Forthcoming Crime Books from Allison & Busby

 January 2023

The Askham Accusation is by Rebecca Tope. Set in the picturesque town of Askham, near Ullswater, the story opens with the funeral of Humphrey Craig, the builder who converted Simmy’s new house in Hartsop. The following day, when Simmy goes back to look at the grave and the flowers on it, she meets two women, Lindsay Wilson, an academic in her late twenties who is writing a thesis on Charles Dickens’ Dombey and Son, and Pauline Parsons, a local matriarch aged 90. Just 24 hours later, Mrs Parsons is found dead on Askham Fell and Simmy is summoned to Penrith police station. She is told that she has been identified as the prime suspect … will DI Moxon be able to help Simmy out of this unscathed?

When Juno Browne returns to the gorgeous town of Ashburton after a brief holiday with her cousin Brian, she’s relieved to find that no one has been murdered in her absence. But it’s not long before Sandy Thomas, the local reporter, is brutally slain. And Olly, Juno’s young friend, has accidentally caught the killing on camera. Property developer Alastair Dunston, with whom the victim had been having an affair, is an obvious suspect. But the police investigation cannot link him to her murder … it seems that Juno’s amateur sleuthing services will be called upon once again. Death Comes to Dartmouth is by Stephanie Austin.

February 2023

Ireland, 1939. The Second World War looms ever closer. Blind war veteran, Frederick Rowlands, seeks refuge in the neutral grounds of Ireland under the orders of Lady Celia Swift, whose husband, Lord Castleford, has been receiving mysterious death threats . When a body is discovered, Castleford finds himself being accused of a murder he did not commit. As Castleford's trial begins, Fred must fight for his friend's innocence and to save his reputation. Will Fred identify the true killer in time, or will it be too late? Murder in Dublin is by Christina Koning.

Blind Eye is by Aline Templeton. DCI Kelso Strang is led to believe that something very odd is going on around the prosperous fishing port of Tarleton. A young doctor is seen throwing herself off a cliff, a local farmer meets a grisly end and accusations of extortion unsettle the local community. Strang finds himself so caught in a spider’s web of criminality that he is entirely unprepared when he is struck by the worst tragedy of his career.

March 2023

When a night-time firebomb attack at a Brighton travellers’ site kills women and children, Chief Superintendent Jo Howe has strong reason to believe the new, dubiously elected, far-right council leader is behind the murders. Against the direct orders of her chief constable, Jo digs deep into the killings secretly briefing the senior investigating officer of her suspicions. As she delves further, Jo uncovers an underworld of human trafficking and euthanasia all leading to a devastating plot which threatens thousands of lives and from which the murderous politician looks sure to walk scot-free. Having narrowly survived a plot to kill her, where another was not so lucky, she realises that only by facing near-certain death once more can she thwart this terrorist outrage. Force of Hate is by Graham Bartlett.

The White Lady is by Jacqueline Winspear.1947. Miss Elinor White, known locally as ‘the White lady’, is living a quiet life in a grace and favour cottage, keeping herself to herself. Unbeknownst to her neighbours, she is the veteran of two world wars, a trained killer and an ex-spy. But this private and seemingly tranquil life conceals past trauma and Elinor finds herself drawn into the predicament of a local man entangled with one of the most dangerous crime families in London. A treacherous path lies ahead, but it may be one that ultimately leads Elinor to a future unshackled from her own painful history.

April 2023

Death at the Terminus is by Edward Marston. York, 1865. A passenger train stands in the station. Jack Follis, the guard, patrols the platform to make sure that everyone is safely aboard. He returns to the brake van to load a box into it. Before the train can depart, Follis is alarmed by a smell of burning. Before he can find out the cause, there is an explosion and the whole van is engulfed in flames. In response to a summons from the North Eastern Railway, Robert Colbeck and Victor Leeming are sent to investigate. Leeming is not convinced that a crime has taken place, but Colbeck disagrees. Although the information they received was scant, he is convinced that it is a murder case. The longer the investigation goes on, the more complex it becomes. Guilt shifts to and fro at a bewildering speed. It takes the combined skills of the detectives to identify and catch the person responsible for causing murder and mayhem.

May 2023

April, 1145. Thorgar the Ploughman is found by the bloodied body of Father Edmund, a village priest in Ripple, and is summarily hanged for being caught in the act, despite his insistence that he is innocent. His sister goes to Worcester to seek justice for her brother, and the lord Sheriff sends Hugh Bradecote, with Serjeant Catchpoll and Underserjeant Walkelin to discover the truth. They soon find that the ploughman was indeed blameless, but uncover strong motives for the killing and some unpleasant secrets in Ripple. Was it the priest’s own wrongdoing that led to his death, or a whisper of treasure long lost and now re-discovered? Too Good To Hang is by Sarah Hawkswood.

Retired actress Guinevere 'Gwinny' Tuffel is finding life hard after inheriting her late father's run-down house and discovering she's broke. But Gwinny is delighted to be at Hayburn Stead for her best friend Tina's wedding to a handsome Italian business magnate. However, before they get the chance to declare "till death do us part" the husband to be is found dead in the library and Tina is accused of the murder. Convinced of her friend's innocence, Gwinny must uncover the real killer from a pool of larger-than-life suspects while also finding herself suddenly looking after Tina's expensive and demanding saluki dogs.The Dog Sitter Detective is by Antony Johnston.

June 2023

Constable Country is by Catherine Aird. When Mike Wakefield's business partner absconded with all the firm's money, Mike and his wife Stephanie feared bankruptcy. Detective Inspector Sloan is at first tasked with what appears to be a cut-and-dry case of embezzlement, but that is before unsettling events, tyres slashed, bricks through windows, make it clear that someone is gunning for the printing firm. Mike Wakefield was determined to finish a job that had been in hand for a while in time for a launch party at the grand surroundings of Ornum House. All went according to plan until one of Mike's employees was found dead. And he wasn't the only casualty. Can DI Sloan and DC Crosby get to the bottom of the mysterious death?

July 2023

Murder at the Tower of London is by Jim Eldridge. London, 1899. Daniel Wilson and Abigail Fenton, the museum detectives, are called upon to investigate a bizarre murder at the White Tower, the heart of the Tower of London. The dead body of a Yeoman is found inside a suit of armour belonging to Henry VIII, having been run through with a sword. When details of this suspicious outrage are reported to the Prince of Wales, he fears this may be an expression of Republican unrest and calls upon Wilson and Fenton to investigate further. As their inquiries proceed, Wilson and Fenton learn about the long and bloody history of the Tower of London, unlocking hidden secrets at the heart of the mysterious deaths .

October 2023

March 1918. Detective Inspector Harvey Marmion and Detective Sergeant Joe Keedy hear about a sinister siege involving three burglars. They rush to the scene and learn that a policeman was shot dead during the burglary. Attempts at talking the men in the house into surrender are met with stony silence. When the door is battered down, Keedy bravely leads the way in. A gunshot is heard. Keedy has been hit. The burglary is only the latest of a series carried out by the men. Marmion has to investigate each one. As he does so, startling revelations emerge. Keedy is slowly recovering in hospital but it is no place of safety. One of the burglars has vowed to kill him. Keedy feels defenceless. Danger of Defeat is by Edward Marston.

November 2023

Murder at Down Street Station is by Jim Eldridge. December 1940. Down Street underground station, in the heart of London's Mayfair, is now a secret retreat for Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his cabinet from the relentless air raids overhead. In this supposedly secure location, the body of a woman is found, stabbed in the heart. The victim, fortune-teller Lady Za Za, did not see this one coming. Chief Inspector Coburg and Sergeant Lampson are called to investigate but whispers of treason and corruption succeed in muddying the waters of the case. As the pressure rises and more victims come to light, Coburg and Lampson are on dangerous ground, with a devious killer on the loose.

Books to Look Forward to From Allison & Busby

January 2022 

Murder at the National Gallery is by Jim Eldridge. London 1899. The Museum Detectives Daniel Wilson and Abigail Fenton have been contacted by the curator of the National Gallery. He is getting in touch at the request of the artist, Walter Sickert, famously suspected of being Jack the Ripper for many years. The dead body of a young woman, who had been an artist''s model, has been found at the back of the Gallery. She had been eviscerated and Sickert has been arrested on suspicion of her murder.Although he is soon released, when a second similar murder occurs, Sickert is once again implicated. The murders are copycats of the original Ripper murders, but the details of those crimes were publicised so heavily in the newspapers at the time that most people would know them. Sickert insists he is innocent, but who would want to frame the famous artist?   Wilson and Fenton have their work cut out …

Persimmon ‘Simmy’ Brown’s wedding day to Christopher Henderson has arrived on a glorious summer’s day in the pretty Lake District village of Threlkeld. While the day passes off without undue calamity, later when most of the guests have departed, a young man is found nearby, possibly the victim of a vicious attack. The mystery of the attack is complicated by pressure on police resources. Was it an accident or something far more sinister? Speculation is rife as to what precisely happened and a chilling suspicion develops into a theory that might be impossible to prove. The Threlkeld Theory is by Rebecca Tope.

February 2022

A Devon's Night Death is by Stephanie Austin. In the Dartmoor town of Ashburton, reluctant antique shop owner and accidental amateur sleuth, Juno Browne, has cash-flow problems. So, when the mild and gentlemanly bookbinder, Frank Tinkler, rents a room above the shop, he seems like the answer to a prayer. At home, Juno accidentally disturbs intruders and shortly afterwards, one of them falls to his death from a viaduct. Was it accident, suicide or murder? When Juno recognises his accomplice as Frank's nephew, Scott, she decides to investigate.

March 2022

September, 1942. Jo Hardy, an Air Transport Auxiliary ferry pilot, is delivering a Spitfire when she has the unnerving experience of someone shooting at her aircraft. A few days later she hears that another ferry pilot has been killed when her aircraft crashed in the same area of Kent. Although the death has been attributed to 'pilot error', Jo is convinced there is a link between the two incidents. Jo takes her suspicions to Maisie Dobbs and while Maisie wants to find out why someone appears to want to take down much-needed pilots, she finds it is part of a much larger operation involving Eleanor Roosevelt, the American president's First Lady. To protect Eleanor's life - and possibly the safety of everyone in London - Maisie must quickly uncover the connection. A Sunlit Weapon is by Jacqueline Winspear.

April 2022

Murder at Claridge's is by Jim Eldridge. One of the Claridge's kitchen porters is found dead - strangled. He was a recent employee who claimed to be Romanian, but evidence suggests he may have been German. Detective Chief Inspector Coburg has to find out exactly who he was, and what he was doing at Claridge's under a false identity. Once he has established those facts, he might get an insight into why he was killed, and who by. Coburg's job is complicated by the fact that so many of the hotel's residents are exiled European royalty. King George of Greece is registered as 'Mr Brown' and even the Duke of Windsor is staying, though without Wallis Simpson. Clandestine affairs, furtive goings-on and conspiracies against the government: Coburg must tread very lightly indeed .

May 2022

The Daughter is by Liz Webb. I lean in and whisper the question I have never let myself utter in twenty-three years. "Dad, did you murder Mum?" Hannah Davidson has a dementia-stricken father, an estranged TV star brother, and a mother whose death opened up hidden fault lines beneath the ordinary surface of their family life. Hannah is losing her grip on both a cache of shameful secrets and her drinking, and her habit of gorging on almost inedible quince makes it patently clear that her life is a mess. Now the spitting image of Jen Davidson and exactly the same age she was when she died, Hannah is determined to uncover exactly what happened to her mum. But the boundaries between mother and daughter soon become blurred and Hannah discovers that she may not win the dangerous game she's playing.

June 2022

Bad For Good is by Graham Bartlett. How far would you go to avenge your son's murder? The murder of a promising footballer and, crucially, the son of the Brighton's Chief Superintendent, means DS Jo Howe has a complicated and politically sensitive case on her hands. The situation becomes yet more thorny with the addition of devastating blackmail and the threat of vigilante action. In a world coloured by power grabs and corruption, Howe finds that she can trust no one as she tracks a brutal killer and tries to stop Brighton descending into violence.

Godfrey Bowyer, the best but least likeable bow maker in Worcester, dies of poisoning, though his wife Blanche survives. The number of people who could have administered the poison should mean a very short investigation for Bradecote and Catchpoll, but perhaps someone was pulling the strings, and that widens the net considerably. Could it be the cast-out younger brother or perhaps Orderic the Bailiff, whose wife may have had to endure Godfrey's attentions? Could it even be the wife herself? With Bradecote eager to return to his manor and worried about his wife's impending confinement, and Walkelin trying to get his mother to accept his choice of bride, there are distractions aplenty, though Serjeant Catchpoll will not let them get in the way of solving this case. A Taste for Killing is by Sarah Hawkswood.

Books to Look Forward to from Allison & Busby

 January 2021

Hard-hitting talk show host Augustus Seeza has become a household name in Ghana, though plagued by rumours of lavish overspending, alcoholism, and womanising. He's dating the imposing, beautiful Lady Araba, who leads a self-made fashion empire. Araba's religious family believes Augustus is after her money and intervenes to break them up. A few days later, just before a major runway show, Araba is found murdered in her bed. Her driver is arrested after a hasty investigation, but Araba's favourite aunt, Dele, has always thought Augustus Seeza was the real killer. Almost a year later, Dele approaches Emma Djan, who has finally started to settle in as the only female PI at her agency. To solve Lady Araba's murder, Emma must not only go on an undercover mission that dredges up trauma from her past but navigate a long list of suspects with solid alibis. Emma quickly discovers that they are willing to lie for each other - and that one may still be willing to kill. Sleep Well My Lady is by Kwei Quartey.

Detective Jake Porter's life was ripped apart by the hit-and-run driver that killed his wife. The life he has been building up piece by piece is rocked by the discovery of new evidence that might finally lead him to her murderer. At the same time, he has a volatile case to juggle. Ross Henderson was a Vlogger with over ten million followers rallying against the growing tide of the far-right. As his audience tuned in to listen to Henderson tear apart more anti-immigrant vitriol, they watched in horror as he was brutally murdered during a live broadcast. Struggling to prevent full-blown riots and following the trail to his wife's killer will take its toll upon Porter, and there's no guarantee he will come out the other side intact. End of The Line is by Robert Scragg.

Murder at the Ritz Hotel is by Jim Elridge. August 1940. On the streets of London, locals watch with growing concern as German fighter planes plague the city's skyline. But inside the famous Ritz Hotel, the cream of society continues to enjoy all the glamour and comfort that money can buy during wartime - until an anonymous man is discovered with his throat slashed open. Detective Chief Inspector Coburg is called in to investigate, no stranger himself to the haunts of the upper echelons of society, ably assisted by his trusty colleague, Sergeant Lampson. Yet they soon face a number of obstacles. With the crime committed in rooms in use by an exiled king and his retinue, there are those who fear diplomatic repercussions and would rather the case be forgotten. With mounting pressure from various Intelligence agencies, rival political factions and gang warfare brewing either side of the Thames, Coburg and Lampson must untangle a web of deception if they are to solve the case - and survive.

February 2021

Never Ask The Dead is by Gary Donnelly. When only the dead have the answers, who can tell you the truth? Retired PSNI cop Tom 'Tucker' Rodgers has a cracked ballpoint pen, one second class stamp and no time left. The best he can do is try to get a message to DI Owen Sheen, the only man he knows he can trust. Sheen and DC Aoife McCusker are struggling with political agendas fed to them from the Chief Constable and now the single note from the missing Tucker is preying on Sheen's mind. A list of four dates, decades old, and a cryptic message. Tucker says that they killed his friend, and now they're coming for him. Sheen and Aoife's search places them on the path of the most highly placed IRA double agent of the Troubles as well as another man with an old score to settle.

1898, Glasgow. A man is found stabbed to death in a tenement block and the police are struggling to grasp any leads. Juan Cameron, photographer-cum-sleuth, is drafted in with his trusted camera in the hope he can bring to light what the eye may overlook. Yet Juan has problems of his own. Following the tragic death of his father in Cuba some months before, the man's legacy is threatened by a plagiarism suit from a mysterious senora, and Juan's hoped-for happiness with his fiancee, Jane, might be over before it's even begun - even more so when a visiting professor is murdered and Jane is witnessed fleeing the scene. Juan finds himself torn between finding the killer and finding his fiancee - but are they one and the same? The truth is in the frames. The Art of The Assassin is by Kevin Sullivan.

March 2021

Blood is Thicker Than Water is by Sarah Hawkswood. August 1144. Osbern de Lench is known far and wide as a hard master, whose temper is perpetually frayed. After riding to survey his land and the incoming harvest from the top of the nearby hill, his horse returns to the hall riderless and the lifeless body of the lord is found soon after. Was it the work of thieves, or something closer to home? With an heir who is cast in the same hot-tempered mould, sworn enemies for neighbours, and something amiss in the relationship between Osbern and his wife, undersheriff Hugh Bradecote, the wily Serjeant Catchpoll and apprentice Walkelin have suspects aplenty.

The Consequences of Fear is by Jacqueline Winspear. It is September 1941 and young Freddie Hackett is a message runner - he collects messages from a government office and delivers them to various destinations around London. On this particular day, he sets off with his message, along a route of bombed out houses and heaps of rubble, and comes across two men violently arguing. He rushes into the doorway of a bombed house and tries not to be seen - but from his vantage point he witnesses a murder. After the killer goes on his way, Freddie finally comes out of hiding, but he has an envelope to deliver and all messages from that office are urgent. He arrives at the house and he could swear the man who answers the door is the very man he has just seen kill another. But is he? Freddie flees, and reports what he has seen to the police but they brush him aside. It is then he remembers delivering a letter to Maisie Dobbs, a private investigator in Fitzroy Square - perhaps she will believe him and help solve the mystery?

In the depths of the blackout, the silence of London's Royal Albert Dock is broken only by the lap of inky water against the quay and the occasional scurrying of rats' feet. A patrolling policeman is passing the newly arrived freighter SS Magnolia when something catches his eye. A man is sprawled awkwardly across a nearby barge - with an exotic-looking dagger in his back. DI Jago of West Ham CID discovers the victim was a dock worker by day and a Home Guard volunteer by night - and there are things even his wife, bombed out of their flimsy home in Silvertown, doesn't know about his past. Who wanted to kill him? As Jago investigates, he uncovers a widening circle of secrets ranging across family tensions, the last war, and a far-flung corner of the British Empire. And then there's the mysterious spate of thefts from the dock to contend with. The Dockland Murder is by Mike Hollow.

Into The Dark is by Stuart Johnstone. The brutal murder of a ten-year-old girl sends shockwaves across Scotland, but with no solid leads the investigation is scaled back. Don Colyear is tasked with tying up a loose end: a 999 call that exactly matches the details of the girl's murder. But the call was made two months before her death. When the same caller reports a new killing, the clock is ticking for Colyear.

Spring has brought many new beginnings into the world of Persimmon 'Simmy' Brown. Not only has her baby arrived, but she and her fiance Christopher have moved to the historic village of Hartsop - and their forthcoming nuptials are only a short month away. But when a former acquaintance of Christopher's reminds him of an undertaking made a decade previously but failed to fulfil, their lives soon take a sinister - and deadly - turn. Yet even with a young baby to consider Simmy cannot ignore her instinct to investigate, especially when the murder has a personal link to her soon-to-be husband. Ably assisted by her would-be detective friend Ben, can Simmy puzzle out this reckoning from the past and protect her family in time for the wedding bells to chime? The Ullswater Undertaking is by Rebecca Tope.

April 2021

When Robert Pomeroy, a young undergraduate at Corpus Christi College, finds a letter slipped under his door in the early hours of a rainy day, he flies into a panic. Hastily readying himself and dashing off a few lines for the porter to summon his friend Nicholas Thorpe, he hurries to the railway station. But he doesn't reach his destination alive. Inspector Colbeck and Sergeant Leeming are called upon to investigate this tragedy on the railway. It soon becomes apparent that Cambridge's hopes of success in the forthcoming Boat Race rested on Pomeroy's shoulders. With academic disputes, romantic interests and a sporting rivalry with Oxford in play, the Railway Detective will have his work cut out to disentangle the threads of Pomeroy's life in order to answer the truth of his death. Tragedy on The Branch Line is by Edward Marston.

Skelton's Guide to Suitcase Murders is by David Stafford. A woman's dismembered corpse is discovered in a quarry, and police quickly link the victim back to their chief suspect: her husband, Doctor Ibraham Aziz. His wife had been planning to leave him, so his guilt isn't in doubt as far as local law enforcement is concerned. Barrister Arthur Skelton is asked to represent the accused, and though all believe the case to be hopeless, Skelton soon suspects there may be more to the victim's death. Aided by his loyal clerk Edgar and his roaming cousins, Alan and Norah, Skelton soon finds himself embroiled in an investigation not only concerning this world but the one beyond. Can he convince a jury of Aziz's innocence before the judge dons his black cap?

Ethelred Tressider and his agent Elsie Thirkettle have been invited to lecture on a creative writing course at Fell Hall, a remote location in the heart of ragged countryside that even sheep are keen to shun. While Ethelred's success as a writer is distinctly average, Elsie sees this as an opportunity to scout for new, hopefully more lucrative, talent. But heavy snow falls overnight, trapping those early arrivals inside, and tensions are quick to emerge between the assembled group. When one of their number goes missing, Ethelred leads a search party and makes a gruesome discovery. With no phone signal and no hope of summoning the police, can Ethelred and Elsie identify the killer among them before one of them is next? Farewell My Herrings is by L C Tyler.

May 2021

Murder at World's End is by Alanna Knight. When Tam Eildor arrives unexpectedly on a remote Scottish island in the year of 1587 after his time machine develops a fault, he quickly finds himself embroiled in the lives of the colourful locals who are trying to escape the tyranny of the greedy Earl Robert Stewart. The power-hungry earl has imprisoned the beautiful Princess Marie and plans to force her into a distasteful marriage to tie himself closer to the throne, furthering his own ambitions. Aided by a motley crew including a stowaway, a pirate, a lost time lord and the earl's own son, Tam attempts a daring rescue of the princess. Together they will travel the oceans in search of Spanish gold, lost loves and new futures.

June 2021

one of its nightwatchmen decapitated and his colleague nowhere to be found. To the police, the case seems simple: one killed the other and fled, but workers at the museum aren’t convinced. Although forbidden contact by his superior officer, Scotland Yard detective John Feather secretly enlists ‘Museum Detectives’ Daniel Wilson and Abigail Fenton to aid the police investigation. When the body of the missing nightwatchman is discovered encased within a wax figure, the case suddenly becomes more complex. With questions over rival museums, the dead men’s pasts and a series of bank raids plaguing the city, Wilson and Fenton face their most intriguing and dangerous case yet. Murder at Madame Tussauds is by Jim Eldridge.

The Dartmouth Murders is by Stephanie Austin. When Juno Browne purchases a wardrobe to stock in her fledgling antiques store, she doesn’t expect to find a dead body inside. And when the man she bought it from, rascally farmer Fred Crick, is found battered to death in his blazing cottage, the hunt for a double murderer is on. Despite the police struggling to connect the two deaths, this time Juno is resolved to ignore her impulse to investigate. Until, that is, a stranger arrives who bears an uncanny resemblance to the dead man in the wardrobe. Determined to discover how his identical twin brother died and impressed by Juno’s reputation in the local press as Ashburton’s amateur sleuth, Henry tries to drag her into his quest to solve the mystery, with disastrous results. 

From the Personal to the Universal: Weaving Personal Stories into Fiction by Jacqueline Winspear

It was 1973, and I was sitting in the front passenger seat of the car, with my fourteen-year-old younger brother in the back, reading a comic. Dad pulled over opposite the hardware store, and he was in a hurry. “Quick son, nip in there and pick up the paint I’ve ordered.”  My brother rolled his eyes as he threw down the comic and stepped out of the car. My father watched him saunter across the road and shook his head.  “When I was that age, I living away from home and fending for myself,” he said. I didn’t think any more of it, assuming that, like my mother, he had been evacuated from London during the war. However, it was decades later, in the hospice where he would spend his final days, that we revisited stories about his childhood, about family and the things he loved, that he began telling me about the years when he lived away from home – and it wasn’t the story I was expecting. Like most working class kids in those days, my father left school at fourteen to go to work – in his case for a painting and decorating business, taking up an apprenticeship secured for him by his father.  It was 1940, and his employer had landed a government contract to paint every RAF building in the country with a special fire retardant – at the time, new aerodromes were being built in a hurry, so there was a lot of work.  Dad joined a crew moving from one region to the next, living in lodgings, and he was doing the sort of work that an apprentice was landed with. He was blending the emulsion as well as painting, and testing each wall as it was finished fell to him.  

“I had to line up blowtorches right next to a wall,” he said. “And after three hours I’d come back, and do you know – there wasn’t a mark to be seen.”

“Really?” I asked. “What was that stuff called?”

“Oh it never had a name, just a number.”

This was in the days when men did not wear protective clothing or masks, so an adolescent boy, still growing, was exposed to an unnamed toxic emulsion that had doubtless not been subject to adequate testing because it was wartime and they needed those buildings to resist fire. I knew in that moment that I had a story, yet it wasn’t until 2017 that I began work on To Die But Once, about a young apprentice painter, a member of a crew applying toxic emulsion to airfield buildings in the spring of 1940.  My character, young Joe Coombes, is not my father – but every aspect of his work is based upon the story my father shared with me that day, just a week before he died.  And because my father loved one of his “billets” more than any other – on a farm in Hampshire – so Joe loves the county.  Of course, other threads had to be woven into that central story, but I drew upon personal experience to give color and texture to the characters. Joe’s sister is a telephonist on the government exchange – an easy choice for me, as my mother worked on the government exchange, and she’d told me a lot about what it was like to be a telephonist working on secure lines in the 1940’s.  Over the years I’ve cherry-picked nuggets of my own and family experiences to provide those often telling details – some very small – that give color and texture to a story; tools to draw in the reader so that they are transported, in the moment, to a different time and place.  And sometimes, it’s those seemingly miniscule details that make all the difference in the crafting of a narrative.

My mother always said I was a nosy child – the kid who asked the embarrassing questions.  I once revealed the pregnancy of my mother’s friend’s teenage daughter, when it transpired I was the only one who’d noticed her swollen belly and asked, in innocence, when she was having her baby! I might use that vignette in a story one day.  Yet I don't think I was nosy, as much as curious – and I believe that we writers were probably all curious kids who kept that curiosity going into adulthood. We noticed details – things we come back to, slipping into our writing something observed in human behavior so it plays a key role in touching upon universal truths.

It was during one of my visits to Whitchurch in Hampshire, where I have family, that I garnered two golden nuggets – precious pieces of information I would come back to.  My cousin happened to mention that paper money was printed locally, and that the Bank of England had moved some of its operations to the area during the war. I tucked that one away, did more research, and used it in To Die But Once. Then my aunt told me a wartime story of having to make her way home through a daytime bombing raid, when the office where she worked sustained damage.  She was walking along when she saw a woman clambering over a pile of searing hot rubble, pulling at bricks and burning her hands. “My girls!  My girls!” she screamed, while the ARP men tried to tear her away.  My aunt began to run, stumbling, crying because people were dying in the street, when she saw my mother running toward her in the distance.  The American Agent opens with a war correspondent broadcasting her report of a nighttime bombing – where she has witnessed a woman tearing at burning rubble searching for her daughters, who have perished in the attack.

There is no secret to using personal experiences in fiction.  As a writer, you’re already an observer of people every day.  But the key is in using those golden nuggets with care, weaving them into the narrative so they fit – and writing from the heart. 

The American Agent (number 15 in the bestselling Maisie Dobbs series) by Jacqueline Winspear is out now and published by Allison & Busby.

Inaugural Sue Grafton Memorial Award

Presented by G.P. Putnam’s Sons, the award will be given at Mystery Writers of America’s 73rd Annual Edgar® Awards in New York City on April 25, 2019

Thirty-five years ago, Sue Grafton launched one of the most acclaimed and celebrated mystery series of all time with A is for Alibi, and with it created the model of the modern female detective with Kinsey Millhone, a feisty, whip-smart woman who is not above breaking the rules to solve a case or save a life. Like her fictional alter ego, Grafton was a true original, a model for every woman who has ever said the hell with this and struck out on her own independent way.

Sue Grafton passed away on December 28, 2017, but she and Kinsey will be remembered as international icons and treasured by millions of readers across the world. Sue was adored throughout the reading world, the publishing industry, and was a longtime and beloved member of MWA, serving as MWA President in 1994 and was the recipient of three Edgar nominations as well as the Grand Master Award in 2009. G.P. Putnam’s Sons is partnering with MWA to create the Sue Grafton Memorial Award honoring the Best Novel in a Series featuring a female protagonist in a series that hallmarks Sue’s writing and Kinsey’s character: a woman with quirks but also with a sense of herself, with empathy but also with savvy, intelligence and wit.

The inaugural Sue Grafton Memorial Award will be presented for the first time at the 73rd Annual Edgar Awards in New York City on April 25, 2019 – the day after what would have been Sue’s 79th birthday – and will be presented annually there to honor Sue’s life and work.

The nominees for the inaugural Sue Grafton Memorial Award were chosen by the 2019 Best Novel and Best Paperback Original Edgar Award judges from the books submitted to them throughout the year. The winner will be chosen by a reading committee made up of current National board members, and will be announced at this year’s Edgars Award banquet.

The nominees for the inaugural Sue Grafton Memorial Award are:

Lisa Black, Perish, Kensington
Sara Paretsky, Shell Game, HarperCollins – William Morrow
Victoria Thompson, City of Secrets, Penguin Random House - Berkley
Charles Todd, A Forgotten Place, HarperCollins – William Morrow
Jacqueline Winspear, To Die But Once, HarperCollins - Harper

ABOUT SUE GRAFTON:
#1 New York Times–bestselling author Sue Grafton is published in twenty-eight countries and in twenty-six languages—including Estonian, Bulgarian, and Indonesian. Books in her alphabet series, beginning with A is for Alibi in 1982 are international bestsellers with readership in the millions. Named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America, she also received many other honors and awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America, the Ross Macdonald Literary Award, the Cartier Diamond Dagger Award from Britain’s Crime Writers’ Association, the Lifetime Achievement Award from Malice Domestic, the Anthony Award given by Bouchercon (most recently the 2018 Anthony /Bill Crider Award for Best Novel in a Series), and three Shamus Awards. Grafton passed away on December 28, 2017.

ABOUT G.P. PUTNAM’S SONS:
Putnam is home to many bestselling fiction authors including Ace Atkins, Chloe Benjamin, C.J. Box, Eleanor Brown, Tom Clancy, Robin Cook, Robert Crais, Clive Cussler, Jeffery Deaver, Janet Evanovich, Lyndsay Faye, Frederick Forsyth, Karen Joy Fowler, Sue Grafton, W.E.B. Griffin, Jan Karon, Philip Kerr, Delia Owens, Robert B. Parker, Nick Petrie, John Sandford, Jill Santopolo, Lisa Scottoline, Kathryn Stockett, and Stuart Woods. Among its distinguished nonfiction list are Sophia Amoruso, A. Scott Berg, Cathy Guisewite, Spencer Johnson, Bobby Orr, Dolly Parton, and Eve Rodsky.

ABOUT MYSTERY WRITERS OF AMERICA:
MWA is the premier organization for mystery writers, professionals allied to the crime-writing field, aspiring crime writers, and those who are devoted to the genre. The organization encompasses more than 3,000 members including authors of fiction and non-fiction books, screen and television writers, as well as publishers, editors, and literary agents. For more information on Mystery Writers of America, please visit the website: www.mysterywriters.org

Books to Look Forward to From Allison & Busby

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January 2019

During a communion service at a village church, the teenage son of a vicar brutally attacks his father with an axe. The horrified congregation watch the son escape and during a frantic police search rumours arise that the boy was involved in devil worship. Professor Matt Hunter, an atheist ex-minister and expert on religion, is brought in to advise, yet he quickly suspects the church attack may have a far more complex cause. Meanwhile, a ten-year-old boy called Ever grows up in a small Christian cult. The group believe they are the only true humans left and that the world is filled with demons called Hollows, but they're working on a bizarre ritual that will bring peace and paradise to the world. Soon, the worlds of Matt and Ever will collide in one awful, terrifying night where Matt is thrown into the frightening and murderous world of religious mania.  Severed is by Peter Laws.

Murder at the British Museum is by Jim Eldridge. 1894. A well-respected academic is found dead in a gentlemen's convenience cubicle at the British Museum, the stall locked from the inside. Professor Lance Pickering had been due to give a talk promoting the museum's new `Age of King Arthur' exhibition when he was stabbed repeatedly in the chest. Having forged a strong reputation working alongside the inimitable Inspector Abberline on the Jack the Ripper case, Daniel Wilson is called in to solve the mystery of the locked cubicle murder, and he brings his expertise and archaeologist Abigail Fenton with him. But it isn't long before the museum becomes the site of another fatality and the pair face mounting pressure to deliver results. With enquiries compounded by persistent journalists, local vandals and a fanatical society, Wilson and Fenton face a race against time to salvage the reputation of the museum and catch a murderer desperate for revenge.

February 2019

Cambridge, 1940. It is the first winter of the war, and snow is falling. When an evacuee drowns in the river, his body swept away, Detective Inspector Eden Brooke sets out to investigate what seems to be a deliberate attack. The following night, a local electronics factory is attacked, and an Irish republican slogan is left at the scene. The IRA are campaigning to win freedom for Ulster, but why has Cambridge been chosen as a target? And when Brooke learns that the drowned boy was part of the close-knit local Irish Catholic community, he begins to question whether there may be a connection between the boy's death and the attack at the factory. As more riddles come to light, can Brooke solve the mystery before a second attack claims a famous victim?  The Mathematical Bridge is by Jim Kelly.

March 2019

The Lost Shrine is by Nicola Ford.  Clare Hills, archaeologist and sometime sleuth, is struggling to finance her recently established university research institute along with her long-time friend, Dr David Barbrook. When Professor Margaret Bockford finds the Hart Unit commercial work with a housing developer on a site in the Cotswolds, the pair are hardly in a position to refuse. There is just one slight catch: the previous site director, Beth Kinsella, was found hanged in a copse on-site, surrounded by mutilated wildlife. Despite initial misgivings, Clare leads a team to continue work on the dig, but with rumours about Beth's mental state and her claims that the site was historically significant refusing to be laid to rest, and lingering disquiet between local residents and the developers, progress is impeded at every turn. When one of the workers finds something unsettling, Clare suspects there may be more to Beth's claims than first thought. But can she uncover the truth before it is hidden forever?

The American Agent is by Jacqueline Winspear.  When Catherine Saxon, an American correspondent reporting on the war in Europe, is found murdered in her London digs, news of her death is concealed by British authorities. Serving as a linchpin between Scotland Yard and the Secret Service, Robert MacFarlane pays a visit to Maisie Dobbs, seeking her help. Accompanied by an agent from the US Department of Justice-Mark Scott, the American who helped Maisie escape Hitler's Munich in 1938-he asks Maisie to work with Scott to uncover the truth about Saxon's death. As the Germans unleash the full terror of their blitzkrieg upon the citizens of London, raining death and destruction from the skies, Maisie must balance the demands of solving this dangerous case with her need to protect the young evacuee she has grown to love. Entangled in an investigation linked to the power of wartime propaganda and American political intrigue being played out in Britain, Maisie will face losing her dearest friend-and the possibility that she might be falling in love again.

Nothing Else Remains is by Robert Scragg.  When Max Brennan's estranged father and then his own girlfriend go missing in quick succession, he turns to his old friend Detective Jake Porter for help. As Max is then attacked in his own home, Porter and his partner Nick Styles waste no time in investigating. But when their main suspect turns up dead, alongside a list of other targets, it seems the case is much bigger than it first appeared. With events spiraling, can Porter and Styles catch the killer before another victim is claimed?

The Grasmere Grudge is by Rebecca Tope.  Returning from a much-needed holiday, Persimmon `Simmy' Brown discovers that life in the Lake District is, as ever, far from relaxing. Before she can enjoy the idea of being the future Mrs Chris Henderson, her fiance discovers the body of his friend, antique dealer Jonathan Woolley, brutally strangled in a house in Grasmere. Enlisting the help of her friends and amateur detectives Ben and Bonnie, the investigation appears to ask more questions than it answers as historical grudges against the dead man are revealed. It seems that many people had a reason for wanting him dead. But with Chris's increasingly evasive and odd behaviour, Simmy begins to wonder if he is more involved in the murder than he is saying. How can she put her trust in a man with something to hide?

April 2019

York, 1907. Newly retired Inspector Faro is delighted at the prospect of staying in the Dower House, situated on a Roman villa once home to Emperor Severus. But he arrives to find his wife Imogen distraught and desperately searching for her missing Irish cousin, who seems to have vanished without a trace... The Dower House Mystery is by Alanna Knight.

Inheritance Tracks is by Catherine Aird.  Four strangers arrive at the solicitors' office of Puckle, Puckle, and Nunnery. They have never met, and have no idea why they have been invited. But they - along with a missing man - are descendants of the late Algernon George Culver Mayton, the inventor of "Mayton's Marvellous Mixture" and each entitled to a portion of the Mayton Fortune. But before they can split the money, the missing man must be found. They begin their search, but then Detective Sloan receives a call that one of the legatees had died following an attack of food poisoning. Now detectives Sloan and Crosby must determine whether the deceased merely ingested a noxious substance by accident, or if the legatees are being picked off one-by-one. And when matters of money and family rivalry are involved, there is almost certainly foul play afoot.

June 2019

It is the autumn of 1917, and at the luxurious Lotus Hotel in Chelsea, a maid is disrupted from her morning rounds by a horrifying discovery: instead of the dignified older lady who has been occupying a room, she find the dead body of a much younger woman. Harvey Marmion and Joe Keedy are dispatched from Scotland Yard to investigate, and learn that she seems to have been poisoned. But who is this woman? And what has happened to the previous occupant of the room? With a high profile client to impress, Marmion and Keedy must solve the mystery as quickly as possible, before the reputation of the hotel is damaged beyond repair.  The Unseen Hand is by Edward Marston.

Books to Look Forward to from Allison & Busby

January 2018

Traitor is by David Hingley.  February 1665. With winter passing, Mercia Blakewood is at last headed back to England from America, hoping to leave behind the shadow that death and heartache have cast. She expects a welcome from the King considering her earlier, mostly successful, mission at his behalf, but the reception is not exactly warm. Mercia faces more manipulation and must accept a clandestine and uncomfortable role at the heart of the royal court posing as a mistress to find a spy and traitor.

For Rose McQuinn the invitation to holiday at a luxury hotel on the isle of Bute is an unexpected delight until she discovers the real reason is to investigate a twenty year old non-proven murder case. With close links to a strange local family of ancient origin whose modern castle holds many dark secrets, Rose's involvement in this challenge unleashes a web of intrigue and sinister happenings as she realises too late when a drowned man is a murder victim and someone decides she is close enough to the truth not to leave the island alive.  Murder Lies Waiting is by Alanna Knight.

February 2018

1939, Cambridge: The opening weeks of the Second World War, and the first blackout - The Great Darkness - covers southern England, enveloping the city. Detective Inspector Eden

Brooke, a wounded hero of the Great War, takes his nightly dip in the cool waters of the Cam. Daylight reveals a corpse on the riverside, the body torn apart by some unspeakable force. Brooke investigates, calling on the expertise and inspiration of a faithful group of fellow `nighthawks' across the city, all condemned, like the detective, to a life lived away from the light. Within hours The Great Darkness has claimed a second victim. War, it seems, has many victims, but what links these crimes of the night?  The Great Darkness is by Jim Kelly.

Race to the Kill is by Helen Cadbury.  It is the middle of a long night shift in Doncaster for PC Sean Denton and his partner PC Gavin Wentworth when they are approached by a dishevelled-looking woman desperate that they follow her. She leads them to the old Chasebridge High School where they find the dead body of a Syrian refugee. With a sexual assault court case and a missing girl also vying for his attention, Denton and the murder investigation are drawn towards the neighbouring greyhound stadium where all is not as it seems. With the worlds of immigration, drugs and sexual abuse pressing in on all sides, Denton is walking ever closer to serious danger.

March 2018

Spring 1940. With Britons facing what has become known as the Bore War - nothing much

seems to have happened yet - Maisie Dobbs is asked to investigate the disappearance of a local lad, a young apprentice craftsman working on a "hush-hush" government contract. As Maisie's inquiry reveals a possible link to the London underworld, so the country is bracing for a possible enemy invasion amid news of the British expeditionary force stranded along the French coast. And another mother is worried about a missing son - but this time the boy in question is one beloved by Maisie.  To Die But Once is by Jacqueline Winspear.

April 2018

Simmy Brown has a lot on her mind. Not just keeping her florist business afloat, her father's failing health, the challenge of developing a long-term relationship with Christopher, but also the approach of Mother's Day, a busy and painful day for her. But in taking an order for a retirement party in Staveley, she is pulled into her most challenging investigation. When a daughter starts accusing her own mother of murder, Simmy, Ben and Bonnie find themselves taking different sides of the investigation. With her relationships under strain, Simmy is tired on all fronts. However, she has to learn to leave her own concerns behind to discover just who the killer is.  The Staveley Suspect is by Rebecca Tope.

What falls between the Cracks is by Robert Scragg.  When a severed hand is found in an abandoned flat, Detective Jake Porter and his partner Nick Styles are able to DNA match the limb to the owner, Natasha Barclay, who has not been seen in decades. But why has no one been looking for her? It seems that Natasha's family are the people who can least be trusted. Delving into the details behind her disappearance and discovering links to another investigation, a tragic family history begins to take on a darker twist. Hampered by a widespread fear of a local heavy, as well as internal politics and possible corruption within the force, Porter and Styles are digging for answers, but will what they find ever see the light of day?

June 2018

1817. Upon receiving a letter from an old family friend, Catherine Van Emden returns from Holland to find her father dead. She refuses to believe the middle-aged man died of natural causes, and the suspicious circumstances of his life during the past few months compel her to ask Peter and Paul Skillen for help. Why would a successful engineer suddenly begin begging for alms on the streets? Had he refused to ask for help, or was he prevented from doing so? When his body is revealed missing from the casket, the twins embark on a chase of funerary agents, barmaids and body snatchers, trying to solve the mystery of George Parry's alleged death before their Bow Street rivals.  Fugitive from the Grave is by Edward Marston.

Following the revelations of Mrs Hudson's past and a commission of murder in the spring of 1925, Mary Russell receives word that one of her university friends-a devout feminist-has been committed to Bedlam mental hospital. Russell herself is feeling less than balanced, and the last thing she wants is to deal with the mad. However, she agrees to look into it-when her friend escapes. The pursuit leads her across Europe to Venice and finally to the Poveglia Island, a lunatic asylum built on the bones of centuries of plague victims. Russell takes a deep breath, and follows-only to find that the lunatics may be in charge of the asylum, and nothing is quite as it seems.  Island of the Mad is by Laurie R King.

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