‘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.

‘Sherlock Holmes and the Widow’s Key’ by Linda Stratmann

Published by Sapere Books,
31 December 2025.
ISBN: 978-0-85495823-8 (PB)

The story is set in autumn 1878, when Arthur Stamford, the young medical man who preceded Doctor Watson as Sherlock Holmes’ friend and early biographer, has just passed his examinations and is now employed as a junior surgeon at St. Bartholomew’s hospital. This is a welcome change in Stamford’s circumstances, but he is concerned that his heavy workload will mean that he is less able to always assist Holmes’ investigations. Holmes is also moving on with his career and has started to advertise his services as a consulting detective, although, as he is still only twenty-four years old, he is still mainly employed by those who have experienced his talents before, or when he is invited to join Inspector Lestrade in investigating a police case. 

On All Hallows’ Eve, Stamford receives a message from Holmes informing him that the corpse of an elderly woman is due to be delivered to the hospital mortuary because of allegations that she was murdered. Intrigued, Stamford hurries to Holmes’ rooms, where he is introduced to Roderick Ineson, the son of a solicitor who has previously employed Holmes. Roderick Ineson has recently joined his father’s firm and needs Holmes’ assistance regarding the death of a client, Mrs Joan Orless. At first there seems to be little reason to suspect foul play: Mrs Orless was eighty-six, and the doctor had certified that her death was due to heart failure; her will was straightforward, bequeathing her money to an orphanage, and her personal possessions to her maid, Mary Anne Clatterby, who is her niece by marriage. However, at the reading of the will, four gentlemen had turned up and expressed anger and disbelief at the provisions of the will. They claimed that Mrs Orless had promised each of them, individually and confidentially, that she would bequeath them the bulk of her property, including the house she lived in. When the will was read, and it was made clear that the four men were not the beneficiaries, and that the house was rented, the men went to the police and made such a fuss that it had been decided to delay the funeral and do a postmortem to confirm the cause of death. 

Before the postmortem on Mrs Orless, Stamford meets Mary Anne Clatterby, who is anxiously awaiting the results of the medical investigation, and he thinks that she seems honest and truthful, although the time he has spent with Holmes has shown him that appearances can be deceptive. Stamford and Holmes are allowed to attend the postmortem, which is inconclusive. After this, the pair go to help inspect the house where Mrs Orless lived. There is little to interest them in most of the house, and they fail to discover anything that bears out the rumour that Mrs Orless was a wealthy woman. However, they cannot go up into the attic because of a giant wasps’ nest, and there is a possibility that something of value is packed away up there. They also open a locked cupboard that contains the Halloween decorations that Mrs Orless and her husband had used when they held Halloween parties. Mary Anne had been told to leave it locked, because Mrs Orless was afraid of letting rodents into the kitchen, but when Holmes and Stamford enter the cupboard, as well as cardboard skeletons and black wool spiders, they discover the mummified body of a woman. Nobody knows her identity or when she was placed in the cupboard. Various people are requested to examine the mummy, including archaeological experts from the British Museum, who know Holmes and Stamford from earlier investigations, and senior surgeons at the hospital. They all conclude that the mummy is not an ancient one, and that mummification has occurred naturally, which means the death of the victim will require further investigation. 

One of the most pressing needs is to attempt to prepare the mummified body for postmortem. Holmes and Stamford are deeply involved in this: Holmes has the opportunity to develop some innovative new chemical experiments to soften the leathery texture, and again Stamford is allowed to assist with the postmortem. The major question that Holmes and his helpers have to answer, is to establish is the identity of the corpse, and then discover whether she had any involvement with Mrs Orless. As they investigate, the case is complicated by the four gentlemen who had hoped to be Mrs Orless’ heirs, and their foolishly reckless behaviour brings Holmes and Stamford into unexpected danger, as they try to establish whether either or both of the dead women were unlawfully killed. 

Sherlock Holmes and the Widow’s Key is the tenth book in the series featuring the young Sherlock Holmes and his early biographer, Arthur Stamford. It is an excellent addition to a very enjoyable series, with interesting adventures, and superb historical details. Stamford is an engaging narrator, whose modesty and self-deprecating courage makes Holmes more approachable and likeable. This is a very enjoyable read, which I definitely recommend.
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Reviewer: Carol Westron 

Linda Stratmann was born in Leicester in 1948 and first started scribbling stories and poems at the age of six. She became interested in true crime when watching Edgar Lustgarten on TV in the 1950s. Linda attended Wyggeston Girls Grammar School, trained to be a chemist’s dispenser, and later studied at Newcastle University where she obtained a first in Psychology. She then spent 27 years in the civil service before leaving to devote her time to writing. Linda loves spending time in libraries and archives and really enjoys giving talks on her subject.   

www.lindastratmann.com  

Carol Westron is a Golden Age expert who has written many articles on the subject and given papers at several conferences. She is the author of several series: contemporary detective stories and police procedurals, comedy crime and Victorian Murder Mysteries. Her most recent publications are Paddling in the Dead Sea and Delivering Lazarus, books 2 and 3 of the Galmouth Mysteries, the series which began with The Fragility of Poppies. 

www.carolwestron.com 

Mark Billingham Awarded CWA Diamond Dagger

Mark Billingham receives highest accolade in crime writing

Mark Billingham is the 2026 recipient of the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Diamond Dagger, sponsored by Karen Baugh Menuhin.

The award recognises authors whose crime writing careers have been marked by sustained excellence, and who have made a significant contribution to the genre.

One of the UK’s most prominent societies, the CWA was founded in 1953 by John Creasey. The awards started in 1955 with its first award going to Winston Graham, best known for Poldark.

25 years ago, Mark Billingham’s debut novel Sleepyhead became an instant bestseller, launching a prolific career as a novelist.

Born in Birmingham, he worked as an actor and stand-up comedian before becoming a full-time author, best known for playing the role of Gary in the cult children’s TV show, Maid Marian and Her Merry Men. Mark continues to be a regular face and voice on TV and radio.

Sleepyhead introduced Detective Inspector Tom Thorne, leading to a further 18 books in the series, which was adapted to screen by Sky 1 in 2010, starring David Morrissey as Thorne. The latest Thorne book, What the Night Brings, was published in June 2025 - Billingham’s 25th book.

Mark Billingham said: “Presuming this is not an administrative error, I could not be more thrilled or honoured. To be added to a list that features most of my literary heroes is fantastic. That so many are also friends is the icing on the cake and, for me, a mark of how very special the crime-writing community is.”

Recent recipients of the Diamond Dagger include Mick Herron, Lynda La Plante, James Lee Burke, Peter James, Walter Mosley, Lee Child, Lawrence Block, Ian Rankin, Michael Connelly, Lindsey Davis, Andrew Taylor, Martina Cole, Ann Cleeves, Val McDermid, Robert Goddard, Martin Edwards, Catherine Aird and Simon Brett.

Past icons of the genre acknowledged with a Diamond Dagger include Ruth Rendell, PD James, Colin Dexter, Reginald Hill, and
John le Carré.

In 2023, Billingham introduced a new series featuring DS Declan Miller with The Last Dance followed by The Wrong Hands (2024). The third book in the series, The Shadow Step, is due out this year. His stand-alone novels include In the Dark, Die of Shame and Rabbit Hole. A series based on the novels In the Dark and Time of Death
was screened on BBC1 in 2017.

Nadine Matheson, Chair of the CWA, said: “Across a remarkable body of work, Mark has consistently set the bar for contemporary crime fiction, while also being generous with his time and support to emerging writers. His influence on the genre extends far beyond his own novels, shaping the crime writing community as a whole. For his outstanding contribution to crime fiction, his lasting impact on readers and writers alike, and his commitment to the genre, Mark Billingham is a thoroughly deserving recipient of the Diamond Dagger.”

In 2022, Billingham won the CWA’s Dagger in the Library, voted by librarians, for his body of work. He’s also been awarded the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year twice (Lazybones, 2005 and 
Death Message, 2009).

Sponsor of the CWA Diamond Dagger, Karen Baugh Menuhin, said: “As sponsor of the CWA Diamond Dagger, I am thrilled to congratulate Mark Billingham on being chosen as the 2026 recipient of crime fiction's highest honour. His place amongst crime writing royalty is hard won and richly deserved.”

Mark is also a member of the rock band, The Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers, a combo of bestselling crime and thriller writers (Val McDermid, Luca Veste, Doug Johnstone, Stuart Neville, and Chris Brookmyre) who performed at Glastonbury in 2019 and 2024.

The CWA Daggers are now regarded by the publishing world as the foremost British awards for crime-writing. As the oldest awards in the genre, they have been synonymous with quality crime writing for over half a century.

Nominations for the CWA Diamond Dagger are recommended by CWA members. Industry experts then narrow these down to a shortlist. The winner is then voted for by a panel of past Diamond Dagger winners.

The Diamond Dagger, sponsored by Karen Baugh Menuhin, is presented at the annual CWA Dagger Awards, dubbed the ‘Oscars of the crime genre,’ which take place this year on July 2nd.