‘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 

‘Killing in the Shadows’ by Kate Ellis

Published by Constable,
29 January 2026.
 ISBN: 9778-0-349-44299-0 (HB)

Television personality and presenter Lexi Verity has moved to the Yorkshire village of Eaglethorpe to escape from the prying eyes of fans and reporters and find some privacy in the countryside. Lexi’s second husband, Lord Pilton, a successful businessman, had advocated that Lexi left London because he believed she would be safer away from the city, after she had been stalked by an obsessed and ruthless fan, Nathan Corde, who has been imprisoned for his actions. 

Lord Pilton is abroad, dealing with business, and Lexi has been left alone in the house, because her staff have the afternoon off. When her housekeeper, Margaret Cramp, returns, she finds Lexi dead in her private swimming pool. In panic, Margaret phones her cousin’s husband, Detective Sergeant Sunny Porter, who alerts his superiors, Detective Inspector Joe Plantagenet and Detective Chief Inspector Emily Thwaite. 

When the police discover that Nathan Corde was recently released from prison, and has been seen in the locality, the case seems open and shut, especially as Corde has now vanished from sight. Emily is convinced that the whole thing will be over as soon as they locate Corde. Joe hopes that his DCI is right, but he is not totally convinced that the straightforward solution is correct. 

Unfortunately, finding Corde is easier said than done, as the Lexi’s stalker has acquired survival skills that make it easy for him to live in the wild without being detected. Corde may be the obvious suspect, but he is not the only one, and, while keeping up the hunt for the obsessed stalker,  Joe and Emily have to consider the other people who may have reasons to harm Lexi. The other possible suspects are surprisingly numerous; they come from all walks of life, and are drawn from Lexi’s personal and public life, but it soon becomes clear that nobody knows much about the real Lexi, who concealed her true self beneath her bright television persona. The detectives also struggle to find out the truth about Lexi’s past life, and are faced with the question, who was she before she became Lexi Verity? Does the motive for her death lie in Lexi’s current fame, or in who she was before she became famous? 

Emily has a busy domestic life with her husband and children, but Joe lives alone since the tragic death of his wife. In the evenings, he is grateful for the occasional company of his good friend, Canon George Merryweather, Diocesan Consultant on Deliverance and the Occult, and glad of the distraction when George tells him about a newly arrived family who have asked for George’s advice. The children of this family have been seeing the ghosts of a young girl and a man and have smelled burning. The family’s neighbour, Penny, a local solicitor, tells the children’s father, Ben, that there had been a fatal fire in the building, in which a young girl had died, after which a man committed suicide. 

This convinces Ben to talk to George about the possibility of performing what used to be called an exorcism. Joe is more naturally religious and open minded regarding psychic matters than his down-to-earth colleague, which means he is less sceptical than Emily about the involvement of a psychic medium that Lexi had consulted a short while before her death. However, both Joe and Emily are uncertain that there is any link between Lexi’s death and the ghostly apparitions that Ben’s children claim to have seen. Then the death toll rises, and Joe and Emily have to act quickly and decisively in a desperate race to save other innocent lives. 

Killing in the Shadows is the sixth book in the series featuring Joe Plantagenet. It is an excellent story, with engaging central characters that depict the police as human and vulnerable, but also caring and decent people. The plot is complex but coherent, with many skilfully laid false trails, and the book has a fascinating setting. This is a very enjoyable read, which I thoroughly recommend.
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Reviewer: Carol Westron-

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 was awarded the CWA Dagger in the Library in 2019. 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. 

www.kateellis.co.uk  

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 

‘Directions for Murder’ by Nikki Copleston

Published by Coppersmith Press,
11 December 2025.
ISBN:‎ 978-095695941-6 (PB)

The body of Christian Darbyshire is found brutally stabbed in Coronation Gardens. The case is far from clear cut and raise a great many questions for DI Jeff Lincon and his team. What was the man doing in a park notorious for gay encounters, why when it was raining heavily was he not wearing a coat and how did he get to this remote spot without transport? 

The same night a young man goes missing in similar circumstances to those of the disappearance of a teenage boy six years earlier. 

Derbyshire was investigating the death of a well-known pantomime dame, Hamilton Vaughn, who supposedly committed suicide thirty years ago. Rumours suggested that Vaughn sexually abused several of the young boys in the cast. 

Are all these events connected? DI Jeff Lincon and his team have their work cut out to uncover the truth. Every avenue Lincoln pursues turns up more questions than answers. Every suspect appears to have things they want to hide. Finding out the truth about Hamilton Vaughn and his supposed suicide thirty years previously becomes as important as that of the recent murder. Only by solving what happened in the past can the motive and thus the identity of Christian Derbyshire’s murderer be identified. 

This is the sixth in Nikki Copleston’s novels featuring Jeff Lincon series, but like all well-written series books, it can be read as a standalone. A great deal happens in the fast-paced story that will keep the reader on their toes wanting to turn the page. Although there are a great many characters, including the half dozen members of DI Jeff Lincon’s team to get to grips with, each is well-drawn in the opening chapters and even new readers will soon have no difficulty identifying who’s who.     

Nikki Copleston deserves to be much more widely read. Directions for Murder has all the ingredients of a truly enjoyable police procedural – thoroughly engaging plot, credible fully rounded characters, atmospheric locations all written in a straightforward style. What’s not to like?
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Reviewer: Judith Cranswick 

Nikki Copleston was born in Somerset and raised in the West Midlands and Wiltshire. Nikki Copleston worked in local government in London for many years. Her grandfather and great-grandfather were policemen, which may explain why she's always enjoyed watching detective series on television and reading crime novels. She is an active member of Frome Writers' Collective, which supports and promotes writers in the Frome area. When she isn't writing, she enjoys exploring the West Country with her camera. She is already working on the next DI Jeff Lincoln novel. She and her husband now live in Wells, Somerset. 

Nikki Copleston - Crime Author | Creator of the DI Jeff Lincoln crime novels  

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/ 

‘Never Say a Word’ by C J Carver

Published by Bloodhound Books, 
5 February 2026.
ISBN: 978-1-91770564-6

There's a theory that it takes three elements to make a good story. How about these three? A former paramedic suffering from flashbacks and hallucinations after a deeply traumatic experience in a war zone. A small boy, apparently mute and terrified, who appears naked out of nowhere in the middle of a stormy night on a remote Welsh hilltop. And hundreds of miles away, a teenage girl who went missing several years ago. 

The other thing a good story needs, of course, is someone to write it. C J Carver has picked up these three elements and run with them, all the way from the twisty lanes of rural mid-Wales to the litter-strewn seedy side of England's second city. 

Tom, the paramedic, lives in a camper van which he parks close to a place where he enjoyed family holidays as a boy. He encounters the boy he names Wren, who is clearly running away from something; they form an unlikely bond, and Tom makes it his mission to find out where the boy came from.     

It's as much a journey of self-discovery as a hunt for Wren's origins. Tom has suffered from crippling PTSD ever since he returned home; he has rejected therapy, which made things worse, in favour of self-medication with alcohol and solitude. Caring for Wren and looking for the child's family gives him a sense of purpose – and also puts him in the worst danger he has ever faced and forces him to connect with people and the real world again. 

The result is a tense rollercoaster of a psychological thriller, with a cast of bad and good guys so well realized that they jump off the page. There's Vanessa the trainee psychologist, who makes Tom face up to the deep-seated causes of his PTSD; Xantha the investigative journalist, a thorn in Tom's side at first, but later an unexpected ally; Lana the self-styled anti-ageing therapist, and Trevor her ingenuous husband; and a wide   assortment of villainous types of both genders. Forming a richly detailed background to Tom's quest are Felicity, the best kind of social worker; a Indian couple still mourning the loss of their daughter; a host of immigrant workers, some legal, others more dubious; and a policeman doing his best against the odds. 

Remote Welsh hillside villages contrast with run-down city back streets, as do a factory owner's mansion with cosy cottages and Tom's compact camper van. All have a part to play as the gripping story is played out, Wren's origins are revealed and Tom's personal journey reaches a conclusion. It kept me on the edge of my seat and could do the same to you.   
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Reviewer: Lynne Patrick

Caroline Carver was brought up on a dairy farm. At 18 she headed for the bright lights of London and four years later took a holiday in Australia which turned into a ten-year stay, working for the Sydney arm of several major international publishers. Between jobs, she travelled widely and adventurously: back-packing in South-East Asia on $10 a day for nine months, walking in New Zealand, trekking in Nepal and riding a camel through the Thar Desert are just a few of her travel experiences. Her first novel Blood Junction won the CWA Debut Dagger and was selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the best mystery books of the year.

http://www.cjcarver.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.

‘Deeds of Darkness’ by William Burton McCormick

Published by Level Short,
5 November 2024.
ISBN: 978-1-68512790-9. 

Deed of Darkness is a superb collection of 24 short stories and novellas that will appeal to lovers of mystery, espionage, and historical fiction. William Burton McCormick’s versatility as a short story writer is unsurpassed. He has an innate ability for getting to the heart of a story through the force of his characters’ interactions with one another. The political impact of the times in which his characters live, along with the settings, are invariably exploited to full dramatic effect.    

Reading the collection is like biting into a rich fruit cake: the result is addictive and full of hidden surprises and delights. Blue Amber involves a man with a ball and chain manacled to his leg desperately trying to save himself from drowning at sea.

In Locked-In, a man unwittingly becomes trapped in his own cellar. The discovery there is an intruder in his house adds further layers of tension owing to the bizarre twists that follow. On Record is set in a claustrophobic Chicago tenement and proves a story doesn’t have to be long at less than 1,000 words to pack a first-rate wallop. The narrative hits the ground running, and the suspense doesn’t give up until the last nail-biting moments.            

Other prize specimens include Voices in the Cistern. Set in the ancient Greek city of Chersonesus in AD 50, a thief must fight off other looters to retrieve a priceless amulet at the bottom of an underground lake and survive his greedy employer’s deadly designs. The author’s flair for historical fiction makes me wish he would write a full-length novel set in the same period. Fast Forward is about a man’s whose alter ego takes over in times of boredom or stress; it has a distinct science fiction feel to it while the concept has strong potential to be developed into longer form. 

My favourite novella is Demon in the Depths. A Latvian journalist travels to a remote archipelago off the coast of Norway to search for an aircraft that crashed into the sea. She and her team of divers are forced to navigate the dangerous freezing cold waters in order to find out what really happened to the aircraft. The underwater action scenes are reminiscent of Alistair MacLean writing at his very best. 

Suffice to say, the collection is full of gems. McCormick is a writer with a social conscience who is not afraid to delve into the devastating challenges confronting his protagonists’ lives. He is a writer with a heart of gold and clearly on the side of the angels which makes reading him such a compelling and rewarding experience. Deeds of Darkness is highly recommended.
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Reviewer: Jared Cade 

William Burton McCormick is an American novelist and short story writer specializing in historical and modern thrillers set in Eastern Europe. He is highly regarded in the crime fiction community, frequently nominated for major genre awards like the Edgar, Dagger, Thriller, and Shamus. His short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, The Saturday Evening Post, Mystery Magazine, and Black Mask. He is the author of the award-winning thriller novel A Stranger from the Storm, Lenin’s Harem, and KGB Banker, the last co-written with whistle-blower John Christmas. He has lived in seven countries for writing purposes, including Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, and Russia. Since the Russian invasion, he has actively supported Ukrainian causes from Latvia by working with the charity Tavi draugi to run vehicle caravans filled with supplies from Rīga to the Ukraine. 

www.williamburtonmccormick.com. 

Jared Cade is the Amazon number one bestselling author of Agatha Christie and the Eleven Missing Days. His follow-up book Secrets from the Agatha Christie Archives was nominated for the ALCS Gold Dagger Award. He is a former tour guide for a bespoke luxury travel company, escorting parties around Agatha Christie’s former home Greenway, in Devon, which is open to the public courtesy of the National Trust. During an appearance on the British television quiz The 64,000 Dollar Question, he won the top prize on his specialist subject of Agatha Christie’s novels. He is also the award-winning creator of the Lyle Revel and Hermione Bradbury mysteries. The couple’s latest investigation Deadly Fortune has been hailed as ‘twisty, tense and impossible to put down.’ His latest book on the Queen of Crime Agatha Christie’s Spotlight on Murder is being released in Nov/Dec 2026.

www.jaredcade.com