VAL PENNY

I am excited to be able to tell you about my novel, Murder in the New Town, published by Joffe Books which will be available to buy soon. It is set in 2013 shortly after Police Scotland was created. Prior to that, the police force in Scotland was divided into eight regional forces. Indeed, Hunter's nemesis, Sir Peter Myerscough, was a former Chief Constable of the Lothian and Borders Police Force. When Police Scotland was created there was only onle Chief Constable for the wh

This is an exciting time for me. I moved publishers to Joffe Books at the end of last year and am thrilled that the company is re-publishing my back catelogue of DI Hunter Wilson novels as well as having commissioned new books. It is a delight to be able to share my stories with new readers. The third book in the series, Murder in the New Town, is set in Edinburgh and finds Hunter and his team investigating a crime rather closer to home than usual because Hunter's son Cameron

My novel, Murder in Edinburgh, was published by Joffe Books on 13th May. In case you haven't read it yet I wanted to share a little bit of it with you, to entice you into DI Hunter's World. In this scene, local villain Jamie Thomson is keeping up the family busines of theft and burglary while his father is in prison for robbing a bank. Jamie Thomson swaggered along one of the tree-lined streets in the wealthy Edinburgh suburb of Morningside. To him, the capital of Scotland wa

I suppose your first book is a bit like your first child, a thing of awe and wonder and you never really understand how you got it into the world. My first novel, which had the working title of Sins of the Fathers. The general idea came from that bible where the idea is repeated several times, but the most memorable to me comes in the Old Testament Book of Numbers verses 14-18 where it says: ‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and tr

Let me preface this article by staing the obvious! Agents are individuals and their opinion is just one opinion. (Although I appreciate that when you've been on the receiving end of several rejections, it may not feel that way.) Also bear in mind that because they are indiviauals different agents will be attracted by different aspects of your pitch. A visual person might be attracted to a mood board, while others may find a list of tropes or themes helpful. There is an elemen

Some years ago, my family was sent into shock. I was diagnosed with breast cancer, could no longer undertake my job as a university lecturer and was really very ill. I had recently moved across the country and didn't know many people in the area. Now added to that, during chemotherapy and radiotherapy my immune system was compromised so I couldn't get out to meet people either. This was a challenging time not only for me, but for the whole family. Normally my pleasures includ

I have now finished the manuscript of the next DI Hunter Thriller. I wanted to treat you all to a short excerpt from near the beginning of the book. Please let me know if you enjoy it. The Extract Chapter one “The festival is here again. I love this time of year. The city is so busy and vibrant,” Hunter smiled at Meera. “Edinburgh is such a beautiful city, isn’t it?” “It is. But what we call The Festival is really several different festivals of the arts. The ori