A look inside The Great Glacier Hotel Heist

 I've been so busy working on Watts and Whiskerton book 4 (publishing in November this year) that I didn't realise how long it'd been since I posted anything here. I haven't even shown you what to expect from book 3! So here's a peek at the insides of The Great Glacier Hotel Heist!

Watts is excited to on his first ever family holiday, and especially thrilled that Pearl has been invited too.

They are visiting the Great Glacier Hotel and Ski Resort. Here's a map of the hotel. This will help eagle- eyed detectives to solve the case.

Sadly, Pearl has injured her paw but she doesn't let that slow her down when a mystery arrives. It turns out that the president of Trotskovia is staying in the hotel to transport The Ice Crystal, a priceless necklace, back home with her, But when a jewel thief strikes and the necklace is stolen, Mr and Mrs Watts find themselves under arrest!

And then the president goes missing!

And a snowbeast is seen in the grounds of the hotel!

It's up to Watts and Pearl to find out how all of these curious events are connected and capture the jewel thief. Can they do it? Of course they can. But can they ski? Well...

The Great Glacier Hotel Heist is available to buy now. Ask at your local bookshop, or wherever you like to buy your books, and don't forget you can borrow it from your library too.

If you'd like a more summery adventure why not try Sabotage at the Fete Cake Bake. Featuring teamwork, baking disasters and a thief! Can our budding detecives solve this cake catastrophe and earn and a first class ribbon for baking too? 

You can read more about it by clicking here.

Or Buried Bones and Troublesome Treasure. Featuring a budding detective duo, dinosaur bones and a museum break in. Can Watts and Pearl work out what's been going on?

You can dig up more dirt on that mystery here.

The Week Junior Book Awards

A few weeks ago I learned that Watts and Whiskerton: Buried Bones and Troublesome Treasure has been shortlisted for a Week Junior Award in the Fiction Younger category, which is lovely news.

You can find the other fantastic shortlistees here, as well as the nominees in all the other categories. It's a great place to discover new books.

The winners are announced in September.

Meet the Bakers

Watts and Whiskerton: Sabotage at the Fete Cake Bake (book two) is publishing next month and I thought I'd show some of the character design sketches. I don't properly start work on character designs until I'm about to begin the final artwork, which feels a little late, but I like to get to know them in the roughs stage. By drawing them over and over again their personalities start to appear so I leave any final decisions until I'm done with this stage. Here are some of the sketches and final drawings.

Roughs stage

This is Fleur Wheatley. She's a great baker and last year's winner.

Character design

Fleur Wheatley in the book

Character design

Mrs 'Cookie' Cutter is the Whiskerton family's cook and she takes no nonsense.

Character design

Whip Lightly competed in last year's Fete Bake but has yet to win the title.

Character design

Ms Partridge is due to compete but is unable to attend. She gets her chance later on though.

Character design

Mayor Dove is in charge of proceedings. Hopefully nothing will go wrong!

Final art in the book.

Sketch

When Ms Partridge fails to arrive Mr Dove, Mayor Dove's husband, is forced to compete. 

But how will he do?

Final art

This image was to help me keep track of how tall the characters were compared to everyone else.

I'm sure everything will run like clockwork at this year's fete bake, but if it doesn't we have two excellent detectives around.

Published April 24th.

Available for pre-order now by clicking here.

Pre-orders really help authors so if you have already ordered a book thank you so much.

Watts and Whiskerton: Buried Bones and Troublesome Treasure

My new book, Watts and Whiskerton: Buried Bones and Troublesome Treasure, published last month. It's been really nice to see copies of it out and about in the world but I'm in the middle of illustrating Watts and Pearl's next adventure so I haven't really taken a moment to stop and properly appreciate that book one is out in the world. 

So let's a little look at the insides.

Watts is sent to Whsiskerton Manor for a holiday. There he meets his soon-to-be new best friend, Pearl Whiskerton.

Pearl gives Watts a tour of Whiskerton Manor. This was a fun spread to draw.

But soon a mysterious series of events occur and Watts and Pearl find themselves with four mysteries to solve.

    Are these four mysterious cases connected?

Let's have a look at the suspects.

 

Can you help Watts and Pearl solve the case?

Available now at lovely local bookshops or wherever else you like to buy books.

Why not try Rocketship Bookshop or Storytellers Inc