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Wednesday, 12 February 2025

‘Mrs Hudson and the Capricorn Incident’ by Martin Davies

Published by Allison and Busby,
20 February 2025.
ISBN: 978-0-74903201-2 (HB)

‘Mrs Hudson and the Capricorn Incident’ is the seventh novel in Davies’s Holmes and Hudson series. Sherlock Holmes is kicking his heels with no investigation that meets his demanding requirements on the immediate horizon until the arrival of General Septimus Octavian Nuno Pellinsky, Count of Kosadam, Hereditary Guardian of the Monks of St Stephen and Adjutant General to the House of Capricorn who ‘had almost as many titles on his card as he had brass buttons on his uniform’. As the splendidly-named Flotsam says as she ushers Pellinsky into Holmes’s presence, despite having experience of announcing great people, ‘few of them filled the room in quite the same way as General Pellinsky.’ Flotsam is Holmes’s maid and Mrs Hudson’s sidekick; as well as narrating the story she is in truth the heroine of it.

Pellinsky is the emissary of the Grand Duchy of Rosenau, the stable future of which is vital to peace in the Balkans (there is more than an echo here of the troubles before the outbreak of World War I). The current ruler, Archduke Quintus, is 73 and has no direct heir following the recent death of his younger brother. Although the Archduke is currently in sufficiently rude health to conduct ‘an unfortunate series of scandalous affairs with unsuitable women’, Pellinsky explains that if the Archduke were to die tomorrow it would launch a constitutional crisis which could have potentially serious consequences for the region. His only viable successor is the young Count Rudolph Absberg, but for the Count to be the legitimate heir he must get married within six months of becoming heir apparent. His intended is the beautiful and accomplished Princess Sophia Kubinova. Because of the Archduke’s ability to fall out with anybody and everybody, both Count Rudolph and Princess Sophia have lived most of their lives in exile. The wedding is due to take place in England imminently, but the date has been brought forward. There is only one problem: Count Rudolph has gone missing.

And so starts mayhem. This novel is an absolute joy, and I was so engrossed that for the first time since I started reviewing for Mystery People I realised when I was well into it that I hadn’t made any notes at all. The plot hurtles along with constant twists and turns, but when this is added to the vivid, often comic, characters and the author’s turn of phrase, it is hardly surprising that the story is so entertaining. Holmes, Watson and Mrs Hudson seem relatively staid in comparison with many who make an appearance. There is the Irascible (sic, always upper case) Earl of Brabham who berates all and sundry (‘the Earl’s temper was famous for its generous proportions’); the garrulous and jolly Hetty, Flotsam’s friend, who regrets that she is a woman because that prevents her from horsewhipping a scoundrel on the steps of his club, although she doesn’t shrink from giving us a lengthy verbal treatise on the subject instead; and there are many more. To this one could add, amongst other matters, cross-dressing, a ring that turns up where it shouldn’t, boots by a railway line, another missing person – you get the idea. There is a memorable bicycle ride which brings the novel to a suitably comic conclusion.

Davies’s style is highly entertaining, with improbable and unexplained incidents frequently thrown at us. Here’s an example: ‘He was the magistrate when Viscount Barrowby’s scullery maid was found with the pet weasel and the Aramaic prayer book. He was probably the only magistrate in London who would have believed her story.’ We are not, alas, given the chance to believe it or not. And another: ‘We never cease to give thanks for the help you gave our darling daughter over that affair with the hollyhocks’, not further explained, reminds me of the story of Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe and the Prawns, also never further explained, which tantalises us PG Wodehouse lovers every time it is mentioned. And I’d like to get my hands on the book about eighteenth-century stranglers which Holmes leans his pipe against on the mantelpiece.

The novel is billed as ‘A Holmes and Hudson Mystery’, but they both take a back seat to the immensely likeable, highly intelligent and naively courageous Flotsam. Holmes, indeed, disappears for most of the time to North Wales, even if his shadow is always lurking. If you enjoy humour, a good plot and excellent writing in your crime fiction, I urge you to read this book. I haven’t relished one so much for ages. I’m off to find the other six.....
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Reviewer: David Whittle

Martin Davies grew up in North West England. He has travelled widely, including in the Middle East and India, and his plan for THE CONJUROR'S BIRD was put together on a trekking holiday in Greenland. He lives in South West London and works for the BBC as a producer.

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. He is currently convenor of the East Midlands Chapter of the Crime Writers’ Association.

Sunday, 9 February 2025

‘The Holborn Murders’ by Lynn Brittney

Published by Iris Books,
12 December 2024.
ISBN: 978-1-90714791-3 (PB)

It’s December 1915 and the war that was supposed to be over by Christmas shows no signs of ending.  However, people are trying to make it a special time of year and the London department stores are prepared and hoping for a busy few weeks.  Gamages, the department store in Holborn, is no exception and the seasonal magic show is going ahead.  And the action starts here, when the magician is killed violently in front of his audience.

This is a job for the Mayfair 100 team, a secret group established with the approval of the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police to deal with certain specific crimes.  The members, mainly female amateur detectives, assisted by hand-picked regular policemen, are quickly allocated their roles, with some members actually working in the store.  As they investigate there is another attempted murder, and then the shocking news that a young actress employed at the Holborn Empire has been killed and that one of their colleagues (a senior police officer) is under suspicion.

The team members have been together for long enough to appreciate and value one another’s strengths and skills and to enjoy each other’s company.  This story enables each member to show and develop their own capabilities, whilst coping with their own private, emotional reactions to the ongoing investigation.

This is a neatly plotted, inventive and well-written story.  Gamages provides some novel backdrops and a good supply of useful characters and adds to the atmosphere and sense of place.  The roles of women in society, the disagreements between the various organisations supporting the major causes (eg, votes for women, the temperance movement, jobs for women in a rapidly changing society) fill in the background and inform the plot, which includes some interesting social history.

This is the sixth in the Mayfair 100 series and, though the central characters are well-established, it’s not necessary to have read any the previous books to enjoy it as stand-alone/introduction to the series. 
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Reviewer: Jo Hesslewood
Other books by this author: Murder in Belgravia, A Death in Chelsea, The Body in Berkeley Square, The Corpses at Waterloo, A Killing near Waterloo Stations

Lynn Brittney has fifty-two plays, books (fiction and non-fiction), and foreign translations of her books registered for PLR. She began novel-writing in 2005 and the first book in her Nathan Fox Elizabethan spy trilogy was nominated for the Waterstones and Brandford Boase Prize. In 2016 she created the Mayfair 100 series, set in WW1. There are now five books in the series. 

www.lynnbrittney.com
  

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.

Thursday, 6 February 2025

‘Mystery at the Station Hotel’ by Edward Marston

Published by Allison & Busby,
23 January 2025.
ISBN: 978-0-749030124-4 (HB)

The year is 1866 and at the Station Hotel in Shrewsbury the body is discovered of Julian Lockyer, an important figure in the Great Western Railway. At first it is believed to be suicide, but why would a man expected to be elected as the next Chairman of the Railway kill himself? Plus, the knife used was by his right hand – he was left-handed!

Superintendent Edward Tallis of Scotland Yard dispatches Inspector Robert Colbeck and his Sergeant Victor Leeming to investigate. They have a rather frosty welcome from the local police, who believe they are quite capable of solving the murder themselves, however as things turn out, they really need their help. As Colbeck and Leeming delve more into Lockyer’s life, it becomes clear that he was not the respectable gentleman he would have everyone believe.

A real puzzle is why did he tell friends and family he was going to visit someone he knew in Kent, when he actually went to Shrewsbury? His son Pelham is especially at a lost to understand, and when he finds out is knocked for six.

At the same time, Colbeck’s wife Madeleine, an artist of some repute, has a mystery of her own to unravel. Someone is copying her work and passing themselves off as her. Not only that but one such painting is seen for sale in a shop window. Madeleine is incensed and together with her outraged father Caleb, resolves to find the culprit, leading to a very surprising outcome.

Meanwhile back in Shrewsbury the police wonder if the person responsible for Lockyer’s death is someone jealous of his expected promotion. Colbeck is not too sure, it doesn’t feel right to him.

It soon becomes clear that whoever planned the killing actually hired someone else to do their dirty work for them. If the police can discover who carried out the murder, it will surely lead them to the person behind it all, but this proves more difficult than expected. The local police really do need Colbeck’s expertise now.

Another absorbing book in the Railway Detective series. I have read many of the previous stories and have nothing but praise for the way the author brings to life the times of the days of steam. Highly recommended.
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Reviewer: Tricia Chappell

Edward Marston (A pseudonym used by Keith Miles) was born and brought up in South Wales. A full-time writer for over thirty years, he has worked in radio, film, television and the theatre and is a former chairman of the Crime Writers' Association. Prolific and highly successful, he is equally at home writing children's books or literary criticism, plays or biographies.

www.edwardmarston.com 

Tricia Chappell. I have a great love of books and reading, especially crime and thrillers. I play the occasional game of golf (when I am not reading). My great love is cruising especially to far flung places, when there are long days at sea for plenty more reading! I am really enjoying reviewing books and have found lots of great new authors.

 

Wednesday, 5 February 2025

‘A Wind in the Hebrides’ by Donna Fletcher Crow

Independently Published,
27 November 2024.
ISBN: 979-830145321-2

‘A Wind in the Hebrides’ is the seventh novel in ‘The Monastery Murders’ series, and features Felicity Sherwood and her husband Father Antony Sherwood, a priest in the Church of England and a lecturer in church history. The latter has been asked to lead a course on Iona which will study Saint Columba, and Felicity, a former student of Father Antony, needs to prepare a lecture she has agreed to give at the AGM of the association of Spiritual Directors. Given that her theme is spiritual awakening, Felicity must research the so-called Lewis Awakening of the post-Second World War years. This was a religious movement whose fervour gripped the outer Hebridean island and led to packed meetings in churches and halls.

Antony and Felicity, accompanied by their five-year-old son Teddy (who plays an important role in the story) go to Iona, via Glasgow where they stay with old friends, one of whom lends Felicity a manuscript of a relative’s story of the Awakening. During her brief stay on Iona, Felicity is convinced that she has seen a body, but as she was in a dangerous position leaning over a cliff to rescue a prized possession of Teddy, she gets only a glimpse. Subsequent investigations by the authorities find no body.

Before long Felicity and Teddy are on their way to Lewis. Between her own researches Felicity reads the manuscript she has been loaned. It was written in 1949 by a young lady from Lewis called Aileana Mackay who appears to be on the verge of a breakthrough in her singing career in Glasgow when she is told her parents are very ill, if not on the verge of death, on her native island. Much against her will Aileana races to Lewis to find that there is nothing wrong with them apart from what was probably a bad attack of food poisoning. However, Aileana’s return throws her into a number of affairs, the maelstrom of the Awakening being one. Her sister’s boyfriend Euan has gone missing. It seems he has led a far from spotless life, and suggestions of wartime dodgy dealings – not only concerning Euan - hang in the air. As Aileana’s story reaches a climax, old relationships come into play. Who can she believe?

Felicity’s own researches on Lewis lead her into an apparently parallel situation. A yacht belonging to one of Antony’s students is seen a few times. What is it doing there when its owner is on Iona? Somebody she is convinced she saw on Iona reappears on Lewis. Who is he? Reports in the press about ‘dodgy diesel’ causing traffic accidents give more credence to her suspicions. Is Lewis a centre for illegal importing? More to the point, are she and Teddy in danger? As her story and suspicions grow, Felicity (like Aileana 70 years before) has to decide who she can trust.

The novel is a slow-burner, with plenty of background before matters come to a head. It is not only Aileana and Felicity who don’t know who to trust, as you will find out. The resolution to both stories is well-handled and convincing, with good plot twists (particularly in Felicity’s tale) that you may or may not foresee.
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Reviewer: David Whittle 

Donna Fletcher Crow is a former English teacher and a Life Member of the Jane Austin Society of America. She is the author of 50 books, mostly novels dealing with British history.  The award-winning Glastonbury, A Novel of the Holy Grail, an Arthurian grail search epic covering 15 centuries of English history, is her best-known work.  She is also the author of The Monastery Murders: A Very Private Grave, A Darkly Hidden Truth and An Unholy Communion as well as the Lord Danvers series of Victorian true-crime novels and the literary suspense series The Elizabeth & Richard Mysteries. Donna and her husband live in Boise, Idaho.  They have 4 adult children and 12 grandchildren. She is an enthusiastic gardener.

To read more about all of Donna’s books and see pictures from her garden and research trips go to: http://www.donnafletchercrow.com/ 
You can follow her on Facebook at: http://ning.it/OHi0MY

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. He is currently convenor of the East Midlands Chapter of the Crime Writers’ Association.

Tuesday, 4 February 2025

Coming Soon: 'A Scandal Has Wings' by Graham Donnelly

 
Published The Book Guild Ltd
28 February 2025

In the mid-1970s, a rapidly growing college becomes a playground where young lecturers, barely older than their students, balance ambition with maturity. The competitive atmosphere, marked by jealousy and corruption, blurs the lines between innocent play and darker rivalries.

Lecturers, seen as professionals with full control over their classrooms, usually uphold their responsibilities. However, one day, indulgence and recklessness lead to a situation spiralling out of control, putting two lives at risk. The identities of those in danger and those who have endangered them remain a mystery, until two lecturers, the eager Gillian and the hesitant Roger, embark on solving it, leading to a scandal that will affect the futures of both lecturers and students, guilty and innocent alike.


Graham Donnelly was born in Homerton, London. He holds an Economics degree from the University of London and has a professional background in government service, banking, and lecturing in economics, politics, and management. While lecturing, he published several economics books. His novels reflect his deep interest in political and socio-economic history, a passion shaped by his varied career and academic pursuits. He now lives with his wife in Essex

Coming Soon: 'The East Ham Golem' by Barbara Nadel


Published by Allison & Busby,
20 February 2025. 

Book 9 in the Hakim & Arnold series 

The streets of East London are alive with different languages, cultures and religions. Private investigators Lee Arnold and Mumtaz Hakim are well-versed in the community’s tensions, the sad day-to-day reality that includes the desecration of graves at Plashet Jewish cemetery in East Ham. 

The vandalism of these final resting places leads to a disturbing discovery: one of the damaged coffins does not contain human remains but instead a sculpture of a man made of clay. This so-called ‘golem’, a term from Jewish myth given to a figure brought to life by supernatural means, proves intriguing to Arnold and Hakim, even more so when it is stolen from a police storage facility in an armed raid. 

The case leads the pair deep into London’s past and its connections to wartime Prague, and onto the trail of a priceless jewel worth killing for.


Barbara Nadel
was born and brought up in the East End of London. She has a degree in psychology and, prior to becoming a full-time author, she worked in psychiatric institutions and in the community with people experiencing mental health problems. She is also the author of the award-winning Inspector Ikmen series and received the Crime Writers' Association Silver Dagger for the seventh novel in the series Deadly Web. There are now 24 books in the series. She is also the author of the award-winning Inspector Ikem series now adapted by the BBC as The Turkish Detective.
Barbara now lives in Essex.

Coming Soon: 'The First Husband' by Elisabeth Carpenter

Published by Bookouture, 31st January 2025.

I thought he was dead. I thought I was safe. Was I wrong?
In two days’ time, I’m getting married again. It’s bittersweet, after everything that happened. But when I look at my cheeky son and his loving, handsome father, I know I’m doing the right thing in moving on.
Then a card comes through the letterbox:
Two days to go. I can’t wait to see you. I’ve missed you so much. All my love, Callum.
Callum was my first husband. He disappeared eight years ago, leaving only secrets and pain behind. He’s dead.
But as my friends and family gather for my big day – all the same people who were there the night Callum vanished – my fear grows. Things go horribly wrong with the wedding plans. And then an anonymous note threatens my son.
Is someone playing a cruel joke, or is Callum really back? I have two days to find out who’s doing this to me… and learn the truth about what happened all those years ago.
Because I will do anything to protect my son. Even if it means destroying my life…

 

Elisabeth Carpenter lives in Preston with her family. She completed a BA in English Literature and Language with the Open University in 2008. Elisabeth was awarded a Northern Writers’ New Fiction award and was longlisted for Yeovil Literary Prize (2015 and 2016) and the MsLexia Women’s Novel award (2015). She loves living in the north of England and sets most of her stories in the area, including the novel she is writing at the moment. She currently works as a bookkeeper. 

https://elisabethcarpenter.co.uk

Tuesday, 28 January 2025

‘The Antique Store Detective and the May Day Murder’ by Clare Chase

Published by Bookuture,
14 January 2025.
ISBN:
978-1-83525-289-5 (PB)

The friendly but efficient village bobby is a dying breed these days – but who needs him when you’ve got Bella Winter, antiques dealer and part-time detective, and a whole posse of her friends to hunt down the local criminal fraternity? Who was it who said it takes a village to solve a crime?

Not only hunt them down; Bella’s detecting skills are so sharply honed that she can spot a murder even when the coroner’s verdict is a firm Natural Causes. The advantage, of course, is that the police – the real police, based in a large town miles away – are happy to leave her to it. The disadvantage is that she can’t tap into their information sources. Except she can, since she has a convenient godfather who happens to be a retired cop.  

To begin at the beginning. During a traditional May Day Walk, Bella and her friends see a local ne’er-do-well leave a little doll stuck with pins beside a sacred well. It’s done up to resemble Mary Roberts, highly efficient school secretary and the ne’er-do-well’s nemesis – and Mary’s lifeless body is discovered a few hours later. The verdict is a heart attack, but Bella doesn’t believe it. Despite the police’s best efforts, she determinedly believes Mary was scared to death. There are plenty of suspects, so she sets out to prove one of them guilty.

The investigation which follows is littered with eccentric characters on both sides. To name just a handful: on the side of the angels is Bella herself, well known in the vicinity for her vintage dress sense. She’s very much her father’s daughter; Dad was the last village copper, both popular and perceptive. Jeannie the pub landlady, large, loud and matriarch to a large family of sons, knows everyone in town. Opal, the mysterious woman of the woods, lives mainly in the shadows. On the darker side there’s Noah, teenage tearaway with a grudge against the victim. Shane, her ex-husband, still stings from the public humiliation Mary delivered when she caught him in flagrante. Adrian, the local headmaster, has far too high an opinion of himself.

There’s plenty of local colour in the form of feuds, traditions and pretty buildings, all of which contribute to a strong sense of community. The May Day murder is already the second case for Bella to investigate; no doubt there will be more, and yet another pretty semi-rural area will become a dangerous place to visit. Long may it continue so!
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Reviewer: Lynne Patrick

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

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.

‘A Knot of Sparrows’ by Cheryl Rees-Price

Published by The book Folks,
1 March 2021.
ISBN: 978-1-91351657-1 (PB)

The fourth book in this series story opens with the return of DI Winter Meadows back from a three-week holiday. He is called to the death of a young girl, one Stacey Evans. Her death was violent, but as he learns more about her, he realises that she was a distinctly unpleasant character, a bully and many other things besides. But did she deserve to be murdered?

As DI Winter Meadows investigates those around her, he comes to realise that there are many people who will not mourn Stacy Evans.  Meanwhile he also has a missing doctor to find. One who has just simply disappeared taking nothing with him.

Adding to his case load are the deaths of Ryan Phillips and his mother, who both burned to death in their home. The people in the Welsh village of Gaer Fawr seem strangely silent on the subject. But Winter Meadows had encountered Ryan Phillips in an earlier investigation, and he was not a nice character,

Struggling to pierce the secrecy surrounding Stacey Evans busy love life, he ponders, was the killer one of her pursuers acting out of jealousy? Or maybe someone’s wife seeking revenge?

Then another body is found.

And so, we meet again Winter Meadows and his DC Tristan Edris, along with DC Valentine and DS Blackwell, who in earlier books seemed rather unpleasant but he is growing on me.

This is an incredible read. I couldn’t get my head around it.  If you are looking for a book with an amazing ending, this one is for you. Highly recommended.
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Reviewer: Lizzie Sirett

Cheryl Rees-Price was born in Cardiff and moved as a young child to a small village on the edge of The Black Mountain, South Wales, where she still lives with her husband and three cats. After leaving school she worked as a legal clerk for several years before leaving to raise her two daughters. Cheryl returned to education, studying philosophy, sociology, and accountancy whilst working as a part time bookkeeper. She now works as a finance director for a company that delivers project management and accounting services. In her spare time Cheryl indulges in her passion for writing. Her other hobbies include walking and gardening which free her mind to develop plots and create colourful characters.

Monday, 27 January 2025

‘Suffer The Children’ by Cheryl Rees-Price

Published by The Book Folks,
5 October 2020.
ISBN: 978-1-91351657-1 (PB)

When Natalie Benyon awakes following a wild party with her friends Claire, Dan and Jamie she discovers that her eighteen-month-old baby Ella is missing. The police immediately organise a search of the  surrounding country area and the Welsh village of Bryn Mawr..  

DI Winter Meadows and his DC Tristan Edris focus on the family, and it becomes apparent that Natalie’s lifestyle of drinking and drugs is somewhat precarious for her young child. Unable to ascertain any details of the party as Natalie has no memory of the evening but says that the front door was open when she awoke. The police have two possibilities to pursue. Did Ella leave the house under her own steam, or has she been abducted?

All the usual lines of investigation are pursued. Has Natalie’s ex-husband Dylan Lewis taken the child?  To further confuse the situation, when questioned Natalie’s next door neighbour, George, says he saw Natalie get into a car at 2am!

Drawing complete blanks on their lines of investigation, they look to the house and a search of the garden reveals the skeleton of a small child, maybe three months old and which the pathologist Daisy Moor says has laid there for possibly more than 20 years. And so, DI Meadows now has two cases to solve, one missing child and one murdered child.

The following investigation is fascinating as the team including surly DS Blackwell and DC Valentine seek to trace all the people who have lived in the house in the last twenty years.  Some undertaking.

This is the third book I have read in this series and whilst nothing is given away, I liked the conversation at the beginning of this book and the second in the series relating to the previous investigations. I emphasise that nothing is given way, it just tidies it.  

A compelling and intriguing story, that will keep you turning the pages. I couldn’t put this book down until I had finished it. Highly recommended.
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Reviewer: Lizzie Sirett

Cheryl Rees-Price was born in Cardiff and moved as a young child to a small village on the edge of The Black Mountain, South Wales, where she still lives with her husband and three cats. After leaving school she worked as a legal clerk for several years before leaving to raise her two daughters. Cheryl returned to education, studying philosophy, sociology, and accountancy whilst working as a part time bookkeeper. She now works as a finance director for a company that delivers project management and accounting services. In her spare time Cheryl indulges in her passion for writing. Her other hobbies include walking and gardening which free her mind to develop plots and create colourful characters.