Gareth P Jones

Solve Your Own Mystery: The Time Thief
Gareth P Jones

About Author

Gareth P Jone's new Solve Your Own Mystery book, The Time Thief, takes us to the dark side of Haventry, where the precious 'time sponge' has been stolen... Gareth has written many books for children, including the Ninja Meerkats, Pet Defenders and Dragon Detective series, and The Considine Curse, for which he won the Blue Peter Book of the Year 2012. He has also worked as a producer of TV documentaries and lives in south London with his family.
[email protected]  garethwrites.co.uk  @jonesgarethp

Louise Forshaw, who illustrates the Solve Your Own Mystery series, spent most of her childhood watching cartoons and drawing comics to give to her favourite teachers. She studied Illustration and Animation at Newcastle College and now works from home in her studio as a children's book illustrator. 
@Munkey_Pants

 

Interview

Solve Your Own Mystery: The Time Thief (Little Tiger Press)

February 2022

Look out for chatty gargoyles, a time-bending lobster and the return of the yeti detective in the dark side of Haventry, as we return for another mystery, this time involving time travel.... Ideal for budding detectives, The Solve Your Own Mystery series is packed with twists and endings you won't see coming!

Download a chapter from The Time Thief

Download a chapter from The Monster Maker

"We're used to the idea that all stories should have a beginning, a middle and an end (as well as a problem to solve). But Solve Your Own Mystery - The Time Thief has three possible endings and any number of middles, depending on which options you take at the conclusion of each chapter." Review.


Find out more about the Solve Your Own Mystery books from Author Gareth P Jones!

Q&A with Gareth P Jones, with illustrations by Louise Forshaw

Can you tell us about your Solve Your Own Mysteries books? 

I certainly can. They're all about you - yes, you! You work for a yeti private detective who runs his business on the shady side of Haventry. Each book involves a brand-new mystery and it's up to you to find out who did it. In the first book the question is: who stole Dr Franklefink's monster maker?  In the second one, you are trying to discover who has taken the Time Sponge from the museum.


As I need to find it, what is a Time Sponge?

I'm glad you asked. Time sponges grow in the depths of the temporal ocean, where everything is subject to the tidal ebb and flow of time. When the sponge contracts it absorbs time and pauses the temporal flow…. which is a longwinded way of saying that when you squeeze it, everything stops. Or rather, everything except you, the wielder of the sponge. Is it any wonder the guardian of the sponge, Bernard the time bending lobster is concerned about its disappearance?


So are the Solve Your Own Mystery stories like the old 'choose your own adventures'?

As a child of the 80s, I loved game books (the 'choose your own adventure' stories). Lone Wolf (written by Joe Dever & illustrated by Gary Chalk) was my personal favourite. But I never liked dying. I never enjoyed the deadends.

My books lean more towards story than game because, although you have to make choices, no matter what path you choose, you will arrive at one of three possible endings. I think this makes them different from the books I read. As a writer, I'm always striving to write something unique. I actually think these books are that. If books with a similar structure do exist, I certainly haven't come across them.


How do your 'Solve your own mystery' stories work? 

I'm trying to vary the plots and structure across the series and I never write to a formula (or with a plan) so to answer this question, I have looked at the three books I have written so far. Each has around 25/30 chapters but most readers will read end up hitting 12/15 chapters (yes, there are longer routes and shorter ones but there's no way of knowing which you're taking).

Once you have reached an ending, there is one final chapter that gives you the option to go back and do things differently. Oh, how I wish there was a chapter in my life like that. Wouldn't it be fascinating to see how things could have been?


How hard is it to plot these books - especially when you bring time travel into the mix in The Time Thief?!

It's so stupidly hard, you wouldn't believe it. I've just finished the third book, except I haven't finished it because it's come back from my editor with more notes. I feel like I have to circle around these stories in order to write them, like a confused sparrow trying to write a story with its beak while trapped in the middle of a tornado - it feels something like that anyway.

But yes, they are hard. And yes, time travel doesn't help. Every time I write a story featuring time travel (this is my third now) I vow that I will never do it again. It's too tricky, but it's a subject I come back to time and time again because the idea of moving backwards - or sideways or upwards - through time is just too enticing.

 
What are your rules for your setting, Haventry? Any favourite spots?

I'm very much a 'make it up as you go along' sort of writer so I am discovering more of the city with every book. Luckily, helpful people at Little Tiger keep tabs on the businesses that spring up with each book.

In this new one, we visit the museum and police precinct, but my favourite place is Hotel Hostile, which has a grouchy cuckoo clock working on reception. Whether you go there on your reading is another question.


How did you end up with a yeti, Klaus, and a human boy as your detective duo? 

Yeti just seemed right to me. I've always liked yetis and they're often portrayed as solitary, which seemed to suit a hard-nosed private detective. He's not based on anyone, but I can see some influences from another one of my previous characters, Dirk Dilly, the dragon detective.

As for you, I don't know if you are a boy or a girl. It really depends on who reads it. It's interesting that you (you) assumed it was a boy. My son says he always pictures a girl as 'you' when he's reading these books. Ideally, I'd like the reader to picture themselves, but if I've learned one thing about writing books, it's that I can only control what my readers think to a certain extent. Everyone brings different experiences with them and everyone takes away something different from my books.

 

 

Would you make a great detective?

No. I'd be hopeless. I'm disorganised and not really observant enough. My approach to life is chaotic and slapdash.


Do you have a soft spot for any of the character in the books? 

In the first book, I really enjoyed the witches, so I brought them back. I also adored Louise Forshaw's pictures of the goblins so I'm trying to give them a cameo in each book.

In The Time Thief, the mermaids are some of my favourites. I realised that there were three opportunities to meet them but, because of the book's structure, I had no idea whether you were meeting them for the first second or third time. To solve this problem, I gave them all severe memory loss (of course mermaids have memories like goldfish), which made them so much fun to write.


How do you come up with your character and place names? 

Lots of different ways. I got the mermaids names from someone who won a charity auction. Sometimes I use local street business names (my local pub is called Brockley Jack). In this one, I especially like the banshee reporter Gretchen Barfly-Sewer. I wonder if you can work out which journalist I based that name on...

My biggest regret is a wizard called Grand Master Dimbleby. He was given this name as a silly joke in the first book as he's chairing a political debate, but he's got a bigger part in book three and I worry that it sounds like a lazy Rowling rip off. I should remember that my characters are rarely happy with walk-on roles. (They have a very good union).


What do you think of the illustrations by Louise Forshaw? Any favourites?

I love Louise's work. Just take a look at the picture on the first page of chapter one in this book. It took her all day, and I love the detail and how well it sets up the world of the book. Also, Bernard the time bending lobster looks every bit as mad as I imagined him. Oh, and the gargoyles. and… etc.

 


Are you planning any more Solve Your Own Mystery stories? 

So I have one more round of changes on the third book, then I will start thinking about the fourth one. Another ridiculous challenge I set myself was to create a story arc across the series. If you read all three books you will discover more about your boss (he becomes a suspect in the second book). You learn more about the shady side of Haventry as you see characters develop and change. This is tricky because I don't even know which ending you went for in each book. And you change. Yes, you! You get better as a detective, but life on the shady side affects you in ways you couldn't have imagined when you first saw this job advertised in the local paper.


What keeps you at your desk? 

I'm not very good at sitting still. I almost have to trick myself into writing in between doing other things such as tweeting, dancing, cleaning the kitchen and playing as many musical instruments as I can manage in one day.

 

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