Category: Historical Fiction

News: Cover Reveal for 'The Willow March Murder'

12/12/2019

Book Cover:
The Willow Marsh Murder

I'm delighted to reveal the amazing book cover for The Willow Marsh Murder, the sixth Detective Lavender Mystery. The Willow Marsh Murder, is due to be published on 1st February 2020 and is now available to pre-order on Amazon. Simply follow this link or click on the image below.

Once again, I'm in awe at the imagination and skill of my designer, Lisa Horton. I'm particularly impressed with how she took a stock photo we bought from Alamy of the Great Ouse River near Brandon Creek (a remote area which sees a lot of dramatic action in the novel) and turned it into the background for the book cover.

Of course, Ely Cathedral isn't really in that spot but we all have to suspend our imagination a bit now and then.

I hope you like the finished product as much as I do.

Review: Sarah Dunant

18/11/2019

LOving the Books of Sarah Dunant

I'm a prolific reader of crime and historical fiction. Not surprisingly perhaps, my favourite genre is historical mystery. I'm often asked by readers for recommendations so I occasionally use this blog to recommend books I've enjoyed.

Today I'm featuring just one of my favourite historical fiction writers: Sarah Dunant, whom I met at the Glasgow Historical Novel Society Conference in 2018. (See photo below).

Sarah is that rare thing - an award-winning, best-selling author who can seamlessly jump from one genre to another, taking her fans with her. She's also a brilliant keynote speaker for conferences and dazzles and inspires from the podium in equal measure.

Meeting Sarah Dunant at Glasgow HNS 2018

Sarah first hit the literary scene in the 1990s with a a trilogy of crime thrillers featuring feisty, British female private eye, Hannah Wolfe. In 1994 she won a CWA silver dagger for 'Fatlands'. All her thrillers are very enjoyable and have avoided becoming 'dated' by spotlighting issues like surrogacy, cosmetic surgery, animal rights, and violence to women which are still pertinent today. The first of these thrillers is 'Birth Marks'.

In 2000, on an extended visit to Florence Sarah's old passion for history was reignited, and she started to research the impact of the Renaissance on the city in the 1490s. The result was the best-selling 'The Birth of Venus', the first of a trilogy of novels about women’s lives in the Italian Renaissance. I am steadily reading through these novels and thoroughly recommend them to lovers of historical fiction.

News: Cover Reveal for 'The Death of Irish Nell'

8/11/2019

Revealed: The book Cover For
'The Death of Irish Nell'

TA-RAH!!!
And finally...we have a book cover for The Death of Irish Nell (to be published on 1st December).
I thought grey would be a great contrast to the vivid colours I normally use and I think my cover designer, Lisa Horton, has once again done a super job.
Now you can see what it looks like, if you fancy pre-ordering The Death of Irish Nell at the reduced price of £1.199/$1.99 the link is HERE.

News: Two New Lavender Mysteries

6/10/2019

TWO BRAND NEW LAVENDER MYSTERIES TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE NEXT SIX MONTHS!

There are exciting times ahead!

I'm delighted to announce there will be TWO brand new Detective Lavender Mysteries published in the next six months: The Death of Irish Nell (a short story) and The Willow Marsh Murder (a full-length novel).

The Death of Irish Nell is due out on December 1st, 2019. The book cover is still being designed by the brilliant Lisa Horton (who's created all my lovely book covers) but it should be here soon. Meanwhile, the eBook of is already available to pre-order at the reduced price of $1.99 / £1.99.

The Death of Irish Nell is the prequel to my new full-length novel, The Willow Marsh Murder, which is due out in February. The Death of Irish Nell is a taster which has been especially written to whet my readers' appetites while we all wait for the publication of The Willow Marsh Murder. The short story features an early case of Lavender's, which he worked on with Woods at the start of his career as a Principal Officer. The decisions Lavender made back then have a profound effect on both of them ten years later when they're summoned to solve another murder at Willow Marsh Manor in Cambridgeshire.

Here's the blurb and a link to pre-order The Death of Irish Nell.

Pre-order
The Death of Irish Nell
Here

Review: Winston Graham's Suspense Novels

1/4/2019

Winston Graham, the creator of Poldark:
Was He Any Good As a suspense Writer?

The Poldark series, the story of Ross and Demelza Poldark and Ross’ nemesis, George Warleggan, are my all-time favourite historical novels. I’ve read and re-read these thirteen books repeatedly over the last forty years. I’m also a huge fan of the TV Series and it’s no surprise to anyone who knows me, that my children are called Ross and Elizabeth.

Until recently, I was only vaguely aware that this prolific author wrote another thirty books, mostly suspense novels. Several of them were turned into films and one of them, The Little Walls, won him a prestigious Dagger Award from the Crime Writers’ Association in 1955. I’d never read any of them until last year when, out of sheer curiosity, I started to download them onto my kindle. Worried in case I missed a gem – but also warily conscious that these were written for my grandparent’s generation – I systematically worked my way through them in order of publication.

Winston Graham

Winston Graham was first published in 1934, aged twenty-six, and to be honest, by our standards, his first few novels were very average, dated and a bit awkward. But by the time I reached The Forgotten Story (1945) – published the same year as the first novel in the Poldark series – and Take My Life (1947) I realised that my favourite story-teller had finally got into his stride, perfected his style and honed his trademark ability to depict realistic, humorous and coldly chilling characters from all sections of society.

Take my Life is a superb London-based thriller and courtroom drama about an intelligent and confident young woman determined to clear her husband’s name when he’s accused of murdering his former girlfriend. Meanwhile, The Forgotten Story is a historical novel set in the maritime world of Graham’s beloved Cornwall. It’s a gripping tale of murder, deceit and lost love with a full cast of heavy-drinking seafaring secondary characters and a strangely unsettling murderer who would give most of the protagonists of modern psychological thrillers a good run for their money.

Both books are rippling with tension and pace. The Forgotten Story contains a terrifying shipwreck and Take My Life includes a dramatic steam train dash from Edinburgh to London.

But the best bit about them for me is that despite their antiquity, they both feature clever, independent young female characters who ignore the restrictions of their era and are determined to control their own destinies. This modern attitude gives these seventy-year-old novels a contemporary feel which I appreciate. I probably should have expected this from the man who created Demelza Poldark. Winston Graham rivals Shakespeare with his vivid depiction of lively, confident and memorable women.

Anyway, I thoroughly recommend both these novels and commend them to your readers.

As for me, that’s eleven down with just another nineteen to go. I’m looking forward to the journey. See you on the other side.

News: 50K Sales for 'Plague Pits & River Bones'

28/3/2019

Plague Pits & River Bones
Reaches fifty thousand readers

My publishers have just told me that Plague Pits & River Bones (Book #4) has now surpassed fifty thousand sales.
I feel humbled and incredibly proud that so many people are buying and enjoying my Detective Lavender novels.
Thank you for your support.

Article: Murderous Underwear

4/3/2019

Killer Corsets

I first came across the unusual effect corsets can have on stab victims while researching the assassination of the Empress Elisabeth of Austria in 1898. ‘Sisi’ as she was called by her family and friends was generally considered to be one of the most beautiful women in Europe and she had the world at her feet. That same world was devastated when she was stabbed to death by an Italian anarchist while walking with her lady-in-waiting to catch a steam boat on Lake Geneva.

Part of Sisi’s tragedy is that her life may have been saved if her corset hadn’t been so tight.

Empress Elisabeth of Austria

Due to the pressure from her tight undergarment, the haemorrhage of blood was slowed to mere drops. This confused her attendants who didn’t realise she was fatally injured and were slow to seek medical help. She was helped to her feet, walked another one hundred yards and boarded the steamer which left port. It was part way across the lake before she lost consciousness. Only then did her servants and the crew realise that they needed to turn back for urgent medical help. It was too late.

When I read about Empress Elisabeth’s murder, I knew I’d discovered an unusual device I could use in my fifth Detective Lavender Mystery, Murder in Park Lane. And my victim didn’t have to be restricted to a woman either. Fat Regency gentlemen (including the Prince Regent) often used male corsets.

Further research revealed that the internal bleeding caused by a single stab wound to a tightly-corsetted victim would probably cause them to lose consciousness within half an hour. But a dying person can travel a significant distance from the scene of the crime in half an hour, even in the horse-drawn world of the early 19th century. In addition to that, stabbing is a silent crime and if the victim was alone, the absence of a blood trail would make it very difficult, even impossible, for an investigator like my Bow Street Principal Officer, Stephen Lavender, to identify where the attack actually took place.

But where would be the fun in an unresolved crime?

If you’d like to follow how Lavender rose to the challenge and solved the strange murder of David MacAdam in The Murder in Park Lane, you can purchase the novel here.

News: 'Murder in Park Lane' Published

13/2/2019

Fifth Detective Lavender Mystery
An Instant Best-Seller

Murder in Park Lane, the fifth novel in The Detective Lavender Mystery Series, was published on February 12th 2019 and within 24 hours it was already in the Top 200 on Amazon.com - and had a Best-Seller tag.
At the time of typing, it is the best-selling novel in Historical Thrillers.
Go, Lavender!

News: Cover Reveal

1/11/2018

Murder In Park Lane

I'm delighted to reveal the wonderful new book cover for Murder in Park Lane, the fifth novel in The Detective Lavender Mystery Series, which will be published on February 12th 2019.

News: 'The Sans Pareil Mystery' reaches 100,000 sales

30/6/2018

Sales Milestone for The Second Book In The Lavender Series

I received a lovely surprise in the post today from my publishers - a plaque marking 100,000 sales of my second book in the Detective Lavender Series, The Sans Pareil Mystery.
I've now got a matching pair on the wall in the study.
The same plaque for The Heiress of Linn Hagh arrived two years ago.
I'm a very happy little author today.