One brilliant detective.

One irrisistable read after another.

Introducing Detective Inspector Jillian Scotte and the first three books in this remarkable new series:

Lights, Camera, Murder.

Trouble Comes in Threes is the first published novel by Michael Jenet, a veteran of the US Airforce, who established a publishing company to support new writers following a bad experience that he suffered with a traditional publisher. His previous published work was a self-help book, Motivestions. He was born in Belgium and raised in his mother’s home country of England before moving to the USA. Jenet was kind enough to give Whispering Stories an interview in October 2023 as Trouble Comes in Threes was published.

As explained in the synopsis, he wrote at least four DI Jillian Scotte stories during the pandemic, the first three of which have now been packaged together as Trouble Comes in Threes. The individual stories are The Lumberjack Murders, Death Beneath the Surface, and Lights, Camera, Murder, all around novella length, feature Scotte and her colleague Kara Devanor as they investigate serious crimes in England. Michael Jenet hopes to publish more in this series shortly.

In his interview and on his website Jenet explains that although he has lived most of his life in the USA, he has taken his inspiration from a love of his mother’s home country and his affection for UK mystery books and drama. Setting a work in a country with which the author is not fully familiar can be challenging. Whilst Jenet has probably done enough to convince and entertain an international audience, I did find some several terms and words that I regard as American English.

The stories are indeed action packed with a high level of brutality, regularly involving the police officers themselves. Some of the procedural actions stretch reality. We also have details of DI Scotte’s personal life and her relations with colleagues. The three stories appear to be published as they were individually written so on occasions there are overlaps, particularly at the beginning of the second and third stories, which maybe could have been edited to improve the flow.

Personally I was not totally convinced by these stories, feeling that the author has given us what he thought he ought to write, rather than what he truly believed and understood. That said all three episodes move forward at a pace and if you can accept a few American terms
these are entertaining stories. Based on my personal experience I have awarded Trouble Comes in Threes three and a half stars.

Michael Jenet was born in Belgium and moved to the United States when he was seven years old. He is an eight-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force. A self-described “recovering corporate CEO”, he now devotes himself full time as the publisher for Journey Institute Press.

An international best-selling and award-winning author, his first two books were in the self-improvement genre: ASK: The Questions to Empower Your Life, and A Better Life. He lives in Colorado with his wife and family.