Forthcoming books from Bonnier Zaffre

 May 2026

House of Two Pharaohs is by Wilbur Smith. Hidden in the shadows, an evil will rise . . .Piay, appointed Nomarch of Memphis by the God-Pharoah Rameses, has transformed his city, rebuilding the famous white walls, feeding the once starving citizens and returning the wealth plundered by the barbarian Hyksos. But when a murdered scribe is found sealed inside the city's newly-constructed vault - with the mark of Anubis, god of death, scrawled next to him in blood - panic tears through the people. Piay calls on the only man in Egypt he knows can discover the truth: his mentor, the great sage Taita. But soon after Taita's arrival in Memphis, the bloody mark of Anubis appears again.Taita and Piay are pitted against a criminal mastermind turned warlord. The pair's adversary has a simple, brutal aim: restore the Red Pretender's kingdom - and obliterate Rameses's forces. Drawn into a desperate battle of wits, can Taita and Piay finally reunite the two kingdoms? Or will the shadow of the Red Pretender tear Egypt apart once again? Who will survive the battle in the house of the two pharaohs?

Dark Horse is by Felix Francis. Imogen Duffy is a young Irish jockey, whose fledgling career is given a huge boost when she wins a prestigious horse race at the Cheltenham Steeplechasing Festival. But all is not well in her life. She has a violent and controlling boyfriend, also a jockey, and he becomes increasingly jealous of her success. As a result, she tries to break off their relationship, but he won't take 'no' for an answer. He attacks her, and claims that he'd rather kill her than allow her to leave him. Imogen flees her home in Ireland, coming to England to get away from him, and to continue her riding career at a racing stable in Lambourn, where she finds increasing success. But the abusive boyfriend follows her across the Irish Sea, stalks her, steals from her, attacks her again, and then tries to ruin both her career and her reputation. Imogen's desperate father turns to Sid Halley for help, and Sid reluctantly agrees to investigate, but then finds that he is also being stalked and threatened. Can Sid find out what the hell is going on, and before it is too late?

1829. Mahikeng Mission Station. Highveld, Southern Africa. The warrior king is dead. Ralph Courtney and Ann Waite have escaped. From the chaos and bloodshed that consumed the Zulu nation after the murder of King Shaka. From Ralph's enemies. From the man who would have enslaved Ann and sold her to the highest bidder. Now Ralph and Ann, and their son Harry, are safe. Rescued by the missionaries at Mahikeng, they can finally dream of a new life. Or can they . . . ? For what awaits them is a journey of unimaginable horrors, that will take Ralph from the bandit outposts on the border of Cape Colony, across oceans, and into the dark heart of the brutal system by which the British Crown imposes obedience on its subjects, while Ann is drawn inexorably back into her old life in Zululand. Can Ralph finally lay to rest the ghosts that haunt him? Can Ann overcome the enemy she believed they'd escaped forever? Can Harry make his peace with the secrets and lies that have shaped his life? On a blood-soaked battlefield, as a new nation is forged in violence and slaughter, all three will be given a choice - to succumb to the past, or to stand and fight for their family's future. Vengeance is by Wilbur Smith and Tom Harper.

June 2026

Never Be Found is by Jo Spain. She helped him disappear. She'll wish she hadn't . . .  There is a chilling phenomenon in Japan known as Johatsu - people who vanish voluntarily from their lives. It's said 100,000 people per year are Johatsu, and an entire industry has sprung up to support those who choose to. Life is hard. For some people, it's just too much. That's what I thought when I brought the concept to England. People will disappear anyway. What if I could help them? So I pack their belongings discreetly, create new identities, forge documents, give directions to the cities and towns where the 'night-mover' can live anonymously. It's just a business. I never saw it as a shameful act. I've helped people flee from abusive relationships, from work pressure, from debt, from unfulfilled lives. People in need. I consider what I do to be honourable. Until now that is. Because I've just learned that I'm not absent of responsibility. That I am capable of doing a terrible thing. That it's not just a business. I helped somebody flee from a crime. From the police. I evaporated a murderer. And if I don't find him, I can't live with what he might do next.

Eight months after helping to prevent a devastating attack on Britain's nuclear deterrent, ex-SAS hero David Hawkins is down on his luck. But when an act of reckless violence costs him his job, Hawkins is recruited by MI6 for a highly sensitive mission. The job: infiltrate a gang of cut-throat mercenaries led by a notorious former Regiment officer. Six believes this team is planning a once-in-a-century heist. Now they want Hawkins to find out who else is involved - and why. But as he gets closer to the target, Hawkins uncovers an even more deadly plot. One that threatens to upend the world order and trigger a terrifying new conflict between East and West . . . Breakout is by Chris Ryan.

Blood Root is by Jill Johnson. Lies are poison . . . but so is the truth. Professor Eustacia Rose has been arrested. Her charge: possession of poisonous plants without the appropriate licence. But behind the scenes, ulterior motives are at play... Locked in a windowless cell, Eustacia begins to uncover memories she didn't know she had. Her father's work on a mysterious academic paper. The night he was arrested, accused of murder. And a woman with long black hair that Eustacia does not recognise. Linking all the memories is Marcus Smith, her father's unscrupulous assistant, a man she thought was long dead. Marcus ruined her father's career, stole his research and vanished after a heated confrontation. But the past never stays buried, as Eustacia knows all too well. With the help of DCI Roberts and determined allies, Eustacia races against time to expose the deceptions of the past and solve a fresh murder before it's too late. This is her only chance to clear her father's name and settle a decades-old score, but the truth can be a bitter pill to swallow...

Jane Hepburn is still recovering from solving the murder at last year's Killer Lines festival when she is dragged into another very bookish murder. When a young editorial assistant is found dead at her friend's launch in a famous Cecil Court bookshop, Jane must use all her knowledge and experience as a writer of crime fiction to solve the mystery. A Killer Plot is by E C Nevin.

A Girl's Girl is by Emma Robertson. You've got everything she ever wanted... At school, Darcy Starr was the girl everyone wanted to be - effortlessly beautiful, confident and most importantly, popular. Two decades later, she still appears to have the perfect life: a devoted husband, a beautiful daughter and a picture-perfect suburban home, until her old school friend Alex Rigby reappears. Newly divorced, post-glow-up and harbouring a mysterious vendetta, Alex is about to turn Darcy's world upside down. On a group holiday to celebrate a friend's wedding, secrets, lies and old rivalries bubble to the surface, threatening to change everything Darcy thought she knew about her past. . . and herself.

Emma Sharp knows the rules of survival. From being raised by a doomsday-fearing father and hardened by the startup world, she has learned how to endure - especially in her marriage to Logan Grant, a charismatic tyrant who keeps her under tight control. To Emma, her marriage is a cage: it keeps you in, but it also keeps you safe. Until it doesn't. When Emma forms an unexpected bond with Logan's former girlfriend, the two women form a plan to help Emma reclaim her life. Destination: the punishing final stretch of the Appalachian Trail. After all, bad things happen in the woods all the time. As the three venture deeper into Maine's backcountry, desire and dread curdle into something unpredictable, dark and deadly. Someone is lying. Someone is watching. And in the remote heart of the forest, someone is about to be lost . . . or found. How to Survive in the Woods is by Kat Rosenfield.

July 2026

The Kill Switch is by Robert Peston. Journalist Gil Peck is back; in therapy, married to Jess - now editor of the Financial Chronicle - and still driven by the need to prove a point that he can't quite identify. Yet all is not well at home. Jess is fed up with Gil's obsession with his job, and she's kicked him out of their home.  But Gil has never let anything get in the way of a scoop. He and Jess have landed the interview of a lifetime with the Prime Minister, Stella Barnsbury, for the podcast they co-host, and Gil has no intention of missing it. During the interview, Barnsbury begins to pale, her coughing intensifying before she finally collapses. Within 48 hours, the Prime Minister is dead. Gil is used to landing the biggest stories. But as the last person to see the PM alive, he's now a main character. And when foul play is confirmed, he's also a prime suspect . . .

It's 1961 and the Queen is planning her state visit to Italy aboard Britannia. But before she goes, an unreliable witness claims to have seen a brutal murder from the royal train. Did it really happen, and could the victim be a missing friend of Princess Margaret's new husband, Tony Armstrong Jones? The Queen and her assistant private secretary, Joan McGraw, get to work on their second joint investigation, little imagining that this time it will take them all the way to Venice in a tale of spies, lies and Cold War skulduggery. The Queen Who Came in From The Cold is by Sophia Bennett.

The Woman Who Wasn't There is by William Hussey. Bestselling crime author Marian Lane is surrounded by adoring readers when she learns that her husband Dane is dead. Marian returns home in shock to discover a stranger on her doorstep. A woman who not only claims she's Marian's biggest fan but says that she comforted Dane in his final moments. At first, this woman, Mary, is a source of comfort. Until she admits Dane confessed a secret. One she can't quite remember; one Marian is desperate to learn. But Mary is a storyteller too. And though Marian knows every twist in the genre, she won't see this one coming . ..

Their dream holiday is about to turn into a nightmare...When upscale travel agent Allegra is offered a complimentary stay for her extended family at a new, high-end woodland retreat, she's delighted to discover it has everything you could ask for: luxury tree house accommodation, activities for the kids, spa treatments, fine dining - what could be more relaxing? But relationships within the group are fraught, and an impromptu family celebration seems only to worsen matters. Frustrated with her family, and taken for granted by her husband for years, Allegra forms an unexpected bond with someone new, and things begin to go wrong... Resentments grow and tensions rise, it seems the family's problems might run deeper than anyone suspected. When the warning signs become dangerous, the family realise they haven't been asking the right questions: how did they really come to be here? And which of them won't be going home? The Family Break is by Ruth Irons

August 2026

Flashpoint is by Wilbur Smith and David Churchill. 1943, America SOE's Saffron Courtney is back in New York, but even as she recovers from her mission to Washington, events on the other side of the Atlantic are making her return to England inevitable. The War Office need someone to extract an asset - a Jewish scientist, Caleb Ezra, a man vital to the war effort - from his hideaway on the besieged island of Leros. But first there is a debt to settle, and the mob do not wait - even for a decorated war hero . . .  1946, Kenya. Back in her beloved homeland, and reunited with her lover-now-husband Gerhard von Meerbach, Saffron thinks that she might finally have found the peace that she craves. The war is over. But when she's paid a visit by an English operative who blackmails her with accusations of Gerhard's involvement in Nazi atrocities, Saffron has no choice but to return to the US at his bidding. With not only her life, but her family at stake, Saffron must track down Ezra once more - before it's too late . . .

October 2026 

It's 1966 and Queen Elizabeth II is touring the Caribbean aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia. Her schedule is measured in ten-minute increments for five weeks, and nothing can afford to go wrong. But something does. Early in the trip, the Queen's new diary secretary, Pamela Sinclair, is found dead in her cabin. Rumours abound about how she died, but the truth is, nobody really knows. However, this time, suspicion falls on the Queen's longstanding confidante, Joan McGraw. The royal yacht is a busy, working ship, from the admiral at the bridge to the chefs in the galleys and the engineers attending to the turbines. It houses a crew of hundreds. Is one of them a murderer? The Queen and Joan must use every skill and trick to solve the mystery while seeming to glide, unflustered, from one be-hatted engagement to the next, as the multi-island visit unfolds with the whole world watching. Death on the Royal Yacht is by S J Bennett.

Ian Fleming announcement: Charlie Higson Returns with King Zero

 

Ian Fleming are excited to announce King Zero, a blockbuster new adult James Bond novel from multi-million copy bestselling Young Bond creator, Charlie Higson. It will be published in the UK on 24th September 2026 by Penguin Michael Joseph.

Beginning with the murder of an agent in Saudi Arabia by a weapon never before seen by the Secret Service and spanning the globe in an epic race against time to avert global catastrophe, the novel brings the literary Bond squarely into the twenty-first century, where the old world that made him is crumbling and a terrifying new order emerges while a dangerous villain – the most distinctive since Goldfinger – moves in the shadows. Higson explores themes of power, technology, and international tensions over resources in an extraordinarily timely story.

“Having warmed up with my Young Bond series, and the short story, On His Majesty’s Secret Service, I’m beyond excited to be writing my first full blown adult Bond adventure. 20 years after first writing “The name’s Bond, James Bond,” it still sends shivers down my spine every time I type it. I’m having a blast with this new novel, which is absolutely set in the modern world, and I hope will sit comfortably on the airport bookshelves alongside other contemporary thrillers. It embraces the worlds of both the literary Bond and the cinematic Bond, and my bad guy has all the elements we expect from a classic Bond villain, with a twist that’s not been done before.” – Charlie Higson

“We are delighted to be working with Penguin Michael Joseph on the publication of King Zero. Charlie Higson’s return to James Bond follows his outstanding success with On His Majesty’s Secret Service, commissioned for the King’s Coronation, and we are delighted to be working with Charlie again, bringing the next chapter of Bond to fans.” – Amanda Douglas, Managing Director of Ian Fleming Publications Ltd.

“There’s no character in all of fiction quite like James Bond, and since Ian Fleming’s passing no-one has captured him quite so distinctively as Charlie Higson. We were swept away by Charlie’s vision for Bond which will delight old fans and new, and we can’t wait to make this the coolest, classiest publication of the year.” – Joel Richardson, Publisher at Michael Joseph

Capital Crime announces full programme

 

CAPITAL CRIME ANNOUNCES FULL PROGRAMME, WITH JEFFREY ARCHER, AA DHAND, JANICE HALLETT, LISA JEWELL AND SABINE DURRANT TO JOIN PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED HEADLINERS JANE HARPER, ARDAL O’HANLON AND ANDREA MARA

 AA Dhand       Andrea Mara     Ardal O'Hanlon,             Elly Griffiths,            Jane Harper

Janice Hallett              Jeffrey Archer         Lisa Jewell,     Liz Nugent          Sabine Durrant 

The 2026 festival to return to the Leonardo Royal Hotel 18th-20th June, with the Fingerprint Awards on 18th June, hosted by Ryan Tubridy

• Newly confirmed authors also include Elly Griffiths, Abir Mukherjee, T.M. Logan, Vaseem Khan, MJ Arlidge, Chris Brookmyre, Catriona Ward and Lucy Foley
• The National Year of Reading and ‘Quick Reads’ to be commemorated by AA Dhand, Leye Adenle, Fiona Cummins and Debbie Hicks MBE
• Jeffrey Archer to celebrate 50 years of writing

Jeffrey Archer, Abir Mukherjee, AA Dhand, Lucy Foley, Lisa Jewell, Sabine Durrant and Janice Hallett are amongst the authors today (27th March) announced to take part in Capital Crime, London’s largest celebration of crime and thriller writing, which returns 18th-20th June. They will be joining the previously announced headliners Jane Harper, Lee and Andrew Child, Claire Douglas, Andrea Mara, Ardal O’Hanlon and Andi Osho for discussions around closed communities, Agatha Christie and courtroom dramas.

Capital Crime co-founder and Goldsboro Book managing director David Headley said:

‘Our vision for Capital Crime was to provide a community that celebrates the love of storytelling, and a welcoming space for all readers and authors. A cornerstone of the festival since it launched in 2019 has been our social outreach initiative which has seen schoolchildren from all around London invited to meet, hear and engage with publishing representatives and authors. Our partnership with The Reading Agency will only strengthen this work in a time when we need stories and connection more than ever. Our programme this year features discussions about courtroom dramas, comic capers and the legacy of Agatha Christie, but also holes in the justice system and societal issues in crime fiction, with some of the best names in the genre – from global superstars like Jane Harper and Lee Child, but also some extremely exciting emerging voices.’

The festival kicks off on Thursday 18th June with a panel of industry professionals navigating the road to publication; followed by experts Professor Anja Shortland, an expert in the field of exhortative crime and ransomware, former probation officer Ruth Dugdall and noted criminologist Christopher Berry-Dee speaking about different approaches to criminality with Doctor Emma Kavanagh, a psychology consultant specialising in human performance in extreme situations; and real-world private investigators Mike and  Chris Jennings exploring the realities of their job, and how crime fiction compares. Thursday’s final panel will see bestselling authors Elly Griffiths and Claire Douglas speaking to Joe Haddow about using the past and memory in their novels, before DHH Literary Agency’s open pitching afternoon and networking event. The day will conclude with the Fingerprint Award Ceremony, hosted by broadcaster and podcaster Ryan Tubridy.

Friday opens with a panel on modern espionage, with James Wolff, Paul Warner, David Goodman and Chris Humphreys in conversation with Jane Thynne; and Leodora Darlington, LM Chilton, Yemi Dipeolu and Tanya Sweeney discussing how messy relationships can take a deadly turn in crime. The day will also feature Abir Mukherjee, Sarah Vaughan, Foluso Agbaje and Elly Vine discussing elites behaving badly; Ajay Chowdhury, Jo Callaghan and Vaseem Khan will explore concerns around AI; and former lawyers Imran Mahmood, Harriet Tyce and Anna Mazzola will speak about the art of the courtroom drama. Lucy Rose, Essie Fox, Laura Purcell and Callie Kazumi will explore what could be behind readers’ appetite for dark gothic fiction; Clare Leslie Hall, Hattie Williams and Jennie Godfrey will speak about stories that will stay with you long after reading; and Jo Spain, Olivier Norek, Madeleine Pelling and Edel Coffey will discuss about how true stories can inspire fiction.

Friday will also see Capital Crime’s National Year of Reading panel, in partnership with The Reading Agency, and chaired by one of its founding members Debbie Hicks MBE, with former Quick Reads authors AA Dhand, Fiona Cummins and Leye Adenle exploring how crime fiction can be the perfect gateway genre into a lifelong love of reading.

The day will close with Lisa Jewell and Sabine Durrant in conversation with Katherine Faulkner about their incredible chart-topping careers writing suspense in the domestic sphere; and global bestsellers Jane Harper and Andrea Mara in conversation with DJ Fee Mak about writing horrible things happening to ordinary people; and the suffering of parenthood in their novels. The final event of the day is the festival’s regular highlight Crime Quiz.

On Saturday 20th June, crime fiction fans will see former police officer turned bestselling novelist Clare Mackintosh reflecting on how her past has influenced her writing; Jeffrey Archer celebrating his 50 year career and Lee and Andrew Child speaking to Stig Abell about building and breaking the rules of crime over 31 Jack Reacher novels. In addition, legendary Irish writers Ardal O’Hanlon, Jane Casey and Liz Nugent will explore with Brian McGilloway what make Irish communities the perfect setting for crime fiction.

In addition, to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of Dame Agatha Christie, Sophie Hannah, Hazell Ward, Lucy Foley and Kelly Mullen will explore the enduring appeal and influence of her work.

Other panels on Saturday include Sarah Hilary, Chris Brookmyre, Doug Johnstone and Chris Merritt discussing career longevity; a discussion about justice and revenge with Julie Mae Cohen, D.B. Stephens, Emma Styles and Maz Evans; the illusion of safety with Catriona Ward, Andi Osho, J.P. Delaney and Rosa Silverman; and Rob Parker, Nadine Matheson and T.M. Payne speaking to Lisa Howells about the versatility of the procedural.

There will also be exciting public events throughout the festival: Orenda Books will be hosting a showcase and proofs party; and renowned wine expert Olly Smith will be launching his debut Death by Noir, in conversation with his brother and Emmy-winning Slow Horses screenwriter Will Smith.

Now in its sixth year, Capital Crime is proud to be a part of and contributor to the vibrant culture scene with the city, and has quickly established itself as one of the biggest festivals in the UK, with a reputation for originality, innovation, and a focus on creating an incredible reader experience with creatively curated and inclusive panels. Co-founded by Goldsboro Books MD David Headley, it has welcomed readers from around the country to see British authors such as Robert Harris, Anthony Horowitz and Paula Hawkins, appearing alongside international talent including Icelandic Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir and US bestsellers Jeffrey Deaver, Karin Slaughter, Linwood Barclay and Michael Connolly.

Headley and his team at Goldsboro Books have helped launch the careers of so many authors since it opened almost 25 years ago, by uniting incredible writing with their loyal, ever-growing community of passionate readers. Renowned for their thoughtful and impactful new initiatives to engage communities of readers, Capital Crime is a brilliant extension of this vision with an outstanding programme of over 40 entertaining, accessible events that explore all corners of the genre, and the opportunity to meet your literary heroes.

 The full programme can be found here.

 

Death Watch Cottage: 'A murdered tourist and a community tearing itself apart was too good to pass up'

Death Watch Cottage is the fourth novel in the CSI Ally Dymond series which is set in North Devon. When I began writing the CSI Ally Dymond series, I always knew I wanted to set it in North Devon.

Having grown up there, I returned to live there a few years ago and I know the area extremely well. I have always felt that North Devon’s blend of coastal communities, market towns, isolated farms and desolate moorlands would give me ample locations for my crime novel and so it has proved to be the case.

When called upon in my stories, North Devon has certainly done its fair share of the heavy lifting. It has provided an authentic backdrop for poor mobile signals, easy getaways down narrow roads that are barely mapped, slow police responses from an emergency service stretched thinly over a huge area and communities that sometimes know a little too much about each other.

But it isn’t just North Devon’s landscape that has provided me with inspiration for my novels. I am also interested in the issues facing the place I call home. 

First and foremost, I write crime novels which means there is a certain contract that I must fulfil with my reader but, beyond that, I also like to play with themes pertinent to the area. 

With my first novel, Breakneck Point, I wanted to look beyond the breath-taking landscape and that classic image of a thatched cottage and roses growing around the door which is why I set it in fictional Bidecombe, a struggling coastal town beset with problems relating to social deprivation. 

My latest novel Death Watch Cottage tackles the other end of the scale. It is set in a former fishing village a little further down the coast called Maidcombe, but, unlike Bidecombe, most of the properties in Maidcombe are holiday homes. 

Second homes and holiday lets are a live issue in North Devon. There are approximately 4,770 holiday rentals listed in the area, according to Airbnb. This has placed the permanent rental market under considerable pressure with local people finding it difficult to find a place that they can afford to live in. 

On the flipside, visitors generate around £600 million for the local economy, supporting in the region of 11,000 jobs. It’s against this backdrop that I wanted to write Death Watch Cottage.

The novel opens with a public meeting where tempers flare over the closure of the local school due to a fall in numbers. 

There are those who believe the fault lies with the increasing proliferation in holiday homes which are pushing up house prices and driving local families out of the area. Others at the meeting argue that many of the restaurants and pubs would not exist without tourists.

The meeting is interrupted by a teenage boy who, on seeing a light on in his father’s holiday, went to check, only to discover the body of a tourist in the shower. The only problem Leo Hawkins is meant to be staying at a different holiday let in the village. Is his death the result of a faulty CO alarm or is something more sinister at play.

As the investigation begins, it becomes clear that some locals resent outsiders enough to wage a campaign against them in an attempt to drive them away. Would they go as far as to murder a tourist?

Alongside the issues surrounding second homes, I am also taken with the idea of community. In North Devon, there are many close-knit communities, similar to the one I grew up in, where families have lived side by side for generations. But what exactly does it mean to belong to a community and what is the best way of protecting these communities? Those were the questions I wanted to try and answer in Death Watch Cottage.

It is often this sense of community that attracts visitors to the area, but there are those in my novel that feel their community is being eroded by the presence of holiday homes that remain empty for large parts of the year. 

On the other hand, there are those who believe communities must adapt to survive and that includes accepting villages can only remain viable if they offer holiday lets.

In reality, North Devon is as welcoming to visitors as it always has been but for a crime writer such as myself, a murdered tourist, along with a community tearing itself apart felt like a potent mix that was just too good to pass up.

Death Watch Cottage by T. Orr Munro (HarperCollins Publishers) Out Now

Assume nothing. The body of Leo Hawkins is found in a Devon holiday cottage, the cause of death carbon monoxide poisoning. Was this a tragic accident or something more sinister? CSI Ally Dymond will follow the evidence wherever it leads. Believe no-one. Leo’s wife gives an account of his final hours, but something isn’t adding up. Graffiti left by an anti-tourist group is discovered nearby. The only consistent thread in the investigation is that no one is telling the truth. Challenge everything When a second body turns up, Ally and the murder team must examine everything they thought they knew, untangling a web of suspects to get to the truth. Is there a single killer? Are there more deaths to come? Ally will need to uncover local loyalties to catch any killer before they strike again…

 T. Orr Munro can be found on Instagram @ t_orr_munro

Writing the Power of Spies by Ava Glass

I’ve written three novels from the perspective of spies. In these books we get inside the spies’ heads, and we see normal people at a kind of distance – as if spies are separate from our world in some way. Which they are. You and I don’t factor much in spies’ thoughts. They are entirely focussed on terrorists, foreign spies, international governments, illegal activity, and war. In a perfect world, those of us who don’t fit any of those descriptions would never knowingly encounter someone from their world. But just now and then because of fate or very bad luck, normal people do find themselves stepping through that looking glass. And when our world collides with that of the spies, trouble often follows.

Part of the problem is their disproportionate power. When you think about it, spies have access to infinite information. They know everything about us, and we don’t even know their real names. Because of that, they can manipulate us with ease. I know this personally because, for five years I worked with spies in counter-terrorism communications. I had no background in espionage at all – I’d been a crime reporter before that. An acquaintance had offered me the government job at just the right moment, and I took it. But back then I didn’t fully understand what working with spies would mean. But I would soon learn.

The first thing that happened was I met a young woman in the office who was new, like me. We kept running into each other in the coffee shop and on the bus, and naturally began hanging out together. The office building was huge and lonely, and I was pleased to have made a friend. She was funny and quick, and asked a lot of questions about my family and my past. I happily chatted away. Until, after a couple of weeks, she disappeared. Her email didn’t work, her phone rang out. No one in the office seemed ever to have met her. It was as if I’d been friends with a ghost. Months went by before someone told me the truth: she had been part of my background security check. Just one last test to make sure I was who I said I was. I’d thought myself quite sophisticated, and yet she’d played me like a child.

In The Hiding Season, I wanted to look at what that felt like. That encounter was my first inspiration. My second inspiration came from an old friend. A few years ago, she’d worked at a private ski resort in the American state of Montana. Like all such resorts, this one had a range of slopes, ski lifts, ski patrols, a café at the top of the highest peak… everything you might expect, save for one thing – it was solely for the use of the 45 families who owned very expensive lodges on the mountain.

During the ski season, the resort was busy, but that’s only two months every winter. For the rest of the year it was empty. My friend often spent her entire day up on the mountain without seeing another person. At 8,000-feet elevation, her mobile had no signal. She was entirely cut off.

I used to tell her it would be an amazing place to commit a murder – there would be no witnesses and the body wouldn’t be found for weeks. But at a resort like that, a murder victim is bound to be someone important – someone with power and influence. And anyone who kills someone with that much power will be very determined never to be found. That sort of killer wouldn’t allow the sole witness to survive.

Combining those two things – the power of spies and the power of wealth – I came up with The Hiding Season. It’s a book about what happens when we are overpowered. And how to know whether it’s time to run. Or to fight back.

The Hiding Season by Ava Glass (Penguin, £16.99) Out Now

Maya Landry is in desperate need of a fresh start. Alone and heartbroken, she finds work as a caretaker at an exclusive ski resort for the elite in the mountains of Montana. Quiet and empty in the summer months, it's the perfect escape. All Maya wants is to be alone. But she's not alone on the mountain. Someone else is there. A killer with his next victim in his sights. After Maya finds a body, she must run for her life. One man tells her that he can save her. But can she trust him? Is he everything he claims to be? Only one thing is certain: the killer will stop at nothing. And Maya is the only witness to their crime. 

The Hiding Season is available to buy here.

More information about Ava Glass and her books can be found on her website.

You can also find her on Instagram and Facebook @avaglassbooks

The 2026 Barry Award Nominations

 

The winners of the 2026 Barry Awards will be announced at the Opening Ceremonies of Bouchercon (Calgary, Canada) on October 22, 2026. Congratulations to all those nominated. Deadline for voting: September 15, 2026. Readers of Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine are eligible to vote. One vote per category. Send votes to george@deadlypleasures.com

Best Mystery

THE IMPOSSIBLE THING, Belinda Bauer (Atlantic Monthly)

 CROOKS, Lou Berney (William Morrow)

KING OF ASHES, S. A. Cosby (Flatiron Books)

THE BLACK WOLF, Louise Penny (Minotaur Books)

THE WHITE CROW, Michael Robotham (Scribner)

PRESUMED GUILTY, Scott Turow (Grand Central)

Best First Mystery

LEVERAGE, Amran Gowani (Atria Books)

ALL THE OTHER MOTHERS HATE ME, Sarah Harman (Putnam)

DEAD MONEY, Jakob Kerr (Bantam)

THE VANISHING PLACE, Zoe Rankin (Berkley)

STILLWATER, Tanya Scott (Atlantic Monthly)

JULIE CHAN IS DEAD, Liann Zhang (Atria Books)

Best Paperback Original Mystery

CRIMSON THAW, Bruce Robert Coffin (Severn River)

SPLINTERED JUSTICE, Kim Hays (Seventh Street Books)

MAKING A KILLING, Cara Hunter (William Morrow)

IF TWO ARE DEAD, Rick Mofina (MIRA)

WOLF SIX, Alex Shaw (Boldwood Books)

THE DENTIST, Tim Sullivan (Atlantic Crime)

Best Thriller

WITNESS 8, Steve Cavanagh (Atria Books)

THE OLIGARCH’S DAUGHTER, Joseph Finder (Harper)

MIDNIGHT BLACK, Mark Greaney (Berkley)

CLOWN TOWN, Mick Herron (Soho Crime)

HEAD CASES, John McMahon (Minotaur Books)

THE MAILMAN, Andrew Welsh-Huggins (Mysterious Press)

Thanks to Members of the Barry Award Nominating Committee:

Oline Cogdill

Larry Gandle

Jeff Popple

Ted Hertel

Meredith Anthony

“Mystery” Mike Bursaw

Mike Dillman

Ayo Onatade

George Easter

Ali Karim

Robin Agnew

Craig Sisterson

Hank Wagner

Kevin Burton Smith

 

Len Deighton a personal appreciation by Mike Ripley

 

Have Pencil, Will Write.

They say you should never meet your heroes. Well, they are wrong.

One of the proudest moments of my life was when, as a student, I had an essay, on the economic policies of fascist states in Europe in the 1930s, returned from the tutor who had marked it with the added comment: Stop trying to write like Len Deighton! (Despite, or perhaps because of this, I got a good mark.)

Even earlier in my academic career, I had reason to be grateful to Len Deighton. As a teenage schoolboy I treated myself to the first hardback novel I ever bought, Billion Dollar Brain in 1966 (it cost 21 shillings). During a lesson with a notoriously sarcastic English master, we were asked to name the novel we had read most recently and I was immediately accused of lying as I could not have read Billion Dollar Brain because ‘it’s not out in paperback yet’. When I claimed I had the hardback first edition, and could bring it to school, the master said: ‘Can I borrow it?’ He did, and I got excellent marks for the rest of the term.

I have written extensively on the impact Len’s debut novel, The Ipcress File (1962), had on me and the whole spy-fiction genre and it is certainly the novel I have read more times than any other and for me, the anonymous hero of Ipcress, Horse Under Water, Funeral In Berlin and Billion Dollar Brain (‘Harry Palmer’ in the films) is an icon of the Sixties. With advancing age, I have come to realise that I belong to the early generation of Deighton fans, as there is a younger generation which believe his massive contribution to spy fiction began in the Eighties with his triple trilogy featuring the world-weary spy Bernard Samson. I’m sticking to my guns. Much as I enjoyed the Samson saga (and its background novel Winter) I think those first four books were Deighton’s greater achievement.

But they were not his only achievement. He had already established himself as a graphic artist (and noted designer of book covers) and combined this skill with a natural talent for cooking in his famous ‘cookstrips’ which even the most culinary illiterate male could follow. He also found time to be a film producer. At the end of the Sixties he broke new ground writing his WWII novel Bomber with the aid of a word-processor, gaining a reputation as a keen adopter of new technology, especially when it was reported that he had a personal telex machine and one of the first radio car telephones. I did once ask Len if it was true about the car phone and he replied with a cheeky grin: ‘And the first call I took on it was Bertrand Russell asking if I knew how to contact The Beatles…’ 

He put his interest in WWII to good use, establishing himself as a military historian of the conflict who had clearly considered and research the German side, in which he was assisted by his wife Ysabele and her fluency in numerous languages. The war was to feature in his fiction in novels such asiXPD, City of Gold and Goodbye Mickey Mouse, which he once told me was his favourite book, and spectacularly in his ‘alternate history’ SS-GB.

I first met Len in The Travellers’ Club in London, where he researched the background to the opening of his novel Winter – specifically New Year’s Eve 1899 in Vienna. Although we had corresponded via email through our mutual friend Harry Keating we had never actually met and Len must have sensed my nervousness, for he quickly set me at my ease and offered me his basic rules when attending any sort of business meeting: ‘Have a clean shirt, wear a tie and always be polite.’ I think he appreciated my reply: ‘Well two out of three ain’t bad’.

From then on we would meet for lunch whenever he was in London, and damn fine lunches they were even without alcohol. (I only ever saw Len drink once, a single glass of champagne at a lunch he hosted in Knightsbridge.) He introduced me to the cuisine of Anton Mosimann (and Anton himself) while I introduced him to the cooking of Marcus Waring, and though the food was good, it was the table talk which always made the occasion. 

At one lunch in a Japanese restaurant a discussion about the economy of Renaissance Florence somehow turned into an explanation (by Len) of how stolen money could be 'laundered' into US dollars in Vichy France. A month or so later, I asked him if I could use his idea as the basis of a plot. He agreed and it became the backbone of my novel Mr Campion's War.

On another occasion, I told him of a recent poll on Radio 5 to find the ‘best Bond villain’ and whilst Blofeld, Goldfinger, Oddjob, etc. all scored highly, one person voted for film producer Kevin McClory. I knew Len had known McClory, and worked with him on various Bond projects, and would be amused by the poll. He was, and immediately penned an eBook, James Bond: My Long and Eventful Search for his Father.

His stories about the film world and publishing in the Sixties were always entertaining, often self-depreciating and (almost) never rancorous. Although when published, Ipcress File was touted as the ‘anti-Bond’ and the media of the time would have loved a Fleming/Deighton confrontation. But Ian Fleming chose Ipcress as his book of the year for The Sunday Times and Deighton has credited the boom in spy stories in the 1960s to the success of the Bond films. He has always maintained that there were two strands: he wrote spy fiction, Ian Fleming (with many others aping him) wrote spy fantasy.

It was that definition which I used as a basic thesis in my history of British thrillers, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, which I dedicated to Len Deighton. For that I remain eternal grateful, as well as for the many books he urged me to read (which I did) and the authors I should champion – Ted Allbeury being a case in point. And, of course, for the casual advice about writing and being an author which passed across those many tables.

I especially remember him going suddenly serious and asking if I ever suffered from ‘writers’ block’. When I said ‘no’, he seemed relieved and dismissed the idea as ‘the blank wall we secretly know is incompetence’. He scoffed at associating writers’ block with technology, from electric typewriters to word processors to laptops. ‘The only implements needed to write book are pencil and paper, everything else is luxury.’

Len Deighton wrote a lot over thirty non-stop years and I thought, as a long-time fan, I had read it all, but I discover one piece which I have missed, his editing of Drinkmanship in 1964, which sounds right up my street.

What a hero!

In Memoriam - Lauren Milne Henderson

 In Memoriam

Lauren Milne Henderson (aka Rebecca Chance)

30th September 1966 - March 2026

It is with deep sadness that the crime writing community have learned of the recent death of the award-winning crime writer Lauren Milne Henderson. As well as being an author Lauren worked as a journalist for a number of well-known newspapers and magazines.

Under the name of Lauren Milne Henderson, she was the author of the Sam Jones series featuring sculptor turned sleuth Sam Jones. The first book in the series is Dead White Female was published in 1995 and it was followed by six more books.  Too Many Blondes (1996), The Black Rubber Dress (1997) Freeze My Margarita (1998) The Strawberry Tattoo (1999), Chained (2001) and Pretty Boy (2002)

 

Following on from her Sam Jones series she also wrote the Young Adult Kiss/Scarlett series starting with Kiss Me Kill Me in 2008 which featured 16-year-old Scarlett Wakefield who must clear her name after the last boy she kisses dies in her arms and she is accused of his death. There were 3 more books in this series published. Kisses and Lies (2009), Kisses in the Dark (2010) and Kisses of Death (2011). Kiss Me Kill Me was nominated for an Anthony Award in 2009.

For a long period, she was a regular attendee at a number of crime writing festivals especially Bouchercon during the 1990s and 2000s.

Under the name Rebecca Chance she was also the author of 10 glamourous thrillers and what was known as ‘Bonkbusters’.  Whilst all standalones previous characters could be found in other books.  The first book in the series was Divas (2009) and the last book Killer Affair (2017). Killer Heels (2012), Bad Angels (2012) Killer Queens (2013) and Bad Brides (2014) all made the Sunday Times Best seller list.

In 2002 together with Stella Duffy, Lauren edited Tart Noir an anthology of women-behaving-badly crime stories.

Lauren also wrote 3 romantic comedies between 2003 and 2005.

As a non-fiction author she wrote the Jane Austen’s Guide to Dating (2005). Alongside over 100 well-known crime writers she contributed to the Anthony, Agatha and Macavity Award wining Books to Die For where she wrote two personal essays under the names Lauren Henderson on Agatha Christie’s Endless Night and as Rebecca Chance on Have His Carcass by Dorothy L Sayers.

 Lauren was also one of the contributors to Barry Forshaw’s 2 volume British Crime Writing: An Encyclopaedia. She wrote the essay on Peter O’Donnell and Modesty Blaise. She was also featured in the Encyclopaedia as an author in her own right.

In 2014 under the name of Rebecca Chance and along with crime writer Laura Lippman a travel article was published in The New York Times entitled ‘Murder, They Wrote’ about a trip that they took on the Orient Express.

In 2020 Lauren Henderson short story #MeTwo won the CWA Short Story Dagger. It was published in the anthology Invisible Blood which was edited by Maxim Jakubowski and brought together various short stories focusing on themes of contemporary crime and social issues.

In 2024 Lauren attended the CWA Daggers that took place in London.  Rather sadly and with

much regret it was the last time we saw each other.   I have incredibly fond memories of hanging out with her especially when we managed to find ourselves attending the same Bouchercon. I specifically remember closing the bar with her in Baltimore. It was the first one I attended and it was a joy to see her as at the time I knew very few people.

Lauren’s death is a great loss to the crime writing community and she will be sorely missed by not only fellow crime writers but all her fans. Our condolences to all of her family and friends.

 

 

500 Square Foot of History

“His bedroom and his bathroom looked out on a tiny court containing a sundial and a silversmith. Few people who walked down St James’s Street knew of the court’s existence.” – The Human Factor by Graham Greene

One November day, many years ago, I was walking back from a meeting near St James’s Park in London and spotted an intriguing passageway I’d never noticed before. Lined with dark panels, it appeared to lead to a little courtyard and the sign on the wall named it Pickering Place. Peering down the covered passage, what I glimpsed of the courtyard appeared secluded and private, so I carried on my way but, curiosity piqued, I looked it up on the train home.

As a teenager, my father had given me Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City to read, and, as an already-avid crime fiction fan, the idea of a varied and eccentric community investigating a murder immediately popped into my head. The idea recurred several times over the years, and I even spent a month in San Francisco in my twenties, staying in a Barbary Lane-style courtyard, exploring the city I’d read so much about, but the idea was transient and unfixed, and the exact way in which I could bring these people together in a UK setting eluded me.

Until the day I discovered Pickering Place. Described as the smallest residential square in London – and it really is small, about 500 square feet – it was rich with history. Sometimes, it only takes a word or a phrase to spark an idea for a writer, and ‘the smallest square in London’ was enough for me. The idea for a crime novel set in a London square immediately began to form, and that was before I read the wealth of history in this tiny place. 

Formerly part of Henry VIII’s real tennis courts, it was acquired by builder Thomas Stroud in 1731, who built many of the houses surrounding the square. By 1741 however, William Pickering, a coffee merchant, had taken ownership. He was son-in-law to Widow Bourne, the founder of Berry Bros. & Rudd Ltd, the historic wine merchants who have been operating next door on St James’s Street since 1698.

In the 18th century, Pickering Place became something of a ‘scene’ and, as a secluded, unseen corner of St James’s, attracted all sorts of unsavoury activity from the aristocratic society in the neighbourhood. It gained a reputation for gambling, bear-baiting, cock-fighting, bare-knuckle boxing, and even as a location for illegal duels. One of its most famous duellists was rumoured to be Beau Brummell, famous dandy and inventor of the cravat, whose statue stands in nearby Jermyn Street. It has even been suggested that the last duel in London was fought there, but since pistols were the weapon of choice for duellists by then, the limited square footage would make that unlikely. The words ‘fish’ and ‘barrel’ spring to mind.

The square appeared to clean up its act in the 19th century however, becoming home to the Texan Republic’s legation until Texas joined the United States in 1845, and in 1914 was put to use as a temporary recruitment and sign-up spot for The Royal Fusiliers. The historians at Berry Bros. & Rudd even discovered photographs in their archive from 1922 showing Pickering Place being used as a film set, the film’s title unknown but featuring two duelling, costumed swordsmen. A source of those ‘last duel’ rumours, perhaps. In the 1950s, writer Graham Greene lived there, in a flat above an oyster bar and below General Auchinleck, using the square as inspiration for the living quarters of Colonel Daintry in his novel, The Human Factor. 

Did you know London still had lamplighters? I didn’t, until I went back to Pickering Place to explore. I found that not only was the square truly tiny, it was also very beautiful, with Georgian architecture, iron railings, and an original, still-used Victorian gas lamp. My fictional Marchfield Square sprang fully to life for me that day, albeit on a larger plot and with fewer people, and the story of a special and quite improbable place in London was born.

Sadly, Pickering Place’s gas lamp has now been converted to LED but there are still over 250 left in the area, looked after by a devoted group of skilled engineers. The commitment of others to preserve and document our history also inspired the second book in the Marchfield Mysteries, Murder Like Clockwork, although setting the books in London has provided an embarrassment of riches in that respect.

While the idea for Marchfield Square appeared to download itself to my brain in a single moment – an eclectic residential community in the heart of London, overlooked by a wealthy, somewhat mysterious widow – the rest of the story came in snippets, inspired by the history of the square. The characters include a coffee addicted writer, a military man, and a retired film actor, all part of a community of found family hiding their secrets in the shadows… And then I asked the question: what would happen to that community if the wrong person moved in? 

When I finally sat down to write 10 Marchfield Square it was 2021. Even for me, that was a long time for an idea to percolate, but sometimes, the moment is just right. Publishing was rediscovering the joy of crime novels with heart and humour, and the book flowed easily, and I had a great time planting little references to Pickering Place in its pages.

One thing most writers have in common is our curiosity, our need to look up (and subsequently rabbit-hole) even the idlest of thoughts. And even if that research never makes it into a book, I sure none of us would have it any other way. 

For more in depth history about Pickering Place, do visit the sites of Berry Bros. and Rudd, The London Gasketeers, and The Paris Review.

Murder Like Clockwork by Nicola Whyte. (Bloomsbury Publishing)

An empty house that isn't empty. A victim who vanishes. An impossible crime? Every Thursday at midday Audrey Brooks cleans the Petrov house. Mr Petrov is never home - in fact he seems to use the house purely as storage for his impressive collection of antiques - but that doesn't affect the care with which Audrey mops, polishes, and carefully winds each of the dozens of beautiful clocks that decorate the tall, elegant, empty London mansion. Until the morning she finds a corpse in the back bedroom, the pristine walls and floor covered in blood, and flees the house in panic. Fifteen minutes later, the police arrive... and find nothing. No body. No blood. The only thing slightly out of the ordinary is the clock in that back bedroom, which is now running four minutes slow. With no victim, the police are convinced there was no murder, but Audrey knows better. A man has been killed, and if they won't do anything about it, she - and her annoying friend Lewis - will. Whodunnit is one thing, but this detective duo must also wrestle with when - and where on earth is the body? It's not long since they solved the murder of their neighbour, so they're not rookie sleuths, and at least this time the case has no connection to their home. Does it?

More information about Nicola Whyte and her books can be found on her website. She can also be found on Facebook. She can also be found on Instagram, X, Bluesky and Threads @nixawhy.