I read Jo Nesbo’s Police not long ago. It wasn’t a barrel of laughs. Of course, you wouldn’t pick up a Jo Nesbo as you would a Bill Bryson, but it left me wondering (as reading often does) about my own writing – how many laughs are in that? Not a barrel load either. Probably not even a bucketful. At a guess I’d say they’d fit into one of those Ikea pasta jars. What’s more, there are fewer in Perfume Island, the second book, than in One Green Bottle, the first. And though the third, Mystery Manor (on its way) still has a few, the overall story is so much darker than the others that you might be forgiven for not noticing there’s humour in there at all.
I’m not sure why that is. Maybe I just had a bit of darkness to get out from the depths of my soul, like a teenager bursting black spots. But now that it’s done, and my soul is fully cleansed, hydrated and revitalised, I feel the need to dig up my inner Bryson again. Oh, it won’t fill a barrel, I’m sure, but with Mystery Manor close to the finishing line, I’ve already made a good start on the next book – with humour.
Magali’s in it again, but with the dark giving way to cosy, she’s on the sideline this time. Centre stage is her daughter-in-law, Sophie, who in One Green Bottle incited Magali to become a detective in the first place. Now she’s one in her own right, looking for a murderer in a beautiful Provençal village where she comes across a lot of shady goings-on in the fascinating world of truffles.
And that’s all you’re getting at this point. There’ll be updates before it’s finished, but there’s Mystery Manor to come before that, so I’m not quite done with the dark. Nor, I expect, will I ever be, because how could we appreciate the day if we never experienced the night? So I go from one to the other, depending on what’s brewing down in the recesses of my soul. Which I've come to realise now is darkly cosy. Unless it’s cosily dark.
In the meantime, if you're looking for some cosy - with a bit of dark thrown in - here's a link to a giveaway which will keep you happy for weeks.