I am well on the way to finishing Highwaypersons II: The King’s Justice. I will need to revise it a couple of times after I finish this draft. Then I will send it to a professional editor to iron out all the kinks. I expect to publish it in June.
This is the cover of Book I, Debts and Duties. Will I use it for Book II?
As I look at it, I realise that there is no murder in it so far. Can I call it a historical detective novel? Is it in some other genre? Does it matter?
- There is a mystery all right. Billy and Bethan try to find out what has happened to Bethan’s husband, Henry.
- There is espionage. They uncover another Jacobite plot. If you thought they gave up after the 1715 Rebellion until just before the famous 1745 one, you are in for a surprise, as was the Government in 1716.
- There is betrayal. Who betrays whom? You will have to read it to see.
- There is danger. Billy and Bethan have got to keep out of the clutches of the Law. They are, after all, highwaypersons.
- There is deception. They use a new approach to take money from a rich man whom they blame for their father’s imprisonment.
- There is romance. Yes. The lovely but infuriating Helen is still around and Billy is still unsure of her feelings for him. Or his for her.
- There is moral conflict. (As well as plenty of a more physical kind.) Billy and Bethan encounter the slave trade in several ways. An education and a challenge.
Do I need to write a murder to make it a proper mystery novel?
Is there enough to satisfy readers in what I have got already?
By the way. The next sequel will begin with a murder. Definitely.