RJ – So I know Xenia through the fact she works with me on my translations, and when she released book 1 in the Andi Hayes books I was intrigued, because I didn’t even know what the word ‘Arthropoda’ meant, let alone how it connected to a murder mystery. I couldn’t put the book down and I wanted to share the books with you.

I have sale news, new release news, and an interview with the author.

Firstly, I am super excited that book 2 is out today (it’s waiting on my Kindle!) but also book 1 is currently only 99c.

Book 1 – Arthropoda (Arthropoda Book 1) only 99c – Arthropoda *

Book 2 – Eruca (Arthropoda Book 2) – Eruca

* 99c on all platforms, apart from Amazon, which is 99c in US only

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Eruca (Arthropoda Book 2)

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Interview

Also… here is an interview with Xenia, in which I asked her – how did she get the idea of Andi Haynes and his amazing gift?

How the idea of Andi Hayes was born

The detective/mystery genre has fascinated me for quite some time, and two years ago I was finally ready to give it a try. I was still pondering my main characters, the first murder they had to solve, and all those other ‘tiny’ details that make a good story when I saw two documentaries – one about insects who are attracted by cadavers, and one about bees and all the things they can do. The documentary about the cadavers was enlightening, if gross, the one about the bees made me think how little we know about our world, how much our view of everything around us is limited by our – in comparison – mediocre senses.

 I mean, eighty percent of a spider’s brain are in its legs and it literally ‘sees’ the world through the hairs on its body. Bees can distinguish between numbers, as experiments have shown and the famous tail wagging dance we thought we had completely figured out? Let’s just say the human arrogance is limitless. Moths can feel pheromones in their antennae over huge distances, and ants don’t just communicate with scent but also with a real language, a series of clicks researchers have found out about only recently.

The more I thought about it, the more fascinated I grew. And suddenly, Andi walked into my head, dragging George with him, telling me about his geschenk and all the possibilities it opened. Not only can I let my imagination run wild with what they tell Andi, it also gave me a chance to explore the true meaning of the word relationship. What Andi and George have goes far beyond anything I’ve written before, it’s about compassion, and friendship, and companionship, about dependency in different flavours, about what could be and should be. I’m eager to find out what they have to offer and with them, the romantic component is – in my eyes – the least important. It will come, promise, but I’m trying to give it the time it needs to grow into something that matches their characters.

So if you like creepy crawlers or enjoy the shiver you get when thinking about tiny legs scampering through your home…. Then you should definitely give Andi and George a chance to take you on a trip through their reality. Oh, and of course, there’s a murder to solve.

Happy reading, Xenia