There are centuries of mystery in this series!

When I first starting writing Black Hare Valley, I had no idea it would become a series. However, by the time I reached the end of the first book, set in 1996, I knew I also had to set one in 1966 to help explain some of the events.

My heroic group of misfit teenagers in the first book are dealing with a missing friend in 1996, but along the way they discover that children have gone missing from Black Hare Valley before, and their own parents were once involved in trying to solve one such case.

In fact, the strange events and missing children occur every thirty years…

Writing the 1966 book was a lot of fun, as I got to go back in time and revisit adult characters from book one when they were teens in the sixties. I think it gives readers an interesting insight into why certain adults in book one behave and live the way they do. It also answers a few of the mysteries along the way.

By the time I got to the end of that book I was thinking about 2026 because thirty years on, my teen characters from 1996 would now be middle-aged and would potentially have children themselves. I wondered what the town would look like by then. Would it be any different? Would children still be going missing on May Day?

So, the series starts in 1996, jumps back to 1966, then jumps forward to 2026. But it doesn’t end there.

My next idea was a diary form book from Jesse Archer’s POV. I don’t want to go into too much detail as it will give you spoilers, but there is a thirty year period where Jesse is essentially cursed and totally alone. I was curious about how he spent those three decades and decided a sporadic diary written by him would provide the answers. It would also answer even more of the mysteries surrounding this strange town.

This therefore means that after the 2026 book, we go back to 1996 to fill in those thirty years…

I honestly thought it was all over with four books but while in the middle of editing and reworking bits of them, another idea hit me. I had one of those really satisfying ‘click’ moments when I realised a fantastic way to end the series and have almost everything explained. (I am also writing a selection of short stories that will fill in even more blanks.)

Book Five, therefore, is also set in 2026, but it makes sense to read it after the diary book. It starts with my heroes thinking they have ‘won’ but in truth, they have no idea what they have unleashed…

Black Hare Valley Book One: 1996 is out this Thursday 25th June (my birthday!) and you can preorder the ebook and/or the paperback on this link: https://books2read.com/u/4EO5DE