There have been developments in the bookish world of Campling Towers (otherwise known as The Old Shop on account of the fact that it was a village shop and has no towers at all).

a tall building with a clock on the top of it — Yeah, not my house, but a chap can dream. Photo by K8 on Unsplash

Actually, I’d love a tower, especially one of those hexagonal ones with a copper-clad dome on top and windows all around. What a writing room that would be, especially at night when the stars were doing their thing.

But back to the real world which is sadly towerless for the timebeing.

Thing One

The newly produced audiobook of A Study in Stone (2nd edition) will be released on November 19 2026 but can be preordered now on all good audiobook retailers, and it will be in libraries too, I believe.

Narrated by actor Thom Petty (no, not the pop/rock one who has no H in his name), the audiobook has been professionally produced by WF Howse who have been making audiobooks since the stories were on cassettes and you needed a box to carry them in.

Here’s a little video I made about it:

I’ve done my best to gather up some of the retail links into one handy page which you can find here:

books2read.com/astudyinstone

The second thing is that, much to surprise, the same company has built up a head of steam and got cracking with the second book in the series, Valley of Lies and that can be pre-ordered so you’ll get it in December.

For some reason I had trouble getting the audible links to work, but I’ve rounded up some of the others onto a page:

books2read.com/valleyoflies

Thank you for checking them out.

When are rest of the audiobooks coming? Well, at the moment, they aren’t. Hopefully, if the sales of the first two books go well, the company will want to produce more of them, so if you’re keen for this to happen, please help to spread the word. Thank you.

The third thing you may be interested in is the Stuff Your Kindle Crime Edition.

This is a joint promotion where lots of authors set some of their ebooks to be free (not just on Kindle - other retailers are involved too) and it lasts for one day only, in this case October 22, 2026.

I’ve included 2 of my books: A Study in Stone and Lawful Duty, so if you know someone who might enjoy reading those books for free, please share the news.

The link is here:

stuffyourkindlecrime.com

And just for fun, I made a video about that too:

That’s nearly all my things for the moment. The Rom-Com is being edited as I write this, but I don’t have a date for that yet, and not one to let the grass grow under my computer’s keyboard, I have dived into writing a third Devonshire Crime Thriller. Set in the 90s, these police procedurals are fun to write because they take me back to a different, and I dare say simpler, time in my life.

For me, the early 90s were busy. Mrs C and I were married, and that was wonderful (still is). Then I took it into my head to give up my career as a promising computer programmer and return to college for teacher training. That was another significant change and an exciting one. It would be a few years before our first son was born, so we were young and carefree.

But back to the darker themes any good crime novel must explore.

It’s 1994 and DC Spiller has been called up at home and dragged from his bed by the demands of his duty.

A dead body has been found in the woods and the three gunshot wounds make it clear somebody meant business. Exeter CID are on the case, so the team are all there, including a return visit for the glamorous DS Claire Baintree.

But this being a book written by me, there are other threads running through the story, so there will be plenty to keep the minds of keen readers like you occupied.

I’ll be sharing some advanced snippets for paying members over on my Patreon, but there’s always something for everyone on there, paying or not, so it’s worth a look:

patreon.com/michaelcampling

Last but not least, I’ve been adding a lot to my substack publication Postcards From the Edge of Dartmoor, which is about life here in Devon rather than about my books, and it includes video, articles, photos and a podcast:

Is that a lot? It feels like a lot, but I hope that you’ll find something you enjoy in this wealth of material.

Thanks for reading and take care.

Mikey C

PS

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Author Michael Campling

A couple or three things to watch out for