Former Hemel man's mystery stories generate money for Ukraine children

Having worked in Hemel for a number of years, while working there I had some ideas for mystery stories. The Hemel Gazette was wonderfully kind in putting a feature in the paper recently for me for my book ‘Uncle Chris’s Collection of Crafty Short Stories’.

You may remember that I was raising money for Ukraine children via the charity World Vision.

I wanted to tell you that from my books…. £1,500 has now been raised and sent to World Vision.

Things have moved on well…. I have been a speaker at Rotary. Next week I will be speaking at the Women’s Institute AGM so I hope to sell a few more books so that we can get to the next target of £5,000 for Ukraine children.

In addition, the radio have on two separate occasions read out a mystery short story on air that I recorded and sent to them.

The stories are a ten minute read with a twist. Can you "get the twist before the twist gets you?"

One of my stories was long listed recently for the “Mysterious Murder Short Story” competition this year. The judges said: “A good old-fashioned crime story that packs a heist in under 3,000 words, and quite twisty. It kept me guessing till the end, and I felt I really knew the characters.”

I think I have hit on the theme that people haven’t the time to read a whole book in one sitting, so the idea of a ten-minute-read mystery story with a clever twist at the end really resonates with people. Amazon and Goodreads reviews are wonderful.