It feels very strange to finally be writing this post. Mostly because DI Harrison Black and Jake Whitton have been living inside my head for so long that I’m not entirely sure I’m ready to hand them over. But apparently that’s what happens when you write a book. People expect to read it.
Rude, really.
But on 25 September 2026, Too Close to Home, the first book in my brand-new Whitton & Black MM romantic suspense trilogy, will finally be out in the world.
And I cannot wait for you to meet them.
Welcome to Hartswick
First, we need to talk about Hartswick. A small Yorkshire market town on the edge of the moors, surrounded by woodland, where families have known each other for generations, everyone knows everyone else’s business and the local pub is never short of gossip. It’s the sort of place where an outsider is noticed.
Which is unfortunate for newly arrived DI Harrison Black.
Harrison has transferred from the Met looking for something quieter. After losing his husband and watching the life he thought he would have disappear with him, Harrison needs distance from London. A new job. A new house. A new town. A chance, perhaps, to start again.
Instead, within hours of arriving in Hartswick, a teenage girl disappears while walking home through the woods.
So much for quiet.
And then Harrison meets Jake Whitton.
Which doesn’t make his life any easier
Harrison is controlled.
Very controlled.
He’s intelligent, observant, stubborn, quietly authoritative and very good at his job. He’s spent years learning how to keep the personal and professional parts of himself neatly separated.
Particularly since his husband died.
He isn’t coming to Hartswick looking for romance. In many ways, he isn’t entirely convinced that part of his life exists anymore.
He has a case to solve.
A missing girl to find.
A new team to lead.
And then there’s Jake.
Or, as Harrison rather inconveniently discovers:
Duty didn’t allow for men like Jake Whitton.
Jake Whitton is considerably less controlled.
He’s a roofer. A drummer. An ex-con. Fiercely loyal, hot-headed, foul-mouthed and absolutely incapable of keeping his nose out of Harrison’s investigation.
He also hates the police.
And he has good reason.
Thirteen years ago, Jake’s younger sister, Robyn, disappeared. She never came home. Jake was supposed to have a life beyond Hartswick. He was a talented drummer with the chance to leave town and pursue music properly. Robyn’s disappearance changed everything.
He stayed.
He searched.
He got angry.
Eventually, that anger cost him three years of his life when he attacked a man he believed was responsible for what happened to her.
Now he earns his living roofing and doing odd jobs around Hartswick, plays drums in a local band and remains fiercely protective of the family Robyn left behind.
But he has never stopped wanting to know what happened to his sister.
So when another young woman disappears from the same town thirteen years later, Jake isn’t going anywhere.
Even if DI Harrison Black would really rather he did.
There’s another problem, of course.
Because Jake might not trust coppers…
But apparently that doesn’t stop him fancying one.
Jake Whitton doesn’t trust coppers. Not even ones with a London accent, a face he has no business finding that attractive, and those fucking sad, sincere eyes of DI Harrison Black.
Yeah.
These two are going to be fun.
One couple. Three books.
Something I really wanted to do with Whitton & Black was give Jake and Harrison room.
Room to get things wrong.
Room to argue.
Room to build trust.
Room to deal with everything they’ve carried into this relationship before I expect either of them to be ready for another person.
And, naturally, room for all that sexual tension to become considerably less theoretical.
So Whitton & Black follows the same couple across three books.
Each book is an MM romantic suspense with its own central investigation, and that investigation is resolved within that book.
But running beneath those cases is the question that has haunted Jake and his family for thirteen years:
What happened to Robyn Whitton?
Harrison’s arrival in Hartswick begins to disturb things that have been left alone for a very long time, and Robyn’s disappearance becomes the cold case running through the trilogy.
Alongside it is Jake and Harrison’s relationship.
And that is very deliberately a slow burn.
Too Close to Home is the beginning.
This is attraction and suspicion. Grief and anger. Two men circling one another while knowing there are about a thousand reasons why getting involved would be a terrible idea.
The romance—and the heat—develops across the trilogy, with Jake and Harrison’s full HEA coming in the final book.
Basically, I’m giving you three books to become ridiculously attached to them.
You’re welcome.
So, what can you expect from Too Close to Home?
At its heart, Too Close to Home is both a mystery and the beginning of a love story.
There’s a missing teenage girl.
A thirteen-year-old cold case.
A Yorkshire town with secrets.
A grieving detective trying to start again.
A hot-headed ex-con who doesn’t trust the man investigating his sister’s disappearance.
An age gap.
Arguments.
Attraction.
Hurt/comfort.
A drummer with a filthy mouth.
A detective with rather more going on beneath that controlled exterior than Jake initially realises.
And two men who absolutely, categorically should not become each other’s problem.
You can imagine how well that goes.
Not long now…
I’ve written a lot of books, but this trilogy has been one of the most ambitious things I’ve taken on.
I’ve had to balance police investigations, suspense and an overarching mystery with grief, family, character development and a romance that I wanted to give enough time to really earn where these men eventually end up.
There has been blood, sweat and tears.
Some of those more literal than others.
And now we’re nearly there.
Too Close to Home releases 25 September 2026.
So if you like MM romantic suspense, complicated men, slow-burn relationships, mysteries that keep you guessing, small towns with too many secrets and the prospect of watching the same couple fall harder for each other across three books…
Welcome to Hartswick.
Just don’t expect it to be quiet.
TOO CLOSE TO HOME
Whitton & Black #1
MM Romantic Suspense
25 September 2026
And perhaps one final warning before you go…
DI Harrison Black investigates.
Jake Whitton gets in the way.
I suspect you’re going to like them.