Stephen Henning's Blog

Eight Detectives is an excellent detective story to the power of eight. You know how, when you’re going on holiday, you just want a book that becomes part of your holiday experience? One that you look forward to enjoying while you’re on the plane, in your hotel room, or around the pool? You choose a book, with some trepidation, hoping it isn’t going to let you down.

Well, if you’re a fan of detective fiction and you yearn for a modern successor to Agatha Christie, then you won’t be disappointed by Alex Pavesi’s debut novel. 

Also, if you’ve enjoyed Anthony Horowitz’s Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders, you’ll probably like this too. There are some similarities. Julia Hart is a publishing executive who has tracked down a reclusive author and maths professor — Grant McAllister — with a view to publishing a book that he had written decades ago called The White Murders. That book contains seven short detective stories. As in the Horowitz books, we have both the narrative of Julia’s conversation with Grant, and the unfolding of the individual stories within Grant’s book, and those two narratives are connected. 

As Julia reads out each of those stories, she questions Grant on a number of inconsistencies, and spots parallels with a real-life murder case. And so Julia herself becomes the eighth detective in the novel.

I loved it. Each of the stories are themselves brilliant, and they draw heavily and deliberately from the Christie canon and that of other classic crime books. They are clever homages, but still excellently written stories in their own right. My particular favourite was the reworking of And Then There Were None. I’ve previously reviewed the Christie original and it remains one of my favourite detective stories of all time.

Alex Pavesi has that most crucial gift as an author — an engaging and immersive writing style. I just wanted to keep on reading. He manages to provide plenty of descriptive passages without ever allowing the pace of the story to drag. Some episodes gave me goosebumps. I experienced the fear and trepidation of the characters as if I was right there alongside them. 

It wouldn’t be a satisfying novel without plenty of twists and tricks, and they are delivered at just the right moments. 

Usually, in the interests of balance, when I write a review I try to include some constructive criticism, but in this case I can’t really think of any. It won’t be to everyone’s taste, of course, but it was to mine. Well worth a read, particularly if you’re going on holiday. It’s five stars! 

And since I love a mystery too, you might notice a bothersome bit of sticking plaster in the photos. What is the significance you might wonder?  Does it make it all the way to cockpit? If you think you know the answer, or it’s keeping you awake at night and you want to know, (it’s nothing to do with Eight Detectives, but is related to a famous reporter/sleuth and one of my favourite and funny moments in one of his adventures, which also occurs on a plane) then you can always drop me an email (address is at the top of the Home page ).

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Stephen Henning talks about his passion for writing science fiction and why he wrote Earth Shot — the action packed first installment of the Seconds to Midnight series — aimed at readers aged 9 to 12.

 

 

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OK, strictly speaking, aliens haven’t landed in Dial Lane Books. But my new book Earth Shot, a science fiction novel aimed at middle grade readers (kids aged 8 to 12) has touched down and is available to buy.

There’s something so gratifying about seeing your book in an actual book shop. And Dial Lane Books in Ipswich has that ‘proper book shop’ feel about it, if you know what I mean? You go in and instantly feel that intangible but unmistakeable love of books embedded in every nook and cranny.

The owner, Andrew Marsh, is enthusiastic and charismatic and the shop reflects his personality. It is quirky and off beat, in a way that only independent book stores can be.

Andrew opened the book shop in 2020 only to have to temporarily close it during the pandemic. I’m glad to say it is thriving today, and the town of Ipswich in Suffolk is all the better for it.

So thank you Andrew. I hope the kids who come in to your store have a look at Earth Shot and it piques their interest enough to read it.

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Earth Shot

Eleven-year-old Lucas, his best mate Avi, and Lucas’s little sister Maisie are camping out in the peaceful English countryside. Peaceful, until the night sky lights up with shooting stars… and something crashlands in nearby Fitch Forest. 

The three young friends investigate and find an injured alien. They should leave well alone, right?

Buy This Book

I’ll cut to the chase: I wrote a science book aimed at children. I spent a year trying to find an agent. I didn’t get an agent. I self published the book on Amazon because I believe that there is a market for science fiction books aimed at middle grade readers. Now let’s see how the story ends.

It began with a desire to write the kind of books that ten-year-old me would have enjoyed. There are lots of children who like science fiction. Maybe they aren’t into reading books — yet. But then perhaps there just aren’t that many science fiction books out there? And the ones that are, are hoovered up by keen enquiring young minds. (See this article in Publishers’ Weekly regarding the reading habits of middle grade readers, based on research of US libraries: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/columns-and-blogs/soapbox/article/89175-sci-fi-for-kids-is-a-missed-publishing-opportunity.html)

In my quest to find representation, one agent whom I was lucky enough to meet in person told me that, generally, editors at publishing houses are quite snobby about science fiction. Those were her words. She said they didn’t grow up with it, and so tend to look upon it as something not ‘worthy’ for children. In other words, she warned me it was running against the tide.

Her advice was to wait until a celebrity writes a successful science fiction book to make it popular — and then it will be easier 🙂 So thanks you David Walliams for Astrochimp! Come on … errrr Ed Sheeran! It’s got to be his turn next to write a book, surely!

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Class Heroes Book 7

Sir Michael’s recruitment drive for superheroes is finally paying dividends, but a jealous rival threatens to sabotage his plans; James and Lolly’s ill-advised relationship heats up; Deen is terrified by the changes happening to his body; and the mystery surrounding Sam and Al’s disappearance is revealed.

Buy This Book

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I had the great honour of talking to one of my all-time favourite writers, recently. Anthony Horowitz very kindly took the time to hear all about Film Suffolk’s latest movie ‘Once Upon a Time in Suffolk’, and he provided a lovely video message of support.

Once Upon A Time in Suffolk comprises nine different fairytale-inspired stories, each with a distinctive Suffolk flavour. I have been involved in the script editing process on this film, and I’m delighted to say we’ve got some fun and fantastic stories that we want to bring to movie-goers, all based in, or inspired by, Suffolk settings. This ranges from our gorgeous Constable country setting (and yes, John Constable will feature), to a delicious Red Riding Hood inspired tale in Lowerstoft, and a creepy tale of scarecrows that protect our wonderful landscape.

Filming begins in July 2024, and is produced by not-for-profit production company FILM Suffolk, which is committed to supporting filmmakers and promoting moving-image production in Suffolk. 

It’s not too late if you want to join in the action and contribute to our crowd funder.

Arranged through his office, I was absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity to talk to Anthony about Once Upon a Time in Suffolk. He was keen to find out who Film Suffolk are, why we want to make movies, what we are doing to help people in our region get into film making, and took an interest in the scripts that we were developing. Anthony is an author and screenwriting whom I have admired for a long time, so for me it was a personal thrill to have the opportunity to talk with him. 

And if I haven’t managed to get you excited about the movie, then hear it from one of Britain’s best writers (and a gentleman, to boot!), Anthony Horowitz. Thank you Mr Horowitz, we very much appreciate you taking the time and trouble to offer your support.

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I was asked by Ben Fox of the excellent Shepherd books website to provide my top three books of 2023. It’s quite mystery/thriller book heavy, and I’ve already separately reviewed my absolute favourite book, Cara Hunter’s ‘Murder in the Family’.

But for completeness, head over to the Shepherd books website for my top 3, and lots of other recommendations too from other authors and avid readers.

Click to find my, and others, book recommendations on the Shepherd Books website.

 

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Murder in the Family by Cara Hunter

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I can’t remember the last time I read a book that I didn’t want to put down. This book was a thrilling joyride, told in a fiendishly clever and unusual way. I chose it as a holiday read, and was actually annoyed when the plane landed and I had to call a halt to my enjoyment. I picked it up at every opportunity and finished it within three days. By comparison, my second holiday book (while good) is still only at the quarter-finished mark.

The setup is that a Netflix-style streaming service has a successful ‘true crime’ show called infamous, and in its latest series, they’re investigating the unsolved 20-year old murder of Luke Ryder. The director of the show is Guy Howard, the stepson of the dead man.

Rather than tell the story in prose, where a first person gives us their account or a third person narrator curates what we’re told, we’re essentially given the ‘scripts’ from each of the 8 episodes in the show. Plus we get the press pack for each of the true crime investigators who appear on the show; and we’re privy to some of the emails that go back and forth between those involved in the making of Infamous, and the family who were affected by the murder.

It’s such a novel (no pun intended) idea, which changes the whole storytelling experience. A complete breath of fresh air. I’ve never read any of Cara Hunter’s other books, and chose this one based on the blurb. She is an exceptionally good writer. I’m still in awe of how she kept track of all the various plot threads and pulled them together. I’m also amazed at how convincing it was; it felt like a real event. She also made the characters leap off the page, without being able to use any of a writer’s usual tools to bring them alive.

I could go on for ages about all the things I liked about this book, and how clever it is, but to be honest you’re better off just finding out for yourself.

Brace yourself for an unusual reading experience and just go with it. I note how other readers said that reading it on a Kindle was a frustrating experience and I can certainly see how that would be the case, so probably best to do what I did and go for the old fashioned paperback.



View all my reviews

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I put it to you: UFOs and children’s books are simply made for each other. Right? I have written a middle grade adventure book about three young friends who witness a UFO crash in a forest and discover a dying alien. So I absolutely love seeing news stories about UFOs or anything that plays into that narrative.

UFOs exist — possibly

Imagine my joy, then, at this story doing the rounds this week about a former US intelligence official, David Grusch, who claims that the US Government possess ‘intact and partially intact’ craft of non-human origin’ . https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/06/whistleblower-ufo-alien-tech-spacecraft 

A new children’s science fiction book

My book is called Earth Shot and is set in Suffolk. Where else, but ground zero of the UK’s notorious Rendlesham Forest incident?! We’re so used to second-home owners in Suffolk that it seems almost inevitable that alien visitors would make this their second command base. 😀

When I’m writing science fiction and fantasy books, I like to anchor them as much as possible in real world events/concerns. I think it helps to sell the fictional world to the reader, if the story is grounded in some kind of reality.

Another inspiration was the frankly horrifying pronouncement of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists that we are closer to doomsday than ever before. https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/ This provided the title for overall series, which I have called ‘Seconds to Midnight’.

As a statement of intent, I have created a cover for the book.  If I am fortunate enough to get it published then it probably won’t be the final cover, but it helped me crystalise in my own mind the kind of book (and series) that I’d like it to be. I’d be interested to know what you think.

My writing journey

Where am I on my ‘writing journey’? Just left of Mars at the moment. I have had some good feedback from my book, and I’ve been trying to get representation by literary agents. At the moment I think I have more rejections than there are sci-fi books on the market. Perhaps I should have referenced the 2021 John Lewis Christmas ad as a ‘works like mine’ 😀

Here’s to the future! Reportedly, there is a dearth of children’s science fiction available, but high demand for it (as I previously mentioned, based on an article in Publisher’s Weekly https://www.stephenhenning.co.uk/2022/07/23/is-childrens-science-fiction-publishing-the-final-frontier/). Hopefully the book will be published some time soon, and you can treat your children to an exciting science fiction adventure book. And from a personal note, you can satisfy your curiosity as to why that alien thing in space looks like a decaying dog poo.

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Well, I may not be in the George R R Martin league yet (in terms of book output / writing duration, that is) but it’s been two years since I last released a Class Heroes book. But, like buses, you wait ages and then three come along. Yes, I’m delighted to announce a Class Heroes mini series, comprising three episodes, will be launched on 29 May 2023. The mini series is called How to Start Your Own Country. Episode 1 is called ‘The Rise of Superhero Island.’

There have been six Class Heroes books so far. How to Start Your Own Country picks up the hanging plot threads from book 6 ‘Jesus of the North’. If you haven’t read books 1-6 yet, don’t worry, I won’t include any spoilers in this article. But I’m delighted to invite you to give Class Heroes a whirl, by making Jesus of the North absolutely free, gratis and for nothing, between 24 and 26 May 2023 (Pacific Time) on Amazon Kindle.

Feel free to download this exciting book to your Kindle, and you’ll be all set for the release of How to Start Your Own Country, which is available for pre-order now.

Feel free to watch some videos which will give you some tasty teasers for the books, and hopefully whet your appetite for the adventures of James and Samantha Blake.

 

 

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