The Dizzying Freedom of Standing Alone

Vertigo. U2 sang about it. We know what it is – that weird sensation of motion, a spinning or tilting feeling, where it feels like you or the world around you is moving even though you’re standing still. Vertigo plays a part in my latest novel All Of Them Lied – and not only in the story itself – but also in reality. Because though it’s my fourth book, this story is actually my first standalone novel. To write it was both liberating and terrifying. The blank page really was blank. None of my Garda friends from the Shaw and Darmody series could pop in to say hi. No catching up with their family dramas, their infighting and bickering. No hanging out with the lads from the Divisional Detective Unit. So even to write this story was to experience that strange, exposed, dizzying feeling. 

And as for the idea behind the story? Vertigo is there too. As writers, we are programmed to ask the What if question. It’s often the tiniest spark of curiosity, wonder, or just plain nosiness which will ignite the fire of creativity. And don’t we all just pray that there’s enough fuel to sustain our 80,000+ words? In my case, the What if question that brought All Of Them Lied into being was helpfully provided by the man to whom I am (still) married, who I’ll call Hiking Husband. 

The set up was as follows. The year was 2018. After many months of juggling elder family caring schedules and the emptying of the nest, a holiday beckoned, and we decided to go on a self-guided hiking trip in northern Italy. (The cold part.) In planning the holiday you were able to choose which level of difficulty you would be most comfortable with. As we prided ourselves on reasonable fitness levels (and we were then still whippersnappers in our fifties) we chose level four out of a possible five. Do you suffer from vertigo was one of the questions on the information sheet. ‘No,’ said he. ‘No,’ said I.

The fourth day into our trek after a sustained climb, we veered steeply up through beech woods onto the main ridge. To our right the ground rose even higher, flanked by deciduous trees and the remains of an old Roman wall. To our left, an abyss. A ravine. A cliff. A long, dangerous drop or, rather a view down and down, impossibly far down past the tops of tall trees and beneath them, more tall trees, to a bright scribble of water at the bottom of the valley. We were on a path that was so narrow you had to walk in single file and watch carefully where you stepped. Even the idea of using the poles became terrifying because of the fear that you could inadvertently shove yourself over the side. The thought of your backpack catching against a branch and causing you to stumble was another nightmare. 

Reader. It turned out that I did – I do – suffer from vertigo. Yes I know I’d signed a form saying I didn’t but now, here, I did. Hiking Husband hiked happily up ahead without a care in the world. He may have been humming. HHH? What the heck? Behind him, I began to experience all the symptoms of vertigo. My legs began to shake and my sweaty palms clutched the hiking poles for dear life. I counted my thumping heartbeats and narrowed my gaze to the path ahead of me, looking neither left nor right. Time stood still. I moved even slower. Eventually, HHH realised something was wrong. He frowned. 

‘Let’s take a breather,’ he said. Then he pointed to the bottom of the cliff and said (to lighten the mood he later claimed) ‘What if you wanted to murder someone? Wouldn’t that be a great way to do it? No one would ever find out.’

The idea for my story took root on that day. (No, not a plan to dispatch a HHH.) The character of Thea – a wealthy young woman – talented, trusting, a little spoiled and protected, and therefore vulnerable. I wondered what if Thea went on a fun adventure with the people she loves most in the world, not knowing that one of them wanted her dead? What if she had an ‘accident’ that was meant to kill her, but didn’t? 

And what if she remembered nothing of the accident? What if the accident had caused her to lose her most recent memories and she came back home to recuperate and rebuild her life with those same loved ones, not knowing who she could trust? 

Because All Of Them Lied. 

All of them Lied. By Gill Perdue (Penguin Books) Out Now

Thea wakes from a coma, having forgotten much of the recent past. As well as learning to walk again, she studies the list of ‘facts’ she keeps on her phone, hoping something will unlock her memory. Her top three facts are: I was in Italy I was with the people I love the most. I fell down a ravine and I’m lucky to be alive. But as Thea gets hazy glimpses of the lead-up to her fall, the facts stop adding up. Trapped at home in the middle of the Irish countryside, dependent on those who were on holiday with her – her fiancé, her brother, her sister-in-law and her best friend – terrifying questions surface: Was I pushed? Why are they lying? Who can I trust? As memories come tumbling back, Thea realises she is in race against time to figure things out – and that her life hangs in the balance.

More information about Gill Perdue and her books can be found on her website.

You can also find her on Facebook and on Instagram @gillperduewriter

Forthcoming books from Headline Publishing

 July 2026

Festival season. The streets are filled to bursting with tourists, and Edinburgh is gripped by a stifling heatwave. Not the best time for one of the most violent murders the city has witnessed in years. The victim of the murder cannot be identified; its brutal nature of the shocking both the public and the police. What could possibly have inflicted such gruesome injuries? Was it a wild animal on the loose, or the beginning of some horrific gang warfare? Another body is found on Musselburgh Beach: naked, comatose . . . but this time still alive. DI Tony McLean can't shake the feeling that there is a connection to the killing - but there are few leads for him and the team to go by. The police are at a loss, and the city is on edge - will the killer strike again? The Violent Hour is by James Oswald.

The Eyewitness is by Naomi Williams. Rachel Cartwright has a terrifying condition. Every 48 hours, her eyes shut tight - and stay that way for two long days. She can't work, can't go out. And, worse, when the world goes dark, she's certain someone is watching her. She can't prove it - but I believe her. And, as her doctor, I owe it to Rachel to help. I may not understand what's happening to her, but I've made it my job to protect her. To keep watch when she can't. But I can't help but feel there's something Rachel's not telling me. A shadow in her past she won't talk about. And now... I'm starting to feel it too. Like someone's watching me.

The Pandora Conspiracy is by Andy McDermott. Pandora's Box has long been thought a myth. But when archaeologist Nina Wilde and her husband, former SAS soldier Eddie Chase, are summoned to the White House for a secret meeting, it appears the legendary artefact is real, with the potential to bring great benefits to humanity - or unimaginable harm. Mistrustful of the motives of those who want to find it, Nina sets out with Eddie on a mission that is the opposite of her usual goal: to ensure the ancient treasure remains undiscovered for ever. But as more groups join the hunt - including one led by her own daughter Macy - Nina finds herself trapped in an ever more deadly race which, if she loses, could destroy the world as we know it - and if she wins will tear her family apart...

A perfect couple. But one of them is a killer. Which one? Patrick Vanderpool, son of a billionaire media mogul, is destined for power. But the affair he's having could ruin everything. Vanessa Vanderpool, married to one of America's most influential men, has her own ambitions. But the affair he's having could ruin everything. When the other woman is found brutally murdered, there are only two suspects... One of them is guilty. But which one? Conman-turned-defence lawyer Eddie Flynn must risk his life to find out... One of Us is Guilty is by Steve Cavanagh.

August 2026

The One Who Walked Away is by Karen Rose. Bounty hunter Elle Randolph is on the hunt for a fugitive in the wilderness of Mendocino County. She's also on the run from her past, and the accident she walked away from - but that killed her abusive husband. When the manager of the inn Elle is staying in is murdered, she and her boss Sara become people of interest to local detective Ronan Clarke. He needs to know exactly what placed these strangers at the scene of the crime. As Ronan questions Elle and Sara, he realises the fugitive they are tracking could be a suspect for the local murder. But to share information there needs to be trust. And, right now, is Ronan in a position to drop the bounty hunters from his enquiries? When another person turns up dead, Ronan sees there could be more to this investigation than he could have imagined. And that Elle Randolph isn't telling him everything . . .

You witnessed a murder. But no one believes you. When Ria moves with her husband to

Silverleaf Heights, a lavish gated community, she tries to settle in and recover from the accident that nearly took her life. On the surface, everything is perfect; the neighbours welcome her with open arms, even though she doesn't feel she belongs, and she is safe and secure with all the security cameras and the locked gate.  Or is she? Late one night, Ria witnesses a woman being murdered in the communal garden. When the police go to investigate, they find the neighbours away and no sign of disturbance. But Ria knows what she saw, and is determined to find out who the woman was - even if no one else believes her.Then an anonymous WhatsApp appears on her phone - a video of another woman being murdered. When she looks closely, she quickly realises the woman is her. The message disappears, as if it never existed, but the meaning is clear: stop looking for the dead woman, or you'll be next. I know What I Saw is by Kathryn Croft.

The Midnight Guests is by Alex Hay. 1926. Diana Gold, owner and impresario, throws open the doors to the most opulent new hotel in London. As the champagne flows and the chandeliers shimmer, millionaires and gamblers rub shoulders with film stars and royalty. Though, things at the Hotel Artemis aren't quite what they seem - including the two guests Diana expects at midnight. Powerful and dangerous, they've dragged her from the gutter and taught her all she knows. Now Diana must take perfect care of them - unless they take care of her first. But when a body is found in the hotel's finest suite, the lavish opening night begins to spiral out of control. And over twenty-four fateful hours, the staff and guests of the Artemis will find out why they are really there.

September 2026

Music to Die For at the Seaview Hotel is by Glenda Young. The A64 are reuniting for the gig of a lifetime at Scarborough's Open Air Theatre, and Helen Dexter is overjoyed when they book into her Seaview Hotel.  However, as old tensions rise within the band, it's clear each musician has something to hide. Why is lead singer Starr running away from her past? Why is Pete the drummer secretive about where he's been for the last forty years? And when guitarist Dave breaks his legs in a freak window-cleaning accident, a new guitarist arrives, causing even more discord for all. Then, as the band rehearse for their comeback gig, a dead body is found. Can Seaview Hotel landlady Helen Dexter and her rescue greyhound Suki hit the right note and solve the crime?

October 2026

When Johnny Raglan is sentenced to life imprisonment, his past catches up with him. Doing time runs in the family, and everyone knows the score. But prison life isn't easy and Johnny's wife Janey and their two young sons are about to learn the hard way what it takes to survive . .. The Stretch is by Martina Cole.

They have your wife and son, what would you do to save them. Luke Jones, his wife Sofia and beloved son Max are hiking in a remote Scottish forest when they stumble across the body of a murdered woman. They're even more terrified when the killers reappear, guns in hand. Managing to flee, they each get separated in the dense woods - with Luke stumbling and knocking himself unconscious. When he wakes, there's no sign of Sofia and Max. But when his phone starts ringing, the nightmare really begins... Luke will do anything to save his wife and son. But, as a pawn in a deadly game which drags up his buried past, can he even save himself? No One is Safe is by Simon Kernick

Forthcoming books from HarperCollins (Including Hemlock Press)

July 2026

Icarus 17 is by Charles Cumming. A new thriller set in the ingenious world of Box 88, the covert intelligence service operating without government oversight. A young couple on the run. Max Radinsky thought he was living the perfect life in Athens. But when his girlfriend, Yasmine, is forced to flee the city, Max joins her on a desperate journey across Greece. What begins as an escape becomes a fight for survival as the young couple become the targets of an international manhunt. Untrained and living off their wits, they know their luck won’t last forever… The spy hunting them down. Lachlan Kite, head of covert intelligence service BOX 88, hasn’t seen his former lover, Martha Raine, for more than twenty years. But when Martha begs his help in finding her missing son, Kite has no choice but to act. What they uncover is worse than either could have imagined. Yasmine is carrying a secret which could destabilise the Middle East for a generation – and a team of merciless Israeli intelligence agents have been given orders to kill her on sight. To save Max – and stop a global crisis – Kite and Martha must reach the young couple before their pursuers close in.

Art restorer and legendary spy Gabriel Allon searches for the missing wife of a British

billionaire in the electrifying new tale of greed, corruption, and betrayal. Alice Winter, one of Britain’s most dazzling socialites, seemingly has the perfect life – a lavish home in posh Knightsbridge, a grand estate in Devon, millions of followers on social media who eagerly await her next post. But when she disappears without a trace while on holiday with three old friends from Cambridge, her desperate husband, the real estate baron Edward Knight, turns to none other than Gabriel Allon to find her. He soon discovers that Alice Winter is not the woman she appears to be, that she has a reckless side, that she has secrets. But Edward Knight has a secret too, a secret so dangerous that Gabriel will have no choice but to return to the life he thought he had left behind. An old enemy lurks there, waiting for him to make one misstep, waiting for the perfect moment to exact vengeance. From its irresistible opening chapters to its heart-pounding climax and shocking final twist, Ransom is by Daniel Silva and is a riveting, page-turning tour de force that proves yet again why Daniel Silva is the reigning master of international intrigue and suspense.

A scorching summer. Down in the seaside town of Teignmouth, ex-Met detective Eden Driscoll grows restless after a long summer caring for his nine-year-old nephew. A desperate plea. When a man knocks at Eden’s door desperate for help, claiming someone is trying to kill him, Eden jumps at the chance to solve a mystery. But before he can ask more questions, the stranger disappears. A deadly fire. The cry for help came too late – that same night a house along the coast is burnt to the ground, and a man’s remains are discovered among the rubble. In the days after, Eden’s curiosity only grows. He soon finds himself investigating, and begins to uncover a web of deception, jealousy and corruption. The Burning Tide is by William Shaw.

The Saffron Thief is by T L Mogford. In 1666, England's saffron

industry is booming, with the spice fetching a staggering £4 per pound—rivalling gold. Fabian Smith, the sensible second son of a Holborn poulterer, has sacrificed his dreams of adventure for family duty. But when the Great Fire claims his father and his reckless brother plunges them into debt with a ruthless conman, their home—and freedom—hang in the balance. Desperate to save his family, Fabian hatches a daring plan: steal the fortune they need. His target? The wealthiest saffron grower in Saffron Walden. Disguised and determined, he arrives just in time for the harvest, only to discover that the townsfolk are far more cunning than he expected. As danger closes in, Fabian must navigate treachery and his own heart, racing against time to save everything he holds dear.

Beware of the Trains is a collection of 16 short stories from Edmund Crispin featuring his beloved amateur detective, Gervase Fen. Crime fiction at its quirkiest and best. Who burglarised the train heading for Victoria Station, and whatever became of its conductor? Did the village idiot or Mrs Foley murder the mean-spirited Edgar Foley, or could the constable be responsible for the devious deed? Who on Earth will be able to untangle the affair of the disappearing car, the black necktie, and the abortive theft? Enter Gervase Fen, Oxford professor and sometime super-sleuth, an expert at solving cases that baffle even the most astute policemen. These sixteen short classics by a master of the modern detective story will test your crime solving abilities as well; Edmund Crispin has provided all the clues you need to detect the solution, using logic and common sense.

Fen Country is by Edmund Crispin. Dandelions and hearing aids, a bloodstained cat, a Leonardo drawing, a corpse with an alibi, a truly poisonous letter … These are just some of the unusual clues that Oxford don/detective Gervase Fen and his friend Inspector Humbleby are confronted with in this sparkling collection of short mystery stories by one of the great masters of detective fiction.

August 2026

A witty and sly thriller, as social-climber Diana Leyland aims to pick off another husband unless his daughter can thwart her scheme. “You know Diana Leyland… she climbed the ladder by marrying a man on each rung! I think she gets rid of them when she’s got what she needs. I think she poisons them… I wonder who’s next.” To lose one husband is unlucky. To lose two is careless. But three? Three must be murder… Diana Leyland has her sights set on a new target, David Farrand. His daughter Cat has other ideas… Claws Out is by Bella Mackie

September 2026

Gravity Let Me Go is by Trent Dalton. It's the story of a murder. It's the story of a marriage. It's

the story of a lifetime. It's the story of a murder. It's the story of a marriage. It's the story of a lifetime. Noah and Rita. Rita and Noah. They’ve survived a lot: marriage, money troubles, two children and a hurricane that should have killed them. But can their relationship survive Noah’s obsession with a cold case murder? Noah, a true crime journalist, has just published his first book – the subject for which landed in his lap when the as-yet-unidentified killer of a local woman left a clue addressed to him in his home mailbox. Everything should be coming up roses for him and his family – but the local police hate him, he’s having creepy hallucinations, someone just tried to run him over, his beloved wife Rita has been writing him cryptic messages in the steam on the bathroom mirror – and another apocalyptic storm is heading to Brisbane… As Noah hurtles headfirst into his own swirling storm of secrets, can he cling for dear life to the only story that really matters – his love story with Rita?

Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel is by Lucy Foley. High in the Swiss Alps, with glorious

mountain views and exclusive access to powdery slopes, the Grand Alpine Hotel draws guests from far and wide. The notorious actress. The high-flying politician. The reserved political wife. The reckless friend. The shrewd doctor. But when a guest enters a gondola alive, only to be found dead at the top of the mountain, it’s clear there’s a killer in their midst. As dark histories simmer, and old grudges emerge like cracks in the ice, someone watches on from the shadows. An unassuming woman with an extraordinary mind: Miss Marple. She suspects everyone in the hotel, and she’s right to. For it isn’t just a question of who has a motive, but who’s next…

October 2026

Roger Ackroyd, Betty Barnard, Amyas Crale, Linnet Doyle… Agatha Christie's most famous victims are celebrated in this illustrated alphabet, parodying some of her most fiendish murders in this perfect gift book for Christie fans. ‘In the midst of tragedy we start the comedy.’ Agatha Christie, The ABC Murders. Agatha Christie was crowned ‘Queen of Crime’ by book reviewers when her sensational The Murder of Roger Ackroyd exploded onto bookshelves exactly 100 years ago. She published new books every year for half a century and became the world’s bestselling novelist, creating more than 2,000 characters – and killing more than 250 of them. Poisoned, stabbed, electrocuted, shot, strangled, bludgeoned, injected, pushed off heights, drowned, smothered, incinerated, trampled to death … a litany of carnage lurks beneath the surface of Agatha’s books, and yet many of her fans still insist on calling them ‘cozy’. Tom Racine’s The A B C of Murder wholesome existence as an illustrator, video producer and voice artist took a dark twist when he was commissioned to design and write two ABC books in the style of Edward Gorey about death in Tolkien and Shakespeare. But, as he soon discovered, those two paled in comparison to the Queen of Crime in the gentle art of infamy…

Exhumation is by Nicholas Binge. Arlo's having troubl e sleeping. Private Investigator Arlo Abbas wakes up to discover £10,000 suspiciously deposited into his account. Except he’s not been approached with a case and he doesn’t know the sender. Then, he finds a scrap of paper stuffed through his mailbox. Find Sophie Banik. His investigation leads him to a mysterious cult and the grave of a murdered girl. But there is no body buried there. Instead, Arlo unearths a coffin full of journals belonging to Liz, a girl who claims to have been underground for sixty-three days and to no longer sleep. Each answer seems to bring new questions: Who is Liz? Can she be telling the truth? What happened to Sophie? And who hired him? Arlo begins to wonder if he even wants to solve this case, but he doesn't have a choice – it’s been keeping him up at night.

You Are Mine is by Alex Lake. Mary Jordan is walking along the street when she spots a sign. If you are reading this, I am watching you. You are now part of my collection. You will be mine, and your life will never be the same again. Mary is horrified. Her skin crawls at the idea of being watched. She searches the buildings, looking for a face at a window. But only for a moment. There’s nothing to fear. It’s obviously just a harmless prank. She could not be more wrong…

November 2026

The Collateral Heart is by Jeffery Deaver. A terrible arson in Manhattan burns an old building to the ground. Amelia Sachs—criminalist Lincoln Rhyme’s wife and crime scene investigator extraordinaire–manages to save a victim from a fiery death. And in doing so she makes an eerie discovery. The arsonist has left a package of clues that might hint as to their motive and where they will strike next. As the perp prepares for another attack, and Rhyme and Sachs work feverishly to unravel the mystery, they cross paths with a detective from Long Island. Desdemona Vale is a sharp and unstoppable officer—balancing her fervent search for the killer of a young woman from her neighbourhood, with the arduous task of caring for her two young granddaughters. The searches for their respective villains lead Rhyme, Sachs and Vale improbably to another member of the cast: James Harper, a famed historian and the host of one of the most popular history podcasts in the country, a man who may, or may not, be able to shed light on the perp’s motive and identity. As always in a Jeffery Deaver novel, the multiple, interweaving plots race along nonstop adhering to the template of a one-sitting read; nothing is quite what it seems to be; and the novel features three surprise endings! More shockingly yet, as the layers of the plots are pulled back, Lincoln Rhyme learns to his dismay that he has a new nemesis—a worthy and terrifying successor to the Watchmaker. Can he stop the carnage in time? 

The Midwinter Martyr is by S J Parris. Venice, 1576. Giordano Bruno, heretic, philosopher and spy, is on the run from the Inquisition. He flees to Venice, but the beautiful city proves no safe haven. The killing of an aristocrat and the arrest of his wife and secretary for murder are causing unrest. When an anonymous letter, written in code, proclaims the woman’s innocence, the city’s chief of intelligence employs Bruno to find the writer.But the death is mired in a tangle of dangerous secrets, and Bruno soon learns there are some very powerful people who will stop at nothing to suppress the truth…

Backstabbers by Eliza Jabore

 My debut novel, Backstabbers, sees three best friends lost in the wilderness, desperately in need of help, stumble upon a creepy cabin in the woods. Sounds like the setup for a classic slasher, right? Well, it was also my terrifying reality once when one mistake proved nearly catastrophic for me and my friends in the Colorado Rockies. 

We planned a simple loop hike on a beautiful spring day. But it wasn’t long before the snow started. None of us had prepared for winter weather, dressed only in hoodies and hiking boots, but we didn’t want to turn back. This was an adventure after all! By the time we summited, the snow was ankle-deep, falling so fast that our foot tracks had already been buried.

We ate lunch and began our descent. There was a cute snowball fight in the forest, everyone laughing, ignoring the bitter cold seeping into our boots. We were most of the way back to my car when I dug my frozen fingertips into my pocket. My empty pocket. Strange. Had my pocket been empty before? Panic gripped me. Wasn’t that where my car keys had been? Why the hell would I put them in my hoodie pocket and not my backpack?

“Um, guys,” I muttered, “do any of you have the keys?”

I knew full well no one else had my car keys. But denial is a powerful thing, however fleeting.

There was a scrambled search through everyone’s pockets and backpacks, but the reality was grim and inescapable: my car keys were gone. I had lost them.

Our situation was dire. I could’ve dropped the keys anywhere along our hike. We were already almost back to the car, we’d eaten our food, finished our water, and were frozen through to the bone. It was still snowing hard. This was beginning to feel like the setup to a horror story, one where the doomed travellers froze to death on the mountaintop.

We retraced our already snow-covered steps. My husband heroically volunteered to race back to the summit while the rest of us combed through the forest where we’d had our snowball fight. Then we did something remarkably stupid. We split up. With so much snow, I managed to wander off trail and when I turned around, I couldn’t see my friends. I couldn’t even hear them. There was nothing but pine trees for miles. I called out and heard nothing in reply. I couldn’t feel my toes. And now, the sun had begun to set.

Yep! This was how people died.

Luckily, I found my friends again and when my husband returned empty-handed, we agreed that searching for the keys was a fool’s errand. We returned to the car, now buried in snow. Darkness crept in, bringing with it a new, numbing cold. We were going to freeze to death if we didn’t find shelter. We began trying to bust the car window so at least we could sleep in there for the night.

That’s when one of my friends said words straight from the slasher movie script, “Hey, I think I see a cabin over there.”

Across the snowy road, barely visible, was a house. The only house around for miles. Luckily, when we knocked, a kind (very strange) old lady answered. She let us wait in her garage and phone a friend to come rescue us.

“You’re very lucky,” she said in a raspy voice coated by years of cigarette smoke, “so many mountain lions up here, and you wouldn’t even hear ‘em comin’.”

My friends and I got lucky. But, if that house hadn’t been there with a kind woman to answer, who knows how it could’ve played differently. If say, the elements had bested us, or a creepy man had let us in. If our friendship hadn’t been solid, and festering resentments surfaced...These were the musings that first birthed Backstabbers. A novel where three best friends lost in the wilderness (and a serial killer’s old hunting grounds) need help and come upon an isolated cabin, where an all-too-eager man answers the door.

This trip on the mountain was just one of many personal nightmares that made it into my book. Traveling for the best part of ten years, I collected quite a few. After all, when you’re traveling, you open yourself up to incredible new experiences and the chance to rise to challenges, to surprise yourself by what you’re capable of. But being outside of your element does more than just broaden your horizons, it leaves you vulnerable, too, and utterly exposed. The stakes are higher so far from home, away from your safety net, and this is where our true characters are often uncovered. Because conflict doesn’t just build character, it reveals it, too.

That’s what my main character, Jade, learns the hard way.

Out there in the wilderness, you discover who you (and your friends) truly are.

 Backstabbers by Eliza Jabore (Little Brown Book Group) Out Now

Never turn your back on a friend. Jade, Stef and Zoe are hiking Washington's Bones Hollow Trail, braving cougars, snakes and the storms that roll in without warning. The friends' paranoia isn't helped by listening to a true crime podcast about the serial killer whose hunting ground they're hiking through. Then when Stef twists her ankle - badly - there's no one to hear them scream for help. The only sign of life for miles is a cabin that looks straight out of a horror movie, with an owner who's a little too eager to invite them in. The friends must soon find a way to survive as things spiral out of control. After all, who can you trust when your back's against the wall? But unfortunately for them, the only thing more twisted than this nightmare is their friendship...

You can find Eliza Jabore on Instagram @ elizajabore_theauthor and on X @KupcakeProse

Crime Writers of Canada 2026 Awards of Excellence

 

Crime Writers of Canada have announced the 

winners of the 2026 Awards of Excellence

The Peter Robinson Award for Best Crime Novel (With a $1000 prize)

The Black Wolf by Louise Penny,  Minotaur Books

Best Crime First Novel (Sponsored by Melodie Campbell with a $1000 prize)

The Beltane Massacre by Ray Critch, Breakwater Books

Best Crime Novel Set in Canada  (Sponsored by Shaftesbury with a $500 prize)

Salt on Her Tongue by C.S. Porter,  Vagrant Press

The Whodunit Award for Best Traditional Mystery (Sponsored by Jane Doe with a $500 prize)

The Cost of a Hostage by Iona Whishaw TouchWood Editions

Best Crime Short Story (Sponsored by Crime Writers of Canada with a $200 prize)

“Polly Wants a Freaking Cracker” by Sylvia Maultash Warsh, in Malice Domestic: Murder Most Humorous, Wildside Press

Best French Language Crime Book (Sponsored by Carrick Publishing with a $500 prize)

 Une nuit d’été à Littlebrook by Maureen Martineau, Héliotrope

Best Juvenile / YA Crime Book (Sponsored by Superior Shores Press with a $250 prize)

The Mystery of the Haunted Dance Hall by Charis Cotter, Tundra Books

The Brass Knuckles Award for Best Nonfiction Crime Book  (Sponsored by David Reid Simpson Law Firm (Hamilton) with a $300 prize)

Hitman: The Untold Story of Canada’s Deadliest Assassin, by Julian Sher & Lisa Fitterman,  HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

Best Unpublished Crime Novel manuscript written by an unpublished author  (Sponsored by ECW Press with a $500 prize)

Val's Story by Anne Burlakoff, 

Bute Noir 2026

 

Bute Noir Programme

Friday 7^th August

4.00pm – 5.00pm 

Heard it Through The Grapevine

Craig Robertson & Alexandra Sokoloff

Interviewed by Louise Fairbairn

5.30pm - 6.30pm 

It’s The Police

G.R. Halliday, William Shaw & G.D. Wright

Chaired by Nicola Meighan

7.00pm - 8.00pm 

Hard Truths

Claire McGowan & Andi Osho

Interviewed by Nicola Meighan

8.30pm – 9.30pm 

Criminal Complexities

Louise Candlish & Liz Nugent

Interviewed by Bryan Burnett

10.00pm – 11.00pm 

The Friday Night Quiz

Or it might be a game show, we haven’t decided yet... But there will be a bunch of crime writers and lots of laughs. More to come!

Saturday 8th August

10.00am – 11.00am 

Crime, Coffee and Croissants

Kick off a crime-filled day with a chat, a cuppa, and a croissant or two in the company of Myra Duffy & Alex Gray

11.30am – 12.30pm 

Pride and Prejudice

D.V. Bishop, Allan Gaw & Louise Welsh

Chaired by Bob McDevitt

1.00pm – 2.00pm 

In Conversation:

Harriet Tyce & Erin Kelly

Two of the UK’s best writers talk books

2.30pm – 3.30pm 

Good Cop, Bad Cop

Remi Kone, Jay Stringer & Luca Veste

Chaired by Heather Fitt

4.00pm – 5.00pm

Scandi Noir

Ørjan Karlsson & Jenny Lund Madsen

Interviewed by Craig Sisterson

5.30pm – 6.30pm 

Missing Without A Trace

Tim Weaver

Interviewed by Ayo Onatade

7.00pm – 8.00pm 

21st Century Christie

Ruth Ware

Interviewed by Bryan Burnett

8.30pm – 10.00pm 

Dead Good Anniversaries

Chris Brookmyre & Doug Johnstone

Celebrating 30 years of Brookmyre and 20 years of Johnstone.

Interviewed by Marisa Haetzman

Sunday 9th August

10.00am – 11.30am Island Bus Tour

10.30am – 11.30am 

Hunting Shadows: Peter Tobin

Jane Hamilton

Interviewed by Craig Robertson

12.00pm – 1.00pm 

Thrillers and Killers

Ilona Bannister, Gavin Bell & Ajay Chowdhury

Chaired by Colin Sinclair

1.30pm – 2.30pm 

First Blood

Debut panel with Frances Crawford, Linda Duncan McLaughlin & May Rinaldi

Chaired by Craig Robertson

3.00pm – 4.00pm 

Gangland Girls

Alex Kane & Anna Smith

Interviewed by Alistair Liddle

4.30pm – 5.30pm 

Soldier, Soldier

C.J. Howell & Alan Parks

Interviewed by Craig Sisterson

Bute Museum

7 Stuart Street, Rothesay,

Isle of Bute, PA20 0EP

Opening Times

Summer: April - Sept (incl)

Monday to Saturday ~ 10.30 – 3.30

Sunday ~ 1.30 – 3.30

Winter: Oct - Nov and Feb - Mar (incl)

Tues, Wed, Thurs & Sat. ~ 1.30 – 3.30

Closed : Dec -Jan

Admission: Adults £5.00 ~ Concessions £4.00

Children (15 & under) – Free if accompanied by a paying adult

Bute Museum

Bute Museum, one of our original venues, will continue to host pop-up author events throughout the year and their volunteers remain an integral part of our Bute Noir team.

More information can be found on the Bute Noir website.

The programme can be found here.

Nine Weeks with Twelve Strangers

I wasn’t yet fully qualified. As such, I wasn’t really involved in the case. There was no need for me to address either the jury or the judge, and certainly no need for me to ask questions. My role was simply to take a note of everything that happened during this nine-week trial.

And it was the ninth week – the final stretch in what had been a long and harrowing historical sexual abuse case. There were multiple counts involving a psychiatrist accused of abusing the trust placed in him by vulnerable patients decades earlier. Much of my week therefore had been spent waiting while the jury were deliberating. The deliberations stretched on for days. I took the opportunity to read a Ken Follet novel. 

When we were finally called into court, the atmosphere was tense. The verdicts themselves were mixed: some guilty, some not guilty, and some counts where there was no clear majority (what is known as a ‘hung jury’). None of the verdicts were unanimous. All were majority verdicts, meaning at least two jurors had disagreed on each occasion. This, in of itself, was evidence of a jury who had found it difficult to agree on anything. 

I looked across at the twelve men and women who had spent nine weeks listening to profoundly upsetting evidence while largely cut off from the outside world, unable to tell their friends or family about the case because this would put them in breach of their oath. Most people offload at the end of a stressful day – about the colleague who steals their milk, or about the incompetent boss with unreasonable expectations – the same irritations and gripes can easily arise between members of a jury, who are nothing more than a random assortment of strangers thrown together and asked to decide the fate of another human being. 

Yet that pressure cooker has very few release valves. Jurors cannot go home at the end of the day and decompress over dinner in the way most of us do. They cannot complain about the personalities they are trapped with. This is for good reason; to ensure there is no outside influence from people who have not heard all of the evidence. 

There was one woman sat at the end of the front row. As the foreman was giving the verdicts, I saw that she was crying silently. I wondered whether this was because she felt that they had convicted an elderly gentleman on unreliable evidence, or whether she thought that, in returning some ‘not guilty’ verdicts, they were failing the victims who had so bravely given evidence about some of the most traumatic experiences of their lives.

She wasn’t the only indicator of there being ill feeling between the jurors. Some of them were casting accusatory glances at one another. No one seemed to want to be in another’s space. They were pulling in their arms, avoiding any physical contact, however incidental. I couldn’t help but wonder what had gone on in that deliberation room. Whatever had happened in there might have been every bit as dramatic as the trial itself.

That experience stayed with me for years and eventually became the foundation for One of Your Number, my second novel.

The book follows Leonie, a juror trapped inside a court building with the rest of the jury when the city becomes the target of a chemical attack. Even before the attack, the deliberations are tense. Leonie is convinced the defendant, a nurse accused of murdering his patients, is guilty, but she finds herself battling what she sees as prejudice, wilful blindness, and the strange dynamics that emerge in group situations.

Once the jurors are told that they are unable to leave the building for their own safety, those tensions intensify. The accused has escaped his cell and is on the loose. He's playing twisted games with the group. And Leonie is his next target.

Courtroom dramas often focus on what happens in the courtroom: the cross-examinations, the speeches, the performances of the lawyers. My novel looks at what happens once twelve strangers disappear behind a closed door and are left alone with each other, their consciences, and the responsibility of deciding another person’s fate.

One of Your Number by L.J. Shepherd (Pushkin Press) Out Now

Justice is blind. But someone's watching. Leonie is one of twelve jurors chosen to decide the fate of a nurse accused of murder. But just as deliberations begin, an usher bursts in with news that changes everything. Britain is under chemical attack, and the courthouse is locked down. Ordered to stay put for their own safety, the jurors soon realise that the real danger lies inside the building. The accused has escaped his cell and is on the loose. He's playing twisted games with the group. And Leonie is his next target. Because he knows something about her. She isn't on the jury by chance- and her reasons for being there are far more personal than anyone suspects. As trust fractures, how far will Leonie go to tip the scales of justice in her favour?

More information about LJ Shepherd and her novels can be found on her website.

You can also find her on Instagram @ljshepherdauthor and on FaceBook.

One of Your Number is available to buy here.

    

Octagon – How real is the threat of nuclear terrorism?

Photo by Dan Donovan

It’s not a spoiler to say that my new spy-action thriller Octagon contains a nuclear terror threat. The opening pages tell the story of how a disgruntled Chechen scientist, repeatedly passed over for promotion, steals small quantities of highly enriched uranium from the research facility where he works in Russia, storing it at home until he has enough to make an atomic bomb. Many years later, this material finds its way onto the international criminal market, where a new buyer expresses interest, and a deal is set up. The plot unfolds from there. But how realistic is the threat?

Thankfully there have been no recorded instances of nuclear terrorism. This is partly because such materials are very highly controlled, and usually in the possession of nation states who know how to guard them. If bad actors were to acquire nuclear materials – which Al-Qaeda, among others, long professed as an ambition – they would still need to know how to produce a nuclear bomb, which is no simple task. They would require at least 25kg of weapons-grade uranium to initiate a self-sustaining chain reaction – the kind of huge mushroom cloud explosions seen in old video clips. And unless they had a very reliable time delay for detonating it, they would need a remote delivery mechanism, which is typically a long-range ballistic missile. Again, not easy to come by, let alone launch.

Much easier, on the other hand, would be detonating an explosive device containing radiological materials. It would be very unlikely to produce a chain reaction, but the psychological impact would be huge. Public terror, blind panic, people fleeing the area where it was detonated. Massive cleanup costs, extensive economic damage, political turmoil. These kinds of devices are called ‘radiological dispersal devices’ and are sometimes referred to as ‘dirty bombs’. Fortunately, there haven’t been any of those either. But not for want of people trying.

The Chechen scientist in Octagon who manages to steal 100kg of communist-era surplus uranium from a poorly administered research facility is based on a real insider case, that of Leonid Smirnov, in post-Soviet Russia during the 1990s. Smirnov found himself in financial difficulties after the breakup of the USSR, and decided to monetise his access to the valuable asset he worked with every day: highly enriched uranium. Luckily, he only managed to steal 1.5kg and ended up being caught – but I wondered what would happen if someone did steal enough to build a bomb and got away with it.

Smirnov’s case is by no means isolated. There have been hundreds of instances of nuclear materials going missing and turning up on the black market over the past 35 years or so. Most involve tiny quantities, sometimes just a few grams. Others involve medical radiological material which is nowhere near as harmful. Most involve the former Soviet Union, which set vast production targets at the height of the Cold War, when they faced the possibility of all-out nuclear war with the US and its Western allies. And the legacy of that still haunts us today. 

Since 2019, the former Soviet republic of Georgia has thwarted three separate multi-million-dollar uranium smuggling plots – including two in 2025 alone. Real fissile material is out there (among the fake stuff no doubt being pedalled) and there are plenty of people who want to get hold of it. None has succeeded so far, that we know of. But Octagon asks the question: what if they did? Fortunately, for now, the answer is still within the realms of fiction.

Octagon by C.J.Merritt (Penguin Books) Out Now

A dying Russian scientist confesses to his children what he did as a young man. A murdered spy shares vital intelligence before he’s ruthlessly assassinated in the English countryside. A hidden ritual killing hidden in a forest clearing in Sweden hints at something much worse. Former MI6 Agent runner Stella McRae is the only person who can be trusted to investigate now her former employer has been compromised. Ex-SAS Operator Tommy Kane has always had Stella’s back, but as the threats against them escalate, will his formidable skills be enough this time? Octagon - A devastating plot against the West is already in train. Only Stella and Tommy stand in its way. And time is running out...

More information about CJ Merritt can be found on his website. He can also be found on Facebook. On X @drcjmerritt, Instagram @chrisjmerritt