There’s nothing like selling your books at an arts market to learn about your readership demographic. I was quickly able to spot a potential buyer browsing at the stall. Amazingly they looked like me – over sixty, fashionably crumpled, and likely to visit an arts market! So this gave me some insights when I put some time this year into freshening up my backlist of five novels with new cover designs and updated manuscripts.

Here’s the blurb: Jack, the owner of a failing bookshop, is embezzling from a client. Thea is a philosophy lecturer with a taste for pinching cash. There’s something amiss with their marriage, but an occasional spot of larceny provides the frisson to keep it going, as well as the funds for the kids’ school fees. But things start to go badly wrong when an old lover turns up demanding a slice of the action. Could you live with a would-be murderer? This is the question for Thea and Jack in this fast-moving psychological drama with an undercurrent of black comedy.

This book’s now on its third cover. For the 2014 version my designer compressed the main story elements into a romcom-style image with nail polish and fun fonts. The moody 2016 cover ditched the plot and tried to capture the essence of the male protagonist, as well as tying in with covers in the same style for two other novels. The 2023 cover makes no direct reference to plot or character, but unashamedly appeals to an older demographic, the key readership of this book. If I’ve learned one lesson in promoting An Englishman’s Guide to Infidelity, it’s that novels by old blokes aren’t read by young people.

Here are some lovely things people have said about this book on Amazon and Goodreads:

‘A fascinating tale I couldn’t put down. Told from three very unique points of view. Two deaths. Murders? Or accidents? It depends on who’s talking.’

‘I was engaged from start to finish, relishing the descent of ordinary people into the seamier side of life that slips beyond their control into unimagined complications and implications with surprising consequences.’

‘… realistically, funny portrait of a man struggling to do the right thing by his wife and family’

‘… a riveting psychological bender touched with wit and imperfectly charming characters.’

‘A thoroughly enjoyable read, a mystery that unfurls with just enough twists and turns to keep readers guessing right to the closing pages.’

‘… funny, irreverent, witty read. A brilliant story, fast paced and fun, told from three different points of view, with an element of mystery thrown in. Couldn’t put it down.’

‘… it has that intangible ingredient that forces the reader to read one more chapter in the hope that all will be revealed.’