It's guilty confession time!!!

There were some lovely reviews for the first three Archibald Lox books last year on The Bookbag, a brilliant site for book reviews. The reviewer was called Jill Murphy, which gave me extra cause to be pleased, because I knew her name from the book series, The Worst Witch. It's always cool when another author gives one of your books a nice mention, and beyond wonderful if they take the time to actually write a review for it. I was well chuffed, and even included an amazing quote on the back covers of some of the books: "I read quite a lot during lockdown but nothing made me smile quite as much as these first three instalments in the Archibald Lox series," attributing it, of course, to Jill Murphy, author of The Worst Witch.

I don't know why, but some months later, as I was smiling away to myself when I caught sight of the quote again, I suddenly paused and frowned. "Hang on a moment," I thought. "That lovely Jill Murphy who reviewed all three of the Archibald Lox books... am I absolutely CERTAIN that it's the same Jill Murphy who wrote The Worst Witch... or could it possibly be..." My eyes widened and a lump formed in my throat. "...a DIFFERENT Jill Murphy?!?"

With trembling fingers, I did a quick online search, and to my dismay, my worst fears were realised -- the two Jill Murphys were NOT one and the same person!!! Cue some swift editing of the attribution on the covers and online stores where I'd included it, done even before the rosy glow of embarrassment had faded from my cheeks!!!!

Anyway, I'm delighted to say that the lovely Jill Murphy REVIEWER returned for more when I started publishing the Volume 2 books this summer, and wrote a beautiful review for Book 5, Archibald Lox and the Slides of Bon Repell, noting in her summary that there was "Some trademark Darren Shan jeopardy in this instalment. We were on the edge of our seats!" Cue another cover quote -- only this time with the CORRECT attribution!!! :-)

If you'd like to read the full review -- and it very concisely summarises the novel, giving readers a good taste for what it's like, but without including any spoilers -- click here: http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/Archibald_Lox_and_the_Slides_of_Bon_Repell:_Archibald_Lox_series,_Volume_2,_book_2_of_3_by_Darren_Shan