Coming Soon: 'Fear in the New Forest' by Linda Mather

 Published by Joffe Books

12 August 2026

The second book in the New Forest Murder
Mystery series.

Forty-something Elinor Saxby is a Birmingham CID legend: disciplined, intelligent and independent to a fault. A gifted detective chief inspector who should have climbed even higher — were it not for the deeply traumatic case that left her battling insomnia, PTSD and a lingering sense that she’ll never fully outrun her past.

Will moving to New Forest CID — and a secluded new home in the country — bring Elinor the peace she craves? Or is she about to get more than she bargained for? 

On a lonely stretch of shingle, where the Solent laps the forest’s edge, something terrible is about to wash ashore: the bloated body of a young man. Several days dead.

A ragged wound gapes in his chest. Because this was no accident. He’s been shot at close range, then dumped. 

City cop Elinor’s on the case — and utterly out of her depth.  And her CID team know it. The frosty coastguard tells Elinor the victim is a stranger. From out of town. But Elinor would swear she knows more than she’s saying. Before long, a second body is discovered deep in the forest. Same wound. Same cold-blooded MO. Same killer? It’s up to Elinor to unravel the truth from the lies, before more victims die. But she’d better watch her back. 

Because here in the New Forest, secrets run deeper — and darker — than the murky waters of the Solent itself. Despite her wish to escape, this case reminds Elinor that bad things still happen in beautiful places . . 

Linda Mather is the author of two crime fiction series, published by Joffe Books. The Zodiac Murder Mystery series (6 books) was an Amazon no 1 best-seller in its category and features Jo Hughes, an astrologer sleuth and her Private Investigator boss, David Macy, solving murders in around the Midlands and Cotswolds, England.

The first book in Linda’s new police investigation series was published in May 2026.  Death In The New Forest is a gripping police thriller, with two more books in this series due out later this year. The books feature DCI Elinor Saxby, who, towards the end of her successful, but demanding, career, transfers from urban Birmingham to a quiet, rural CID team. Word soon goes around her suspicious new team that she is ‘cruising towards retirement’.  If they’re right, Elinor is to be disappointed as, within her first week, she faces the murder of a woman in a luxurious Forest spa.

Well-developed, believable characters and a strong sense of place are important in all Linda’s books. She was born in Wallasey on the Wirral in Cheshire, has lived and worked in and around the New Forest in Hampshire and now lives in Worcestershire. She has also published short stories and was long-listed for the prestigious Margery Allingham award in 2025.

Linda leads for the Crime Writers Association on National Crime Reading Month.  

 Find out more on her website: https://www.lindamather.co.uk