‘The Man’ by Laura Sims

Published by Verve Books,
23 July 2026.
ISBN: 978-0-85730950-1 (PB)

Before you open this book, switch off your phone, lock your door and set the TV to record, because once you have started you won’t want to put it down. 

This fast-paced psychological thriller tells the story of Judith Stanley.  She is a middle-aged housewife, looking for hobbies to fill her time now that her son has left home.  She decides to hone her photography skills and enrols on a course with Professor Paul Sorensen. 

The book starts with a poignant view through Judith’s lens as she photographs random people at the annual Columbus Day parade.  She has the rare gift of exposing the hidden depths of her subjects’ personalities through her perfectly framed shots, and her work is arresting. The reader learns that there is pain and trauma in her past, which she skilfully reveals on the faces of others in her devastating portrait shots. 

Paul Sorensen is more or less paying lip-service to his job.  He knows that most of his students are only there to earn an easy grade. Few, if any, will become professional photographers. When he sees the quality and artistry of Judith’s work he is stunned.  He pleads with her to publish and exhibit, but she steadfastly refuses. She does not want to share her photographs with anyone. 

What she tells no-one is that in the background of her self-portrait shots there is always a man, lurking and watching. She fears this is the same man who caused her terrible pain and trauma as a child. How has he found her?  How is he managing to stalk her wherever she goes, and whatever she does? 

The story becomes darker as it twists the lives of Judith and Paul together in shocking and unexpected ways.

Fans of authors such as Harlan Coben and Ruth Ware should enjoy this intricate and well-written story.
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Reviewer:  Jane Andreoli 

Laura Sims's previous novels How Can I Help You and Looker have been featured on Best Books lists in the New York Times Book Review, Vogue, People, Entertainment Weekly, Real Simple, Publishers Weekly and more. An award-winning poet, Sims has published four poetry collections; her essays and poems have appeared in the New Republic, Boston Review, LitHub and Electric Lit. She lives in New Jersey, where she works part-time as a children's librarian.  

Jane Andreoli. I have been in love with words ever since her mother read her bedtime stories before I could read for myself. As a writer, I enjoy creating mysteries with twists in their tails, and I love a well-crafted plot. My literary heroes are Jane Austen for her superb social observations, Shakespeare for the amazing way he crunched the English language into new shapes to express his emotions, Margery Allingham for her satisfyingly convoluted plots and Phil Rickman for his masterful command of supernatural atmosphere.  I also love Douglas Adams and Sir Terry Pratchett for their humour, satire, and social commentary. I have an honours degree in English, but fortunately that was so long ago that I have forgotten all those pretensions and rediscovered the joy of creative writing.  I am now a published author, currently working on my next book. I have just reached that delicious stage where the characters become autonomous and start making their own decisions.  Anything could happen and probably will

‘Die Trying’ by Eleanor Barker-White

Published by HarperNorth,
26 March 2026.
ISBN: ‏978-0-00858697-3 (PB)

Die Trying is Eleanor Barker-White’s second book. Her much-praised debut appeared nearly two years ago, in February 2026. That novel, My Name Was Eden, is a thriller about a girl called Eden who survives a potentially fatal drowning accident with no apparent harm apart from an abrupt personality transformation. Eden’s mother, Lucy, finds it disturbing that her daughter now prefers to call herself Eli, the name she had given Eden’s unborn twin sister. Lucy also puzzles on how her daughter is now calm and rational whereas Eden had been notably wild and maddening. Can it be that the child who survived drowning is Eli rather than Eden? 

Die Trying also features suspenseful psychological conundrums with elements of the supernatural. Barker-White specializes in producing stories about messy family relationships that are predictable but presented and resolved in a fashion that is startling in its originality. In her second novel, she paints a convincing portrait of Adam and Jemma, a mismatched pair, parents of a toddler named Toby. The two alternate in telling the story through their own viewpoints. Adam is responsible and hardworking, someone very good at numbers, employed as a network analyst for a wealth management firm. His wife Jemma is his complete opposite. A woman who has trained in sports massage, she engages in spontaneous behavior, radiates confidence, and prioritizes her needs above those of anyone else. Adam’s painful past—a lonely peripatetic childhood with his parents, ending in his living alone with his mother when his father deserts them for an attractive young woman—means he dotes on his wife and son and relies on them for happiness and stability. But Jemma soon tires of her husband’s neediness and predictability, cheats on him with another man, and asks Adam to leave the family home and rent a drab little bedsit.  

Luck, fortune, fate, chance: all these factors come into play in this tawdry family drama through the presence of a solid glass die, three times larger than usual, that Adam’s mother had chanced upon many years earlier in a charity shop where she worked. It is a die that seems to possess magical powers, to control those who roll it seeking answers, making decisions on their behalf they must obey. The die mirrors the world of Die Trying in which characters are puppets of destiny, the victims of karma, with any sense of their being able to exert individual will an illusion. When Adam uses his die in a wellness podcast he begins with Will, an old friend, he finds his life taking a direction he never could have predicted let alone chosen for himself. 

Like My Name Was Eden, Die Trying raises more questions than it answers, but it is none the worse for that, admirable in provoking speculation and inspiring thought. 

Highly recommended.
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Reviewer: Wendy Jones Nakanishi/aka Lea O’Harra.  

Eleanor Barker-White holds an MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa university. In 2017, she was shortlisted for the Janklow and Nesbit Prize and has had a number of short stories published in Best of British and The People's Friend magazines. She has previously worked with children and families in family courts, His Majesty's Prison service, and children's charities, and remains fascinated by the endless capacity for human resilience. She was born and raised in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, but now lives in Wiltshire with her husband and four children. My Name Was Eden is her first novel. 

Lea O’Harra.  An American by birth, did her postgraduate work in Britain – an MA in Lancaster and a doctorate at Edinburgh – and worked full-time for 36 years at a Japanese university. Since retiring in March 2020, she has spent part of each year in Lancaster and part in Takamatsu on Shikoku Island, her second home, with occasional visits to the States to see family and friends. An avid reader of crime fiction since childhood, as a university professor she wrote academic articles on it as a literary genre and then decided to try her hand at composing such stories herself, publishing the so-called ‘Inspector Inoue mystery series’ comprising four murder mysteries set in rural, contemporary Japan. She has also published two standalone crime fiction novels.  

Lea O'Harra – Mystery writer 

‘Into the Badlands’ by John L. Williams

Published by Oldcastle Books,
16 April 2026.
ISBN: 978-0-85730626-5 (PB)

Back in 1991, as John L. Williams, writes in his introduction to this 2025 reissue, crime writing was seen as a disreputable backwater, ‘a lawless place where writers could do what they liked as long as they remembered to include a plot and a murder or two.’ As a huge fan of American crime, he decided to do a tour of the places used in the novels of writers like George V. Higgins, Ellmore Leonard and many others, and interview as many of them as he could. The result is this riotous, atmospheric snapshot of American crime writers and crime places. 

He  starts off the south-east, in Miami, where he stays in a crack-dealers hotel on South Beach, interviews Carl Hiaasen and James Hall, and eyeballs a ‘gator in the Everglades. Next up is Southern Louisiana, where he goes searching for zydeco music at an unpleasantly racist American fair and a downtown bar in Opelousas, and is treated with generous hospitality by James Lee Burke. He meets Tony Hillmore in Alburquerque, New Mexico, and is sent by him to Isleta Pueblo, authentic Indigenous American country. In Los Angeles he recalls meeting James Ellroy, drives down Sunset Boulevard and interviews Black writer Gar Haywood. Continuing up the Pacific coast to San Francisco, he asks genuine PI turned novelist Joe Gores about writing the script for Hammett and using real cases in his novels, and misses the up-and-coming Sue Grafton, still only at F is for Fugitive, who’s busy being photographed for People magazine. In Missoula, Montana, he gets very drunk with Joe Crumley and Police Officer Bob Reid and meets Denis Macmillan; in Chicago he’s driven round by Sara Paretsky and meets Eugene Izzi. Detroit is Elmore Leonard, Boston is George V Higgins, New York is Joseph Koenig, Nick Tosches and Andrew Vachss. This lightly-revised edition ends with an interview with John L. Williams by David Peace, reflecting on how things have changed.

My one gripe is that my American geography is hazy, and I’d really have loved a map. 

This fascinating book is a crime must-read. Williams is a sympathetic journalist who gets the best out of even the most interview-weary writer, his place descriptions are are so vivid you can see the mean streets he’s driving down (’Lock your car door,’ Andrew Vaschss insisted, as they visited the less salubrious parts of New York), and some of the antics he gets up to with the writers he’s in theory interviewing are downright hilarious. They come across as a great bunch. The book ends with a selection of the books of each of the authors he met, which is good for trying out new authors. Highly recommended – I loved it.
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Reviewer: Marsali Taylor 

John L Williams was born in Cardiff and now lives in London. He's written more than a dozen books, ranging from his Cardiff Trilogy of novels to biographies of characters as diverse as Michael X and Shirley Bassey. His latest book, Heatwave, is a history of the long, hot summer of 1976. He also writes crime fiction under the name John Lincoln. His journalism has appeared everywhere from the NME to the Financial Times. He co-organises the riotous Laugharne Weekend festival in West Wales. 

Marsali Taylor grew up near Edinburgh and came to Shetland as a newly-qualified teacher. She is currently a part-time teacher on Shetland's scenic west side, living with her husband and two Shetland ponies. Marsali is a qualified STGA tourist-guide who is fascinated by history, and has published plays in Shetland's distinctive dialect, as well as a history of women's suffrage in Shetland. She's also a keen sailor who enjoys exploring in her own 8m yacht, and an active member of her local drama group.   

Click on the title to read a review of her recent book
Death in a Shetland Family

www.marsalitaylor.co.uk

‘The Crossroads’ by C.J. Box

Published by Head of Zeus,
5 March 2026.
ISBN: 978-1-0359881--2 (HB).

Joe Pickett, Montana Game and Fish Warden, has been shot in the head while out on his rounds in his pick-up. While doctors fight to save his life, with his wife Maybeth waiting anxiously in the hospital, the local Sheriff and Joe’s three daughters try to find out who his assailants were, before they try to finish the job. 

I’m not sure how well-known C J Box is in the UK. I’d not come across him before having the pleasure of hearing him as the National Guest of Honour at Bouchercon, Toronto, 2017 – a big, expansive personality with a soft drawl and a Stetson. This book, the 16^th in the Joe Pickett series, clearly shows why he’s such a favourite with readers: great characters, a vivid sense of place and page-turning plotting. There are frequent backward glances to earlier books, but no spoilers and their backstories add a sense of reality to the characters. 

The three-strand plot is deftly woven. There’s Joe and Marybeth’s presence, in the hospital; there are chapters of Joe’s recent past, showing his activities in the days before the ambush, and there’s the investigation by his three redoubtable daughters: Sheridan, who’s the manager of a bird abatement firm, and who’s attracted to the new Sheriff, Steve Sondergard, spiky April, now working as a PI, and Lucy, just returned to University after a semester in France. They divvy up the suspects between them, the owners of the three ranches whose roads branch off from the crossroads of the ambush, and a suspicious bunch they are too. Sheridan draws the Bucholz Cattle Company, where she spots John and Shelby Bucholz with digging trucks and finds John’s Uncle Hank imprisoned. Lucy heads for the Double Diamond Ranch, and its rich, unpleasant owner, Michael Thompson, recently involved in financial scandals. April draws the McElwee sisters, Lisa and Lainie, a pair of hard-bitten ranchers who’ve been behind several scams. Naturally there’s trouble a-plenty before the final, satisfying conclusion. 

A huge treat for Joe Pickett’s many fans, and an excellent taster for new readers. If you want to go back to the beginning, the first novel in the series is Open Season.
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Reviewer: Marsali Taylor

C J Box is a Wyoming native and has worked as a ranch hand, surveyor, fishing guide, a small town newspaper reporter and editor, and he owned an international tourism marketing firm with his wife Laurie. In 2008, Box was awarded the "BIG WYO" Award from the state tourism industry. An avid outdoorsman, Box has hunted, fished, hiked, ridden, and skied throughout Wyoming and the Mountain West. He served on the Board of Directors for the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo. They have three daughters. He lives in Wyoming.

Marsali Taylor grew up near Edinburgh and came to Shetland as a newly-qualified teacher. She is currently a part-time teacher on Shetland's scenic west side, living with her husband and two Shetland ponies. Marsali is a qualified STGA tourist-guide who is fascinated by history, and has published plays in Shetland's distinctive dialect, as well as a history of women's suffrage in Shetland. She's also a keen sailor who enjoys exploring in her own 8m yacht, and an active member of her local drama group.  

Click on the title to read a review of her recent book
Death in a Shetland Family

www.marsalitaylor.co.uk 

Bloody Scotland Newsletter Six Weeks to Go

Hello! Can you believe it's only six weeks now until we return to beautiful Stirling to celebrate the very best of crime fiction? Excitement levels are hitting fever pitch here at Bloody Scotland HQ. To help us  countdown the days and prepare for our beloved festival, we're switching over to weekly newsletters. 

In this edition we've got an exciting announcement about a brand new digital event on offer. We'll also be announcing the winners of our book giveaway and advising you on ways in which you can travel sustainably to Bloody Scotland this year. 

First Time Visitors to Scotland.

Our Guest Programmer, Denise Mina with this year's programme.

At Bloody Scotland, we're committed to programming the best crime fiction events possible for you every year, and that includes authors who haven't visited the festival previously. This year our team and Guest Programmer, Denise Mina, have invited 50 authors who are completely new to Bloody Scotland: including: AE Goldin, Foluso Agbaje, Kristen Perrin, Edel Coffey, Michael Wood, Andi Osho and Ørjan Karlsson. 

We hope you'll join us in giving them a very warm welcome to Stirling.

Stop Press!
Dept Q Available to Watch Digitally

We are absolutely thrilled to tell you that our Dept Q event will now be available to watch digitally! If you can't make it along to Stirling to see the stellar cast of the hit Netflix series storm the Albert Halls stage, you'll now be able to do it from the comfort of your home instead. 

Joining us will be showrunner Scott Frank and stars Matthew Goode (DCI Carl Morck), Kate Dickie (Chief Superintendent Moira Jacobson), Alexej Manvelov (Akram Salim) and Leah Byrne (DC Rose Dickson) . Together, they will discuss how the show has achieved such cult status amongst fans and reveal behind-the-scenes secrets as they take a break from filming Series 2. This is definitely not to be missed!

All of Bloody Scotland's Digital Events are available to watch live as they happen and then also on catch up until the end of September 2026. You can purchase a digital pass to watch all 17 events for £60.75 or purchase digital events singly for £6.75 each.

To view all of our Digital Events, visit:
https://bloodyscotland.com/whats-on/
and search for the term 'online' in the search box.

To give you a flavour of our other offerings, we've picked out three of our favourite 2026 online events below. 

Denise Mina presents Lee Child (online)

Streamed live on 18th of September at 6.45pm
 and available on catch up until the 30th of September.

Just because the in-person event for Lee Child is sold out, doesn't mean you can't get your Reacher fix!

We welcome back a legend of the genre and the creator of possibly the most iconic protagonist in thriller fiction. Lee Child has many imitators, but he and Jack Reacher remain the gold standard to which they all aspire. Travelling with just the clothes on his back and a toothbrush, Reacher is a hero for the ages.

Over the course of 30 pulsating novels, Lee has sold an incredible 100 million books which have been adapted into two movies starring Tom Cruise and a hit TV series. He will look back on an extraordinary career with guest programmer Denise Mina.

Denise Mina Presents Lee Chiild (online)

In Conversation: Chris Brookmyre & Abir Mukherjee (Online)

Streamed live on Friday 18th September - 1.30pm
and available on catch up until the 30th of September.

Grab your ticket for an unmissable hour in the company of two of Scotland’s finest crime writers.

It is 30 years since crime fiction’s most infamous mantlepiece featured in Chris Brookmyre’s debut novel Quite Ugly One Morning. Now, three
decades later his irrepressible investigative journalist Jack Parlabane
returns in the ingenious Quite Ugly One Evening. Abir Mukherjee follows his award-winning bestseller Hunted with the equally action-packed and thought-provoking thriller The Pinnacle which sees murder strike on the 65th floor of Mumbai’s grandest luxury skyscraper. Chris and Abir will be chaired by broadcaster Nicola Meighan.

Chris Brookmyre & Abir Mukherjee (Online)

Denise Mina presents Jane Harper
& Jane Casey (online)

Streamed live on Saturday 19th September - 3.00pm
and available on catch up until the 30th of September.

It’s a case of Double Jane-pardy (sorry!) as two fabulous storytellers
from opposite ends of the world get together to discuss their work.

Jane Harper is the queen of rural Australian noir and an international
bestseller. Her global smash The Dry was made into a major movie. Jane’s new novel, Last One Out, is a deeply atmospheric small town mystery.  Jane Casey is a number one bestseller but Everything She Didn’t Say is her first book set in her native Ireland. It’s a riveting mystery about female friendship, betrayal and survival. Jane and Jane will be interviewed by Denise Mina.

Book Jane Harper & Jane Casey (0nline)

Announcing the Winners of our
The Hollow Boys Giveaway

We're delighted to announce the winners of our recent book giveaway to win a copy of Tariq Ashkanani's thrilling book The Hollow Boys. Congratulations to: Lesley Mcauliffe, Mary Macdonald, Amanda Newall, Periklis Theologidis and Ken Mounser. Happy reading! 

Bloody Scotland 2026 Whisky

We wanted to do something special to mark our 2026 festival and thankfully our pals at Fib Whisky had just the thing in mind. Fib has created the official dram for this year's Bloody Scotland for the second year running, with a limited edition bottling created especially for us. Drawn from a single Oloroso sherry barrique and bottled at natural cask strength, this whisky is completely unfiltered - just as nature intended.

There are only 100 bottles to be had - so if you'd like some, you'd better quick. 

Find out more about our Bloody Scotland whisky and pre-order your bottle below.
 Over 18s only. Please drink responsibly. 

Bloody Scotland 2026 Whisky

Go Green for Bloody Scotland,

This year at Bloody Scotland, we're asking our festival goers to paint the town green instead of our usual red! Bloody Scotland is committed to being part of a greener arts sector, and we'd love it if you could help us by getting to the festival using a sustainable form of travel.

All of our venues are 10 minutes walk or less from Stirling's railway and bus stations, so why not leave the car at home and travel sustainably instead? Stirling is only 35 minutes from Glasgow and 50 minutes from Edinburgh by train. Train operator Lumo has also now launched a direct London Euston to Stirling service. You can find out more information about the service over at: lumo.co.uk

That's all from us this issue. See you back here next week.
For more information about Bloody Scotland and to view our upcoming events, visit: www.bloodyscotland.com

‘The Trad Wife’ by Carrie Hughes

Published by Hera,
7 May 2026. 
ISBN: 978-1-83598354-6 (PB)

Melissa Fairbrock was born in England but now lives in a small New York City apartment where she is bringing up her young daughter, Willow.  The thirty-year old professional works as a content creator and is good at her job but is beginning to find juggling parental and work responsibilities exhausting.  She would like bigger accommodation for her growing child and has recently begun to feel under pressure from her younger, competitive colleagues.  These tensions are further compounded by Melissa’s obsession with the online videos posted by self-confessed TradWife Faith Everson. 

Faith’s slick posts from The Lavender Ranch ooze with joy and celebrate the family life she shares with handsome husband Marty and their six children.  Her videos stand in stark contrast to Melissa’s far less polished, but painfully honest, podcasts, Mom’s Real Tea, which focus on the challenges of life as a single parent holding down a pressurised job.  The Lavender Ranch is part of a Mormon community in Utah and, whilst Melissa is disdainful of the TradWife subculture, she admires the quality of Faith’s online output.  She would love to have a similarly successful online presence and, gradually, finds herself yearning for the simplicity and peace the influencer promises.  

Prompted by more difficulties at work, Melissa decides to see whether Lavender Ranch is for real; she contacts Faith and asks whether she will be willing to be a subject in one of her podcasts.  When Faith agrees, mother and daughter set off for a visit including overnight accommodation within the community.  Melissa’s decision has profound consequences for both her and Willow, and it’s one she will quickly regret. 

Melissa’s internal monologue explores the difficulties she experiences as a young woman in a world of ever-changing norms and expectations.  It’s easy to empathise with her desire to step off the relentlessly accelerating treadmill that seems to characterise our second millennium, and easy to see how turning back time might not be a bad thing.  But, as L.P. Hartley reminds us, “The past is a foreign country…” a truism that becomes apparent when a second, malevolent, voice begins punctuates Melissa’s narrative.  The author uses this technique sparingly, which adds to the tension it creates. 

This is a thoroughly modern novel and explores the dangers inherent in social media.  The writer perfectly captures the language and mindset of cyberspace which, as we now know, can be both deceptive and dangerous as well as addictive.  Melissa’s desire to explore a lifestyle of which she is deeply suspicious is understandable, the decision to take her daughter along is indefensible. 

Crisply written, carefully plotted and terrifyingly relevant – a great read and recommended.
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Reviewer: Dot Marshall-Gent

Carrie Hughes lives in West Sussex, where she is a copywriter and guest lecturer in creative writing. She can often be found dreaming up stories, communing with dogs and visiting the dark side. She is the author of The Trad Wife and The Woman from Bookclub.

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.  

‘Faculty of Liars’ by R L Heber

Published by Point Blank,
6 August 2026.
ISBN: 978-1-83643-177-0 (PB0)

Elizabeth Harker is in love – and not with her husband. She and her lover have taken great care to cover their tracks, and when it's announced that her husband will be the next president of the prestigious American university they all work for, she decides to end the relationship despite her feelings. 

Then her lover is brutally murdered, and Elizabeth begins to wonder if she is in some way responsible. She is desperate to hide her grief and give nothing away, since it is made very clear that protecting the university's reputation is of paramount importance. But something is going on under the surface. At first, she has no more than vague suspicions, but gradually she begins to piece together shreds of information. 

The novel's great strength lies in the way the various characters are depicted. Jeff, Elizabeth's husband, is immersed in his new role, and keen that she should become as involved as possible on a social and practical level – or is he just trying to keep her occupied? Lavinia, a moving force in the governing body, is kind, but has a wily side. Lieutenant Newton, who is running the murder investigation, doesn't seem to be getting anywhere – but social media posts appear which subtly suggest a link between Elizabeth and the murder, then disappear just as quickly. And holding all the reins is Abraham, the university's communications manager, and it soon becomes clear that he knows far more than he is telling, and is a master manipulator, both of people and of information. Even Nicola, her dead lover's ex-wife, is absorbed into the university's elite very quickly. Elizabeth slowly starts to question who she can trust. 

The carefully controlled and slightly claustrophobic environment of the university comes across loud and clear. The image is everything, and unearthing threats to it can only be dangerous. Nevertheless, Elizabeth unearths enough to make her keep on digging, even when it puts her husband's position and her own at risk. 

Why was Elizabeth's lover murdered? Was it because of their affair, or was there some other reason? She has no family nearby, and none to speak of elsewhere; is there anyone she can trust enough to confide in? When secrets finally emerge and she puts together the full picture, what will she do with it? And will she dare? 

This is one of those slow-burn mysteries, with a great deal going on under a glossy surface but stay with it to the explosive ending. It may destroy your faith in mankind – or it may just restore it.
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Reviewer: Lynne Patrick

R L Heber is a journalist and author of three previous novels and has been selected as a WHSmith Fresh Talent. She has written for the Guardian, Telegraph, Daily Mail, Prospect, Sunday People, the Irish Times, and London Standard amongst others, and has reported from Kosovo, and the Middle East. She has also led on comms and runs her own business. She lives in London. 

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.

‘The Mermaid's Cry’ by Kate Rhodes

Published by Orenda,
16 July 2026.
ISBN: 978-1-917764-32-2 (PB)

Inspector Ben Kitto of the Scilly Islands police force is in mourning for his wife, who died in a tragic accident a few months before this book begins. He has tried to escape painful memories by taking a year's leave from the police and moving to Penzance on the mainland with his small son Noah and his faithful wolfhound Shadow.

But crime dogs Ben's footsteps. Taking a sleepless Noah for a walk one night, he sees a figure snatch a baby from its stroller and throw it into the sea. He dives in and rescues the infant, who has a narrow escape but survives. He finds himself acclaimed as a hero, much against his will, and is invited by Penzance's head of detectives DCI Lynne Farraday to become SIO of the investigation. After another child is thrown into water and is put on life support, he reluctantly gives up his carpentry job and accepts. 

There's a clear connection with an old Cornish myth, the Mermaid of Zennor; small plaster mermaids and charms keep appearing, near where the children were snatched and in other locations. The investigation becomes entangled with the Burning Sky Festival, a major tourist attraction which has events taking place a few miles away in Zennor. Ben's first task as SIO is to narrow down the list of suspects, who all appear to be connected in some way with the festival. 

As devotees of this highly visual series have come to expect, there are plenty of well-realized characters to enjoy, some familiar, most new. From the Scillies, Ben Kitto's childhood friend and confidante Zoe is headlining the Burning Sky Festival and arrives a few days in advance; and his taciturn uncle Ray, who taught him the carpentry skills he is using, comes for a visit. 

Ben has made friends in Penzance: motherly Caitlin Freer and her more intense daughter Ruth, who run the day nursery Noah attends when Ben is working; his obliging and good-natured neighbour Jim Kernow; amiable Denny, his boss at the carpentry shop, and his generous wife Sarah; Mick, his songwriter colleague; and DCI Farraday, who has hidden depths. There's mysterious Arthur Goss, who makes musical boxes; Shannon, the almost-drowned baby's mother, and her own mother, well-organized Pauline. Less friendly are unscrupulous Luke Pascoe, local reporter who doesn't care who he tramples on to get a story, and resentful DS Carnforth, who dislikes his boss's people-friendly approach. Flamboyant and persistent Freya Lennox is a leading light in the festival. 

The locations in Penzance come to almost cinematic life too: Ben's shabby rented house which Ray takes in hand; the Freers' nursery, filled with colour and enthusiasm; the carpentry workshop, and Arthur Goss's cluttered but well organised shed; the down-at-heel estate where Shannon lives with her baby. And of course, Penzance itself, bursting with noisy summer holidaymakers. 

Regular readers may be glad to see Ben Kitto return home to his comfort zone, as it's hinted, he will, but a brief foray into previously uncharted territory is no bad thing, especially in Kate Rhodes's more than capable hands. The Mermaid's Cry will certainly gain her new readers alongside the many, like me, who are already hooked on the series.
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Reviewer: Lynne Patrick

Kate Rhodes was born in London. She has a PhD in modern American literature and has taught English at British and American universities. She spent several years working in the southern states of America, first in Texas, then at a liberal arts college in Florida. Kate’s first collection of poems Reversal was published in 2005, her second collection, The Alice Trap was published in 2008. The Guardian described her poems as “pared back and fast-moving, the short lines full of an energetic lightness of touch”. Kate has been awarded a Hawthornden Fellowship, and her poems have been shortlisted and won prizes in a number of competitions including the Bridport Prize and the Forward Prize. Crossbones Yard was Kate’s first crime novel. Hell Bay is the first of a new series featuring DI Ben Kitto. There are now nine books in this series. Kate is currently writing full-time and lives in Cambridge with her husband Dave Pescod, a writer and film maker.

www.katerhodesbooks.co.uk  

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 Deadly Summer’ by Claire Back

Published by Cranthorpe Milner Publishers,
30 June 2026.
ISBN: ‏978-1803783802 (PB)

A Deadly Summer is an impressively assured debut by Claire Back, a longtime book club member and professed crime fiction and TV drama fan who recently was moved to try to write a murder mystery of her own. The result is a resounding success. Set in the author’s beloved Wales, it incorporates locations in Pembrokeshire where the author was born and raised.    

The story has two interlinking timelines—1984 and 2015—with Back impressively conveying the unique atmosphere and customs characterising these two periods. The novel begins with a brief prologue in the mid-eighties describing an unnamed man disposing of a corpse in a sinkhole on the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path and continues thirty years later—and only a short distance from the secret burial site—in the fictional seafront town of Penroth, where DS Nia Tremeyrick must identity a body found in an abandoned building and determine the manner of death. 

The High Cliff has fallen on hard times. Once the busiest and grandest of Penroth’s hotels, by 2015 it had been empty and derelict for decades. But recently it has come into the possession of a construction firm tasked with its renovation. The plan is to make it into expensive apartments. In clearing out the rubbish, workers find a corpse in the attic.    

Nia Tremeyrick is the typical flawed but endearing crime fiction protagonist. She feels unappreciated and undervalued by her colleagues in the police. Her ageing parents, struggling to survive in their isolated farm on the coast, rely heavily on Nia’s elder sister Jen, who resents all the responsibility for their care falling on her shoulders. Nia and her husband—who wanted children while she didn’t—are divorced. She hopes solving the case of the mysterious corpse will revive her career and bring her a measure of happiness. 

Back in the summer of 1984, we meet a different cast of characters who have links to the High Cliff Hotel. Cerys Pritchard is a bookish teenager who lives with her parents in the Victorian guesthouse they run in Penroth, one of twenty on its Promenade. Cerys does her best to help her parents with the backbreaking round of chores related to accommodating guests during the busy holiday season, when its eight double rooms are fully booked. All is going well until the cook, Mrs Bowen, must have a hip operation. She asks her niece to step in to help while she convalesces, having no idea of Kay Abbot’s true nature. The flirtatious and callous Kay encourages Cerys to join her in attending illicit parties at the derelict High Cliff Hotel, with tragic results.    

Early in the novel, preparing for her imminent departure for university, Cerys reads a Thomas Hardy novel, and The Deadly Summer can resemble that author in depicting the pitilessness of fate and how the best of intentions can result in the worst of outcomes. Back’s characters are convincingly drawn, the story’s plot is plausible, and the author expertly weaves together the past and present narratives in creating an unputdownable mystery. Back is sufficiently skilled to make us care about the cast of the story—and to regret the misfortunes that befall them—but her novel is a compelling and enjoyable read.
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Reviewer: Wendy Jones Nakanishi/aka Lea O’Harra.

Claire Back was born and raised in Pembrokeshire. Claire has always felt a deep connection to this part of the Welsh coastline. After a successful career in finance, she retrained to work in Early Years education and is currently writing her second novel - another mystery set in wartime Wales. A keen walker and gardener, she lives with her husband and two spaniels in Wrexham

 

Lea O’Harra.  An American by birth, did her postgraduate work in Britain – an MA in Lancaster and a doctorate at Edinburgh – and worked full-time for 36 years at a Japanese university. Since retiring in March 2020, she has spent part of each year in Lancaster and part in Takamatsu on Shikoku Island, her second home, with occasional visits to the States to see family and friends. An avid reader of crime fiction since childhood, as a university professor she wrote academic articles on it as a literary genre and then decided to try her hand at composing such stories herself, publishing the so-called ‘Inspector Inoue mystery series’ comprising three murder mysteries set in rural, contemporary Japan. The fourth and final book of this series will appear in spring 2026. She has also published two standalone crime fiction novels.