Martin and Albie are jetting off for some sun and sangria. But they didn’t bank on finding a body on the beach…

Fresh from their last case at Twilight Lodge, Martin and Albie reward themselves with a relaxing trip to the sun-soaked island of Menorca.

But when they head down to breakfast one morning, they happen upon a panicked husband reporting his wife, bestselling author Karen Squires, missing. Soon afterwards, they’re shocked to discover Karen’s body on the beach.

Local police call it a tragic one look at the broken safety fence on the cliffs above suggests Karen fell. But the victim’s perfectly manicured nails tell Martin that this was no accident. She was pushed.

Back at the hotel, the duo discovers that Karen was running a retreat for writers, all of whom seem shocked by her untimely passing. But which one of them may have had a motive for murder? Was a fellow writer jealous of her success? Did her devoted husband feel sidelined?

As they hunt for clues, they realise that the answer may be found in one of Karen’s bestsellers, and luckily for them, Albie’s girlfriend, Barbara, is her number one fan. A killer is hiding in plain sight. But to get to them, can they separate the fact from the fiction before it’s too late?

Custard, my late wife Madeleine’s pug, who we’ve managed to bring on the plane with us under the guise of being Albie’s ‘therapy dog’. Though if you spend any time with Custard, you soon realise he’s the one who needs therapy.

He’s half my age, slightly built, and a little shorter than me, so I imagine I could restrain him if I needed to. Assuming I can still remember my moves. And that he doesn’t have any.

‘You snooze, you lose, Albie.’ Albie looks as if he’d be happy to do both.

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