There’s a new entry in the newsletter archive so full of revelations and reveals that even if I’d noticed this mention in Audiofile for The Case of the Case of Kilcladdich I’d have probably left it out:
https://www.audiofilemagazine.com/reviews/read/250995/the-case-of-the-case-of-kilcladdich-by-pj-fitzsimmons-read-by-tim-bruce/
You can catch up here and, while you’re there, sign up to receive the newsletters as the moment they’re relevant.
The newsletter archive has a new item in the gallery; the May number announcing countless exclusives and inclusives that were fresh as flowers in May.
It’s still solid stuff, though, and can be seen here which is also, conveniently, where one signs up to receive newsletters the day they’re printed, including the current edition which features a cover reveal of the next Anty Boisjoly mystery.
The Boisjoly universe expands today as Anty’s cousin Teddy Quillfeather solves her first medley of manor house mysteries in Hardy Haul at Hardy Hall.
The theft of an immensely valuable, immensely ugly necklace is only the beginning of the intrigues and idiosyncrasies of a country weekend at Hardy Hall where Teddy’s mother has sent her with strict instructions to select an eligible bachelor from a shortlist of aristocrats, plutocrats, and copycats.
But when Teddy sets out to discourage the suitors and discover the looters with her natural knack for applied shenanigans she instead uncovers countless conspiracies, complicated by country house courtesies. It’s a comedy of manners and caper of manors and the only solution, if you’re Teddy Quillfeather, is obviously another heist…
Theodora ‘Teddy’ Quillfeather had her debut in Mystery and Malice aboard RMS Ballast, in which she helped her cousin, Anty Boisjoly, solve an impossible murder at sea.
Teddy is by no means a female Anty Boisjoly. She’s an audacious and loquacious, stylish and coquettish stiletta of the golden age and very much a citizen in good standing of the Anty Boisjoly world of whimsy, but where Anty’s capricious, Teddy is mischievous, where Anty’s deductive, Teddy gets fully involved in the mystery as it unfolds, and as the locked room murder is to Anty Boisjoly the clever caper is to Teddy Quillfeather.
Indeed, there are no murders in Teddy Quillfeather Mysteries. Instead, Teddy fully implicates herself in smooth swindles and highwire heists, rigged rooms with loaded dice, and dark horses running dodgy courses.
Clearly, she needs her own series to manage it all.
Earlier this month subscribers to the newsletter got an early look at the radical cover design for Hardy Haul at Hardy Hall, the series starter for Teddy Quillfeather’s mysteries of manners and manors.
The view was not unanimous that the Tamara de Lempicka-inspired departure from convention was in keeping with the spirit of the series, and so a lively vote broke out to select from among four competing covers.
The clear winner features the core story elements — Teddy, her penguin, her car, Hardy Hall, and a hardy haul. It also establishes a direction for the covers of the entire series and has already made the design of the second book — Frauds On Favourite — appreciably easier.
Hardy Haul at Hardy Hall will be available from May 24th where all fine Amazon books are sold.
There’s a cheeky new cartoon featuring Anty Boisjoly and his cousin Teddy Quillfeather, about whom there will shortly be an official announcement. Subscribers to the newsletter have already worked out what that is, in the main, and are in broad agreement that it’s been a rollercoaster and that it’s a good job I’m not in charge of anything very important.
Owing to the pace of developments, the most recent TWO newsletters have made it to the archive a little earlier than usual and are available here and now.
The Case of the Case of Kilcladdich audiobook was released this month and it went straight to number one in the coveted Traditional Detective Mysteries category. I was hoping for either the Locked Room Mysteries or Witty Sleuth categories but they’re both hotly contested and non-existent, so I knew that my chances were slim. Nevertheless, it’s an honour just to be nominated.
For those who haven’t heard it yet, it’s hilarious. I liked the book very much (full disclosure, I wrote it) but narrator Tim Bruce takes it to another level.
The other bit of news is that there’s a new newsletter and if you’re subscribed you’ll have observed that it’s such a blockbuster that I forgot to mention that The Case of the Case of Kilcladdich audiobook was at number one for a week.
It’s not too late to get your copy of this sensational special edition of the Anty Boisjoly Bulletin by signing up here.
A local grocery store has at the door that which can only best be described as a sail advertising the availability of “Official Olympic Games 2024 Merchandise.”
That’s it. It doesn’t say what sort of merchandise. We’re just meant to be excited to rush in and see what they’ve got in stock that they always have in stock but now with a logo on it. Or perhaps they’re declaring the entire store official, like sacred ground, and anything you buy between now and when it’s discounted after the circus has left town is officially official.
I don’t know, and it’s in that capacity that I’m announcing that I’m the official locked-room humourist of the 2024 Olympic Games. If that’s not how it works and/or I’m stepping on the toes of the actual official locked room humourist, I’ll apologise now and withdraw the declaration.
Oh, and the February newsletter is now available in the archives.
The Case of the Case of Kilcladdich launched officially on March 1st, unofficially on February 21st, was on most platforms by February 23rd, and it’s available as of today, the ides of March, on Audible.
Tim Bruce assumes the voices of a cast of almost all Scots in the sixth Anty Boisjoly Mystery, in which two impossible murders eliminate both master distillers of Anty Boisjoly’s favourite tipple. Anty must navigate a literal divide between two ancient communities, ruthless rivals in whisky, history, and golf, to identify the killer and save the spirit of Glen Glennegie.
Today (assuming it’s still March 1st by the time this message reaches civilisation) Mystery and Malice aboard RMS Ballast leaves dry dock for a stormy saga spanning the centuries and the seven seas.
This time it’s deadly weather, pirate treasure, and all-too-clever locked-stateroom murder that tests Anty’s talent for mysterious malice, even though the suspects are limited to the few and crew aboard a leaky yacht tossed on the tempestuous outer Scilly Seas.
Mystery and Malice aboard RMS Ballast is available here and now on Kindle, Unlimited, and Paperback.
Thank you very much for reading.
Mystery and Malice aboard RMS Ballast, the eighth Anty Boisjoly Mystery, embarks for the open seas on March 1st and, finally, we have a pirate number.
Anty, Vickers, Inspector Wittersham, and a passenger list of howling eccentrics find themselves prey to the sway and spray of the Scilly Seas when what at first seems a simple, unexplainable, locked-stateroom murder twists into a tale of buried treasure, perilous weather and dangerous endeavours at sea.
When we first embark, romance is in the ocean air as Anty conspires to win the heart of Frederica Hannibal-Pool aboard her uncle’s yacht, but when dashing Dare Flashburn joins the journey telling tales of pirate gold, the moonlight crossing becomes a stormy odyssey of mutiny and murder and mal de mer.
Mystery and Malice aboard RMS Ballast is available on pre-order as of here and now.
There’s a cryptic clue to one of many mysteries aboard RMS Ballast in this month’s newsletter which also features two new Anty cartoons. Get your February newsletter now while supplies last: http://indefensiblepublishing.com/newsletters/