Chris Nickson: Unsung Heroes of Crime Fiction by Lynne Patrick

An occasional series which looks at the work of authors whose books qualify as bestsellers,
but who still aren’t quite as famous as they deserve to be.

Chris Nickson

Historical crime fiction has a huge following. Ellis Peters, S J Parris, the late and much-lamented C J Sansom, even Agatha Christie, though her novels were contemporary when she wrote them – these are just a few authors whose books evoke the past.

And then there’s Chris Nickson, author of more than thirty novels, all crime, all historical, most of them set in Leeds, and published to great acclaim in the USA and enthusiastic reviews closer to home in the UK – but perhaps not the first name that comes to mind.

Chris and I go back a long way – all the way to his first published novel, The Broken Token. It heralded a series of seven plus a novella, which charted the working life of Richard Nottingham, Constable of Leeds in the 18^th century. Then came Gods of Gold, first in another series, ten books this time, still set in Leeds but now in the late 19^th century, following the career of Tom Harper all the way from detective inspector to chief constable. Harper’s wife Annabelle is a suffragist, and Chris cites her as his favourite character in all his books. Gods of Gold is set around the Leeds Gas Strike in 1890. ‘She tapped me on the shoulder,’ he says, ‘and told me she was there at the time, and offered to tell me about it.’ 

The Harper series came to a conclusion in 2023 with Tom Harper’s retirement, but a second series set in 19^th century Leeds sixty years earlier has been running in parallel since 2019 and will continue for a while. This time the action predates the formal police force; protagonist Simon Westow is a thief-taker, employed on a freelance basis to recover stolen property – though murder raises its ugly head in most of the cases he takes on.

History is something of a passion with Chris, especially the history of Leeds. He rarely misses an opportunity to explore a new decade in his home city, and as well as the longer series there are five more books, all based on his reading and research. Two feature enquiry agent Dan

Markham, set in the 1950s; two more follow PC Lottie Armstrong in the 1920s and ’30s; and there’s a single outing for Detective Sergeant Urban Raven in the ’30s. But a couple of times he has strayed beyond his home city, and his work has followed. His other life as a music journalist took him across the Atlantic for twenty years, and the result was Emerald City and West Seattle Blues, featuring journalist Laura Benton; and when he settled in Chesterfield for a few years on his return to the UK, he became fascinated with the town’s most famous feature, the Crooked Spire. The result was a series of four books featuring John the Carpenter, who discovers a talent for detection as well as his chosen trade. 

And now there’s Cathy Marsden, a police sergeant during the Second World War, seconded to a crack squad of major crime investigators because of her intimate knowledge of Leeds. Cathy has her first outing in April 2025, in No Precious Truth, and plans are afoot for her future.

All this and more in just a decade and a half adds up to a substantial body of work, and Chris Nickson garners more fans with each new book. So why isn’t he as famous as the historical crime writers listed above? That’s the biggest mystery of all. 

CHRIS NICKSON – BIBLIOGRAPHY

Richard Nottingham series: 

The Broken Token

Cold Cruel Winter

The Constant Lovers

Come The Fear

At the Dying Of The Year

Fair and Tender Ladies

Free from All Danger

Convalescence (novella, eBook only)

Tom Harper series

Gods of Gold 
Two Bronze Pennies
Skin Like Silver
The Iron Water
On Copper Street
The Tin God
The Leaden Heart
The Molten City
Brass Lives
A Dark Steel Death
Rusted Souls

Simon Westow series

The Hanging Psalm
The Hocus Girl
To the Dark
The Blood Covenant
The Dead Will Rise
The Scream of Sins
Them Without Pain

John the Carpenter series

The Crooked Spire
The Saltergate Psalter
The Holywell Dead
The Anchoress of Chesterfield 

Laura Benton series

Emerald City
West Seattle Blues

 Dan Markham series

Dark Briggate Blues
The New Eastgate Swing

WPC Lottie Armstrong series

Modern Crimes
The Year of the Gun

Standalone – Urban Raven

The Dead on Leave

 Cathy Marsden series

No Precious Truth
Published 1 April 2025    

The first in a brand-new WW II historical thriller series introduces Sergeant Cathy Marsden – a female police officer working for the Special Investigation Branch – who risks her life to protect the city of Leeds from an escaped German spy!

Leeds, 1941. As the war rages across Europe, Police Sergeant Cathy Marsden’s life since she was seconded to the Special Investigation Branch has remained focused on deserters and home-front crimes. Until now. 

Things take a chilling turn when Cathy’s civil servant brother, Dan, arrives from London with a dark secret: he is working for the XX Committee – a special MI5 unit set up to turn German spies into double agents. But one of these agents has escaped and is heading for Leeds, sent to destroy targets key to the war effort. Suddenly Cathy and the squad are plunged into an unfamiliar world of espionage and subterfuge. 

With the fate of the country and the war in the balance, failure is not an option, and Cathy must risk everything, including her own life, to stop a spy.                                             

 https://chrisnickson.co.uk 

Coming Soon: A Fatal Feast at Honeychurch Hall by Hannah Dennison

Published by Constable, 10 April 2025

Book 11 in the Honeychurch Hall series.
Available in Paperback, and Kindle Format,

When Eric Pugsley, who runs the unsightly scrapyard on the Honeychurch Hall estate, brings home his Turkish fiancée, everyone is delighted -- even if the marriage does seem to include her feisty mother who is never without a Terkel cigarette dangling from her lips.

A Safari Supper at the Hall is held in their honour but trouble begins when somewhere between the first course and dessert, one of the villagers goes missing and is later found drowned in the estate's ornamental lake. Rumours of foul play abound, given that competition is fierce to clinch the Honeychurch Challenge Cup at the upcoming Flower Festival, where sabotage has already come into play - earlier in the week someone released a herd of goats into the village allotments, where of the planned entries were eaten.

But things take a sinister turn when Eric asks Kat to value the bride-to-be's 19th century Etruscan engagement ring only to be told that historically it is used for poison - hardly an appropriate choice for love but Eric is adamant it's what his fiancée wants. ~And then a second body is found... unearthing a hotbed of sabotage, blackmail, and old grudges.

Hannah Dennison was born and raised in Hampshire, but on leaving school landed a job as an obituary writer/amateur dramatic reviewer for a Devon newspaper. Hannah is the author of the Honeychurch Hall Mysteries and the Vicky Hill Mysteries, both set in Devon, England. She has been an obituary reporter, antique dealer, private jet flight attendant and Hollywood story analyst. Hannah originally moved to Los Angeles from England to pursue screenwriting.  Hannah is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, The Crime Writers Association, Mystery People, The Historic Houses Association, the National Trust and the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. She enjoys hiking, horseback riding, skiing, theatre and seriously good chocolate.  

www.hannahdennison.com 

News Continental: How to Knit A Mystery by Gitta Edelmann

I’m not only a rather prolific writer with several books a year (three of them mysteries set in Scotland) I’m also a prolific knitter. Yes, that goes together very well.

Writing a mystery begins with an idea, with the creation of a possible outline. Knitting a sweater begins with an idea, with the creation of a possible pattern. Considering all options, I start by getting my material together:

Books, maps, websites, and other information about the background I want to use and about the crime I’m planning yarn, knitting needles, measuring tape, a tapestry needle to weave in loose ends, a pattern, or my own sketch You see? It’s pretty much the same.

I learned touch typing in my teens, so I can write fast, faster than I phrase my sentences and without having to look at the keyboard. I learned to knit when I was seven, so I can knit easy patterns without having to look at the stitches. Unfortunately, I cannot do both at the same time, although – isn’t plotting and writing a novel more or less the same as knitting a sweater? My words are my stitches and the sentences form cables or openwork or fair isle patterns depending on the genre.

Let’s have a look at the development of my mystery. Of course, I need a crime at the centre of the storyline. As far as I’m concerned, this is not always a homicide. There are so many other crimes that I like using for variety: theft, extortion, stalking, abduction, robbery… and in real life all of those are much more common than murder. In the following example, however, I’m using the most common plot device of this genre: a murder.

Before starting on my manuscript I determine who will be the victim and who will be the murderer. Why did this person kill? I need a strong motive, probably rooted in the past of both.

How was it done? Openly? Secretly? By strangling, stabbing, poisoning…

Where? This is important for the act of murder and for the discovery of the body.

And the when is important, too, as I might need to create alibis for some of my characters.

These details of the crime are the golden thread that I will use in the knitting of the story. There are other threads as well – different blues for the various lines of investigation, a few shades of green for the detectives’

private lives that might influence their performance in a good way, or a bad one. Some shorter red strings that will be the red herrings. Now my task is to bring all these colours together in harmony.

First, I cast on my stitches, i.e. I start to write my first scene that sets the tone and the perspective of the book. A lot of writers start with the golden thread – the discovery of a body. As my mysteries are rather cosy, I prefer the cast-on in green and add the other colours later. When the golden thread joins the piece, it may not get lost again, stitches must never be dropped. But, of course, a lot of this colour remains at the back of the knitting and cannot be seen in its entirety at a first glance.

I knit the gold together carefully with the different shades of blue and some red, a little bit of green in between and blue again, which, of course, is the main colour. The reader will want to find out what happened and why together with the detective inspector or private investigator – or even before them.

Stitch by stitch the story grows and I can make it as simple or as complex as I like. Sometimes I need to increase or decrease one of the scenes and sometimes my pattern, my plot plans may go awry.

In the last mystery I wrote, I found out rather at the end that the man I had chosen to be the murderer was harmless! Unfortunately (or fortunately?), this might happen when one writes character-driven stories and the characters come alive. Then they do what they like and no longer comply with the original plot. So I had to look again at all the stitches I had knitted and purled  and study the pattern. Was there another thread that could lead to the real murderer? Yesss! I found one. If the knitting is complex enough, there is always a way to change the pattern slightly and finish with a gratifying bind-off.

Of course, you can do your knitting without words, using wool, cotton, silk or other fibres. It’s the perfect pastime when watching crime movies or series, listening to audiobooks or when you need some ‘plain thinking’.

Knitting has the same effect on the brain as taking a walk: one step after the other helps you think and concentrate, knitting one stitch after the other does the same. It works as a bilateral stimulation, much like EMDR therapy. Thus it helps with depression and anxiety and aids the neurodivergent brain reset.Think of all the positive feelings and hormones like endorphin that are released when working with beautiful colours and materials. Finishing a piece of clothing that no one else in the world has makes you proud and creates a dopamine rush similar to a finished novel.

Studies show that knitting reduces the risk of dementia and improves the motor function of people with diseases such as Parkinson's.

You will never be bored again when you take up knitting. No need to scroll your smartphone display, no need to smoke yet another cigarette or get upset while waiting. You can even meet like-minded people, maybe join a knitting group where you might get to know people you would never have met in your life without yarn and needles.

Yes, I'm an addict. Knitting is my Yoga and writing is my Qi Gong. And I probably should have put a trigger warning at the beginning of this article that knitting is contagious. Highly infectious, as some of my friends and colleagues can confirm.  But I haven't.

If you feel stressed now because you have no yarn at home and it is Sunday or late at night, take it from me: There are great shops, knitting instructions and tutorial videos on the internet to browse. And you'll probably find some paper and a pencil in one of your drawers to write a short crime story until the parcel with your new treasure arrives. Help is near.

Since knitting is so relaxing that it usually gives me great new ideas for new books, I leave you here and now and hurry off to the pink balaclava (merino and alpaca) I promised to make for my daughter.

 Gitta Edelmann is a passionate knitter and an author of mysteries for adults and children. She also likes crochet, darning socks and writing romance, historical fiction and fantasy. Occasionally, she works as a translator or editor. She is a member of PEN, the Murderous Sisters and other writers’ associations in Germany and of the Mystery People. 

https://gitta-edelmann.de 

Interview: Jill Amadio in Conversation with Tessa Wegert

Bestselling Tessa Wegert is the author of the popular
Shana Merchant series.

Her most recent book is The Coldest Case.

A former journalist and copywriter, Tessa grew up in Quebec, Canada 

and now lives with her husband and children in Connecticut

where she co-founded Sisters in Crime organization.

She also serves on the board of International Thriller Writers.

https://www.tessawegert.com  

Jill: Why did you begin your first mystery series?
Tessa: I started off writing bio and techno thrillers, but it quickly became clear that there wasn’t much of a market for those subgenres at the time. That led me to try my hand at a mystery. I had always been drawn to mysteries, particularly of the locked-room and closed circle variety, so my first called Death in the Family became an homage to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None and ultimately launched the Shana Merchant series.

Jill:        What is your literary/publishing history?
Tessa: I wrote four novels prior to getting my first book deal, all of which remain unpublished, but that experience was critical as it allowed me to secure a literary agent and also develop my style and voice. I consider those my “practice novels” now, though I do hope to revisit them someday. 

Jill:       Inspiration for your lead character, Shana Merchant, and her various antagonists? 
Tessa: Shana was born of the desire to create a female detective with deep-seated trauma that would impact how she approached both her investigations and her personal relationships. Readers sometimes describe Shana as “messy”…she doesn’t always make the conventional choice, but her understanding of the human psyche due to her family’s dark past makes her compelling (or so I’m told!).

Jill:        How did you decide on settings and point of view, such as first person in the Shana books??
Tessa: I had always wanted to set a book in the Thousand Islands of Ontario and Upstate NY, a unique and atmospheric area that I knew well. As for point of view, providing unfettered access to Shana’s inner thoughts and emotions felt important because of her trauma and PTSD. I wanted readers to feel close to her pain, and understand how it shaped her character.  

Jill:        Why did you begin a second mystery series?
Tessa:    My second mystery series, called the North Country novels, will be launching in late 2025. I had decided to pause the Shana Merchant series after The Coldest Case, mainly because I saw an opportunity to wrap up a throughline in a way that felt authentic and timely to the story. That said, I wasn’t ready to leave the Thousand Islands or the universe I’d created around Shana and her State Police colleagues. The new series is a spinoff of that world, with many of the same characters and multiple points of view. Shana still plays a part, but now readers will get to see her through a fresh lens.

Jill:        What is your writing process??
Tessa:  My process varies wildly depending on where I am in the production journey. When I’m drafting, I try to write a chapter a day and give myself time to reflect on the plot, but when I’m editing or proofreading, I can go for fifteen hours straight, and often do (at that stage, my goal is to simulate a binge-read and ensure that the story has momentum and holds its shape).

Jill:        Do you experience writer’s block?
Tessa:  Far more often than I’d like! But I take that “block” to mean that I’m on the wrong track with the story, and use it as an opportunity to rethink the plot.

Jill:        How have you books evolved since writing the first one?
Tessa:  I’m happy to say that I have far more confidence than I did when I first started writing novels. Now, common mystery and thriller structures feel ingrained, and I’m comfortable veering from that path to write an unpredictable story that still satisfies the desire for a twisting, fast-paced crime thriller.

Jill:        Your greatest writing challenge?
Tessa:  My goal is always to write a story that’s more interesting, more engaging, and more memorable than my last. No pressure!

Jill:        Are you a panster or a plotter?
Tessa:    I’m somewhere in between…I always start out with a loose outline but inevitably rethink it, sometimes even changing the identity and motive of the killer deep into the book. It can make for a meandering process, but if I can surprise myself, odds are good that the reader will be surprised too. 

 Jill:      Which obstacles and pitfalls did you not expect?
Tessa:  I’ve had to train myself to accept that there will be a period of many weeks when I lose my way. Those moments of uncertainty and panic allow me to step back from the story and reassess. I’m always happier with the ultimate outcome than I was with the initial idea.

Jill:      Average length of time to write one of your mysteries?
Tessa:  I’ve got a little faster with every book, so in general it now takes about seven months for me to write a series novel.

Jill:      How do you conduct your research?
Tessa:  I’m lucky to have connected with several Bureau of Criminal Investigation detectives and a sheriff from the Thousand Islands area early on, and have since found a very generous medical examiner as well. I always take several research trips to make sure I have the settings right, since most scenes take place in real places.

Jill:        Are your settings actual or imaginary?~
Tessa:  I usually only fictionalize a setting if I’ve made it a crime scene. I never want to offend or upset residents of the small towns I incorporate into my books.

Jill:        Do you have theme goals?
Tessa:    Themes often reveal themselves toward the end of the writing process, but all of the books in the Shana Merchant series include themes like family, obsession, deception, and revenge. 

Jill:        Which book was the most fun writing?
Tessa:  I have to say, I really enjoyed writing The Kind To Kill, the fourth book in the series. Because of events that occur in the third book (Dead Wind), many readers expected it to be the finale, so I used that as an opportunity to surprise and unsettle them with misdirection and a story that, in a way, kicked off the second part of the series.

Jill:        You are extraordinarily popular as a panelist and speaker, five events alone in November, 2024. Were you prepared to spend so much time promoting your books?
Tessa:  Thank you! I didn’t expect to have quite so many events beyond those related to a launch, but meeting readers and collaborating with fellow mystery and thriller authors in my immediate community and beyond has become one of my favourite parts of the author life.

Jill:        Any book tours and book signings in England or other countries in which you are published?
Tessa:  I don’t have any UK events planned for 2025 at the moment, but that could change. Visiting for a book event is definitely a priority.

Jill:        Have any instances from real life crept into your books??
Tessa:  Absolutely. Many of the experiences I’ve had in the Thousand Islands have found their way into the series, including being stranded on a remote private island in a violent storm (which inspired Death in the Family).

Jill:        Which social platforms do you use and why?
Tessa:  I’m on every major social platform, but I tend to be most active on Instagram. In addition to connecting with enthusiastic bookstagrammers and readers, it allows me to share visual content related to the books and provide a behind-the-scenes look at the settings that inspire my stories.

Jill:        How important are minor characters in your books?
Tessa:  Minor characters are always important to me, especially now that several of them are becoming leads in the spinoff series. I try to give every character as much dimension as possible so that readers feel invested in their lives.

Jill:       What do you hope readers take away after reading your books?
Tessa:    I really just hope that readers enjoy spending time in Shana Merchant’s world and exploring a place they may not be familiar with. If I can keep them guessing and deliver some chills along the way, all the better. 

Jill:     Your Favourite Genres and  mystery writers ?
Tessa:   I love a good small-town mystery from writers like Sarah Stewart-Taylor, Christina McDonald, Louise Penny, and Will Dean.

Jill:        Tips for budding authors?
Tessa:    I always recommend connecting with other writers. Critique groups are excellent for skill development and accountability, and because the publishing industry can be quite ruthless, having writer friends to chat with.

Jill:        What’s next?
Tessa:  Aside from the first North Country novel, I’ve been working on a co-authored mystery with two other writers and a standalone thriller set in Connecticut that I hope to finish early next year.

Jill Amadio hails from Cornwall, U.K, like the character in her crime series, Jill was a reporter in Spain, Colombia,  Thailand, and the U.S. She is a true crime author, ghosted a thriller, writes a column for

Mystery People ezine, and freelances for
My Cornwall magazine.

She lives in Connecticut USA. 

Her most recent book is 

In Terror's Deadly Clasp,

‘That'll Teach Her’ by Maz Evans

Published by Headline.
27 February 2025.
ISBN: 978-1-03541326-3 (HB)

A Headmistress is dead, and the circumstances are suspicious..............

This is a wonderfully original detective story told through a School Group Chat.  There are only four people involved with St Nonnatus Primary School who could possibly be suspects in the death of the reviled Head Teacher Miss Claudia Stitchwell. 

The members of the Year 6 Chat Group discuss the issues surrounding the death which the local constabulary write off as accidental death through ingesting nuts to which the victim was allergic.  But the Chat Group members are suspicious that this was a case of deliberate murder bearing in mind that several people at the school might have good reason to kill Miss Stitchwell. 

Their comments on the Chat are interspersed by requests for lost spellings, uniform and discussions about various scandals.  This is a very funny book and very well researched as any teacher/parent of a Primary Aged Child would attest. 

As the story progresses there is a further murder involving an equally detested member of staff and this involves the detective team on the Chat investigating any possible connections between the murders and suspects. 

I absolutely loved this book - funny, clever and intriguing as I certainly couldn't guess the outcome until the end.  This is a must for lovers of original detective fiction who perhaps are seeking a distraction from Nordic Noir and simply want a really good read - a triumph in my view.
--------
Reviewer: Toni Russell

Maz Evans writing career began in journalism as a TV critic and feature writer. She has written for many national titles and is a regular pundit on The Jeremy Vine Show. After working as a creative writing lecturer, she founded Story Stew, an anarchic creative writing programme that has visited primary schools and literary festivals around the UK, including Hay and Imagine. Maz lives in London with her husband and four children. 

Toni Russell is a retired teacher who has lived in London all her life and loves the city.  She says, ‘I enjoy museums, galleries and the theatre but probably my favourite pastime is reading.  I found myself reading detective fiction almost for the first time during lockdown and have particularly enjoyed old fashioned detective fiction rather than the nordic noir variety.  I am a member of a book club at the local library and have previously attended literature classes at our local Adult Education Centre.  I am married with three children and five grandchildren.

‘A Talent for Murder’ by Peter Swanson

Published by Faber,
4 July 2024.
ISBN: 978-0-571-37361-1 (HB)

Alan has always been kind, considerate, gentle, a model husband in fact. His job means he travels a lot, mainly to teachers’ conferences where he sells novelty items to the participants, and his wife Martha has never had cause to wonder what he gets up to while he’s away. But then a young woman commits suicide at one of the conferences, and Martha sees a strange expression on Alan’s face when he returns. Suddenly she’s uneasy and turns to an old friend for support.

Lily is surprised to hear from Martha; they lost touch after college, although they have good cause to remember each other. Lily rescued Martha from a relationship which threatened to destroy her – and now another relationship seems about to deliver the same fate. They begin to look at the conferences Alan has been attending and discover something alarming: a young woman has died in suspicious circumstances at more of the venues than can be explained by simple coincidence.

Martha works full-time, but Lily is between jobs; she decides to attend the next conference herself and find out what Alan’s real agenda is. And that’s when things start to turn very dark, and very complicated.

One of Peter Swanson’s strengths is the evocation of the real America of small towns where the story unfolds. This is neither the wild open spaces of the only partly tamed west, nor the frenetic, traffic-laden streets of the big cities; this is the America where ordinary people live. What’s more, he turns those ordinary people into memorable ones. Martha is someone you’d pass in the street and barely notice her; she’s a librarian, softly spoken and unremarkable, but after a few chapters I felt I knew her. Likewise mild-mannered Alan, who does indeed have a secret life; is it the one Martha suspects? Lily is more sharp-edged and worldly, though not quite streetwise enough to stay completely out of reach of danger. She lives with her parents, more for their benefit than her own, or so she tells herself. They’re a little quirky, wrapped up in themselves.

And then there’s Ethan, handsome enough to stop traffic and charming as well. Where does he come into the picture?

Between Martha’s research skills and Lily’s perception, the truth eventually emerges – but it leaves a trail of bodies in its wake and a few surprises along the way. It’s more a gradual unfolding of events than edge-of-the-seat thriller, beautifully written and well-paced. You won’t want to stop reading until justice prevails: the cosmic kind, which is often more satisfying than a legal solution.
-------
 Reviewer: Lynne Patrick

Peter Swanson is the Sunday Times and New York Times best selling author of 11 novels, including The Kind Worth Killing, winner of the New England Society Book Award, and finalist for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, Her Every Fear, an NPR book of the year. His books have been translated into over 30 languages, and his stories, poetry, and features have appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, The Atlantic Monthly, Measure, The Guardian, The Strand Magazine, and Yankee Magazine. A graduate of Trinity College, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Emerson College, he lives on the North Shore of Massachusetts with his wife.

http://www.peter-swanson.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.

‘The First Husband’ by Elisabeth Carpenter

Published by Bookouture,
31 January 2025.
ISBN: 978-1-83525-785-2 (PB)

Eight years ago Leah’s husband Callum disappeared without trace during a weekend which was meant to celebrate her thirtieth birthday. A year ago Callum was declared legally dead, and now almost the same group of people has gathered in the same place for another celebration: her wedding to Matt, her first husband’s best friend: her brother Jake and his wife Katherine; Matt’s parents Olivia and Greg; her dad, and three-year-old Noah, her son with Matt whom she adores. Everything is progressing as it should – then a note arrives. It says I can’t wait to see you. I’ve missed you so much. All my love, Callum.

And that’s only the beginning.

A succession of cards, e-mails and screenshots containing thinly veiled threats leaves Leah disturbed, distressed and confused. What is going on? Is someone setting out to sabotage her big day? If so, who hates her that much? Should the wedding go ahead, or is it too dangerous? And most important of all, is Callum alive after all, and if he is, how has he stayed under the radar for eight years, and why has he chosen to come back now?

Elisabeth Carpenter knows how to create atmospheric settings and characters who feel real. The beautiful lakeside house should form a calm, inviting backcloth to a happy weekend, but from the start there’s a hint of unease, with brooding woods and half-derelict buildings nearby. The lake itself was named as the scene – and cause – of Callum’s death, though his body has never been found.

Leah is normally calm and capable but doubts and vulnerabilities soon begin to overwhelm her. Her husband-to-be Matt is well-adjusted and down-to-earth despite his family’s wealth, in contrast to Callum, who is revealed through flashbacks to the first weekend to be volatile and unpredictable, and less successful as he thinks he deserves to be. With the possible exception of Leah’s unassuming father and Noah, all the characters are hiding secrets or doubts related to that first fateful weekend, and cracks appear in more than one relationship as the situation escalates.  

Question follows question in the kind of book that makes you itch to get back to it every time you’re interrupted. All are answered in the end, but not before lives are endangered and the whole weekend is thrown into chaos. It all hinges on one person: Callum. What really happened eight years ago? Was Matt and Leah’s happy-ever-after doomed from the outset? Carpenter has proved in the course of seven previous books that she knows how to wind up the tension almost to breaking point, and this time she goes the extra mile.  
-------
Reviewer: Lynne Patrick

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    

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.