The James Hansone Ghost Mysteries

Sometime late 2004, I (Paul) drove across the county of Lincolnshire having taken a makeshift diversion of my own knowing roadworks at Wragby would likely hold me up as I was off to give a talk on Astronomy. In doing so, on a stretch of minor single track road, I drove past an old cottage set back a little from the road and it had clearly be left unoccupied for some years.

On arriving back home late that night I recounted the event to Lorraine and I quipped that it would have been spooky if a face had stared back at me from one of the upstairs windows. Lorraine agreed it was spooky and would make a good story and that set me off on gradually writing my first proper novel: A Ghostly Diversion. Although I had often begun writing stories in the past, especially in my sixth form years and early work at Marks and Spencer in Boston, UK, I could never seem to finish them or tie up the main plot points of the story.

That all changed with 'A Ghostly Diversion' although it did take until 2012 to actually finish the overall story, tie up the plot elements then begin to think about how to publish it. This is where, looking into self publishing, I came across an aspiring young writer by the name of Catherine Ryan Howard who has since achieved a deal with a book publisher, has several full blown novels published and is a successful trad author now. Catherine's book about self publishing gave me the confidence to go that route. A good friend working in the book trade, Gill, was also very helpful, encouraging me to refine 'A Ghostly Diversion' and also gave me the confidence boost I needed. 

As 'AGD' was almost finished, thoughts began to turn to keeping the main character of James Hansone going and so the sequel: Secrets of Grasceby Manor' came into being and amazingly only took just over a year to write, a far cry from how long the first novel took! It seemed that a 'writers block' had been broken wide open as book 2 headed towards a dramatic cliff hanger leading to a third book and so 'Return to De Grasceby Manor' was born. The good news was that the books were well received with regular 4 and 5 star reviews on Amazon and readers wanting more, so in 2020, 'James and the Air of Tragedy' followed and it led into  'The Haunting of Grasceby Rectory (and the Devon Mystery)'. Book 6: 'Spectre of the Grasceby Flier' followed in April 2024 and Book 7 'The Haunting of Lady Grasceby' was published Christmas 2024.  Book 8 is provisionally titled 'The Ghosts of Borrow Hall' and is in the early phase of developing the plot points. 

An Omnibus featuring the first five novels in one volume is available and two short stories books (New Year Tales vol 1 & 2) are also available.
All books are available as Kindle and Kindle POD (Print On Demand) and Kindle Unlimited.