Coming Soon: The Antique Store Detective and the Riverside Murders by Clare Chase.

Published by Bookouture
11 February 2026.

Book 4 in the Bella Winter series.

A priceless statue, two mysterious deaths and a missing body… it can only be a case for the antique store detective!

Bella Winter is happily settled in Hope Eaton, with her business flourishing: antiques sold and problems solved. So when Margie Fleming approaches her to sell a family heirloom, a beautiful marble statue of a mother and child, Bella jumps at the chance.

But the day before the sale, Margie is found dead: drowned in the river Kite, a year after her older sister Bethan died the same way. Everyone is convinced it’s a tragic accident, but Bella isn’t so sure. One mysterious death might be a coincidence. Two feels a lot like murder…

Bella’s spine tingles when she realises Bethan also had plans for the statue. Could someone have killed to make sure it wasn’t moved? It feels far-fetched… but when they shift the statue, there’s a bloodstain beneath it. Someone is trying to conceal a crime. But who was the victim, and where is the body?

As she investigates the Flemings’ friends and family, Bella becomes convinced the strange graffiti appearing all over Hope Eaton holds answers… Can she paint a clear picture and solve the case, or will she find herself facing a watery end?

 

Clare Chase writes classic mysteries. Her aim is to take readers away from it all via some armchair sleuthing in atmospheric locations. Like her heroines, Clare is fascinated by people and what makes them tick. Before becoming a full-time writer, she worked in settings as diverse as Littlehey Prison and the University of Cambridge, in her home city. She’s lived everywhere from the house of a lord to a slug-infested flat and finds the mid-terrace she currently occupies a good happy medium. As well as writing, Clare loves family time, art and architecture, cooking, and of course, reading other people’s books.

www.clarechase.com 

‘The Prisoner of Raven’s Gaze Hall’ by J. C. Briggs

Published by Sapere Books,
9 December 2025.  
ISBN: 979-0-831160997-5 (PB)

This is the fourth novel in Briggs’s Gothic Mystery series, all of which feature a remote country house in the northwest of England and the effects of the Great War on its inhabitants and the people who live near it. This novel begins with a prologue set in 1932. Catherine Sisley is looking back to events which occurred immediately after the war, and the reader is tantalized with what mysteries there were at Raven’s Gaze Hall. During the war Catherine nursed at the front where one of her patients was John Lestrange, heir to Raven’s Gaze. When she returns home to Dorset (where she has been brought up by an aunt) after the war, Catherine is mourning the death of her love, Captain Leo Beaufort, and is trying to work out her future. Lestrange writes to her asking if she will come to Raven’s Gaze to nurse his infirm grandmother. Encouraged by her aunt, but with some reluctance, she takes up the offer on an initial three-month trial basis. 

When Catherine arrives at Raven’s Gaze, she finds its remoteness and inhabitants unsettling. Bennet Lestrange, John’s father, is a dislikeable character who spends most of his time researching and writing books about local history. Mrs Whitenow, Catherine’s patient, is not an easy woman. Mrs Slee, the housekeeper, is unpleasant and deals out ‘rough insolence’. Her niece, Betty, who helps around the hall, is no better. John, cowed by his father, is frequently away on unexplained business leaving Catherine feeling very isolated. There is mystery concerning the deaths of John’s mother and brother some time previously, any mention of whom is avoided as far as possible. Catherine discovers an abandoned nursery and a room with a bed in which a patient had clearly been restrained. As Bennet Lestrange observes at one point, ‘We all have our secrets’. Catherine’s only friends are two local women, Annot Syke and Grizel Knipe. 

Catherine feels she is under permanent scrutiny at Raven’s Gaze, and this, combined with her revulsion at the tense atmosphere (nobody seems to like anyone else), makes her determined to leave. Unfortunately, events conspire to keep Catherine at the house. Her personal circumstances alter in an ultimately unsatisfactory way. There are deaths, and a will makes Catherine’s position even more difficult. By this point her two friends have moved away, She is on her own. 

The last section of the novel returns, as it were, to 1932 and events consequent to the prologue. By this time both Annot Syke and Grizel Knipe have returned to Raven’s Gaze and ask Catherine to visit them. They are able to tell some of the secrets that were kept from her, and between them the three women manage to unravel one particular mystery which has hovered, almost unspoken, throughout the story. The discover other things as well. It is a very satisfying conclusion. As in the previous novels, Briggs writes with considerable sympathy, intelligence and a keenly researched sense of the period (as ever she provides some interesting notes at the end). She is particularly good at yearning, loss and oppression – and mystery, of course. Strong, confident and decent women ultimately prevail, but Briggs is far too even-handed a writer to make it a feminist polemic. The bleakness of much of the story is leavened by the decency at the end of it. It is an excellent novel which I am happy to recommend wholeheartedly.
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Reviewer: David Whittle 

Jean Briggs taught English for many years in schools in Cheshire, Hong Kong, and Lancashire. She now lives in a cottage by a river in Cumbria with a view of the Howgill Fells and a lot of sheep, though it is the streets of Victorian London that are mostly in her mind when she is writing about Charles Dickens as a detective. There are eleven novels in the series so far, published by Sapere Books. The latest, The Jaggard Case, came out in October 2022. Number eleven, The Waxwork Man, comes out on September 15^th. Another novel will come out at the end of 2023. This is a new departure, a novel about an empty house called Foulstone in the old county of Westmorland, a house with secrets kept since the First World War. She was Vice Chair of the Crime Writers’ Association (2018-2022), is still a board member of the CWA, a member of Historical Writers’ Association, the Dickens Fellowship, The Society of Authors, and a trustee of Sedbergh Book Town. 

jcbriggsbooks.com  

David Whittle is firstly a musician (he is an organist and was Director of Music at Leicester Grammar School for over 30 years) but has always enjoyed crime fiction. This led him to write a biography of the composer Bruce Montgomery who is better known to lovers of crime fiction as Edmund Crispin, about whom he gives talks now and then.

 

‘First Act’ by Rachel Lynch

Published by Canelo Crime,
29 January 2026.
ISBN: 978-1-83598-121-4  (PB)

London in 2008 is experiencing a surge in new buildings as it prepares for the 2012 Olympics and, when a body is unearthed on a building site, the Bethnal Green CID is contacted.  It is DI Kelly Porter’s last day there, as she is moving to a new post with the Metropolitan Police’s Major Investigation Team.  However, it’s an important case and she does not feel that she can leave her colleagues (and, indeed, friends) to cope unaided.  When she arrives at the scene, she discovers that the age of the body is uncertain and it will not be clear who is responsible for the case until this is ascertained.  However, the body does have some interesting grave goods, including a plastic nose and a wooden toy that looks like Pinocchio.  

Kelly arrives at her new post on the following Monday feeling slightly hot and bothered and perhaps a bit nervous.  She is introduced to her partner, DI Seb Crook, who seems helpful and shows her around.  Almost immediately they are assigned to a murder case following the discovery of a body at a school.  They are faced with the body of a woman, which appears to have been arranged for maximum effect.  Behind the body is a small booth in which is a puppet of Mr Punch (the violent protagonist of the traditional British Punch and Judy seaside puppet shows).  Kelly and Seb start their investigation on this somewhat grisly case and it becomes clear that there is a connection between this and the murder on the building site (on which her colleagues at Bethnal Green are still working).  A sad story emerges of historical institutional ill-treatment of children and its continuing malign legacy.  As Kelly and Seb get to know one another, Kelly discovers things about him that don’t quite make sense.  She also feels that, despite her new boss, DCI Leia Lord, being complimentary about her work, there is something not quite right about her.  

This is a carefully plotted story, with quite a large cast (including the Museum of Childhood, now the Young V&A).  It maintains a continuing tension and varied pace, tracing events over several decades, and having a realistic setting in 2008.  The pressures of maintaining personal lives and loyalties come up against professional expectations.  

The story is actually a prequel to the author’s popular D I Kelly Porter series and works completely as a stand-alone.  For those readers already captured by Kelly and her life it will be and interesting and informative read, as well as being a good introduction to the series for newcomers.
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Reviewer: Jo Hesslewood
Books by this author:  Detective Kelly Porter series:  as well as this prequel, Dark Game;  Deep Fear;  Dead End;  Bitter Edge; Bold Lies; Blood Rites; Little Doubt; Lost Cause; Lying Ways; Sudden Death; Silent Bones; Shared Remains.  Helen Scott Royal Military Police Thrillers: The Rift, The Line. Stand-Alones:  The Rich; The Famous. 

Rachel Lynch grew up in Cumbria and regularly hiked the fells from a young age. She studied History at the University of Lancaster and gained her Post graduate Certificate of Education at the Institute of Education, London. She married an Army Officer, whom she followed around the globe for thirteen years. After children led to personal training and sports therapy, but writing was always the overwhelming force driving the future. The human capacity for compassion as well as its descent into the brutal and murky world of crime are fundamental to her work.

Jo Hesslewood.  Crime fiction has been my favourite reading material since as a teenager I first spotted Agatha Christie on the library bookshelves.  For twenty-five years the commute to and from London provided plenty of reading time.  I am fortunate to live in Cambridge, where my local crime fiction book club, Crimecrackers, meets at Heffers Bookshop .  I enjoy attending crime fiction events and currently organise events for the Margery Allingham Society.

‘Etiquette for Lovers and Killers’ by Anna Fitzgerald Healy.

Published by Fleet,
7 August 2025. 
ISBN:  978-0-349-12734-7 (HB)

Billie McCadie is living in Eastport, a small town on the Maine coast enlivened mostly by the arrival of the wealthy holiday homeowners who look down on the residents and their little lives.  One day, as she sits at her sewing machine in Primp and Ribbon Alterations, altering clothing and applying for jobs she never gets, she receives a letter addressed to someone called Gertrude from someone called Edgar.  It’s a love letter and includes an engagement ring which fits Billie’s finger – all very interesting and puzzling.  To add to this, she then meets wealthy, handsome Avery Webster, whose parents own Webster Cottage, a large house by the sea.  He invites her to a party there, at which she sees a woman murdered.  Billie, as one of the last people to see her alive and the first to see her dead, decides to do a bit of investigating on her own. 

The plot twists and turns as life in Eastport goes on.  Billie continues to receive letters and phone calls connected to Gertrude, while discovering secrets and attracting unwanted attention from the man in a fedora and other unlikely characters, as well as the local police.  Above all she tries to understand what Avery is thinking, because romance is as interesting as investigation. 

Billie is a great character, sharp, bright and rather daring.  She lives with her grandparents and yearns for more from life than collecting her grandmother’s strawberry syrup and knee rouge.  She rides a bicycle when she can’t steal her grandfather’s car.  Her relationship with Avery provides a constant, if erratic, thread throughout the book, ending with an interesting suggestion that requires her most careful consideration.  

This book manages combines violent crime with romance and a slight touch of weirdness.  The author writes with flair and a nice sprinkling of wit.  The atmosphere of the early 1960s is maintained throughout with small references to the music, the television, the food and the society.  The opening quotation sets the tone, each chapter opens with a piece of essential information on etiquette, and the footnotes provide useful information on etymological and other matters.  This is an entertaining and interesting first book and readers may well hope for more.
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Reviewer: Jo Hesslewood 

Anna Fitzgerald Healy grew up on a small island in Maine. Her writing is largely informed by her childhood in rural New England and cold winter nights curled up watching black-and-white movies. Her writing has been featured in several literary magazines and short story anthologies, including Mystery Tribune, the Hoxie Gorge Review, and Brigid’s Gate Press. Anna works in Los Angeles, where she lives in a miniature castle in the Hollywood Hills. 

Jo Hesslewood.  Crime fiction has been my favourite reading material since as a teenager I first spotted Agatha Christie on the library bookshelves.  For twenty-five years the commute to and from London provided plenty of reading time.  I am fortunate to live in Cambridge, where my local crime fiction book club, Crimecrackers, meets at Heffers Bookshop .  I enjoy attending crime fiction events and currently organise events for the Margery Allingham Society.

Coming Soon: 'The Killing Time' by Elly Griffiths

 
Published by Quercus
12 February 2026.

The 2nd Mystery in the Ali Dawson series

Ali Dawson is a police detective who leads a unit that investigates cases so cold her team must travel to the distant past to solve them. But Ali and the team haven't been allowed to time-travel ever since their technical expert, Jones, got stuck in Victorian London, never to be seen again.

To distract herself from meaningless tasks, Ali decides to look into a present-day case - a series of apparent suicides, all young men who fell to their death from high places. She believes the deaths are linked to a psychic medium called Barry Power, who convinced the boys they could fly. Ali goes to one of Power's shows where he claims to be in contact with Jones.

When Ali notices that evening that her cat, Terry, has gone missing, she decides to go back in time just long enough to prevent Terry from escaping through his open cat flap. A dangerous plan which backfires, and she finds herself once more in Victorian London, where she meets Jones, as well as Power, and the darkly mysterious Cain Templeton with whom Ali has unfinished business from her previous visit to the past . . .

Elly Griffiths is the author of a series of crime novels set in England’s Norfolk County and featuring forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway. The first in the series, Crossing Places, earned a good deal of praise both in Griffiths’ native country, England, and in the U.S. The Literary Review termed it “a cleverly plotted and extremely interesting first novel, highly recommended.  Since then, Elly has written fourteen further novels in the series.  Recently she has written a second series set in Brighton in the 1950’s featuring magician Max Mephisto and DI Stephens. There are seven books in the series. Her third series features DI Harbinder Kaur. Her most recent series features Police Detective Ali Dawson who deals with Cold Cases. 

www.ellygriffiths.co.uk 

‘The New Year’s Party’ by Jenna Satterthwaite

Published by Verve Books,
4 December 2025.
ISBN: 978-0-85730932-7 (PB)

The prologue to The New Year’s Party takes place barely an hour into 1^st January 2020.  It describes Olivia Rhodes as she edges her way unsteadily through the kitchen of the building she had fled earlier.  A sense of mystery and despair grows as Olivia’s faltering progress takes her deeper into the house and then we are taken back to where this all started. 

A group of four high school friends, now in their thirties, have traditionally held a party on New Year’s Eve.  Over the years the responsibilities of adulthood came along, and some have moved away to pastures new.  Marriages meant that spouses were invited to the annual shindig, but not, when they arrived, children.  Then, five years ago, something happened, something unpleasant; since then, the friends have, for a variety of reasons, not been able to meet up.  Nathan Phelps decides it’s time they resurrected the custom and invites the old gang to what sounds like it will be a wild celebration.  It’s fair to say that not everyone is as enthusiastic as Nathan is to meet up, nevertheless on 31^st December 2019 the guests gather at his home. 

All the characters in the novel have secrets, several made mistakes when they were young adults, and some are tortured by their recollections of the past.  It is clear from the outset that there is bad blood, not to mention irreconcilable difficulties, between some of those preparing to party.  The friendship group feels fractured, but most of the midults are not yet ready to say goodbye to youthful excess and whilst some of them hope to rekindle their previous camaraderie the truth is that this once close-knit group is now a collection of individuals.  It is fitting, therefore, that almost every chapter heading includes a character’s name and the episode it describes focuses mainly on him or her.  There are three notable exceptions where first person narratives are used.  This authorial technique emphasizes the strained relationships between friends and couples and builds tension as the novel progresses. 

We know from the beginning that the party will descend into chaos, the question is what will it be, who will it involve and how will it resolve?  There are twists and turns along the way as the narrative cleverly either misleads the reader or leaves them in suspense by switching to another character’s perspective.  During the final chapters the potential for devastation builds to a head as the world turns upside down for revellers and readers alike. 

The New Year’s Party is an unusual novel with themes ranging from the impact of historic sexual abuse to marital mismatches.  At the book’s heart is a mystery that unfolds and resolves in a most unusual and certainly unexpected way. 

Well written, a great plot and an enjoyable read.  Recommended.
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Reviewer: Dot Marshall-Gent 

Jenna Satterthwaite was born in the Midwest, but grew up in Spain, lived briefly in France, and is now happily settled in Chicago with her husband and children. Jenna studied classical guitar at the Conservatorio Profesional de Música de Zaragoza and earned her BAs in English Lit and French at Indiana University. Now she is a literary agent with Storm Literary and also works a 9-5 style office job.  Once upon a time, Jenna moonlighted as a singer-songwriter in folk band Thornfield. In the winter, you can find Jenna obsessively and cozily pounding out novels on her laptop by the fireplace. In the summer, you can find her getting sunburned at the pool with her kids, vaguely wondering how a novel is even written. She loves sushi, reading in her natural habitat (aka her bed), and women taking back their power.

Connect with Jenna on Twitter @jennaschmenna, Facebook on her author page, and Instagram @jenna.satterthwaite.author. She loves to hear from readers! 

Dot Marshall-Gent worked in the emergency services for twenty years first as a police officer, then as a paramedic and finally as a fire control officer before graduating from King’s College, London as a teacher of English in her mid-forties.  She completed a M.A. in Special and Inclusive Education at the Institute of Education, London and now teaches part-time and writes mainly about educational issues.  Dot sings jazz and country music and plays guitar, banjo and piano as well as being addicted to reading mystery and crime fiction. 

‘Watch Your Back’ by Emma Christie

Published by Mountain Leopard Press,
23 October 2025.
ISBN: 978-80279-467-0 (PB)

Born and raised in an Ayrshire coalmining town, Emma Christie studied literature and medieval history at Aberdeen university.  She graduated into journalism, then moved on into crime fiction. 

Watch Your Back is the fourth of Christie’s thrillers set in Portobello – Edinburgh’s flourishing seaside neighbourhood. 

The story is led by Jo, convicted as a teenager for the murder of her mother. We meet her fifteen years later, out of prison and working in a charity shop where she has found a new best friend – her boss Jean. 

Determined to create a life she can drive and control, Jo has surrounded herself with strangers, who apart from Jean, know nothing of her history. 

Inevitably, the past strikes back.  She receives a box of letters addressed to her, unopened and unread, posted from the prison in which she served her time. They are stolen before she can read them. The conclusion she comes to, is that someone outside the prison, someone who knows her well, must have a dangerous secret to hide. 

Jo falls back into long ago learned patterns, as she struggles to protect her new life from the violence of her past. The truth – as far as she has always accepted it – must not be revealed. Once again, safety becomes her priority, her default reaction lying. She reverts to a state of constant defence and danger. Her present day, mirroring her childhood, spirals out of control. 

Christie writes in a dual timeline format. Throughout the back story, Jo is written as Tink, her nickname from childhood. Her close friend and comrade in arms, a few years older than Tink is nicknamed Spider. Christie allows us huge access to Tink, but not to Spider – who’s name and real identity is not revealed until the two timelines collide in the closing chapters of the story. It’s a long wait for this… 

Christie takes a while to unfold the story and unlock the secrets.  So, from here, no more story details. There are far too many potential spoilers up ahead.  

Not keen on multiple storylines, this reviewer found himself having to work hard at the outset. But sticking to the task in hand, suddenly he was a dozen chapters into the story and hooked. 

It has to be noted, that male characters in Watch Your Back are not much more than plot devices.  But that’s okay, because the real beating heart of this story lies in the strong female relationships – loving, broken, hateful, deceitful and deadly – which drive the narrative with huge chunks of emotion and grit.  And finally, the ending delivers a genuinely satisfying payoff.~
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Reviewer: Jeff Dowson.

Emma Christie grew up in a book-filled house in Cumnock, an Ayrshire coal-mining town. After quitting her law degree to study English literature and medieval history at Aberdeen University, she spent five years working as a news reporter with one of the UK’s top-selling regional daily newspapers, The Press and Journal. Throughout her journalism career, she secretly wanted to be every author she ever interviewed. When she’s not writing, Emma now works as a tour director and lecturer in history, culture and politics with a US travel company, leading educational journeys across Spain, France and Portugal. 

Jeff Dowson began his career working in the theatre as an actor and a director. He moved into television as a writer/producer/director. Screen credits include arts series, entertainment features, documentaries, drama series and TV films. Turning crime novelist in 2014, he introduced Bristol private eye Jack Shepherd in Closing the Distance. The series developed with Changing the Odds, Cloning the Hate and Bending the Rules. The Ed Grover series, featuring an American GI in Bristol during the years following World War 2, opened with One Fight At A Time. The second book New Friends Old Enemies was published in May 2021. Jeff is a member of BAFTA, Mystery People and the Crime Writers Association. 

www.jeffdowson.co.uk  

‘The Lost Detective’ by Elspeth Latimer

Published by Story Machine,
25 September 2025.
ISBN: 978-1-91266552-5 (PB)

This is a story of two mysteries twenty one years apart, united by grief and loss. We first meet Alice twenty one years ago on the day when the unimaginable happens; her baby Felix goes missing from a garden whilst she is visiting friends. 

The story shoots forward then to twenty one years later and we learn that Felix was never found and Alice is now running a holiday park. It’s here that she meets Dan, a former detective whose world has collapsed after suffering his own tragic loss. Recognising the trauma of grief in someone else, she reaches out to him to try and find out what happened to Felix. 

However, Dan is a mess. He’s lost someone who was his world. He’s no longer in a job he loved and used to be good at. He sometimes wonders if he’s losing his mind. On top of this, one of the holiday park guests has disappeared and a body has been found near the holiday park.  Dan can’t resist the chance to try and solve this mystery which puts both his sanity and the relationships with his ex-colleagues at risk. 

For me the story comes alive in the dialogue between Dan and Cassie, his friend and ex colleague. Through this, we start to understand all that Dan has lost, all he can offer and all he still stands to lose. 

I read an interview with Elspeth Latimer who says she has always been intrigued with the hinterlands of East Anglia and has set the book in the Brecks region, bringing it evocatively to life. Told mostly from Dan’s viewpoint but occasionally from the viewpoint of Jay, the daughter of the only witness when Felix went missing, we learn what happened both twenty one years ago and the present day. 

It’s a crime story for sure, but it’s also a novel about grief, betrayal, the damage done when secrets are kept, endurance and ultimately hope.
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Reviewer: Julie Luscombe

Elspeth Latimer is originally from Scotland, where she worked as an architect, before her love of reading prompted a career change. She has a Prose Fiction MA along with a PhD on crime series, from the University of East Anglia, where she is now associate tutor in crime writing. Elspeth has always been passionate about the genre and the ways it reflects who we are. The Lost Detective is Elspeth Latimer’s debut crime novel, published September 2025. Elspeth lives in the Brecks, at the heart of East Anglia, and the subtle beauty of this landscape, together with the realities of contemporary rural life, are the inspiration behind her novel.

Julie Luscombe is both a lifelong reader of crime fiction, particularly ‘locked room’ mysteries and will be looking to publish her own debut crime thriller this year. Based in Jersey, Channel Islands, she regularly reviews books for the Island media and is an active participant in the local writing community. Julie’s long career in nursing, education, public health and coaching is slowly but surely transitioning into a life built around writing!

‘True Blue’ by Joe Thomas

Published by MacLehose Press,
29 January 2026.
ISBN 978 1 52942 343 3

True Blue is the final installment- following White Riot and Red Menace- of a thought-provoking trilogy that chronicles the turbulent times and events that occurred in East London between the late seventies and the end of 1990. This book is mainly concerned with 1990, Margaret Thatcher’s final year in office. It was also a year when the introduction of the poll tax ensured that the poor became poorer and the comfortably-off became richer following the privatization of the water industry. As in the earlier parts of the trilogy, music and well-informed commentary on it continue to play a major part in the story. Unfortunately, corrupt police officers continue to flourish supporting a burgeoning drug trade whilst deliberately and maliciously targeting black youth. 

DC Noble’s job is to uncover corruption within the police force whilst ostensibly investigating the illegal rave scene from within the Acid Squad task force. Nobel works out of Stoke Newington and is helped by an undercover officer or spycop, PC Parker, who is well integrated within the local villains and Suzi Scialfa, a photo journalist who hob nobs with the local musicians and is therefore well-placed to gather intelligence for him. 

CI Young is Noble’s boss. As head of the Special Demonstration Squad, Young also holds a senior role in Scotland Yard’s Anti-Corruption Squad CIB2.  His allegiance to his work leaves everything to be desired. 

We watch as trusting citizens and black youths are mistreated by the forces of both law and disorder whose intent is to line their pockets with no consideration for the damage they do to individuals or society as a whole. We see the futile efforts of well-meaning individuals like Parker and his partner Carolyn to keep her young cousin Shaun on the straight and narrow after he had been released from Feltham youth offenders’ institution. We comprehend the sickening tragedy that strikes after another black youth Simeon is misled by the underhand efforts of drug dealers to implicate him in their nefarious trade. We follow the well-intentioned efforts of the borough solicitor as he endeavors to understand unusual behaviour in his catchment area designed to facilitate the privatization of the water industry. 

Although a work of fiction True Blue feels uncomfortably authentic and provides a meticulously researched conclusion to this graphic trilogy of institutional corruption and failings. It is also a horrifying confirmation of behaviour that we have all been informed about but have found the abject betrayal by those supposed to keep us safe difficult to believe and easier to brush off as improbable and unlikely. True Blue is not all gloom and doom, there is qualified happiness too.  Both Noble and Parker become fathers. Sadly, only one of the newborns will grow up with his father in the house. Overall, it is an excellent book. It can easily be read as a one off, but readers may well want to start at the beginning of the trilogy.
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Reviewer Angela Crowther

Joe Thomas is a visiting lecturer in Literature and Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, University of London. Prior to this, he lived and taught in São Paulo for ten years. Gringa is the second book to feature detective Mario Leme. The first, Paradise City, was published by Arcadia in 2017.

Angela Crowther is a retired scientist.  She has published many scientific papers but, as yet, no crime fiction.  In her spare time Angela belongs to a Handbell Ringing group, goes country dancing and enjoys listening to music, particularly the operas of Verdi and Wagner.

‘The Three’ by Kelsey O'Brien

Published by Hera,
29 January 2026.
ISBN: 978-1-83598235-8 (HB)

Georgian England was a positive hotbed of all the things school history lessons leave out, and it turns out they're a lot more interesting than dates of battles and monarchical family trees. For instance, there was a flourishing gay community in London. And the designers and makers of corsets – stays for the initiated – were mainly men.  

In The Three, these lesser-known details combine with man's inhumanity to woman and the perils of revolutionary politics to form a tale of secrecy and danger. A man who was found 'guilty' of fancying his own sex was condemned not only to the gallows but also to the contempt and derision of the rotten-fruit-throwing public. A woman who facilitated such 'reprehensible' behaviour was sentenced to the pillory, which could easily mean death if a hurled half-brick met its mark.   

Matthew, a charming, talented and successful corset-maker, falls in love with Henry from the landed gentry, and becomes Henry's wife's live-in dressmaker in order to pursue their affair. Elina, the wife, refuses to be content with the tedious existence of lady of the manor, and educates herself not only by reading radical tracts and forming subversive opinions, but also by turning her views into a book and trying to get it published. For this she seeks Matthew's help, and they become friends – but he is now in danger on two fronts.   

These three characters form an intriguing and constantly shifting pattern. Elina has no interest in ladylike pursuits like clothes and parties, and is quite unaware of her dressmaker and friend's relationship with her husband. Henry, as befits a man of his station, sees only what he arrogantly believes to be the case, and has no idea that his wife has a brain which far outstrips his own, or that she uses it for purposes he would find quite unacceptable. 

The balloon, as it were, inevitably goes up, and Matthew is stuck in the middle, unable to escape judgement whichever of them he supports. Which will he choose? 

This isn't an ordinary thriller; if you discount people who meet their end as a result of laws which are deplorable by 21^st century standards, there are no murders. Rather, it's a story which illustrates what counted as criminal behaviour during a certain period of history. In the late 18^th century, loving the wrong person and contravening the rules and conventions of society forced people to live under the radar; they were punishable by death or imprisonment if you were caught.

This isn't an ordinary thriller; if you discount people who meet their end as a result of laws which are deplorable by 21^st century standards, there are no murders. Rather, it's a story which illustrates what counted as criminal behaviour during a certain period of history. In the late 18^th century, loving the wrong person and contravening the rules and conventions of society forced people to live under the radar; they were punishable by death or imprisonment if you were caught.

Kelsey O'Brien doesn't preach. Instead, she creates engaging characters and a credible, and very well portrayed, world for them to live in, and turns their fate into a rattling good story. But the message it carries isn't buried very deep, and it serves as a warning to certain aspects of our own world
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Reviewer: Lynne Patrick 

Kelsey O'Brien is a Paris-based writer who tells stories about intriguing figures and hidden moments from the past. Her fiction, reviews, and travel pieces have appeared in print and online.

Lynne Patrick has been a writer ever since she could pick up a pen, and has enjoyed success with short stories, reviews and feature journalism, but never, alas, with a novel. She crossed to the dark side to become a publisher for a few years and is proud to have launched several careers which are now burgeoning. She lives in Oxfordshire in a house groaning with books, about half of them crime fiction.