Hi
Welcome to my shiny new Substack newsletter, which’ll be going out monthly from this point on. I’ve been a blogger for a long time but decided to move with the times (unusual for me) so this is where I’ll be sharing updates on my writing, give you some behind the scenes titbits (where a story came from, inspirations for locations and info about my favourite east coast seaside town of Seagrave), details of books and films that have caught my attention and also news about upcoming projects and any talks or conventions I’ll be at (along with reports on those). There will also be the occasional competition!
In terms of my writing, since DON’T GO BACK - my first thriller - was published by The Book Folks in 2022, this marks the first year where I haven’t had a novel published. However, 2026 will see at least two new thrillers from me with the first – provisionally titled HER DARK SECRET – now well along the pipeline, with plotting on Book 9 underway even as I write this.
For those who are new to me or my work, I started having my horror stories published in 1999, catching the tail end of the last golden period of the small press, before the Internet all but wiped away those gloriously produced magazines – some stapled, some perfect bound. In a future newsletter, I’ll tell you more about this but a few years ago I found my attention shifting more towards dark thrillers (when my novella DRIVE was shortlisted for a British Fantasy Society Award). As mentioned, The Book Folks took me on towards the end of 2021 and I’ve so far published seven novels with them.
DON’T GO BACK follows Beth who reluctantly returns to Seagrave, the town where she grew up, to attend the funeral of a once-close friend who died under mysterious circumstances. Being back brings her into contact with people from her past and triggers memories of the awful summer before she left for good. It soon becomes apparent someone else hasn’t quite so readily put their past behind them, and unwittingly Beth will become the key to their catharsis.
ONLY WATCHING YOU is about Claire Heeley who, getting her life back on track after divorcing her cheating husband, is almost run over. It’s the first in a series of incidents that lead her to believe she has a stalker, apparently confirmed when a hangman symbol is daubed outside her home with new letters being added to the game daily. Whatever the writing on the wall, something spells serious trouble but can Claire find out who has it in for her before a death sentence is written out?
THE HUNTER’S QUARRY - When Rachel Turner inadvertently comes into possession of a mysterious package, dropped into her handbag by a woman later killed for the item, she finds herself the target of a deadly pursuit from a ruthless gang of criminals. As the net draws in ever tighter, Rachel needs to use her wits to stay alive.
STILL WATERS RUN takes place in 1985 as Jude and her sixteen-year-old son Dan go to stay at the Holidaze holiday camp. There, Dan meets Charlie - a pretty fellow teenager with a keen interest in photography - and Jude meets Paul, a local real estate developer. When a local woman goes missing, all four of them are drawn into a tangled web of mystery that leads to murder.
A KILLER AMONGST US - Jo doesn’t like camping but agrees to go on a guided hike with her husband on the promise of a rewarding pampering at a luxury spa at the end of it. The walk starts well but, the next morning, a member of the group is found dead and what was meant to be a relaxing time in nature is now a fight for survival, with Jo forced to make a critical choice about whom to trust.
WE WERE SEEN - Kim Morgan is a college lecturer and local councillor in Seagrave, involved in protesting a development that will build a golf course on marshland, thus impacting the local environment. After a fight breaks out at a public meeting, Kim is rescued by a handsome guy whom she has a romantic dalliance with. When she discovers he’s an adult student at her college, Kim knows it could ruin her career but someone has already found out and taken photographs. Torn between coming clean about her mistake and giving in to blackmail, Kim’s life begins to unravel…
TO SEE TOO MUCH - Recovering from a heart attack, social worker Carrie Riccioni stays at a holiday cottage in Seagrave and, somewhat bored, begins to take an interest in her neighbours. Watching from the upstairs window, she soon realises the small community of Miller’s Point is far from idyllic. But Carrie’s curiosity doesn’t go unnoticed. And not everyone is happy with her eyes on their affairs, especially when a young woman goes missing and what Carrie has seen will become a matter of life and death.
So why Friday Night Books? Well, it comes from the Friday Night Walks I go on with my friend David Roberts and his lovely Border Collie, Pippa (if you’re interested, she has her own Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/PipsRoberts/). I’ve known David since 1992 and, over the years, he’s been a good sounding board for various story ideas (I’ll tell you, one day, about the Christmas meal with friends where he & I suggested various nasty deaths for my novella “The Factory”). When I decided to shift into thrillers, we plotted out ONLY WATCHING YOU on the white board in his study and have been doing similar ever since.
Reading & Watching
Each month, I’ll drop a review of a book I’ve really enjoyed as well as a list of what me and David have been reading because, you never know, it might inspire you to pick up a copy. It’ll help that, for the most part, he & I don’t read the same kind of stuff! In the same vein, if you’ve read a book and really enjoyed it, drop me a line and let me know at mark@fridaynightbooks.co.uk.
If you were a reader of my blog – you can find the archive of it at here - then you’d have seen my annual round-up of my yearly reading, the Westies. This year was the seventeenth and, as I enjoy tradition, the Westies will now be found in the December newsletter going forward. If you’re curious as to what I read and enjoyed through 2025, the post can be found here - https://markwestwriter.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-seventeenth-annual-westies-review.html
The Dad Joke
This will be another regular feature because I love being a dad and thoroughly embraced the Dad joke convention, though as my Dude is now 20 and studying at university, he’s more likely to give me an eye-roll than a belly laugh these days when I tell him the latest sure-fire winner. But his loss is your gain, lucky reader and here is my favourite for this month:
My wife just found out I replaced our bed with a trampoline; she hit the roof.
For more information:
https://www.facebook.com/MarkWestWrites
Friday Night Books is, pretty much, blatant self-promotion for my novels and writing but, then, it does only come out once a month and it’s free. I do everything old-school (which sometimes leads my son to call me a dinosaur) so whatever you read here has come out of my head and, if you like that kind of thing, it’d lovely if you could share links and posts, if you get a chance to. As the excellent drummer Ronnie Vannucci jr (from the brilliant band The Killers) says, “Tell all your friends.”
Thanks for reading – see you next month!