Short of a cryptic challenge? I've launched a new bonus puzzle on the Conundrum book site - first 3 correct solutions submitted there (not here, please!) win a free copy of my ebook of mystery games, Organizing a Murder - Please share!

I am a great fan of Stuart Maconie's UK travel/music industry books (I confess that, coming from Rochdale to his Wigan, he paints a picture I love). In many ways he has surpassed Bill Bryson, which is saying something. But the one thing I've never been comfortable with is his political alignment. If I position myself as closest to New Labour, he has always felt to the left of this. Of itself it's not a big issue, but I've particularly struggled with his romanticisation of the working class life. My dad's parents were mill workers in Rochdale most of their lives (my grandad had to play professional cricket to make something to live on when they were laid off in the early 30s). And one thing they always stressed to me - the first in my family to go to university - was that they hadn't wanted the same life for my dad and me. They saw nothing romantic and noble in mill work - it was a means to live and no more. It's not to say that I don't share Maconi...

At the moment, many of us have more time to fill than usual. I'd like to do my bit by offering my first three Capel murder mystery novels free to download on Kindle. I'm only allowed to do it for five days: they will be available to download from Tuesday 24 to Saturday 28 March 2020 inclusive. I've provided links below to download from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com. Enjoy - and feel free to mention this to anyone who might be interested. Not got a Kindle? You can download a free Kindle reader for tablets, smartphones and computers. A Lonely Height When Stephen Capel moved to his first parish in a rural village after four years as a prison chaplain he expected a quiet life. Not to discover a drowned man in the ruined tower on top of Glastonbury Tor.  Dealing with an increasingly complicated relationship with the local police, Capel begins to suspect that there is a link between this death and the murder of a famously eccentric photographer in Glastonbury Abbey...

 I know practically everyone else in the world has already read Wolf Hall - but I've come late to the party. Oddly enough, the delay was primarily because it won the Booker Prize. That tends to label a book as literary fiction, and for me that all too often means pretentiousness and a book that is both miserable and a pain to read. However, I saw a review of Hilary Mantel's third book in the series which praised Wolf Hall for its humour. That pushed me over the edge - and I'm glad it did. Admittedly I do enjoy pretty much anything Tudorbethan - it's my favourite musical period, the architecture's great and the whole Thomas Cromwell / Henry VIII / Church of England story is deeply fascinating. I had already read all of C. J. Sansom's Shardlake series set in the same time and place (for example, Lamentation ) and had loved those - and I had quite enjoyed the TV adaptation despite a few moans , though that wasn't as well endowed with humour as the book'...

Like many others, I use Amazon, but feel a bit guilty about it. I know I'm not alone in this, as I regularly get asked why my www.popularscience.co.uk  popular science/science fiction book review site has links to buy books from Amazon. The reason is simple - I get paid a small affiliate fee if someone uses one of the links at no cost to the purchaser, and it's the bookselling site with such an affiliate system that has the widest reach. However, as some people really didn't seem to like me using Amazon, I thought I'd add a second option and now am providing a link to UK bookseller Foyles as well. And here's the thing. Quite a lot of people have clicked through to Foyles... but no one has bought a book from them. The fact is that no one else offers the same combination of low prices and rapid delivery as does Amazon. So, while it gives you a nice warm glow to order from an independent bookshop (and I certainly try to buy from them whenever I'm i...