Hello, Insiders!
Matt here.
As I mentioned recently, I’m hard at work on not one, not two, but THREE new Dark Lakes books! It’s been really refreshing returning to Joseph at the Cumbrian Coven to see what he’s been getting up to since last we met him.
Joseph’s brand new adventures kick off early next year, but I thought I’d give you a sneaky preview of the opening of book one, Demon’s Mark. Hope you’re looking forward to more!

It was late, and the moon looked down at us like… well, like the moon. Sorry, I thought a more evocative description would come to me if I just started the sentence.
Okay, that’s no good, I’m starting over.
I’m Joseph Lake, and, along with Barnabas, a talking fox, I was in pursuit of a vampire.
Yes, there are probably two parts to that sentence that need a bit of further explanation.
First of all:
Barnabas. The talking fox. Well, he’s a talking fox and his name is Barnabas. Actually, his full name is Barnabas the Everliving. At least, that’s what he tells me, but it does sound a bit like the kind of grand, bad-arse name you’d give yourself in the hope it will catch on.
‘It is my name.’
‘Yeah, and I’m Joseph the Brave and Handsome.’
Sorry about that. As you’ve probably worked out, Barnabas is not your everyday fox, he’s Uncanny. And it’s not just the talking, either. He walks about on two legs, he can make himself invisible (at least sometimes, to some people), and he can also, sort of, read my mind.
He can’t actually read my mind—that’s why the “sort of”—but he does have a knack for knowing what’s going on in my head.
‘Left! He went left!’ Barnabas screamed from the passenger seat of the car, adjusting the Roman helmet perched upon his head with the business end of his axe.
‘On him,’ I replied, taking the left, but keeping a nice distance from the car we were following so it wasn’t too obvious I was in pursuit.
The vehicle we were tailing contained two people: one of them alive, whereas the other one was, technically, as dead as a dodo. Dead as a brick. Dead as a dodo made of bricks.
Which brings me to my “second of all”:
Vampires…
Who’s ready for some Dark Lakes? More soon!
Matt
Need the next dark lakes book please —-more joseph