Susanne Bacon Publishes Final Wycliff Novel

Yes, I have heard some protest already. The final novel in my Wycliff series, really?! Indeed.

First of all, I never intended to write a series. I started out with Delicate Dreams, an intended stand-alone with lots of German deli vibes (I had experienced a few wonderful months as a team member at Lakewood’s beloved Hess Bakery & Deli) and dealing with grief – my mother had passed away in 2014. I published Delicate Dreams in 2015. It was to be the first of what became a series of ten.

Over the years I have had to create lists of people, their physical and social descriptions, of businesses, their interweaving, of events, and of a town grid that exploded in detail just to keep up consistency and logic in my series. I ended up with about 130 characters, over 30 businesses, a number of crime cases, and lots of romantic endings. Now, imagine juggling with this many people and businesses – you’d probably also come to the point when it’s time to round things out.

Last Light is my tenth and final Wycliff novel. It has become available just in time for you to gift it to somebody on Mother’s Day. What is it about? Here’s what the cover blurb says: “Lightning strikes Wycliff Light during a winter storm and burns it almost down. Town council decides to demolish the landmark. But the Sound Messenger’s editor-in-chief, Julie Dolan, looks for a different solution. Soon she finds all kinds of groups in town working hand in hand on the lighthouse restoration. Opera diva Florence Piccolini calls in an old friend of hers to be the co-patron of a connected project, not entirely without self-interest. Former teacher Mildred Packman finds that her research into the lighthouse history ends her up in a highly unlikely romance. And as Wycliff prepares for another joint fundraiser, Julie will have to ask herself whether there is more to life than a busy work schedule.”

So, some people finally see the light in various ways. And, of course, you will find some more recipes at the end of the book, just as in every Wycliff novel.

Is it farewell to Wycliff, then? Ah, but a few years ago, I introduced another military spouse apart from the one who started the series, remember? Emma Wilde, a German journalist, enters the Wycliff series in Greener Grass – and I decided that she ought to have her own series. As she lives in Wycliff, I guess, I’m not tossing my lists, after all, but have you re-meet some Wycliff characters in my Emma Wilde series. Now, Emma is a military spouse who bumps into crimes wherever she goes. As a journalist, of course, her curiosity is awakened, and she puts her nose into business that is not hers to solve the mysteries. In Last Light, my final Wycliff novel, she also solves a mystery, if a non-violent one.

So, think of a Mother’s Day’s gift or a travel read for your upcoming vacation, and check out Last Light (305 pages, paperback, $ 14.25), available at https://www.amazon.com/Last-Light-Wycliff-Novel-Novels/dp/B0D368BFBJ or order it at any bookstore (ISBN-13: 979-8883895264). As with all of my book publications, there is also a German version titled Hoffnung am Horizont for those with a German loved one.

Last but not least, I’d like to say something to everybody who has traveled with me through the Wycliff novel writing experience and encouraged me to keep it going: Thank you with all my heart!