I was shocked to learn that Peter Brookes, the founder of Rudling House Publishing, passed away a few weeks ago after suffering a massive stroke. Peter was instrumental in bringing my first novel in the Petra Minx series of adventure thrillers, The Politician’s Daughter, to market. He was a delightful man, full of stories of the days when he had been a figure skater, a drummer in a band, the editor of a surfing magazine, a bookseller and the owner of a vegetarian restaurant in London, England.

I was introduced to him on the Costa del Sol where he had settled after touring Europe in a camper van with his partner, Merle King, author of Silver and Time. This was in the early days of Rudling House. In addition to Merle’s book, Peter had published Bloodlines by Celia Honnywill, Living Proof by Mavis Schmid, and Shadow of Tears by Ole Dammegard. Peter was generous to a fault with his time and his death occurred before he was able to publish his own novel, Boys of Summer.

In her second adventure, Dead Man’s Legacy, my protagonist RCMP Marine Unit Sergeant Petra Minx reflects on how hard it must have been for the legendary singer and ex-Vegas dancer Betty Graceby to carry on after the death of her beloved husband, Joe Lepinto: “Death was hard to deal with under any circumstances, Petra mused, but especially when it snatched away a loved one. Twice she had faced that situation in her own short life: first when her teenage love, Romeo, was killed in a motorcycle accident, then when her father dropped dead at the age of sixty.”

Peter Brookes will be remembered fondly by many writers and would-be writers on the Costa del Sol, and his legacy Rudling House is going strong under the leadership of new owner Karen Butler. I extend my heartfelt condolences to Peter’s family and hope that we will soon be able to read the novel to which he devoted so much energy.