On Vikström Papers 4 and The Return of DCI Jericho
Added at 14:49 on 13 March 2025
In today’s edition of whatever this is:
• It’s publication day for LEVIATHAN, Book 4 of the Vikström Papers
• At long last, the third book in the DCI Jericho trilogy, WE ARE THE FOOL, gets a publication date
• News of THE ARLINGTON REVENANT, the forthcoming vampire novel that no one asked for (because obviously the world is short a vampire novel or two)
THE VIKSTRÖM PAPERS: LEVIATHAN
Sports fans, it’s not really happening for the Vikström Papers. I’m enjoying it – I’d happily write four of these a year – but sales aren’t great, and it’s resolutely not catching on. Pre-orders for Book 4 are down from the previous two, which is not a good sign. It seems a character who’s basically DS Hutton without the trauma, constant profanity, and sex and alcohol addiction, isn’t so popular. And I don’t want to give Vikström any of those things, because that’s not who he is. He has to do with being a one-man phobic smorgasbord, and having a talking cat and monkey. 
So, this might be the last of Vikström. It will be for a while, at least, though things may pick up, or I might just decide, the hell with it, I’m going to write another one anyway. The latter is more likely, if it's to happen.
So, here we are, Sam Vikström Book 4, another in my lengthy series of novels involving the movie business. Here’s the blurb. Click on the links below to share in the magic!
The movies are in town, and nothing is real…
A film crew has settled into Glasgow, Massachusetts, and the town is abuzz with gossip about the cast and crew. Nevertheless, there seems to be little afoot until Sam Vikström is asked to take up the case of a missing storyboard artist.
A junior member of the crew, Norah Wolfe was believed to have left the set of her own volition. Someone, however, is not so sure. Someone doesn’t believe the note she left resigning her position. Someone thinks sinister forces are at play.
Now Vikström enters the fray, walking into the nest of vipers, in a world where nothing is as it seems, and illusion, drama and fakery lie around every corner…
DCI JERICHO Paperbacks and WE ARE THE FOOL
The DCI Jericho trilogy began a long time ago, WE ARE THE HANGED MAN coming out in 2012. It was a bit of a mishmash of ideas for various novels thrown into one. Part reality TV pastiche, part crime mystery, part Da Vinci Code-esque conspiracy thriller. It was the Side 2 of Abbey Road of novels. Yep, that’s the analogy we’re going for here. I remember being quite keen on it at the time, and then I got into writing Hutton novels, and a variety of other things, and those were the days before I found the superpower to write five novels a year, and it was three years or so before I got around to writing the follow-up, WE ARE DEATH. This was the point where I re-read the first book to make notes, and found that I hated it. It happens.
At that stage I rewrote it a little – it was tinkering with the character of Jericho, rather than making any changes to the narrative – and then I wrote Book 2. It dispenses with the Abbey Road Side 2 vibe, and is much more a straightforward international conspiracy thriller. Kind of preposterous, but it was good fun.
Thereafter, I got tied into the Westphall and the Pereira & Bain series for a couple of years, and then I got the rights to Hutton back and I focussed on that, and then I was finally going to write the third Jericho book – because the whole thing still demands an explanation – and I looked at the first one again, and still didn’t like it, and thought, it can wait. Then Buchan and Vikström happened.
Well, people, the waiting is over. Jericho 1 and I have reconnected over lunch, Jericho 2 still seems to be holding up to my over-critical eye, and so the time has come to embark on Jericho 3, and get this whole damned thing put to bed.
In preparation for this great publishing event, Hanged Man and Death are now available in paperback for the first time. So for those of you paperback readers who don’t think five books of mine a year is quite enough, here’s another couple of old ones to add to the list.
WE ARE THE HANGED MAN UK / US
WE ARE THE FOOL UK / US
WE ARE THE FOOL will be published on 30th July 2025, and you can click here to pre-order the ebook.
THE ARLINGTON REVENANT
Before that, however, the hive mind here at Long Midnight Publishing winter HQ in Gstaad is working on a vampire novel, entitled THE ARLINGTON REVENANT. This, in the modern tongue, could be said to be set in the DS Hutton universe, although it will not feature DS Hutton.
The first person protagonist is a Church of Scotland minister who, while not having quite the same level of dysfunction as Hutton, shares a turn of phrase, a delight in the profane, and his attraction to women. So, there’s a similar vibe, as well as the return of some of the police characters from Hutton’s world.
No pre-order available for this one. It will just appear when it’s ready, like a wizard. Late April, early May seems most likely. Until then, here’s the cover for you to gaze upon with wonder and anticipation.
