The biblets are now available for all the books in the unhuman series of Cotswold comedy crime fantasies, or humorous mysteries. They are cozy detective stories with lashings of great food and. feature the same selection of characters, including:
- Inspector Hobbes - the unhuman and occasionally monstrous detective
- Andy Caplet - the hapless narrator of the story
- Mrs Goodfellow - the unsettling and kind housekeeper and magnificant cook
- Dregs - the delinquent dog
Inspector Hobbes was inspired by a programme in which Alan Titchmarsh, who was made up as a Neanderthal but dressed in normal modern clothes, walked down a busy street and only attracted one person’s attention. It made me think, what if Neanderthals, or possibly individuals from some other fallen branch of the human tree, still existed in our midst, but were generally unremarked? Shortly after, Inspector Hobbes came to life as a character in a short story. The façade of being a police detective hid the fact that he was not quite human, that he possessed extraordinary strength and retained certain animal characteristics and senses.
Since it was tricky to get into his ‘unhuman’ mind, in the same way that I cannot really understand what is going on in a dog’s head, I decided to use a first person narrator, similar to Conan Doyle’s Dr Watson. Andy Caplet became my narrator and I made him a local reporter to give him a reason for meeting Hobbes. Andy's name came from seeing an old photograph of composers Claude Debussy and André Caplet; Debussy came across as large and hairy, a bit like I imagined Hobbes, whereas Caplet appeared small and insignificant. As the novel developed, Andy, struggling against his many flaws, turned into the central character.
I wrote about some the influences behind the stories in my blog 'Alan Titchmarch was my inspiration for writing Inspector Hobbes and the Blood' http://blog.wilkiemartin.com/search/label/Alan%20Titchmarsh
Inspector Hobbes and the Blood (unhuman I)
'Odd, inventive and genuinely very funny indeed' (Cotswolf Life)
Inspector Hobbes and the Blood, unhuman I, is a fast-paced comedy crime fantasy set in the Cotswolds. When Andy Caplet, an inept local reporter, is assigned to Inspector Hobbes, a police officer with a troubling reputation, he has no idea what horrors his future holds.
‘I ought to tell you, dear, he can get rather wild when he’s hungry’
In my blog 'What's in the Blood' I discuss some of the reasoning behind the title. http://blog.wilkiemartin.com/2013/10/whats-in-blood_7.html
And on PIinterest I include some of the photos that were given to the cover designer to give them a feel for the Cotswolds http://www.pinterest.com/wilkiewrites/cotswold-snaps-for-cover-designer-of-inspector-hob/
Read the opening chapters of Inspector Hobbes and the Blood here http://book2look.com/vBook.aspx?id=ZrFHGPVxgR
Inspector Hobbes and the Curse (unhuman II)
‘Love may be on the horizon, but beware, something wicked this way comes’
Read the opening chapters of Inspector Hobbes and the Curse here http://book2look.com/book/NqlwpcMhNm
Inspector Hobbes and the Gold Diggers (unhuman III) - published 30 September 2014
Receiving unwanted attention after foiling an armed robbery, the unhuman Inspector Hobbes takes a long-overdue camping holiday, with Andy, his accident-prone friend, and Dregs, the delinquent dog. In the bleak and dangerous Blacker Mountains, Andy stumbles across something shocking, before falling for an attractive widow. On their return to the sleepy Cotswold town of Sorenchester, Hobbes is dumbfounded when Kathy, a reminder of his hippy days, turns up on the doorstep with her baggage.
'I always knew you'd get ahead some day.'
Read the opening chapters of Inspector Hobbes and the Gold Diggers here http://www.book2look.co.uk/vBook.aspx?id=o8I6rbXQPo
Coming Up:
30 September 2014 - book launch for Inspector Hobbes and the Gold Diggers
5 October 2014 - Gloucesterhire Writers Network at Cheltenham Literature Festival
27 November 2014 - Writers in the Brewery at the New Brewery Arts Theatre (by WH Smiths) in Cirencester
Let me know what you make of the books.
