Why is it that time passes differently when you’re away from home? We’ve been in the States for less than a week and it feels like we’ve been here forever − in a good way, of course. Since Monday, when we landed in Texas, we’ve been in Arizona, spent a couple of hours in Tennessee and are now firmly in Louisiana. And it’s all fascinating.

David Thompson, owner of Busted Flush Press and manager of Murder by the Book,
introducing me to a very welcoming crowd at the bookstore in Houston.

People warned us about the heat, but it feels great to be warm through to the bones after the cold winter we’ve just had. We even wandered around outside at midday in Houston in 114 degrees, and didn’t wilt. It’s very strange to be walking along with your own shadow nothing more than a small dark puddle around your feet. We’re not used to the sun being so high overhead.

The first thing we did when we landed was to buy a cheap pay-as-you-go US cellphone, so we could keep in touch with everyone and not be faced with the national debt of a small country when we got home. We ended up with something that came with as much free air time as it cost us to buy, and has more features than Andy’s UK phone has to start with. We’re still shaking our heads over that one.

It was great to arrive in Texas and see David and McKenna and all the staff at Murder By The Book, and sign a whole pile of stock of the new US edition of Killer Instinct for Busted Flush Press.

David ferried us around between bookstore, hotel and airport, and then as soon as we landed in Arizona on Wednesday morning, we picked up a car of our own and drove down to Tucson to see Chris and Daniel at Clues Unlimited. Then back up to Phoenix for dinner with librarian Lesa Holstine.

We saw Lesa twice the next day. First at the Authors @ The Teague event at the Velma Teague Branch Library in Glendale, where I was on a panel with Juliet Blackwell, Sophie Littlefield and Jeanne Matthews, which was fun. Lesa presented me with a mug to mark the occasion, which we just about managed to squeeze into the luggage. We’ve been doing this trip on carryon bags only, and have packed to a very fine tolerance.

After the library event, we drove over to Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale and walked a couple of blocks to a very good sushi restaurant we remembered from our last visit. (Yeah, I know, walking again.) I believe the temperature was even higher than Texas, but we’re English − walking around in the midday sun is what we’re noted for . . .

At the Poisoned Pen conference: Stefanie Pintoff, me, host and store owner Barbara Peters, Jodi Compton and Lisa Brackmann, with Lesa Holstine in the audience, front right.

We had a really good crowd at the Poisoned Pen conference, including a surprising number of British ex-pats, who asked some great questions of all of us. Sadly, we had to decline the kind offer to go to Trader Vic’s for drinks afterwards, because we were up against tight deadlines for our onward journey to New Orleans.

When I realised the flight took us via Nashville, Tennessee, I emailed my fellow Murderati blogger, JT Ellison, and asked how far away from the airport she lived. "Twenty-five minutes," came the reply. She came over and we spent an hour in one of the airport lounges, drinking coffee and chatting. It was great to see her, and a nice way to spend the time. Next time, we promised, we’d touch down for longer than two hours, and try to make it out of the airport!

Then it was on to Louisiana, and as I write, we’re spending the weekend with another ‘Rati friend, Toni McGee Causey and her husband, Carl. And we’re having a blast. Yesterday, that was literally the case, as we spent the afternoon at the local outdoor gun range with a small selection taken from Carl’s firearms collection. Andy got to fire a long gun seriously for the first time and if he’d had a grin any bigger, he would have had a flip-top head.

Tomorrow is New York, Long Island, and another story. Oh, by the way, if you're in the New York City area on Tuesday (29th), I'll be signing 6:30-8:00pm with Lee Child at The Mysterious Bookshop. See you there!

How come when you’re away from home, it seems like a week lasts forever, and yet as soon as you get back, time flies? I’m sure Einstein had a theory for it, but I have no idea.

Since last week’s blog, we’ve been exploring New Orleans, been caught in tropical storm Alex, had a ball in Manhattan, and discovered that it is indeed possible to bury a body at Montauk Point.

We were staying in Louisiana with my fellow Murderati blogger, Toni McGee Causey and her charming husband, Carl. They spared no effort to entertain us, taking us on ferry trips, up national landmarks, and around one of the largest scrapyards in the southern United States. Fascinating!

We also got to see the touristy bits − and the not so touristy bits − of New Orleans, including the art gallery strewn centre and the devastated outskirts.

Apparently, Toni still gets fits of the giggles remembering me attempting to eat crawfish. We ordered six pounds of the little devils at a roadside diner in Morgan City, and damned difficult to fight your way into they were, too!

From there we flew to Long Island, in heavy rain and howling winds, with a delayed flight and detour via Orlando. No fun for Andy, who had a bad head cold by this point and couldn’t clear his ears during the flight. The cabin crew advised dosing up on Sudafed before we took to the air again. (It proved useful advice, as I’d managed to catch the same lurgy before our transatlantic flight home a few days later).

We spent the whole of Tuesday in Manhattan, having caught the Long Island Rail Road in from the wonderfully named Ronkonkoma. After a fun lunch with my new US publisher, Claiborne Hancock at Pegasus, and a drop-in signing with Steve at Partners & Crime on Greenwich Ave, we ambled through the sunny Washington Square Park and chilled out before the evening event at The Mysterious Bookshop with Lee Child.

Fellow mystery author, and acclaimed artist, Jonathan Santlofer, was gracious enough not only to come along, but also to laugh in all the right places, as did store owner Otto Penzler. Always a good sign.

New York Times reviews Killer Instinct

Afterwards, Andy, Lee Child, Maggie Griffin (Lee's webmaven) and I had dinner at a little Italian restaurant a few blocks north. In fact, it was Maggie, who sent me the first news that Killer Instinct has been reviewed in The New York Times this weekend. An achievement in itself − doubly so that reviewer Marilyn Stasio liked the book!

After the excitement of Manhattan, we spent our last free day driving around Long Island, checking out some of the areas I’ve used in the next Charlie Fox book.

I was relieved to find it is indeed possible to have one of my characters buried on the beach just south of the lighthouse at Montauk Point [left]. The beach is largely shingle rather than sand, but there were enough areas of the soft stuff to make not only a burial possible, but its discovery more likely.

Coming home involved a marathon of flights from Long Island to Chicago and then on to Houston, where we stacked for nearly an hour while the pilot tried to work out if the weather would allow him to land, or if we’d have to divert to Dallas. Fortunately, we did make it down safely, in time to meet with David Thompson from Busted Flush Press, who very kindly collected us from the domestic airport and delivered us to the international one for the nine-and-a-half-hour transatlantic leg.

Andy’s watch alarm went off as we were on the motorway driving back up country from Heathrow, showing we’d been on the go for more than twenty-four hours. But would we do it all again? Definitely!