‘The Antique Store Detective and the Riverside Murders’ by Clare Chase

Published by Bookouture,
6 February 2026.
ISBN: 978-1-80550-229-6 (PB)

The Antique Store Detective and the Riverside Murders is the fourth book in Clare Chase’s cozy mystery series featuring Bella Winter – an antique shop owner and amateur detective. One of Bella’s neighbours, Margie Fleming reluctantly asks her to sell a life-sized marble statue of a mother and child, the masterpiece of her grandfather Nicholas Flemming. She has inherited the statue along with Ivy Cottage from her sister Bethan who was also a well-known and much lauded sculptor in her own right. Margie is loathed to sell the statue but is desperate for money to renovate the dilapidated cottage. The next day, before the sale takes place, Margie’s body is found in the river where Bethan drowned less than a year previously. 

The police believe Margie’s death was an accident, convinced that Margie had gone to the spot to mourn her sister’s death and slipped on the wet bank into the water. However, when Bella learns that Bethan had wanted the statue moved from in front of the kitchen window to another room in the cottage, Bella’s suspicions are aroused. Both deaths followed after plans were made by its owners to move the statue. Someone seems determined to ensure that the statue remains in its current position. Bella is determined to investigate. 

Bethan and Margie’s younger sister, Freya has plans to renovate the cottage and turn it into a showcase for her own artworks. Unable to fund the renovations, Freya applies to the town council for a grant. An agreement is reached and when the statue is moved a large bloodstain is discovered. A dreadful crime has been committed. Has there been a murder? Is so, who was the victim?    

Clare Chase is a prolific author. Much as I enjoy her Eve Marlow mysteries (Eve is an obituary writer who gets drawn in helping to solve murders), I find her new Antique Store Detective series even better. 

Bella is an engaging character, and all the many characters are well-drawn. The twists and turns of the complex plot kept me guessing right up to the end. What appealed to me most is the sense of humour which shines through Chase’s straightforward, easy-to-read style. For example, Freya is described as painting “like a seal wearing a blindfold.” 

An enjoyable read, The Antique Store Detective and the Riverside Murders will appeal to anyone who loves a fast-paced, cosy mystery.
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Reviewer: Judith Cranswick 

Clare Chase writes classic mysteries. Her aim is to take readers away from it all via some armchair sleuthing in atmospheric locations. Like her heroines, Clare is fascinated by people and what makes them tick. Before becoming a full-time writer, she worked in settings as diverse as Littlehey Prison and the University of Cambridge, in her home city. She’s lived everywhere from the house of a lord to a slug-infested flat and finds the mid-terrace she currently occupies a good happy medium. As well as writing, Clare loves family time, art and architecture, cooking, and of course, reading other people’s books.

www.clarechase.com  

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/

‘The Mystery of the Silver Dish’ by Judith Cutler

Published by Joffe Books,
8 December 2025.
ISBN: 978-1-80573400-8 (PB)
Previously published as
Silver Guilt, September 2012.

Harriet Lina Townend endured a hard, disrupted childhood. She is the illegitimate daughter of an alcoholic and promiscuous lord, and she never knew the identity of her mother, which meant that she had been brought up in foster care. Her luck changed when she went to live with her last foster mother, a kind woman who loved Lina and taught her how to love and provided her with sound moral standards. When Lina left foster care, her foster mother convinced her to live and work with Griff, an elderly, gay, antique dealer, who cares about Lina as if she was the granddaughter he never had. 

At first Lina was Griff’s apprentice, but now she has progressed into being his junior partner. Lina is still learning about antiques, but she already knows a great deal about porcelain, and she is skilled at repairing it when it is damaged, but her greatest gift is an inherent one, she is able to sense valuable antiques in the way water diviners can discover water. Lina is now in contact with her father, Lord Eltham, who has accepted her as his daughter. Because of lack of money, Lord Eltham has had to sign most of his ancestral mansion over to a Trust and now lives in a rather decrepit wing of the house, existing on his preferred diet of champagne and Pot Noodles. Lina has taken steps to limit her father’s alcohol consumption and improve his diet; she also helps him to supplement his income by using her special talent to discover items of value amongst the old furniture and other items that Lord Eltham had managed to keep and sell them for him; however, in fairness to Griff and herself, she charges her father commission. 

Lina is only just beginning to learn about antique silver, but her special gift leads her to the discovery of a silver dish in one of Lord Eltham’s rooms. It is dirty and discoloured, but Lina knows it is valuable, even though she does not know its provenance or exactly what it is. This silver dish brings Lina into contact with Nella, a high-end antiques dealer, and the sister of Griff’s lover, Aidan. Lina does not get on very well with Aidan, although she tries to conceal this rather than hurt Griff; she is even less comfortable with Nella, who is very aware of her status as Lady Petronella Cordingly, and behaves in a cold and condescending manner to Lina. Unfortunately, Lina is destined to spend a lot more time with Nella, who asks to ‘borrow’ Lina to assist at a prestigious antiques fair. Griff encourages Lina to accept this invitation, because it will be good experience for her. Attending this event leads Lina into a very unpleasant situation, which could seriously damage her professional reputation. Unsurprisingly, Nella is willing to throw Lina to the wolves, but two police officers from the Metropolitan Police Fine Art Unit come to investigate and they help Lina to establish her innocence. 

Another person who attempts to come to Lina’s aid is a young man called Piers, who is just starting out in the lower end of the antiques business. Lina and Piers begin a relationship, although it has to be long-distance as they do not live near to each other, and often only meet at antiques fairs. She also sees quite a lot of Detective Sergeant Morris, who makes it clear that he likes and admires her. Morris hopes to use her quick wits and expertise in antiques to help him solve several thefts of valuable antiques. Lina is willing to do this, especially as she realises that some of the thefts are striking too close to home and involve the house that Lord Eltham has handed over to the Trust, and even the theft of Lord Eltham’s personal property. 

Lina has good reason to help Morris investigate the thefts, but, to her horror. she realises that the closer she gets to thwarting the thieves’ plans, the greater the danger to herself and those she loves.

The Mystery of the Silver Dish is the second book featuring Lina Townend. It is an engaging mystery, with an interesting background in the antiques industry, and a lively cast of eccentric characters. Lina is a delightful protagonist, young, warm-hearted, and eager to learn, with a remarkable moral sense, despite her turbulent early life. This is a enjoyable cosy crime read, which I recommend.
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Reviewer:  Carol Westron

Judith Cutler was born in the Black Country, just outside Birmingham, later moving to the Birmingham suburb of Harborne. Judith started writing while she was at the then Oldbury Grammar School, winning the Critical Quarterly Short Story prize with the second story she wrote. She subsequently read English at university. It was an attack of chickenpox caught from her son that kick-started her writing career. One way of dealing with the itch was to hold a pencil in one hand, a block of paper in the other - and so she wrote her first novel. This eventually appeared in a much-revised version as Coming Alive, published by Severn House. Judith has seven series. The first two featured amateur sleuth Sophie Rivers (10 books) and Detective Sergeant Kate Power (6 Books). Then came Josie Wells, a middle-aged woman with a quick tongue, and a love of good food, there are two books, The Food Detective and The Chinese Takeout. The Lina Townsend books are set in the world of antiques and there are seven books in this series. There are three books featuring Tobias Campion set in the Regency period, and her series featuring Chief Superintendent Fran Harman (6 books), and Jodie Welsh, Rector’s wife and amateur sleuth. Her more recently a series feature a head teacher Jane Cowan (3 books). Judith has also written three standalone’s Staging Death, Scar Tissue, and Death In Elysium. Her new series is set in Victorian times featuring Matthew Rowsley. Death’s Long Shadow is the third book in this series.  

http://www.judithcutler.com  

Carol Westron is a Golden Age expert who has written many articles on the subject and given papers at several conferences. She is the author of several series: contemporary detective stories and police procedurals, comedy crime and Victorian Murder Mysteries. Her most recent publications are Paddling in the Dead Sea and Delivering Lazarus, books 2 and 3 of the Galmouth Mysteries, the series which began with The Fragility of Poppies. 

www.carolwestron.com 

‘Pagan Rite’ by Leslie Scase

Published by Vendetta,
1^st March 2026.
ISBN: 978-1-91921910-3 (PB)

‘Pagan Rite’ is the fifth novel in Scase’s Inspector Chard series. Set in and about Pontypridd in 1897, around the celebrations of Queen Victoria’s Jubilee, we are plunged into a world of psychics, druids and Celtic mysteries ...... 

...... and murders, of course. The story starts when sweethearts Sian Jones and John Webster are making a clandestine visit to the site of Arthur’s Stone to receive God’s blessing on their relationship. There they stumble across the mutilated and eviscerated corpse of a young woman. Its condition induces fears that it may be the work of Jack the Ripper, and the police are keen to keep these details suppressed to prevent local panic. Inspector Thomas Chard, a man of the people more than most detectives of the time (he frequents local pubs willingly, for instance) is given the case, then taken off it (events occurring in Swansea tips it in that direction) but finally put back in charge. 

The first problem Chard faces is to identify the murdered woman. South Wales at the time is hosting a series of ‘festivals of the unknown’, gatherings of sundry fortune tellers, Celtic mystics and others of that persuasion, as well as other sorts of chancers who will take every opportunity at such events to make money from the general (and in many cases, gullible) public. More criminal activity concerns a series of burglaries, the perpetrator of which a young constable, Idris Morgan, is failing to identify. This strand adds another important layer to the plot. 

More murders take place, and they are clearly connected with the festivals. Evelyn Forster, a glamorous reporter for ‘Borderlands’, a magazine dealing with metaphysical matters, helps Chard to discover the identity of the first body. Chard tries to find out more from a visiting druid and comes off worse when he eats a sandwich which he is unaware is full of magic mushrooms. Morgan and then Chard take part in two of Isadora Black’s séances and the pace hots up. Chard comes to the conclusion that dates in the pagan calendar are significant and thinks he knows when the killer is likely to strike again. A misjudgement is pointed out in the nick of time. At one point the reader is led firmly up the garden path. The final solution is neat. 

Scase is an enthusiastic historian who has done his research (there are some informative notes at the end of the book), and location, period detail and indeed prevailing attitudes are convincing without the reader feeling bombarded unnecessarily. I confess to not having read any of this novel’s predecessors. There are clearly back stories to one or two characters (Chard being the main one, needless to say), but there are enough references for readers new to the series to feel that they have sufficient awareness of previous lives if not a complete grasp of them. There are a number of very well-drawn and memorable characters. A thoroughly enjoyable and satisfying novel.
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Reviewer: David Whittle 

Leslie Scase is the Shropshire-based author of the Inspector Chard Mystery series. A keen fly fisherman and real ale enthusiast, he is a former civil servant, born and educated in South Wales but living now in Shropshire. He is a member of the Crime Cymru writers’ collective, and of the Crime Writers Association and West Midlands Readers Network. He has given talks on crime and punishment in the late Victorian period, appeared at literary festivals across the UK and been interviewed on radio. 

Leslie Scase – Crime Cymru  

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.

‘Hidden Truth’ by C.D. Steele

Independently Published,
31 December 2025.
ISBN: 979-824208333-2 (PB)

Joe Wilde is a former MI6 agent turned private investigator.  He has a reputation for solving cold cases, particularly those involving missing people.  We first meet Wilde in his office where Sylvia Graham is trying to persuade him to locate her missing daughter Julie Turnbull.  Julie was twenty-eight when last seen by her childminder before she set off to work.  That was six years ago.  An initial search failed to find her and although her husband was suspected of her murder, lack of evidence meant the line of enquiry was soon dismissed and the case remains unsolved.  Wilde takes the job even though he is already working on another dreadful event that has baffled the police – the murder of former Member of Parliament, Philipa Redmond.  The tragedy happened six months ago during a family get together prior to Christmas.  Once the relatives were eliminated as suspects, it was assumed that she was killed by an intruder - yet to be identified. 

Meanwhile, criminal activity continues to blight the lives of people in the here and now.  A woman who unwittingly allows two killers into her home is then set alight whilst still alive.  Her burnt corpse is discovered by the other crime fighter in the novel Detective Inspector Carl Whatmore.  Carl and Joe have worked together before and when Whatmore’s investigation overlaps with Wilde’s the two old friends find themselves once more teaming up to catch those responsible.  It is an alliance that puts them in mortal danger. 

The fast-moving narrative has several subplots that tease and torment the detectives and keep the reader on a knife edge.  There are some terrifying glimpses into the criminal underworld in which the perpetrators operate and can elude detection.  The villains are truly odious; their brutality sends a message to others who might try to thwart them, and they show little empathy towards each other.  These relationships are in sharp contrast to the camaraderie and warmth that defines the collaboration between Wilde and Whatmore. 

Chapters are often split into different episodes, moving between scenes involving the killers before switching to those involved in the ongoing and increasingly complex investigation.  The technique builds up tension and emphasises the difficulties that the detectives must contend with.  

Hidden Truth is the third story featuring P.I. Joe Wilde, it works perfectly well as a stand-alone novel.  The writing is crisp and considered as the story gathers pace and moves towards an unexpected dénouement. A fascinating, gritty and enjoyable read. 
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Reviewer: Dot Marshall-Gent 

C. D. Steele is the author of the Joe Wilde mystery thriller series. There are three books in the series. False Truth which was published by The Book Guild on the 28/04/21, Dark Truth which was published by The Conrad Press on the 15/11/23 and Hidden Truth which was independently published on the 31/12/25. He works as an Executive Officer in the Civil Service, has a degree in Recreation Management and lives in County Down, Northern Ireland.

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.

‘What I Told My Friends’ by Alice Leigh

Published by Canelo Crime,
25 February 2026.
ISBN: 978-1-83598-255-6 (PB)

The novel begins with a short prologue in which we are told that that the head girl of a prestigious boarding school has been murdered in the past. There is an invitation by the narrator to consider what part we played in the death (at this point who ‘we’ is or are is not further explained) and whether ‘we’ are to blame. 

The story proper starts as Chloe Carter meets Simon Aides, her former music teacher, as he is released from prison. He has haunted her thoughts for the twenty years since she was a talented pianist on a music scholarship at Hill High Manor, one who was expected to read music at Cambridge. She had gone there for her final year of school after an initially unexplained incident at the comprehensive in Essex she had previously attended. Chloe comes from a more modest background than most of the girls at High Hill and finds it difficult to settle in at first. She is not helped by the attitude of Emily Ashbourne, the head girl, who seems to target her and to find fault in everything she does. Emily also makes it clear that she knows the reason why Chloe had to leave her previous school but does not say how she gained the information. Chloe is befriended by Iris, the daughter of the head. They become more than friends, and complications arise. Iris self-harms: Chloe is very sensitive about this as her artist father has attempted suicide in the past. She also has a rather unsatisfactory relationship with Francesca, another girl with whom Iris is also very friendly. 

We are taken back through the events leading up to Emily’s murder. An unauthorised beach party is important, not only for the consequences of bringing the girls together with boys from a neighbouring school; in some ways brings it matters to a head. There are flashes forwards to Chloe and Aides and their relationship after his release as well as Chloe’s relations with others who were at the school at the time of Emily’s murder. The appearance of a journalist helps in unravelling the mystery. The main threads of the story concern people’s actions and motives, the lies and indeed the truth they tell (or suppress), even the blackmail they may deal in. It gets to the point at one stage where Chloe feels bad even though she knows she is telling the truth. A central plank of the plot is why Aides never appealed against his sentence if he maintained his innocence. 

This is a well-plotted, well-narrated and always interesting story which holds the reader’s attention up to the final twists. Relations between the characters are vivid, often intense. There is a lot to keep in mind. Enthusiastically recommended. 

PS As a former music teacher I feel compelled to point out that Chloe would have had to do a lot more than just play the piano well to get into Cambridge as seems to be suggested here. The procedure in the novel seemed more akin to that of an audition to gain entry into a music conservatoire rather than a university. And it was a surprise to find a professor as head of the school. What was he doing there, and of what was he a professor? It would have been interesting to know.
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Reviewer: David Whittle 

Alice Leigh lives in Limassol, Cyprus. Her novels written under the pseudonym, Michelle Adams, have sold in twenty territories. She has written for publications including the Daily Mail and and The Guardian.

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.

‘Rumoured’ by Kelly Mancaruso and Kristina Mancaruso

Published by Head of Zeus,
3 July 2025.
ISBN: 978-1-03591031-1(PB)

Naomi Barnes has worked as a journalist for C*Leb News for seven years and writes stories about the entertainment industry and those who work in it.  Her first five years were spent at the New York office where she honed her skills and was making a name for herself.  Then two events changed her life; the first was the death of her sister Faye and the second was when she split from her fiancée.  Her boss, Joel, aware that one of his best journalists was struggling with grief, suggested a transfer to the LA branch.  Naomi accepted the offer and the past two years away from her old patch has helped her begin rebuilding her life.  

All this is about to change, however, when Harlow Hayes, a world famous pop star, is arrested for murder.  Naomi is surprised when Joel asks her to cover the sensational story.  It’s the opportunity to do some real investigative journalism, and despite some initial reservations she can’t resist!  Before the police have even revealed who has been murdered, Naomi has boarded an overnight flight and is on her way to the city she knows so well.  Her dogged pursuit of the story, though, will take her on a personal as well as a professional journey that will be as dangerous as it is distressing.  The reporter, by trying to discover the truth about the victims at the heart of the story soon finds herself lured into a convoluted spiral of lies and rumours. 

This fast moving, terrifyingly feasible thriller is a mix of celebrity glitz and conspiracy.  The characters are surgically attached to their mobile phones and in thrall to new technology in all its forms.  Yet the technological advances that should be enjoyed by these thoroughly modern people instead seem to mislead and deceive them.  Ruthless online trolling weaves violently through the narrative and anything goes in the online pseudo-world as it spins a vicious web of destruction and misinformation. 

The sense of discomfiting confusion is augmented by the book’s structure which reflects an increasingly frenetic world in which magazine articles and social media announcements prompt a torrent of kneejerk online responses in the same way that the prose narrative is punctuated by terse news bulletins or enigmatic song lyrics.  Similarly, the present tense third person which is used for much of the novel, suddenly launches into a first person past tense narrative voice.  This echoes the theme of a contemporary world out of kilter and is very effective. 

Rumoured is the debut novel by sisters Kelly and Kristina Mancaruso.  It disturbs, thrills, intrigues and entertains.  Throughout the story clues have been playfully inserted for those eagle-eyed readers who like to solve the mystery as they progress through the book.  I failed miserably in this endeavour which mattered not a jot as I made my way through this fascinating, unusual and enjoyable read. Highly recommended.
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Reviewer: Dot Marshall-Gent 

Kelly and Kristina Mancaruso have been crafting stories together since they were children in upstate New York. Now, they collaborate on opposite sides of the Atlantic. Kristina resides in Florida with her husband, daughter, and two German Shepherds. Kelly lives in Nottingham, England, with her firefighter husband and beloved dog. Rumoured, their debut thriller, published in 2025. Scandal is their second thriller. Find out more by visiting their website or following them on social media. 

themancarusosisters.com 

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. 

‘Behind Closed Doors’ by Michael Donovan

Published by Moth Publishing,
30 May 2013.
ISBN: 978-1-901888-89-8

There’s a danger with private eye novels that, consciously or not, they will fall into the trap of imitating the master of the sub-genre, Raymond Chandler. Philip Marlowe is a hard act to follow; one might almost say he defines the profession, at least in fiction.

Certainly Michael Donovan, author of Behind Closed Doors, one of the launch titles from new indie crime publishers Moth, shows himself to be familiar with Chandler’s style; short sentences, a wry view of the world, a wisecrack every other line. At times I wasn’t sure if he was paying homage or aiming for pastiche. 

His P I Eddie Flynn has all the right trappings: quirky car, squalid attic office, dubious past in the police, no money coming in, and of course a blunted conscience when it comes to bending the law in the line of business. The ongoing characters – this is presented as the first of a series – include a stunningly beautiful longsuffering girlfriend, a quick-witted secretary who doesn’t seem to mind not being paid and a sidekick with a knack for being in the right place at the right time. 

Donovan produces a nicely complex, workmanlike storyline. In a nutshell, a teenage girl goes missing and her family is determinedly close-mouthed, even when she turns up again apparently unharmed; a sleazy club owner, a rival P I firm and a high-class call girl are also involved. And though both Donovan and his publisher reside a long way north of Watford, he clearly knows his way around the mean streets of London. 

If I hadn’t been distracted by the wealth of wisecracks and clever-clogs observations which had the effect of slowing down the action, I would have found the narrative more absorbing. But it is Donovan’s first novel; given that he applies a sure hand to characters, plot and location, perhaps it’s only fair to give him the benefit of the doubt.
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Reviewer: Lynne Patrick

Michael Donovan was born in Leeds, Yorkshire in 1955 and brought up in St Helens. Having a mechanical and scientific bent he opted for engineering as a career. Took a technology degree at Loughborough University and later registered as a chartered engineer. After a couple of decades of hands-on engineering and management in the aerospace sector Michael moved into consultancy on technology projects. He has lived in Lytham St Annes for the last thirty five years bar periods elsewhere in the UK and Europe. 

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.

Coming Soon: 'The Bones Beneath the Brambles' by Colin Bostock-Smith

Published by Diamond Crime

19 March 2026.

The 4th book in the PC Derek Martin mysteries.

When the bones of a young woman are dug up in a farmhouse garden, P.C. Derek Martin discovers a link between her death and pre-War English fascism. He is, however, distracted not just by the chance of a promotion to CID, which would uproot him and his wife Mary from their idyllic village life but also by an armed robbery. 

Meanwhile the huge but child-like Ivor, home on leave from his psychiatric hospital, becomes convinced that Mary is 'holy' and that Derek is the
 anti-Christ.

For a village copper, driven on by his famous niggles, it is almost too much to handle.

Colin Bostock-Smith was raised in a remote Devonshire village but made his way to London where he was first a journalist on the London Evening Standard, then turned to writing comedy scripts for Not the Nine ’Clock News, The Two Ronnies, The Clive James Show, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Basil Brush and even President Ronald Reagan. Today he lives in deepest East Sussex with his partner Ruth, and writes novels about crime and passion in a remote Devonshire village.

 https://www.facebook.com/colinbostocksmith

‘Under the Hammer’ by Samantha Dooey-Miles

Published by Verve,
19 March 2026.
ISBN: 978-0-85730-938-9 (PB)

Meet Jemma. She's just lost her boyfriend, her best friend and her job, and she's in danger of losing her home. And just one person is to blame. Her landlord Colin. 

But Colin is about to get his just deserts. 

Jemma has been binge-watching one of the many television property renovation shows – and lo and behold, Colin turns out to be one of the featured landlords, who buy up empty houses, give them a lick of paint then let them out at extortionate rents. Her own experience shows that landlords like that are more interested in lining their own pockets than keeping their tenants safe and comfortable. So, when Colin arrives at Jemma's flat to carry out a long overdue electrical repair and leaves in a body bag, electrocuted by his own faulty wiring, Jemma finds it very, very hard to be sorry. 

She gets a job at an estate agent's who manage properties for landlords like Colin, where she falls for Gavin, the boss's extremely good-looking sidekick. She's still angry with Colin in particular and landlords in general and starts to formulate a plan to exact a revenge on the whole pack of them. Colin's death may have been an accident – but is Willie's? He's the first landlord on her list, and when he accidentally falls off a bridge and drowns, Gemma happens to be close by. At six in the morning.

And so, it continues.

This is a crime novel from a different perspective. We're supposed to identify with the killer, detest the victims as much as she does and want her to succeed in her mission to rid the world of greedy landlords. The author does this through mostly successful humour, and a cast of characters who are eccentric to say the least. Potty-mouth Jemma is every boss's dream, or nightmare, depending on your point of view. She does the bidding of Brian, who owns the estate agency, but makes sure she turns his extra-mural shenanigans to her advantage as she pursues her own agenda. Gavin is drop-dead gorgeous, tall, broad-shouldered with brown curly hair, a moustache – and is quick to tears and has painted fingernails; and though he and Jemma are soon in bed together, he's a 'they'. Brian is short and squat, and a serial adulterer; one of Jemma's main tasks is to ensure his phone is where he has told his wife he'll be. And there's a host of supporting players, all with their own quirks. 

The question is, will Jemma fulfil her mission, and more importantly, will she get away with it? Or is some form of comeuppance waiting round the corner? Now that would be telling!
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Reviewer: Lynne Patrick 

Samantha Dooey-Miles’s fiction focuses on first-person, female voices. Her work explores rage, shame, embarrassment and the significance seemingly small moments can hold. Her stories have been published in New Writing Scotland, Gutter and Postbox amongst others. In 2021 she won a Scottish Book Trust New Writer Award. She has had monologues performed by Slackline Productions and Coronavirus Theatre Club. Her short plays have been staged by Short Attention Theatre and at Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch.

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.

‘Bath Haus’ by P. J. Vernon

Published by Point Blank,
8 January 2026.
ISBN: 978-1-836-43220-3 (PBO)

One of those amazing discoveries that you remember for a long time, Bath Haus delivered on various fronts; originality; page-turning tension; strong characterisation and really lovely prose. It was a delight. 

The story revolves around Oliver, a recovering drug addict from Indiana who’d had a pretty bad deal in life until he met Nathan. Nathan, a smart and successful surgeon living in Washington DC where his family are uber rich, fell for the young man he encountered trying to straighten himself out and the two now live together. Nathan brings security and stability to the relationship and Oliver … doesn’t. He is clearly physically very attractive. He also struggles with the need to behave; not to kick over the traces, not to touch drugs including cigarettes, and definitely not to go off on casual one-night encounters with other men. The book opens as he succumbs to temptation on that last point when Nathan is out of town and visits sex club Bath Haus. 

This proves to be a much bigger mistake than Oliver could possibly have guessed. Kristian, a man who initiates a sexual encounter, grabs Oliver around the throat and tries to throttle him, so Oliver has to fight back to escape. The bruises around his neck can’t be hidden and Oliver has to resort to a series of lies to Nathan to explain what’s happened to him. 

Lies have a bad habit of leading to more lies, and that’s what happens here. It’s compounded by the fact that Kristian doesn’t want to let go that stranglehold over Oliver, and events take an increasingly twisty and sinister turn. The tension escalates towards the end of the novel with a satisfying climax that took my breath away. 

Written mainly from Oliver’s point of view but also from Nathan’s, first person narrative gets us right into the protagonists’ heads. 

I have rarely rooted for a character so much as for Oliver. This is what drives the novel: the reader cares very much about what happens to this all too human and likeable young man; we want him to save his relationship with Nathan, we want him to escape the evil clutches of horrifying Kristian, maybe we want him to grab a crafty cigarette without censure but to continue to resist hard drugs. He’s very flawed, but boy! did I want him to win through. 

It’s quite rare to find a novel with a highly intelligent, literary style of writing marrying up with thriller content. It’s also the first I’ve read that has a homosexual relationship, and wider homosexual culture, at its heart. It felt authentic, and sexy.  I couldn’t put it down and am looking forward to reading more novels by this very talented author.
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Reviewer: Dea Parkin 

P. J. Vernon was born in South Carolina. He holds a PhD in immunology and published science before turning his hand to publishing fiction. P. J. is an insatiable reader of suspense and domestic noir. His writing―and love for all things unsettling―is influenced by the works of Gillian Flynn, S. J. Watson, and the late A.S.A. Harrison. Apart from spinning tales of dark secrets or terror in suburbia, P. J. is an active member of the Imaginative Fiction Writers Association (IFWA) and the Alberta Romance Writers Association (ARWA). He lives in Canada with his partner and two wily dogs. 

Dea Parkin is Editor-in-chief at editorial consultancy Fiction Feedback, sponsor of the Emerging Author Dagger. She’s also Competitions Coordinator at the Crime Writers’ Association. She writes short stories, poetry, award-winning non-fiction and occasionally re-engages with The Novel. When she isn't editing or writing, you can find her at crime-writing festivals or giving her all on the tennis court. Usually, reading several books at a time, she thrives on crime fiction, history, and novels with a mystical edge. She is engaged in a continual struggle to find space for her books and time for her friends.

The Glencairn Glass Crime Short Story Competition Returns

 

The official glass for whisky, the Glencairn Glass, is once again raising a toast to crime fiction with the return of its popular annual Crime Short Story Competition.

Launched in partnership with the Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival, the competition invites both experienced and novice writers from around the world to submit an original crime story of under 2,000 words. The criteria this year is that the protagonist must be from Scotland. Entries close on 31 March 2026. 

The overall winner will receive £1,000, publication of their story on the Bloody Scotland website, and will be offered a guest appearance at the Bloody Scotland Festival in September 2026. The runner-up will be awarded £500, with both winning stories also published on the Glencairn Glass website (whiskyglass.com). 

The Glencairn Glass is no stranger to the world of Scottish crime fiction. It is produced by the award-winning Scottish family glassware business Glencairn Crystal and the company has celebrated and supported the Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Festival since 2020 with its Glencairn Glass sponsorship of both the McIlvanney Prize for the Scottish Crime Book of the Year and the Bloody Scotland Debut Crime Novel of the Year awards. 

Previous winners
Since its inception, the competition has drawn hundreds of entries from both established and emerging voices in crime fiction worldwide. For many writers, it has been a career springboard.
Allan Gaw, runner-up in 2022/23, has since achieved major success, winning the 2024 Bloody Scotland Debut Novel Prize and securing a four-book publishing deal with Polygon. Frances Crawford, the 2022/23 winner, has signed a two-book publishing deal with Penguin and sees her first novel hit the shelves in 2026. The competition’s inaugural winner, Brid Cummings (2021), went on to sign with a UK literary agency after finishing her first psychological suspense novel which has since been published by Audible. 

The judges
For the first time, this year’s judging panel includes six of the UK’s leading crime book influencers* alongside Kirsty Nicholson, Design and Marketing Manager at Glencairn Crystal.Commenting on the competition, Kirsty said: “We’re thrilled to launch the fourth year of our short story competition with our official whisky glass, the Glencairn Glass, as we continue to support and celebrate the world of crime fiction. Each year the calibre and creativity of the entries exceed our expectations, and we’re excited to discover the new voices and gripping stories that this year’s competition will bring”. 

How to enter
All short story entries must be submitted at www.whiskyglass.com/crime-short-story-competition. The competition closes at midnight on Tuesday 31st March 2026. The winner and runner up will be announced in the summer. 

Bloody Scotland’s Festival Director, Bob McDevitt, said: “We are excited to read a new crop of stories, and hope that the competition provides a stepping stone in developing the careers of some talented new voices”. 

For further details about the competition please visit: 

www.whiskyglass.com/crime-short-story-competition