Longstone: A DCI Ryan Mystery (The DCI Ryan Mysteries Book 10)
Page 24
From his position on the harbour wall, Ryan clapped along with the rest of the crowd.
“Nice day for it,” he said, and slung an arm around his wife’s shoulders as they turned to walk back into the village.
“All’s well that ends well,” Anna agreed. “Where are Jack and Mel, today?”
“He’s giving her a hand moving house,” MacKenzie said, with a suggestive wriggle of her eyebrows.
Phillips waited until an acceptable amount of time had passed, then turned to his companions to ask the question that was uppermost in his mind.
“Anybody fancy fish ‘n’ chips?”
DCI Ryan will return in
The Infirmary: A DCI Ryan Mystery
If you would like to be kept up to date with new releases from LJ Ross, please complete an e-mail contact form
AUTHOR’S NOTE
It was a pleasure to write Longstone. It is based around the little village of Seahouses, a place I’ve visited many times over the years and particularly during my childhood when, like Phillips, I’d stop in for fish and chips with my family and walk along the beach from there to Bamburgh. It’s the best place to catch a boat trip to the Farne Islands, which are a beautiful example of the natural world and I’d advise anyone to go across to see the puffins and seals or the sea birds. If you’re a diver, I can’t promise that you’ll find the fictional ships on these pages, but there are still many incredible wrecks to explore and more still to be discovered.
Longstone lighthouse is an architectural feat, an impressive structure that performs an important purpose and has done ever since it was first erected. It was made famous by the heroic actions of Grace Darling in 1838 and, nowadays, it is run remotely by the Trinity House charity and looked after by the very capable hands of its keeper, George, who runs tours if you’d like to see the interior and get a feel for where Grace Darling spent her life.
Viking history in Northumberland is very well established but there is, in fact, some evidence to suggest their longships landed on the south coast of England prior to their invasion of Lindisfarne in 793 AD. This provided me with the inspiration for part of this story, allowing me to imagine the possibility of other ships having tried to land before. The recent, real-life discovery of a 2,400-year-old preserved Greek ship in the Black Sea also proves that it is possible for timber wrecks to survive, if the conditions are right. In that example, the water depth was much deeper than those I have discussed in this book, but that’s the beauty of fiction.
I hope you enjoy this sea-faring mystery: happy reading!
LJ Ross
December 2018
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born in Newcastle upon Tyne, LJ Ross moved to London where she graduated from King’s College London with undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Law. After working in the City as a regulatory lawyer for a number of years, she realised it was high time for a change. The catalyst was the birth of her son, which forced her to take a break from the legal world and find time for some of the detective stories that had been percolating for a while and finally demanded to be written.
She lives with her husband and young son in her beautiful home county of Northumberland.
If you enjoyed Longstone, please consider leaving a review online:
Amazon UK
Amazon US
If you would like to be kept up to date with new releases from LJ Ross, please complete an e-mail contact form
Connect with LJ Ross online:
Facebook
Twitter
Website
Blog
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Unbelievably, Longstone is my tenth novel. Back when I was writing my fourth and fifth books in the DCI Ryan series, many people warned me it was an established phenomenon that readers tended to lose interest in a series of books over time. However, this has not turned out to be the case, and Longstone went straight into the charts in the number one position on its very first day available to pre-order, making it the seventh DCI Ryan novel to claim the UK top spot in the space of three and a half years of writing. I owe all this to my readers, who seem to like the same silly humour that I do and who value the same things I and my characters do: friendship, loyalty and a bit of healthy banter—not to mention an appreciation of the humble bacon stottie.
Nothing in life is ever achieved without the support of a great many people and this is very much the case for me, too. I’m often asked why I write under the pen name ‘LJ’ and I’m always happy to explain that the ‘J’ in that moniker stands for ‘James’, my husband and best friend in life. I may write the stories but that is only made possible with his boundless help in other areas of our life together, his good humour and willingness to listen to story ideas for hours on end. For this story in particular, I want to thank: all the diving and boat tour companies in Seahouses, who enable ordinary people like me to glimpse another world; English Heritage, who care for and preserve the habitat of thousands of birds and other species on the Farnes, for all of us to enjoy; Kristopher Reid, whose generous charitable donation earned a starring named character role in this book; Paul Hutchinson, whose joinery, carpentry and building skills are second to none and whose love for his daughter inspired a character in this story.
Finally, thanks to all of my family and friends, to all the book bloggers and reviewers who have taken the time to read my stories—you’re all fantastic!