Diamonds, Dinner Jackets, and Death

She spent a fortune on the dress. It would have been cheaper to buy unicorn horn, but before she can even put it on, a scream splits the air …… and the first body is found.Patricia and her friends are the special guests of the world's third richest man, her benefactor, the Maharaja of Zangrabar. At a banquet thrown to celebrate a new peace treaty between his country, and long-time hostile neighbour, Itarnia, the murder of Itarnia's ambassador does not bode well.To prevent a return to war, Patricia and her team must unravel the clues to find the killer, but there's more going on than a simple assassination, and it might be that even the Maharaja is lying to her.With the clock ticking down, another body appears, but just when she needs to create a distraction, so too do some old friends.Murder, mystery, and mayhem abound as her expensive dress sits unworn in its wrapper. Will she get to put it on? Will she be able to follow the breadcrumbs to the end of this mystery?Under pressure like never before, Patricia and her friends must keep two warring nations apart long enough to find the truth, but the truth in politics is an elusive beast, and there's no telling what the killer's motivation might be. Steve has been writing for years without producing anything that he believed was worth reading. Is he overly critical of his work? Probably, but having taken five years to finish the first book he took only five months for the second and is now working on three more stories simultaneously. He describes his current experience as that of a storyteller with ideas falling uncontrollably out of his ears. He keeps a notepad on his person at all times in case another idea comes to him and can be found scribbling pretty much any time he comes to a stop.He lives not far from where his books are based, but although he was born and raised in Kent he spent most of this adult life as a soldier deployed to various points of the globe. Now retired from the military he has the world's most perfect son and a beautiful wife who is completely convinced his description of the single women in his book is the early stages of a mid-life crisis. It's not love, honest.Influenced by Jim Butcher, Stephen King, Kim Harrison, Derek Landy, Lee Child and Janet Evanovich to name a few, his work will always be a mix of action and thriller mixed with situational comedy. The central character's parents are in no way based on his own. Definitely, definitely not.