We’re back in Thailand just in time for the end of the monsoon season.
Not that we particularly love monsoon weather and hurried home for the pleasure of flooded roads, damp laundry and the daily suspense of discovering whether the drains have once again resigned from public service. We’ve done our fair share of that. But work demanded our return, so here we are, back in tropical Thailand, where the air is warm, the rain is horizontal, and every journey comes with an optional aquatic section.
On Eddie’s first day back at work, he acquired a cat.
It’s a long story, but the short version is that the cat would either be taken to a shelter or adopted by someone. Eddie, apparently deciding that returning from England had not introduced enough disorder into our lives, volunteered us for the second option.
And so, at the end of the monsoon season, we gained one soggy ginger cat.
His name is London. We wanted something original, distinctive and faintly cosmopolitan, then named him after the city we had just left. Inspiration had evidently remained behind at baggage reclaim.
London is an affectionate cat, which is the polite term for a clingy, mildly psychotic creature who requires at least one part of his body to be touching a human at all times. A paw will do in an emergency, but he prefers full contact and considers personal space an administrative error.
Eddie has been walking around the kitchen with a ginger tabby attached to his foot like an overgrown, emotionally unstable slipper. London moves when Eddie moves, stops when Eddie stops, and cries as though abandoned by his entire family whenever Eddie leaves the house.
We will be looking for a permanent home for him. In the meantime, he has settled in with remarkable confidence, occupied every chair we once believed belonged to us, and begun supervising my writing from a position directly between me and the screen.
Naturally, I’m now thinking about a new mystery series featuring an orange tabby cat.
As I said: aspiring to originality, and falling slightly short.
-- Jern
While London has been supervising Jern’s writing, I’ve been bringing Death by Clotted Cream into the world. It’s the fifth Treggan Bay mystery, and it’s beginning to appear in shops.
I’ve also been doing the final edits to my recording of The Gravedigger’s Handbook. Recording and publishing an audiobook is a long, slow process, but it is a labour of love.
I even had to prove I was human this time, with a very friendly and supportive team at INaudio walking me through it. Slightly disconcerting, but well worth the effort.
The audiobook has been released on Spotify, with other audiobook retailers to follow. You’ll find links to both books below.
— Eddie
A perfect cream tea. A body in the cream pan. A story arranged to hide a murder.
Noah and Leo investigate a death at an artisanal Devon creamery in their fifth Treggan Bay mystery. A self-contained case, with their continuing story running through it.
Explore Death by Clotted Cream
A quiet queer Gothic story of grief, ghosts and tenderness, narrated by Eddie Tonkoi. Listening availability varies by country.
Find The Gravedigger’s Handbook on Spotify
Thank you for reading, and for making room for Noah, Leo and the occasional ginger supervisor.
Jern and Eddie Tonkoi
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