A Narcissistic Sociopath Broke My AI And Led Me To Murder…(Crime on Gallymay)

Don’t you just love those sensationalist clickbait headlines?This one is actually true.Ish.Kinda.

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far from here, meaning about three years ago, mainly from my house, I fell foul of a narcissistic sociopath who decided they didn’t like me.Why? Because on a phone call once, I said they were a bit rude and arrogant.(They were.)

But being of a particular mindset, this individual caused all manner of chaos while I was trying to publish one of my books. I won’t say which one…But it was about an AI. Called Delio.And the book was Delio Phase One.

Anywho. it was all very dramatic. I’ve hinted at it before, and later said that I couldn’t go near Delio again because the whole mess had it all tied up in knots.Thankfully, time moved on and I’m now 90k words into Delio Book Two. Wooohooo! I'm hoping that will be out 2025.

But - due to that confounded calamity, I threw myself back into The Undead and finished The Undead 25: The Heat. That came out, followed by Delio.Then I needed something lighter. So I wrote Fiction Land — which the lovely folks at WF Howes picked up and turned into an audiobook, narrated by Gethin Anthony.

When Fiction Land came out, my editor tidied up an old project — Huntington House — and said it could be a cracking book if done over.So I rewrote it.That book became GASLIT.

And because I’d just listened to Gethin’s brilliant narration, I couldn’t help but hear him as Mike Humber. (MC from GASLIT

Thankfully, Gethin agreed to narrate GASLIT too, and he smashed it.He also loves the story and is now working with a fantastic producer to develop it for TV.

But, and my apologies for the long-winded explanation — it was while rewriting GASLIT that I got the bug for police procedural storytelling.Being that I was a rozzer for twenty years, it was bound to happen.

I’d always wanted to write a proper murder mystery set in the real world of policing — not in the quasi-parallel dimension of crime fiction where DCIs run about like private detectives, disregarding the Police and Criminal Evidence Act and every policy ever invented.

Which, my dearest sausage (and thank you for staying with me), leads us to…Murder Crime on Gallymay. (no hyperlink cos it ain't out for pre-order yet)

Murder Crime On Gallymay

An “almost” cosy, murder mystery–police procedural about a bog-standard Detective Constable trying not to solve a murder.

I won’t say more cos it will give stuff away.But it’s funny, and heart-warming, and nice, and the characters are smashing and normal and endearing.And it still chugs along with a twisty-turny whodunnit vibe.

It’s set on an isolated Cornish island during a massive storm — so you get that lovely bleak, brooding vibe too.

I love it. I loved writing it.And, praise be to the Gods of Sausages, my pre-readers adore it too — which is a promising sign.

So there you go. A sensational clickbait headline that’s actually true:

A Narcissistic Sociopath Broke My AI And Led Me To Murder (Crime on Gallymay).

Out early summer 2025.Kindle and Paperback first.Audio to follow.

It’s my birthday on May 17th — I’m aiming to get it out by then.Fingers crossed.

Much love 🥰

RR Haywood