JOY ELLIS INTRODUCES 'AN AURA OF MYSTERY'

An Aura of Mystery is my very first novel. It has sat in a dusty box file, and on an old floppy disc for over twenty years. I was very much a novice writer, but since childhood I’d had a fascination with mysteries, especially those with a supernatural element. So, I wrote one of my own! It’s very different to my current work although, as there is a strong police procedural theme right through it, I think you can see the direction in which I was heading.

I wanted to keep the supernatural side of the book believable, so I did a lot of research into the subject of colour therapy and auric sight; seeing auras, the coloured life forces that surround all living things. I also looked into medical conditions caused by chemicals released into the brain during head traumas, and invented one of my own, the Azimah Syndrome. I found it all incredibly interesting and wove it into a murder mystery that became An Aura of Mystery.

There was publisher interest in it, even way back then, but cross-genre was not popular at the time, and it never went any further. Even so, I wrote a sequel, The Colour of Mystery, and then committed them both to the attic! Over the years, they have haunted me, and a few months ago when I was not feeling well and could not concentrate on new work, I resurrected them. My assistant Luke managed to convert them into a workable manuscript, and I read them again, for the first time in two decades.

I was absolutely over the moon when Joffe Books offered to publish them as vintage work from my archive! Or maybe that should read, attic! They are exactly as they were, with no changes or attempts to bring them up to date, so they do reflect the age when they were written.

They will always be very special to me as my first step to becoming a writer, and I do hope that you enjoy them.

Joy Ellis

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