Happy New Year! It’s been a very long time since I updated this website but at last I have some news I really want to share. This January sees the publication of The Excitements, my first novel as CJ Wray. That’s right: a new year, a new book and a new name.
It’s because The Excitements marks a departure from my usual style. It follows the story of Penny and Josephine Williamson, two ninety-something WW2 veterans, who have been invited to Paris to receive the Legion D’Honneur, in recognition of their wartime service. They’re travelling to France with their great-nephew Archie, a keen amateur historian. Archie is under the impression that his great-aunts had relatively minor roles in the war – Josephine as a Wren and Penny as an officer in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry – but Archie doesn’t know the half of it! As the story flits between modern-day Paris and the 1940s, secrets – personal and official – will be uncovered.
I’d describe The Excitements as ‘three books in one’. It’s part comedy, part history and part mystery. The early reviews have been very kind. Prima Magazine describe it as ‘sharp and witty… what glorious fun’, while Publishers Weekly say it’s ‘filled with surprise, poignancy and excitement… a surefire winner.’
