Blimey, time flies when you're getting old. It only seems a couple of weeks since I last wrote on here but I'm reliably informed that it's actually been about three months. Well, in that time, my ninth book, THE LAST TEN SECONDS, has been released in hardback, and I'm pleased to say it's done extremely well, and was the ninth best-selling fiction hardback in the UK for February, which is nice to see (for me, anyway).

I've also worked out the plot of my new book, something that's been filling me with writerly angst for several months now. It's provisionally entitled LAST TO DIE, and brings back one of my favourite characters of all, Dennis Milne, who some of you will remember as the renegade cop turned hitman who featured in THE BUSINESS OF DYING and A GOOD DAY TO DIE. LAST TO DIE is the sequel to the latter, and it also features one of my up-and-coming protaganists, the somewhat maverick DI Tina Boyd. Because the vast majority of the book takes place in South East Asia, I've just been on a research trip to the Philippines and Hong Kong to check out locations and get a feel for the countries I'm writing about. I have to say, at the risk of upsetting some of you, that the weather was gorgeous, and I was damn glad to get away from the brutal winter we've been having, even if it was only for a couple of weeks.

Now I'm back, though, and raring to go. I started the book properly yesterday, with memories of the Orient still fresh in my mind, and after the usual shaky start, when I spent the day trying to come up with any excuse not to actually sit at my desk and start typing (even going so far as to clean the bathroom and do the hoovering), I've finally got going and am two chapters in. It's great to be writing Dennis again. It's almost six years since I finished A GOOD DAY TO DIE, yet it almost doesn't feel like he's been away. Already I've thought of a new plot twist to add in and the enthusiasm for writing, which always seems to be in short supply around the beginning of a new book, is beginning to kick in again.

So without further ado, it's back to work and to chapter three. Right now, I've got a feeling that LAST TO DIE's going to be my best yet.

But then, I guess I would say that, wouldn't I?

All the best, and I'll post next month to let you know how I'm getting on. Honest.