It’s been way too long since a Jack Lisbon book came out – almost a year in fact. The mundane reasons for this are threefold. I had a big private ghost-writing job to complete, there was an international conference I had to take part in that sucked up a ton of my time, and there was the third instalment in the Game Changer series (“Sold Dirt Cheap”) that I needed to get out of the way. In the end, I put a ton of effort into getting “Moving Target” finished to my exacting standards by the end of 2023, and it was a massive relief to finally publish it.
Oh, there was a third reason. We sold our house in Tasmania and moved to Queensland, where it’s a lot warmer and the skies bluer. Most of the time!
Currently, we are in a short-term rental waiting for the settlement on a wonderful house we bought in the picturesque town of Allora. Never heard of it? No? But I bet you’ve heard of Mary Poppins! It was in Allora that the author of this work, Pamela Travers, spent some of her childhood and went to school.
Reviewers are saying “Moving Target” is the best book in the Fighting Detective series so far. I have to agree. It gave me so much joy to write a crime novel set in Portugal, a country I’ve visited twice and absolutely love. Even someone unfamiliar with my work would be able to work out I’m a fan of all things Portuguese simply by the lead character’s surname of Lisbon.
- “There is something for everyone in this unusual crime investigation murder mystery set in Portugal. Enjoy.”
- “This may very well be the best Jack Lisbon novel yet. I don’t know how Denholm keeps doing it, but he keeps the reader glued to the page. I know I could not put it down.”
- “I am eager to see what’s next and how Jack Lisbon will handle being a full-time dad in a series that has never lacked for action.”
- “This was the best yet for me: the characters, the atmosphere and environment described was so real and the storyline plausible – even probable.”
- “Twists. Action. Engrossing. Highly recommended!”
What’s next? I’m 20% into the first draft of a novel entitled “The Defector”, the second book in the Russian Detective series. This one is set on the eve of the Reagan-Gorbachev summit that took place in the summer of 1988. I was actually in Moscow at the time of this historical meeting, where the two leaders of the world’s superpowers came together with some ambitious aims. Hopefully, I can ingest some of the heady atmosphere of the time to go along with the plot. What’s it about? I hear you ask. In this story, the main character from “Revolution Day”, Viktor Voloshin, has left the Moscow Militsiya and is now working for a dodgy Georgian businessman, Irakli, with his fat fingers in many pies. Under Irakli’s direction, Viktor is tasked with picking up an American diplomat who has decided to defect to the Soviet Union, bringing with her a bagful of secrets relating to US weaponry. There’s heaps of fast-moving action and intrigue in this one, and I’m hoping my readers will find something to enjoy in it.
Next update will be all about “The Defector”. Stay tuned, dear reader.
