J is for Joe

There are two Joes in my life and both can get out of control if I don’t watch them.

The first is the real live Joe. A Jack Russell terrier (with a bit of bulldog in him) we found him at a rescue centre three years ago. We had just lost Max, our beloved West Highland White, we were distraught and there was Joe, wagging his tail in need of a home so we took him on.

He was very ill when we first brought him home. He’d been found wandering the streets and suffering from pneumonia. Lots of visits to the vets and a bill larger than the cost of some of the cars I’ve bought, and suddenly he was in perfect health.

Like most Jacks, he is a bundle of energy and fire. He’s a grumpy sod first thing in a morning, but he is afraid of nothing. He’d tackle German Sheps, Rotties, even horses if we let him, but we have him under strict control at all times and he is never allowed out into the street other than on his leash. He’s also as thick as a plank. He still hasn’t twigged that the birds feeding in the back garden will be on the roof long before he can get to them.

Where people are concerned, he barks a lot, but it’s not aggression. He simply cannot understand why all these people coming to the door don’t want to play with him.

The other Joe is Joe Murray, the ubiquitous sleuth at the heart of the STAC Mysteries. (The picture, taken in Brussels, is actually me. I was the cheapest model I could find for Joe.)

The grumpy, outspoken owner of a truckers’ café in the fictitious West Yorkshire town of Sanford, Joe is a brilliant detective. He misses nothing. Unkind souls say that it stems from keeping a close eye on every penny, but in fact, Joe has been a lover of mysteries ever since he was a kid.

When I work on a project, be it a STAC Mystery, a Spookies Mystery or a stand-alone novel, the characters dictate the way the tale will go, so in common with my dog, I have to keep Joe under firm control. If I didn’t, he’d end up on a mafia hit list.

He’s doing all right, mind. With the release of Death in Distribution a few weeks ago, he’s survived eleven STAC Mysteries and the twelfth is currently in production.

If you’re a cosy mystery lover and you’d like to know more, you can find a full list of the titles on the Crooked Cat page, and they are available in all e-formats and as paperbacks.