Unsung Heroes of Crime Fiction By Lynne Patrick. 2025

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.

Kate Rhodes

Before she turned to crime, Kate Rhodes was a poet. Her first collection, Reversal, was published in 2005, and her second, The Alice Trap, was shortlisted for the prestigious Forward Prize. Her career as a crime fiction writer began in 2012 with Crossbones Yard, and her talent for placing the right words in the right places shines through the prose, in that and in all her other novels. 

‘I read my work aloud every day,’ she says, ‘listening for cadences and glitches.’

 Crossbones Yard was the first in a series featuring forensic psychologist Alice Quentin, set in and around Greenwich in south London, where Kate herself grew up. It was followed by five more, and the series came to an end in 2018 when Hell Bay was launched. Kate’s seventh venture into crime fiction, it features protagonist Ben Kitto, a native of the Scillies who has been working undercover for the Met in London, and returns home to recover after a traumatic case. He decides to stay, and becomes deputy chief of police for the islands – and the Isles of Scilly mysteries are the result.

Hell Bay was longlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award in 2019, and Burnt Island, the third in the series, became a Mail of Sunday Novel of the Year. The series now runs to seven titles, and the eighth, Deadman’s Pool, will be released at the end of September 2025.

Kate has also written a standalone thriller, set in Cambridge where she now lives with her family. The Stalker  features an academic who is an acclaimed expert on stalking – which proves no help at all when she herself is stalked.

Among the accolades which give Kate greatest pleasure was her longlisting for the 2021 CWA Dagger in the Library. ‘I’m a great fan of libraries,’ she says, ‘and fell in love with them as a child.’

Two intriguing series from an author who knows a lot about pitch-perfect language; one is even set in one of those picturesque locations which appear to be so rife with killers that we’ll never dare visit. A gift for TV, you’d think – so it’s hardly surprising that the Isles of Scilly mysteries have been optioned by a leading production company. Maybe when Ben Kitto reaches the small screen Kate’s fame will spread. Until then, why isn’t she up there in the top echelons of crime writers? It’s a mystery.

The Alice Quentin Series

Crossbones Yard
A Killing of Angels
The Winter Foundlings
River of Souls (The Girl in the River)
Blood Symmetry
Fatal Harmony

Standalone: The Stalker

The Scilly Isles Mysteries

Hell Bay
Ruin Beach
Burnt Island
Devil’s Table
The Brutal Tide
Hangman’s Island

Kate new book is 
Deadman’s Pool

Published by Orenda Books, 25 September 2025.

 The eighth book in the Isle of Scilly Mystery series
featuring DI Ben Kitto

 Winter storms lash the Isles of Scilly, when DI Ben Kitto ferries the islands’ priest to St Helen’s. Father Michael intends to live as a pilgrim in the ruins of an ancient church on the uninhabited island, but an ugly secret is buried among the rocks.

Digging frantically in the sand, Ben’s dog, Shadow, unearths the emaciated remains of a young woman.

The discovery chills Ben to the core. The victim is Vietnamese, with no clear link to the community – and her killer has made sure that no one will find her easily.

A Killer is On the Loose.

The storm intensifies as the investigation gathers pace. Soon Scilly is cut off by bad weather, with no help available from the mainland. Ben is certain the killer is hiding in plain sight. He knows they are waiting to kill again – and at unimaginable cost.  

 https://katerhodesbooks.co.uk