A Record Breaking Chart Hit

The Summer Wedding Murder was released on Wednesday last week, and for the first day or two, I wondered just how well it was not likely to do. It made quite a sluggish start, leaping into the Amazon UK Kindle Brit Detectives chart, and then rapidly dropping out again on several occasions.

All that changed yesterday when it moved into the top ten of that chart, and drew The Filey Connection along with it.

Then, yesterday evening, it moved to an overall ranking of #645, which pushed it into the top five at #4, where it remained overnight, almost four hundred places higher in the overall rankings, than the book in the #5 slot.

At 6:30 this morning, I checked the chart again, and The Summer Wedding Murder had leap-frogged G.K.Chesterton’s Father Brown to take over the NUMBER THREE slot.

It’s a record for a STAC Mystery title. The Chocolate Egg Murders climbed higher in the overall rankings, and The Summer Wedding Murder may yet climb further, but Chocolate Egg had fiercer competition in the British Detectives arena, and therefore never climbed higher than #5. The Summer Wedding Murder has gone further.

I keep a close watch on the genre chart with good reason. Getting into the top 100 of the overall rankings takes something extra special, but the genre chart raises the visibility of the title amongst readers who are particularly looking for traditional British Detective whodunits, the kind of cozy crime novels of which the STAC Mysteries are an example. In many ways, therefore, the British Detectives chart is more important than the overall bestseller list, which comprises all genres. It would be nice to hit both, but hey, I’m not holding my breath.

Will it climb higher? The titles ahead of The Summer Wedding Murder represent some serious competition. Agatha Christie and Rachel Abbot. I may push Hercule Poirot, but Rachel is recognised as one of the best British crime writers on the Kindle, and to press her for the top spot, I really would have to hit the top 100 of the overall rankings.

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The Summer Wedding Murder, STAC Mystery #8 is available for download from:

Amazon UK (Kindle)

Amazon Worldwide (Kindle)

Smashwords (all formats)

Crooked Cat Books (MOBI, EPUB, PDF)

And in paperback from

Amazon UK

Amazon Worldwide