‘Mrs Hudson and the Belladonna Inheritance’ by Martin Davies

Published by Allison and Busby,
22 January 2026.
ISBN: 978-0-74903249-4 (HB)

‘Mrs Hudson and the Belladonna Inheritance’ is the eighth novel in Davies’s Holmes and Hudson series. I have previously reviewed its predecessor, ‘Mrs Hudson and the Capricorn Incident’, which featured a threat to world peace. This novel centres around another danger. The wealthy, universally detested and malevolent Charles Belladonna who lives in a grand house that he won in a game of cards (he renames it Belladonna Hall), and spends most of his time in his laboratory developing an explosive which will require only a small amount to cause catastrophic damage. He takes a wife who dies in childbirth. Belladonna subsequently keeps his infant son by him in the laboratory, but in the chaos following a conflagration (out of which Belladonna is dragged unconscious) the son – who has previously been scarred by another accident in the laboratory - disappears. 

Belladonna is later killed in another explosion in his laboratory caused by the use of impure chemicals. In the meantime, he has written his will. This states that unless the son, Paul, has made himself known to Belladonna’s executor by his (Paul’s) 26th birthday, the entire estate will go the Margate Refuge for Retired Donkeys. This is another example of Belladonna’s malevolence: his potential asinine benefaction is not because he has a liking for such animals but because his sole executor and neighbour, Colonel Stephenson, with whom he was not on particularly amicable terms and who was thus surprised to be named executor, has detested donkeys ever since he ‘had his arm broken by an army mule out in the Punjab’. Belladonna included even more mischief in this will. If his heir appears, he will initially receive only personal effects and an annuity unless within one year he has taken the Belladonna name and married Georgina Beatrice Montmorency-Smythe, the niece of the man from whom Belladonna won his residence (then called Montmorency Hall) and who now lives in genteel poverty. As Holmes observes, ‘You must have heard enough by now to realise that this man Belladonna was motivated entirely by spite. He had already expunged the Montmorency name from the family’s ancestral dwelling. Now he planned to bring about its extinction altogether. If the young lady is to avail herself of his charity, she must give herself in marriage to his son and take on the hated Belladonna name.’ 

I hope you have followed me this far. There are a number of further complications, of course. One is that nobody is aware of the location of the heir’s scar, detailed in a document held securely by Belladonna’s solicitor, other than the boy’s former nurse whose whereabouts are unknown. Given that Belladonna had previously let it be known that he would sell the recipe for his explosive to any country willing to pay a colossal sum, there is a race to find details of the scar and to produce claimants to be his heir. The British establishment is unsurprisingly very concerned by this. There are subplots involving shoes and socks (I am slightly concerned by Davies’s fetish for footwear as I seem to recall that boots by a railway were of importance in his previous novel) and even mutton pies. Holmes and Watson are perhaps more prominent than in the previous novel, but it is again Mrs Hudson and particularly Flotsam, the endearing yet shrewd narrator, who win the day. The latter’s past life plays some part in proceedings, including a criminal who has a record of involvement in particularly unsavoury activities. There is a suitably comic episode involving cows as the novel reaches its conclusion as well as an important revelation that is seemingly known only to Flotsam. We are also left wondering about her love life. 

But as with its predecessor (I still have yet to read earlier novels in the series – a treat to come), this is enormous fun. It is well-plotted and a thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable story, told with Davies’s trademark light and witty touch. I must confess to a slight disappointment that the memorable Irascible Earl, so magnificent in the ‘Capricorn Incident’, makes only a brief appearance, but his absence can be endured given the wealth of other characters. If you have not yet read any of this series, I urge you to do so. You will not be disappointed.
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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. 

‘One London Day’ by Chris Humphreys

Published by Allison & Busby,
22 January 2026.
ISBN: 978-0-74903335-4 (HB)

The book basically concerns a few days in the life of a contract killer and a rogue MI5 Unit. 

The setting is the hot summer of 2018, and the author makes his knowledge of London known via his absolutely spot on description of various places in and around East London and its environs.  

The rogue MI5 outfit nicknamed The Shadows - is headed by Sebastien who appears to be  psychopath.  Sebastien sends a hitman - Mr Phipps - to kill the respectable London businessman Joseph Severin who has a side line in false accounting and to retrieve the books when it becomes clear that their game is up and they have been rumbled. 

There is a far-reaching spider web of potential collateral damage involving innocent musician Lottie and Sonya - a Russian prostitute who has heart-breaking reasons for her chosen temporary profession.  A shadowy Ellerby from MI5 has them all in her sights. 

This is a fast-paced thriller which I understand is the first in a planned series stepping into the murky world of the intelligence services.  I look forward to the next in the series!
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Reviewer: Toni Russell 

Chris Humphreys was born in Toronto and raised in London. His acting career has taken him from the West End to Hollywood with stops along the way for The Bill and at the Rovers Return on Coronation Street. His debut novel, The French Executioner, was shortlisted for the CWA Steel Dagger and more recently Plague won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel. After a dozen years on a remote island in British Columbia, he is now living in Totnes, Devon.

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. 

‘Murder in Paris’ by Christina Koning

Published by Allison & Busby,
20 November 2025.
ISBN: 978-0-74903246-3 (HB)

Paris, in April, 1945, just after the liberation. Blind veteran Frederick Rowlands has been asked there by MI5 agent Iris Barnes, to identify a young woman calling herself Clara Metzner, whose evidence – if she really is who she says – will help track down French collaborators responsible for the death of British agents. Frederick’s first meeting with Clara is inconclusive – then a shocking death occurs. 

This series follows Rowlands through the war. He’s an interesting protagonist, blinded in the trenches of WWI, married with three adult daughters, and now running a hostel and education centre for fellow blinded servicemen. There are also a number of series characters, like Iris Barnes, Celia Swift, his not-quite love interest, and his London police colleague, Alasdair Douglas, who gradually rises up the ranks during the series. The story’s told in the third person, focused on Rowlands, and so we’re told what he heard, what he smelt and what was beneath his feet, making for very vivid writing. 

It’s a good plot, with vivid characters (you can have fun identifying famous artists and writers under different names) and lots of action, particularly in the cemetery meeting and final underground confrontation, but what drew me most into the novel was the vivid evocation of social setting: the description of France in the aftermath of brutal occupation by the German forces, and the behaviour of French mobs towards those they saw as collaborators. An older French friend once told me that the war was never discussed in her village, and this book brings that atmosphere alive. Nazi rule had been terrifyingly brutal, in ways that we in the UK find hard to imagine, not having lived through it, and the reaction of those who’d survived it was also violent. The only thing to do afterwards was to bury it completely,and some incidents in this book show why. 

There’s a feel, in the celebratory ending, that this tenth Blind Detective is winding up the series. Koning’s many fans will hope not; there must be plenty of mysteries to be solved in the chaos of post-war London.
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Reviewer: Marsali Taylor 

Christina Koning is an award-winning novelist, journalist and academic. She was born in Kuala Belait, Borneo, and spent her early childhood in Venezuela and Jamaica. After coming to England, she was educated at the University of Cambridge, Newcastle College of Art, and the University of Edinburgh, eventually settling in south east London. As an academic, she has taught Creative Writing at the University of Oxford and University of London, and was the 2014-15 Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Newnham College, University of Cambridge. She has taught at Cambridge University's Institute of Continuing Education at Madingley Hall and was Editor of Collected, the Royal Literary Fund's magazine. Christina Koning has two grown-up children and lives in Cambridge. 

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.  Marsali also does a regular monthly column for the Mystery People e-zine. 

Click on the title to read a review of her recent book
An Imposter in Shetland 
www.marsalitaylor.co.uk

‘Drawn To Murder' by JJ Sullivan

Published by Mandrill Press,
6 December 2021.
ISBN: 978-1-91019430-0 (PB)

Twenty years before the events depicted in Drawn To Murder began, Rita and Jamie, both sixteen at the time, made their way to Batterton’s local recreation ground.  Each hoped that the other would be there, but their dreams of youthful romance were shattered when three older boys grabbed Rita and subjected her to a brutal sexual attack.  Jamie, who saw what the older boys were doing, was too afraid to intervene and left Rita to her fate.  Then, when the poor girl returned home, her parents decided not to report the incident to the police.  They wanted to avoid others learning about what they considered was their daughter’s shame! 

Rita’s desire for revenge has grown as the years have passed.  She is now an artist and in an unhealthy relationship with Deborah who is controlling and nurtures her girlfriend’s obsession.  When meticulous planning enables the couple to kidnap one of the attackers, they mete out a punishment to fit the original crime.  It isn’t pretty and soon triggers a complex investigation during which Rita and Deborah are always one step ahead of the police.  

The book’s compelling third person narrative deftly weaves together a series of complex threads at the heart of the tale.  Focus shifts between the killers and the detectives and to further complicate matters a sassy investigative journalist, Bernadette Spence, gets involved.  She’s hoping for the scoop of a lifetime and almost gets more than she bargained for.  

The characters in the story are varied and engaging, though not always likeable.  Indeed, some of Rita’s assailants express regret for their actions, but they don’t invite sympathy.  The burden Rita carries from the moment of the attack reinforces a sense that this is not, for her, an historic crime, and a key theme in the novel focusses on the enduring psychological damage of such trauma.  Rita is the primary victim, but Jamie’s entire life has also been overshadowed by what happened on that fateful day twenty years earlier.  He still regrets, and blames himself, for not going to Rita’s assistance, and the experience led him to train as a police officer.  Now PC Jamie Pearson, he longs to make amends for his inaction.  Instead, he too finds himself drawn into the case – and into danger! 

DI Susanna David exudes competence as she oversees her team, and she turns on a dime as the case twists and turns.  The police procedural aspect of the novel includes some love interests, but all those involved need to beware dangerous Deborah who has her own agenda when it comes to deciding who needs to be eliminated! 

J.J. Sullivan’s gritty thriller is the first in the Batterton Police series.  I’ll be interested to see how the team of detectives are tested by future cases. 

Drawn To Murder will appeal to readers who enjoy fast moving crime fiction with psychological overtones, a touch of romance and no punches pulled!
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Reviewer: Dot Marshall-Gent 

JJ Sullivan writes contemporary fiction as John Lynch, historical fiction as R J Lynch Right now, there are two series in JJ Sullivan's name: the Batterton Police procedurals and the Claire Tanner female sleuth series

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.  

Coming Soon: Killing in the Shadows by Kate Ellis

Published by Constable
29th January 2026.

The Sixth Book in the Joe Plantagenet series.

Detective Inspector Joe Plantagenet returns in the new book in Kate Ellis's gripping crime series set in Yorkshire.
The quaint Yorkshire village of Eaglethorpe was a sanctuary for famous TV personality, Lexi Verity, away from prying eyes and camera flashes. But a life led in the spotlight can create envy in its shadows.
When Lexi is found dead in her swimming pool, DI Joe Plantagenet and DCI Emily Thwaite are called to investigate. The murder of the celebrity is front-page news and the pressure is on the Eborby CID to find the killer.
As Joe and Emily unravel the last moments of Lexi's life, they discover various motives for murder - as well as events in Lexi's distant past that would horrify the public if the facts were ever revealed.
Sinister secrets are also haunting the residents of the ancient cathedral city of Eborby nearby and Joe must decide which lead to follow, before a killer strikes again.

Kate Ellis was born in Liverpool and she studied drama in Manchester. She worked in teaching, marketing and accountancy before first enjoying writing success as a winner of the North-West Playwrights competition. Crime and mystery stories have always fascinated her, as have medieval history and archaeology which she likes to incorporate in her books. Kate's novels feature archaeology graduate Detective Sergeant Wesley Peterson who fights crime in South Devon.  Each story combines an intriguing contemporary murder mystery with a parallel historical case. She has also written five books in the spooky Joe Plantagenet series set up in North Yorkshire as well as many short stories for crime fiction anthologies and magazines. Kate was elected a member of The Detection Club in 2014. She is a member of the Crime Writers Association, Murder Squad, and Mystery People. She is married with two grown up sons and she lives in North Cheshire, England, with her husband. Her most recent series is set post WW1.  Her most recent book is The Stone Chamber. 

www.kateellis.co.uk 

Coming Soon: The Edge of Darkness by Vaseem Khan

 

Published by Hodder & Stoughton
22 January 2026.
Book 6 of the Malabar House series.

India, 1951. After wilfully ignoring orders, Persis Wadia, India's first female police detective, is exiled from Bombay to the wild and mountainous Naga Hills District. As India's first post-Independence election looms, and tensions rise across the country, Persis finds herself banished to the Hotel Victoria, a crumbling colonial-era relic, her career in tatters.

But when a prominent politician is murdered in his locked room at the Victoria, his head missing, she is thrust back into the fray. Is the murderer one of the foreigners staying at the hotel or an insurgent from the surrounding jungle? As the political situation threatens to explode, Persis has only days to stop a killer operating at the very edge of darkness...

Vaseem Khan was born in London in 1973. He studied finance at the London School of Economics. He first saw an elephant lumbering down the middle of the road in 1997 when he arrived in the city of Mumbai, India to work as a management consultant. This surreal sight inspired his Baby Ganesh Agency series of 'gritty cosy crime' novels. His aim with the series is to take readers on a journey to the heart of modern India. He returned to the UK in 2006 and has since worked at University College London for the Department of Security and Crime Science. Elephants are third on his list of passions, first and second being great literature and cricket, not always in that order. His first book The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra was a Times Bestseller and an Amazon Best Debut. The are five books in the series. His most recent series is Malabar House.  There are six books in the series. His most recent book is Quantum Menace published in October 2025.

http://vaseemkhan.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/VaseemKhanUK
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VaseemKhanOfficial/ 

‘Wild Animal’ by Joël Dicker

Published by MacLehose Press,
25 October 2025.
ISBN: 978-1-52944-781-1 (HB)

It is difficult to write about ‘Wild Animals’ without giving the game away, but I shall do my best. This problem is caused by an extraordinary conglomeration of twists and turns in which nothing and nobody is what they seem. Reader, beware!

The story revolves around a robbery which we know will take place on a certain day. Indeed, we are given the details at the very start (I refer you to my first paragraph). Almost immediately we are introduced to a husband and wife who live in a modern house, ‘an oasis, a small, secret paradise tucked away from the curious, and only accessible by a private road. The occupants themselves were cut from the same exquisite cloth: Arpad and Sophie Braun were the ideal couple and the perfect parents of two beautiful children.’ (I refer you etc etc, and shan’t bother mentioning this again!). 

The Brauns are friends with the Liégeans, Greg and Karine, as a result of their sons being in the same football team. Greg is in the police and a member of the SWAT team. He has developed an obsession with Sophie Braun to the extent of taking his dog for walks through the woods between his house and hers so that he can spy on her. His voyeurism later goes to greater and potentially career-ending extremes. Partly because of that and his job he ends in a couple of awkward situations. 

Arpad works in finance; Sophie is a lawyer. Both have a backstory in St Tropez where Sophie’s parents live. Her father, a restaurateur, is an interesting character who has more money to dispose of than is good for him. Much is made of a robbery some years previously in Menton. We are told at one point by one of her friends that Sophie ‘was a chameleon’, at another ‘but, of course, she was lying’. This comes as a result of the introduction of the Beast, an old flame of Sophie’s who is also known to Arpad in another context. Sophie welcomes his reappearance rather more than Arpad. To say that pasts come back to haunt people is a considerable understatement. Both Sophie and the Beast have tattoos of a panther. Matters become increasingly messy as the days before the robbery are counted off. 

This is an intricately-plotted, complex and fast moving novel. There are constant flashbacks, with affairs, dishonesty and deception the names of the game. Only one of the main characters comes out of the story with any credit, and I shall leave you to discover who that is. It is an engrossing read in a vivid translation by Robert Bononno, and one I thoroughly recommend. A couple of questions to ponder when you get to the end of it: who said that crime doesn’t pay, and is the conclusion fair on the one character who ends up in the worst position of anybody?
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Reviewer: David Whittle 

Joël Dicker was born in Geneva in 1985, where he studied Law. His first Book The Truth About The Harry Quebert Affair was nominated for the Prix Goncourt and won the Grand Prix du Roman de l'Académie Française and the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens. It soon became a worldwide success publishing in 45 countries and selling more than 3.5 million copies. In the UK it was a Times number one bestseller and was chosen for the Richard and Judy Book Club as well as Simon Mayo's Radio 2 Book Club. 

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.

 

Coming Soon: The Eskdale Episode by Rebecca Tope

Published by Allison & Busby

22 January 2026

Book 16 in the Lake District series.

Heavily pregnant yet still running her flower shop in Keswick, Simmy Brown agrees to deliver an unusual bouquet to remote Eskdale. There she encounters three generations of women — and the next day, one of them is brutally murdered.
 Drawn into the mystery, Simmy and her friends soon find themselves navigating eccentric artists, fractured families, and secrets buried deep in the Lakes.
As her new assistant Evie proves unexpectedly determined to sleuth, and tangled motives begin to surface, Simmy realises the truth is darker — and closer — than anyone imagined. And time is running out, in more ways than one… 

Rebecca Tope is the author of four popular murder mystery series, featuring Den Cooper, Devon police detective, Drew Slocombe, Undertaker, Thea Osborne, house sitter in the Cotswolds, and more recently Persimmon (Simmy) Brown, a florist. Rebecca grew up on farms, first in Cheshire then in Devon, and now lives in rural Herefordshire on a smallholding situated close to the beautiful Black Mountains. Besides "ghost writer" of the novels based on the ITV series Rosemary and Thyme. Rebecca is also the proprietor of a small press - Praxis Books.
This was established in 1992. 

www.rebeccatope.com 

‘All at Sea’ by Jonathan Whitelaw

Published by HarperNorth,
12 February 2026.
ISBN:  978-0-00870594-7 (PB)

A group of minor celebrities are invited to take part in a new TV reality show which will take place on a luxury yacht. Rather than being wined and dined in style on the proposed seven-day cruise, they arrive at the port of Livorno to be given their roles as crew members catering for the needs of a small number of high-paying international guests. 

Things go awry on the first day when the ship’s captain is found slumped over the wheel with a knife in his back in the control room. To make matters worse, both the engine and the coms system have been sabotaged so they can no longer drive the ship nor summon help. 

The show’s director sees the situation as an opportunity to attract even greater viewers by persuading has-been Hollywood actor Howie Temple and influencer Cassandra Troy to be filmed acting as detectives interviewing the other crew members until the real police arrive to investigate. 

The plot moves along at breakneck speed with the situation lurching from one crisis to another. The only thing Howie and Cassandra can rely on is each other. As the two learn more about their fellow crew – an inept disgraced British politician, an Australian alternative thinker who thinks herself above everyone else and is not afraid to voice her opinions and an ex-footballer from Germany with plenty of muscle but very little common sense. All are looking for the chance to boost their careers or salvage their sagging image, but is that a motive for murder? 

Written in a straightforward, humorous style, I found the story absorbing and totally unpredictable. It made the book difficult to put down as I kept turning the page to find out what the two would-be detectives would have to cope with next. 

A fun romp for those looking for a cozy mystery perfect for curling up with on a cold winter’s day or as a summer beach read.
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Reviewer: Judith Cranswick  

Jonathan Whitelaw is a writer, award-winning journalist and broadcaster. After working on the frontline of Scottish politics, he moved into journalism, covering everything from sports to music to radioactive waste – and everything in between.He's also a regular reviewer, podcaster, panellist and commentator. His latest book - The Village Hall Vendetta - is published from HarperNorth and is the follow-up to 2022's The Bingo Hall Detectives. 

Judith Cranswick was born and brought up in Norwich. Apart from writing, Judith’s great passions are travel and history. Both have influenced her two series of mystery novels. Tour Manager, Fiona Mason takes coach parties throughout Europe, and historian Aunt Jessica is the guest lecturer accompanying tour groups visiting more exotic destinations aided by her nephew Harry. Her published novels also include several award-winning standalone psychological thrillers. She wrote her first novel (now languishing in the back of a drawer somewhere) when her two children were toddlers, but there was little time for writing when she returned to her teaching career. Now retired, she is able to indulge her love of writing and has begun a life of crime! ‘Writers are told to write what they know about, but I can assure you, I've never committed a murder.
I'm an ex-convent school headmistress for goodness sake!’
Her most recent book is  Journey To Casablanca  

http://judithcranswick.co.uk/ 

‘Behind Her Smile’ by Caroline England

Published by Bullington Press,
27 November 2025.
ISBN: 978-1-91929910-5 (PB)

It's bad enough when a relationship goes bad and you've nowhere to go expect your childhood home – but things get worse for Laurie Dunn when another ex turns up in her home town. She never really got over Finn Ballentine, and is drawn back to him against her better judgement. But that's not her only problem. Her job as a solicitor in a small inner city office is compromised by a shady client; and something odd is going on at home. 

Finn has problems of his own. On the run from a toxic marriage, his own job in a law firm much bigger and glossier than Laurie's is proving harder than he hoped; and though he would love to revive his relationship with Laurie, it's fraught with difficulties not of his making. 

Both Laurie and Finn have tricky clients, and equally challenging private lives. Laurie's dentist father is showing signs of instability, and the past keeps coming back to haunt her with unanswered questions. Finn's own past keeps threatening to catch up with him despite his best efforts to escape, and he finds it hard to tell Laurie the truth. Eventually all the secrets intertwine in a totally unexpected and potentially dangerous way.   

A new psychological thriller from Caroline England is always worth waiting for, and Behind Her Smile is one of her best. She's strongest on character. Laurie and Finn are both a rich mix of confident façade and deep vulnerability. Finn's workmates all have distinct personalities. His client Genevieve Armstrong is beautiful, fragile and completely enigmatic. Laurie's father is sometimes distant, sometimes upbeat and sometimes frail; her sister Jules is self-possessed and serious. 

The settings, too, come to life; England clearly knows her home town of Manchester very well; a polished, slightly impersonal office building; a canal bank that exudes menace. She makes good use of her background in the legal profession to portray two very different solicitors' practices; and she taps into all too common fears of the dentist to create the Dunn dental surgery. 

When the story strands finally came together for an explosive and unforeseen denouement, it sent me back into the novel in search of clues. Needless to say, they were all there, well buried or disguised and subjected to careful misdirection. Behind Her Smile is a masterclass in the psychological thriller genre, leavened by a touch of romance.
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Reviewer: Lynne Patrick

Caroline England was born in Yorkshire. She studied Law at the University of Manchester and stayed over the border. She writes multi-layered, dark and edgy ‘domestic suspense’ stories that delve into complicated relationships, secrets and the moral grey area. Her debut novel, Beneath the Skin, was published by Avon HarperCollins in October 2017, followed by My Husband's Lies, Betray Her and Truth Games.  Under the name CE Rose she has also penned gothic-tinged psychological thrillers The House Of Hidden Secrets and The House On The Water's Edge.  Drawing on her days as a divorce and professional indemnity lawyer, she loves to create ordinary, relatable characters who get caught up in extraordinary situations, pressures, dilemmas or crime. She also enjoys performing a literary sleight of hand in her novels and hopefully surprising her readers! Her fifth psychological thriller The Sinner was published in June 2022.

www.carolineenglandauthor.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.

‘Murder on the Farm’ by Kate Wells.

Published by Boldwood Books,
4 September 2023.
ISBN: 978-1-78513415-9 (PB)

Jude Gray lives in a small Malvern village, now widowed following the death of her husband Adam who had spent most of his life running a working farm full-time. Now Jude has taken over the reins assisted by her farmworker Noah, her shepherd, who was the third-generation shepherd to have been employed by Malvern farm.  After a rather gruelling lambing season, she is looking forward to some time off. 

After setting the new lambs, Jude heads off to the wedding of her friend Ben, one of Adam’s closet friends who is marrying Tilda, who Jude is aware seems not to like her.  Sitting in the church next to her friend Sarah she is shocked to notice how tired and stressed she looked. Sarah and Ben had, had an on off relationship for a year, but Sarah is now seeing Nate Sanchez, who had appeared on the scene a couple of weeks after Ben announced his engagement to Tilda.

 Charlie, Ben, Sarah and Adam had been a tight group of friends ever since they attended Malvern End Primary School together. And following Adam’s untimely death the friends had rallied around Jude. 

The following day doing the field rounds with the feed pellets and forage, Jude finds the body of her friend Sarah still dressed in her wedding outfit.

Detective Sergeant Binita Khatri steered Jude away from Sarah’s body and led her back through the fields to the farmhouse, to ask her some questions. Jude told her that she had just discovered that Sarah had huge debts.  She had also lost a lot of weight.  Jude became aware that the questions that Sergeant Binita was asking were heading in the direction of a suicide verdict. Jude felt strongly that it wasn’t suicide. Jude decides to investigate herself

The arrival of her half sister Lucy, and her baby son, brings further problems when Lucy says that Jude must not tell their father that she is staying with her. Why? 

But before she has got her head around the death of Sarah, Jude discovers another body. 

The situation escalates as Jude discovers that Sarah had many secrets. 

Full of twists and turns, this book made my head spin as I tried to work out just who was doing the killing and why? A real page turner.
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Reviewer: Lizzie Sirett

Kate Wells is the author of the Malvern Farm Mystery series. She began her adult life training as a nurse at Great Ormond Street Hospital and then moved to Reading where she took a teaching degree. When she took a career break to have her two daughters, she began creating stories and hasn't stopped writing since. Having spent time living and working on farms she developed a love of the rural life and often dreamt of running a sheep farm, especially when she married the son of a farmer. It wasn't to be though, so, she lives out her farming dreams through researching and writing her books. These days she lives in Malvern with her family and is often found out on the common talking to the free-grazing sheep and cattle or walking her collie-cross up on the hills. As Kate Poels she writes books for children.

‘A Body at the Beach’ by Ellie Alexander

Published by Storm publishing,
1^st September 2025.
ISBN: 978-1-83700150-7 (PB)
Previously published as 
Silenced in the Surf. 

In this the third book in the series, Meg Reed is now settling into her job at Northwest Extreme magazine. 

Her latest assignment is to cover and report on the King of the Hook windsurfing Competition. For the last month Portland, Oregon had been experiencing a heat wave and the thought of windsurfing sounded appealing. Having found a bungalow to stay in at Hook River, she invites her two best friends Jill and fellow journalist Matt to join her. 

She is hoping for a straightforward assignment involving sun, sand, and fun. And all seems to be going well until she finds herself struggling to stay afloat during a surf lesson. When she loses control trying to right herself, she discovers the lifeless body of a superstar windsurfer Justin Cruise. 

Although in the short time she had been there, she had found Justin rather unpleasant Meg, still wants to find out who had killed him and why? 

Meg is there to interview people for her magazine and uses that as an opportunity to get to talk to as many people she sees as possible suspects in the killing of Justin Cruise. 

Although Meg is away from home in this book, in addition to her two best friends staying with her, Gam, her grandma turns up. Gam has strong New Age beliefs and is a holistic healer who spreads her warmth wherever she goes. She’s a lively character. 

For those who have read the two earlier books, underlying, the current story we are aware that there is still a question mark over the untimely death of Meg’s father, Pops, who was an investigative journalist for ‘The Oregon Newspaper’. Was it an accident or was it murder?  Will anymore evidence come to light? 

A tantalising mystery, with a twist. Recommended.
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Reviewer: Lizzie Sirett

Ellie Alexander is the bestselling author of more than forty cozy mystery novels. Her books have been translated into Spanish, Italian, Russian, and Japanese, reaching readers worldwide. She is the founder of the annual Ashland Mystery Festival and a frequent guest at library programs and author events throughout the Pacific Northwest and beyond, including the popular Northwest Authors series and independent bookshops across the region. In addition to her fiction, her essays and articles have appeared in publications such as Mystery Scene Magazine, The Oregonian, and Portland Family Magazine. As a writing teacher and coach, she helps aspiring authors shape their stories and navigate the path to publication with clarity and confidence. A proud Pacific Northwest native, Alexander often sets her mystery series against real backdrops from Portland's hipster neighbourhoods to the charming Shakespearean hamlet of Ashland. She now lives in Sunnyvale, California.

‘The Hitman’s Assassin’ by Dan Latus

Published by Joffe Books,
28 June 2022.
ISBN: 978-1-80405405-5 (PB)

For Frank Doy it was a day like any other. As a freelance security specialist he never knows where the next paying job is coming from. Currently he was a bit short and a trip to the supermarket looked like a sensible course.  An automatic glance at the rear-view mirror showed that a low-slung powerful-looking black saloon had been behind him sometime. It could be something or nothing, but his suspicions were aroused and he bypassed the supermarket, switched roads and still the car remained the same distance behind him.  He drove into an empty car park and the black saloon parked parallel to him. A man and a woman got out. 

The man walked towards him and said I want information. ‘Where’s Malkovich?’ Who are you? Frank demanded. The man produced a gun. Frank said he had no idea where Malkovich was. Things then escalated very quickly. The man handed the gun to the woman and said ‘shoot him in the knee first. If that doesn’t work, go on from there’. The woman told him to get down on the ground.  Frank shuffled a couple of paces and then swivelled fast and swung the tyre lever that he had slipped down his sleeve and caught the woman’s lower arm. As the bone cracked, she screamed and dropped the gun. Before Frank could reach it, her partner had another gun levelled at Frank. The man said to the woman, ‘you’re no use to me now, babe’ and raised his gun. That was when she shot him. 

An unlikely and uneasy partnership develops between the two. Both now being hunted.  But Frank is still to a degree in the dark but learns from the woman that there is a contract out on him. And having killed the son of the gangster she works for, most likely one on her too. 

It is a roller coaster ride as this unlikely duo, neither trusting the other try to stay alive. 

A terrific book that will keep you turning the pages. Just who is it that wants Frank dead?  
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Reviewer: Lizzie Sirett

Dan Latus lives with his wife in Northumberland. By instinct and education a geographer, his novels are inspired by the places he knows best, and for which he has an affinity that has grown from long connection. Several are set on Teesside and along the Cleveland coast, where he grew up and developed a love of hill walking and climbing. Others are located in Northumberland, which has long been home. Some are set at least in part in Central Europe, a region he has visited frequently over many years for work and pleasure. And his book Saving Harry is based in Western Canada, where he also lived and worked.