’s precious standing stone in the manor grounds.
As they settle into the community, Donald and Maria discover tensions, disputes and resentment raging below the surface of this idyllic village, but can they find out which of the villagers is a cold-blooded killer?
~
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My novella, Ace Doubles, is available now from Stone Owl Stories.
What happens when the immovable object meets the unstoppable force? What happens when my love of science fiction met the cynicism of the market place? Perhaps it resulted in my alter ego, the SF writer Ed Bentley, and what happened when he met the YouTuber Penny Cotton… Ace Doubles chronicles Ed’s involvement not only with Penny, but with pulp SF writer George Lattimer. But was the fantastic series of events that visited Lattimer in later life nothing more than a hallucination brought about by his illness?
Ace Doubles was inspired by my love of Ace Doubles, my infatuation with science fiction, and real life.
~
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Ace Doubles, my latest SF novella, will be out later this year from Stone Owl Stories. It’s a very loosely autobiographical story about a SF writer.
Read more about it here.
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The eighth Langham and Dupré mystery, Murder at Standing Stone Manor, is due out in June from Severn House.
January, 1957. Donald Langham and Maria Dupré have left London behind for the Suffolk countryside. They’re excited about starting a new life in the picturesque village of Ingoldby-over-Water – and about meeting their new neighbours.
They’ve barely settled into Yew Tree Cottage when their new neighbour at Standing Stone Manor, Professor Edwin Robertshaw, invites Donald over to discuss some ‘fishy business’. Then, a few days later, a body is found by the professor’s precious standing stone in the manor grounds.
As they settle into the community, Donald and Maria discover tensions, disputes and resentment raging below the surface of this idyllic village, but can they find out which of the villagers is a cold-blooded killer?
~
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Lightspeed 129, February 2021, features my collaboration with Keith Brooke, “Me Two”. Click here for more details.
Here’s the opening of the story…
For as long as I can remember, I have always been two people.
My earliest recollection is of myself as a three year-old boy, Danny – and at the same time as a girl of the same age, Cristina.
Another early memory is of playing in the rubble of the bomb-ravaged streets of London, when I asked a little boy, “Who will you be tomorrow?” He looked at me as if I were mad.
I took it for granted that everyone I met, everyone in the world, was two people like me: one day I was Danny Madison of 10 Milton Street, Barnes, London; and the next I would be Cristina Velásquez of 122a Carrer del Santuari, El Carmel, Barcelona.
I went to bed as Danny and woke up in the morning as Cristina.
When as Cristina I asked my mother who she would be tomorrow, she said, “Why, myself. Why do you ask?”
I told her about Danny, and I think she assumed I was making him up – a kind of imaginary friend.
As Danny, I asked my mother and father at breakfast one morning, straight out, “Why am I two people?” By this time I knew that no one else of my acquaintance experienced life quite as I did.
They exchanged a worried look. “What do you mean, Danny?” my father asked.
I explained about Cristina, and that tomorrow I would be her, and my mother said, “I think you’re imagining things, Danny.”
I intuited their concern, and decided never to mention it again.
~
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Eric Brown 