Comedy Frightened Me More Than Murder By David Fennell

There is a thing that happens when a book wins an award. For a short time, the world feels settled. The years of doubt, the imposter syndrome, the loneliness and the career uncertainty all resolve, briefly, into something that looks from the outside like validation. You wrote the right book. Critics acclaimed it. Readers loved it. They still talk about it.

Most writers, at that moment, would do the sensible thing. They would stay in the same lane and write the next book. It would be the safe and smart choice. I chose not to do that.

A Violent Heart won the 2025 Capital Crime Fingerprint Thriller of the Year. It is the darkest book I have written, the sharpest and the one I am proudest of in terms of what it demanded from me. Yet I knew I was not going to write another book like it. I was going to write something funny. Obviously. And I say that with my tongue lodged firmly in my cheek.

People often ask whether it is difficult to write darkness. Scenes of violence and grief. The final hours before a beloved character’s murder. The interior world of someone who has done something unforgivable. My honest answer is yes. To make those moments feel authentic, writers must put everything into them. But darkness also carries its own gravity. The reader understands instinctively that these scenes matter. They know they are being asked to feel something real. That is why they spend their hard-earned cash on books.

Comedy frightened me more than murder. I had written six novels filled with death, violence and darkness. I knew how to build tension. I knew how to unsettle a reader. Then, after receiving the most public confirmation of my career, I chose to write a book designed to make people laugh. A murder scene has shadows to hide in. A joke does not. It lands, or it lies there in full view while the reader quietly closes the book.

This was the risk at the heart of All Killers Aboard. The cruise ship was new. The cast of serial killers was absurd. Neither worried me as much as the promise hidden inside the premise. The book had to be funny. I had spent six novels learning how to frighten readers. Now I had to discover whether I knew how to make them laugh.

Every book is a risk. I have understood this since my first novel was published in 2017. When you begin, you have no idea whether what you are writing will find its readers or become one of those quiet disappearances that haunt every writer’s understanding of the industry. But there is a particular risk in changing direction when your current direction is working. What made me do it was the desire to push myself out of my comfort zone. 

There is a version of a writing life in which you follow the path laid before you, book by book. You do it well, and it is enough. I respect that version. It takes discipline and produces good work. But I have never written a book that did not frighten me a little.

All Killers Aboard frightened me in a new way. There was the fear of the joke that failed. The fear of the reader who loved A Violent Heart picking it up and finding something entirely different. The fear of stepping away from the thing I had finally been told I was good at.

But I had to be true to myself and my instincts. So, I wrote it anyway and enjoyed every minute of writing it. I hope that comes across when you read it.

All Killers Aboard by David Fennell (Orion Publishing) out now

A shocking murder. A ship full of suspects. On a luxury cruise from Southampton to New York, the annual gathering of the mysterious Midnight Chorus Society is in full swing. Unbeknownst to the rest of the innocent passengers, the deadly convention is made up entirely of serial killers, wannabes and their fans. Travelling on board is Hollywood royalty Jacqui Dulac, star of the television show Lady Detective, and her latest ghost-writer, Martha Hammond. Yet when Martha witnesses a shocking murder on deck, with a single red button found near the crime scene, the quarrelling duo must put aside their differences to become real-life detectives... But with a cruise liner full of the world's most notorious serial killers, they both know that when there's been one murder, another is sure to follow. And as a storm rocks the ship, can Martha and Jacqui identify the killer before it's too late?

More information about David Fennell and his books can be found on his website. He can also be found on Facebook. He can also be found on Instagram @mrdavidfennell and X @davyfennell

Books to Look forward to from Orion Publishing

January 2026

The Bone Garden is by Simon Beckett. Buried in the shadows and roots of the forest is a deadly secret that was never meant to come out . . . Driving through the mountains in a fierce winter storm, David Hunter is forced to seek shelter at a remote village. But a one-night stop-over at the dilapidated Hillside House becomes deadly after a gruesome discovery in the depths of the surrounding forest. With communications down and the only road washed out by the storm, Hunter is unsure who - if anyone - he can trust. And as long-buried secrets of a feud amongst the locals begin to emerge, he knows that whatever dark past the isolated community might be hiding, there's no one he can call on for help. This time he's on his own.

A man with a deadly past marries into the perfect, respectable family. A woman buried. A woman broken. A woman crashed. A woman burned. And the man who knew them all. Love at first sight, a whirlwind Vegas wedding, a fairy-tale romance. For seventy-nine days, Tavish Advani has been the happiest man in the world-until his new life turns to ash, his wealthy in-laws' house going up in a fiery explosion. His badly injured wife lies in a coma, her family all but annihilated. Tavish thought he left the sins of his Los Angeles life behind, but it's not so easy to leave behind an investigation into the deaths of several high-profile women-all of whom he professed to love. Tragedy and death follow him no matter where he goes . . . but this time, he knows he's innocent. Desperately trying to clear his name as the authorities zero in, he begins his own investigation into the fire-and learns that his wife's picture-perfect family may have been nothing but a meticulously constructed mirage. The truth is much darker than anything Tavish could've imagined . Such a Perfect Family is by Nalini Singh.

February 2026

Mrs Pearcey is by Lottie Moggach. Camden, 1890. London is a city of gaslight, gossip and grisly headlines. Hannah Teale is a bright young woman newly engaged to Cosmo, a budding Fleet Street reporter. Her interest in journalism is largely confined to the advice and short stories in her beloved Girl's Own Paper, but when news breaks of a local woman arrested for a brutal double murder - a woman named Mary Pearcey - Hannah is struck by a chilling realisation. She's seen that face before. As the streets of Camden fill with tabloid journalists jostling for a scoop and gawpers hungry for details, Hannah becomes convinced that her encounter with Mrs Pearcey holds the key to the story behind the headlines. In the guise of preparing for her wedding, Hannah embarks on her own investigation. Startling revelations bring her closer to the real Mary Pearcey - but the deeper she digs, the more the neat edges of her own world begin to fray. With a trial in full swing, what began as a morbid fascination now feels urgent and personal. The woman bound for the gallows may not be as guilty as the press have branded her - but can Hannah uncover the truth before it's too late? And even if she does, will anyone believe her? Riveting and immersive, Mrs Pearcey is a powerful reimagining of a true crime story that scandalised Victorian society and a moving exploration of the secrets we keep and the stories we tell.

March 2026

Killing Me Softly is by Christie Watson. Unexpected deaths and untoward incidents are becoming alarmingly frequent at City Emergency Department. A&E Senior Sister, Aoife, begins to question whether her new nurses are incompetent - or worse. Earnest recruit Eden cares deeply for her patients and carries the Code of Conduct around in her pocket, reporting everyone whose views don't align with hers. But despite her self-righteousness, Eden keeps making mistakes. Is she dangerous? It is Sophie who worries Aoife the most. Acerbic, over-confident and seemingly lacking in empathy, how Sophie ever became a nurse is beyond her. When Sophie begins an affair with Aoife's best friend, Michael, a man twenty-five years her senior, tensions escalate further, threatening to eclipse the fact that lives are at stake. Aoife is the nurse we'd all want. Compassionate to the core. She's the nicest, kindest nurse in the world. Until she is tested to the limit . . . Fearless, fast-paced and darkly funny, Killing Me Softly is a jaw-dropping novel about the hidden extremes of nursing and three complex women who hold the lives of their patients - and each other - in their hands.

The House of Falling Light by R J Ellory. Fifteen-year-old Eleanor’s life of quiet rural drudgery collapses when her parents’ marriage explodes into violence. Eleanor escapes across the Texas plains, but when she crosses paths with a escaped murderer, her dream of a fresh start crumbles, as she’s mistaken for his accomplice. On the run across desolate towns and anonymous cities, Eleanor will do whatever it takes to survive – pursued throughout by a Texas ranger, desperate to understand the truth behind her wild flight across the country. 

The Lancashire town of Burnley is a typical British melting pot, where drugs, violence and human trafficking rub shoulders with grand houses and rolling moors . . . and now two people have been found dead. DI Jane Hacker is back in town, caring for her sick mother, heading up a crime unit that doesn’t trust her instincts. It’s time Jane finally faces up to the truth of the town’s past and present to track down a sadistic killer, before it is too late. The Last Rites (Her Last Breath) is by M J Arlidge and Alex Khan

July 2026

What does it cost to live free? On a warm May night, a woman is found dead at the wheel of her car on a Birmingham back street, a single knife wound to her throat. To DCI Robin Lyons, called away from a date with her new lover, the clinical murder initially suggests organized crime, especially when she learns that Heather Pethick lived on a farm with access to secluded coves on the Cornish coastline. Was she a courier, delivering drugs or even people to a contact in the city? The more Robin learns, though, the less likely that seems. Heather's distraught husband is adamant she'd never jeopardize the life the two of them had built with their six-year-old son, Mikey, especially as her own childhood had been precarious. But then another woman goes missing - a woman with whom Heather had been seen in fraught conversation just hours before she died. Uncovering the truth will take Robin down a rabbit hole into a world where nothing is what it seems and accountability is shrugged off as lightly as a summer jacket. She and her team will be forced to consider what it really means to live freely - and what that might cost other people. For one team member, it will cost their life. This currently unnamed Lucie Whitehouse novel is due to be published in July.

In The St Hilda's Spotlight - Anna Mazzola

 Name:- Anna Mazzola (aka Anna Sharpe)

Job:- Author and Consultant Solicitor

Website:- https://annamazzola.com

Facebook:- AnnaMazzolaWriter

X @anna_mazz

Instagram:- @annamazzolawriter

Introduction

Anna Mazzola is the author of as well as being a human rights and criminal justice Solicitor. Her debut novel, The Unseeing, won an Edgar Allan Poe award. Her fourth novel, The House of Whispers, set in 1930s Rome, won a Fingerprint Award for Best Historical Crime novel. Her bestselling third novel, The Clockwork Girl, was shortlisted for the Gold Dagger and the Historical Dagger for the 2023 awards. It was also nominated for the Dublin Literary award. Her fifth novel, The Book of Secrets, is based on a real case from 17th century Rome and was a Times Historical Novel of the Month and has been shortlisted for the 2025 Gold Dagger and Historical Dagger. Her first legal thriller under the name of Anna Sharpe Notes on a Drowning, was published earlier this year.

Current book? (This can either be the current book that you are reading or writing or both)

Reading: I’m on a Tana French binge. I’m reading The Wych Elm at the moment. Her writing is pin-sharp and her characters are so flawed, complex and plausible. Her most Gothic novel is probably Broken Harbour, which, unsurprisingly, is my favourite.

Writing: I’ve just handed in my second Anna Sharpe book, a courtroom thriller called Lie For Your Life, and am now waiting for my editor to give me the verdict.

Has any gothic book spooked you and if so which one and why?

Little Sister Death by William Gay. It’s in the Southern Gothic tradition and inspired by the 19th Century Bell Witch haunting of Tennessee. I’m not easily scared by books, but this one sure got me. I dare you all to read it.

Which two gothic writers would you invite to dinner and why?

Shirley Jackson, because she was sharp, witty and imposing, and Mary Shelley, as she was rebellious and super-smart. I think they’d make for an interesting evening, though they might of course have a fight.

How do you relax?

Running, writing, reading, swimming, listening to music, ritual sacrifice.

Which gothic book do you wish you had written and why?

Rebecca by Du Maurier. A Gothic classic and a huge bestseller which very much gave the finger to the critics who said that Du Maurier was just a mediocre romance writer.

If you were to write a gothic book where would you set it and why?

I’d like to set a story on Poveglia Island, located near Venice. It’s supposedly one of the most haunted places in the world, with a very dark history involving plague quarantines and a lunatic asylum. You’re not officially allowed to go to the island, but that just makes it more appealing.

How would you describe your latest published book?

My most recently published novel, Notes on a Drowning, isn’t a Gothic one – it’s a legal/political thriller about two determined women on the trail of a scandal involving death, corruption and misogyny. But it has jokes. My most recent historical novel is The Book of Secrets, which is a tale of sorcery and survival based on a real ring of women accused of making and selling poison in 17th century Rome.

With Detecting the Gothic: Tales from the Dark Heart of Crime Fiction the theme at St Hilda's this year, which are you three favourite gothic authors or books

My top three Gothic gems are:

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier (or is My Cousin Rachel better??)

Perfume by Patrick Süskind

Which 3 gothic films would you rewatch and why.

Pan’s Labyrinth, my favourite Guillermo Del Torro film – I love its dark, fairytale-like quality. Picnic at Hanging Rock, as it had a strong impression on me and I think is part of the reason I ended up writing Gothic fiction. The bigger reason, though, was David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, the series as well as the film. Bob continues to stalk my dreams.

What are you looking forward to at St Hilda's?

The play! I’m not sure what my role is yet, but I hope it will require me to wear a wig.

Notes on a Drowning by Anna Sharpe (Orion) Out Now

Alex knows she risks getting fired from her law firm if she takes on another unpaid case, but when she hears Rosa's desperate voice at the other end of the phone, she knows she has to help: the body of Rosa's shy teenage sister, Natalia, has been dragged, lifeless, from the Thames. Alex can't help but think of her own missing little sister. She knows how a lack of answers can eat you alive. Kat has worked hard to become Special Adviser to the Home Secretary, and is eager to finally put the dark and tragic part of her past behind her. But when she discovers a series of cover-ups, she begins to wonder whether her seemingly perfect new boss could be involved. Then she's shocked to discover a letter that raises worrying questions about a girl found drowned in London... Natalia. There are complex and painful reasons for Alex and Kat not to work together, but when it becomes clear that there are powerful people involved in Natalia's death, and that other girls are at risk, Alex and Kat must overcome their differences to find answers. Will they save the girls and discover the truth? Or will the high-powered players in this game stop Alex and Kat for good?

Information on how to buy online tickets can be found here. The programme can be found here.

Forthcoming Books from Orion Publishing

 January 2025

Notes on a Drowning is by Anna Sharpe. Alex knows she risks getting fired from her law firm if she takes on another unpaid case, but when she hears Rosa's desperate voice at the other end of the phone, she knows she has to help: the body of Rosa's shy teenage sister, Natalia, has been dragged, lifeless, from the Thames. Alex can't help but think of her own missing little sister. She knows how a lack of answers can eat you alive. Kat has worked hard to become Special Adviser to the Home Secretary, and is eager to finally put the dark and tragic part of her past behind her. But when she discovers a series of cover-ups, she begins to wonder whether her seemingly perfect new boss could be involved. Then she she's shocked to discover a letter that raises worrying questions about a girl found drowned in London... Natalia. There are complex and painful reasons for Alex and Kat not to work together, but when it becomes clear that there are powerful people involved in Natalia's death, and that other girls are at risk, Alex and Kat must overcome their differences to find answers. Will they save the girls and discover the truth? Or will the high-powered players in this game stop Alex and Kat for good?

Adrianna, heir to the multimillion dollar Kensington nightclub empire, is planning her dream wedding - a lavish ceremony funded by exclusive sponsors, on the Kensington's private tropical island Elysium. There's only one flaw in her perfect plans. Elysium holds traumatic memories as the place where she was kidnapped and held hostage for three days on her 21st birthday - a case that was never solved... When a bridesmaid is murdered the night before the dress fitting, it soon becomes clear that Adrianna won't be able to get hitched without a hitch. The body is staged in a gruesome display, chillingly reminiscent of Adrianna's kidnapping. When forensic expert Holly becomes embroiled in this alien world, the secrets that have dogged the bride and her bridesmaids since childhood start to come out. The answers lie on Elysium, if Holly can find her way into this playground of the rich and famous - and more importantly, if she can get out of it alive... The Bridesmaid is by Cate Quinn

The Time of the Fire is by Emma Kavanagh Northern California, end of summer. Fire Hazard Severity Zone: Very High. A mysterious death. On the anniversary of her mother's death, CEO-in-waiting Robyn Sandoval goes for a morning run. She knows her father - a local fire fighting hero - is desperate to speak to her, to tell her something he wants her to know before she starts her new job leading the corporation that owns most of their Northern Californian town of Destino. But when Robyn arrives, she finds him dead. A devastating fire. Meanwhile, after months of drought, a freak forest fire ignites on the mountain ridge looming over the town. Destino has never burned; its unique position protected by the seemingly insurmountable barrier of the ridge, a favourable wind direction, and a belief long held by the community that they are categorically safe. A life split in two. Robyn is shaken to the core by her father's death, and her life is shattered in two, the fabric of her reality shorn by the sheer force of her grief. The next time she wakes, everything is different: her father is alive, and there's no sign of the fire on the ridge. To understand what is happening, she has to confront not only the secrets of her past but both versions of her present. Because back in her world, the fire is spreading and the time to find answers is running out...

They've faked your child's death. And if you don't give them what they want, they'll make it a reality. Things have been difficult for annie since her husband left; her teenage daughter, Ifsla, has become a ghost of her former self. Annie's terrified that Isla might do something desperate, and she'll lose her, too. So when Annie receives a video of herself crying at Isla's funeral, her blood runs cold. Confused and horrified, Annie races upstairs to check on Isla, who is alive and well. The video has been faked. But who sent it and what do they want? One dark truth soon becomes clear: Annie is the latest in a string of parents being blackmailed, and Isla will be killed if Annie goes to the police or if she fails to give the sender what they want. Annie has a deadly choice: comply with the demands, or try to unmask the dangerous criminal. Your Child Next is by M J Arlidge and Andy Maslen

February 2025

The Naming of the Birds is by Paraic O'Donnell. 'Some wrong was done long ago. It can never be righted, and it has not been forgotten. Someone remembers it.' London, 1894. Inspector Henry Cutter is in an unconvivial temper. Then the murders begin. The first to die is Sir Aneurin Considine, a decorated but long-retired civil servant, is found dead amongst his beloved orchid collection, killed by a wound inflicted with surgical precision. Soon, other victims suffer similar fates. More men in powerful positions; more murders that are gruesome but immaculately orchestrated. The perpetrator comes and goes like a ghost, leaving only carefully considered traces. Hot on the tails of this invisible adversary are Inspector Cutter, along with his hapless but endlessly enthusiastic sidekick, Sergeant Gideon Bliss. But as the pressure mounts, victims will start to look like perpetrators, murderers like truth-tellers, long-hidden failings will come resurface, and not even their very selves are safe from suspicion.

It's New Year's Eve in Edinburgh when Emily sees Nicky. Or at least she thinks she does. He looks, laughs, and moves just like Nicky. But how can that be? Nicky died when they were teenagers, in an accident on a remote road up in the Highlands... didn't he? A week later, Emily sees the man again. He says his name Nicholas. This man not only looks like an adult version of her friend, but he also knows things that only Nicky should know. As her encounters with Nicholas become more frequent and her fixation intensifies, the truth becomes murkier, and more unsettling. Is Emily being haunted, is she going mad - or is something altogether darker going on... One Came Back is by Rose McDonagh.

March 2025

Decisions were made: I made them. Violence was done: I did it. Crime scenes were fled: I fled them. People were hurt: I hurt them. Someone was loved: I loved them. Not everything I did was bad. Just most of it. A scholarship kid with straight As and big dreams, Evie Gordon always thought she was special, that she'd be someone. But after graduating from an elite university, she finds herself drowning in debt and working as an SAT tutor for the super-rich of Los Angeles. Everything changes one Sunday, when she arrives for a weekly lesson at the Victors' Beverly Hills mansion to discover pure carnage: the bloody remains of Mr. and Mrs. Victor sullying their beautiful back garden, and a woman crying for help from within the walls of the family's estate.  Within moments, Evie and the woman go from bystanders to suspects to fugitives. Anointed the new Charles Manson by the press, a bloodthirsty ninety-nine percenter hoping to spark a class war, Evie is finally someone. At the heart of a nationwide manhunt, Evie is desperate to clear her name. But first she'll have to break down the barriers of her new companion - who is inscrutable, surprisingly skilled at being on the run, and quickly becoming the most important person in Evie's upside-down life. Killer Potential is by Hannah Deitch.

The Grapevine is by Kate Kemp. Australia, 1979. It's the height of summer and on a quiet suburban cul-de-sac a housewife is scrubbing the yellow and white chequered tiles of her bathroom floor. But all is not as it seems. For one thing, it's 3 a.m. For another, she is trying desperately to remove all traces of blood before they stain. Her husband seems remarkably calm, considering their neighbour has just been murdered. As the sun rises on Warrah Place, news of Antonio Marietti's death spreads like wildfire, gossip is exchanged in whispers and suspicion mounts. Twelve-year-old Tammy launches her own investigation, determined to find out what happened, but she is not the only one whose well-meaning efforts uncover more mysteries than they solve. There are secrets behind every closed door in the neighbourhood - and the identity of the murderer is only one of them . . .Richly atmospheric and simmering with tension, The Grapevine is an acutely observed debut novel about prejudice and suspicion, the hidden lives of women, and how the ties that bind a community can also threaten .

What brings people together often throws them apart especially when it involves family. Ordinarily a close and loyal unit, the relationnships between detectives David Stone and Frankie Oliver is stretched to a breaking point when, without hwe knowledge he embarks on an investigation into the tragic open-unsolved murder of her sister. The past and present will collide with devastating consequences. A Truth More Painful than Murder is by Mari Hannah.

Murder at the Palace is by N R Daws. When one of the ladies in residence at Hampton Court Palace fails to answer her maid's call in the morning, Mrs Lydia Bramble, palace housekeeper, is called in to investigate. What Mrs Bramble finds sends shockwaves through the whole palace: Miss Philomena Franklin, slumped over her desk, a knife in her back.  With the police determined to bark up the wrong tree, Mrs Bramble decides to take up her own investigation with the help of Miss Franklin's maid. After all, as servants, they know just how many dangerous secrets and secret squabbles the genteel residents of the palace apartments harbour.

April 2025 

A Darker Side of Paradise is by R J Ellory. A masterful, gripping serial-killer thriller covering three killers over four decades, and the dogged police officer who tracks them down across small-town America. Rachel Hoffman enters a cat and mouse chasewith a shadowy killer who taunts her with passages from Dante's inferno. Over forty years of her life will be ripped apart and changed in her search for the truth. 

All Jay wants is to start again, to set himself up in a small, quiet town where no one knows him. Because here, no one will let him forget what they think he did the day his neighbour died in Flat 401. He just needs to keep doing what he's always done: treat people with kindness and respect, and try to stay out of trouble. But when a threatening note makes its way into the hostel he's forced to call home - Everyone is going to know what you really did - his hope for a fresh start begins to crumble. Jay fears that the secret he's fought so hard to hide, that he went to prison to protect, might finally come out. How far is he willing to go to keep his freedom alive? And with a shadowy figure from his past tracking Jay's every move, perhaps it's not just his freedom Jay should be worried about being taken from him, but his life... Flat 401 is by Kingsley Pearson.

The Castle is by John Sutherland. Alex and Pip are in desperate need of an escape. Their stressful roles as hostage negotiators are eased only by the fact that they get to come home to each other every night. When an old friend invites the couple up to the Scottish Highlands for an extended break, Alex and Pip jump at the chance. It's the rest they both need. But soon after they arrive at the castle, they hear the sound of gunshots, and their perfect escape turns into a perfect nightmare. The remote mountainous landscape is now the setting for a terrifying kidnap plot targeting one of the other guests. In the desperate hours that follow, Alex and Pip must call on all their years of negotiating experience to keep everyone alive. But with Pip gravely injured and the net closing in, it might be her life that needs saving most of all...

Venice is alive with the magic and bustle of Carnevale. A city of mysterious masks and gorgeous palaces, of riches, patricians, intellectuals and artists. And amidst it all, something new is being born: magnificent voices are soaring above the spires, astonishing costumes are being crafted, and audiences are being transported, for the first time, by the power of the Opera. And beneath it all: espionage, organised crime, and murder. Swordsman Richard Hughes has arrived on the banks of the Grand Canal looking for a simpler life, only to be plunged - alongside Phillip de Chambray, a remarkable woman unable to show her true self - into the thick of the murkiest, most dangerous European politics, at a moment when someone is trying to destroy the opera, and Venice itself. The Venetian Heretic is by Christian Cameron.

May 2025

Game, Set and Murder is by Judy Murray. Four close friends. One big secret. On a hot midsummer day in the Surrey countryside, close friends Kristin, Vee, Bibi and Hailey are celebrating their Ladies' Team victory at the exclusive Royal Oaks Tennis Club. But when their oh-so-charming coach, Jeremy, collapses after tucking into a carefully decorated sponge cake, it seems the season isn't just ending with a championship trophy - but with a murder. Off the court, it's clear that each of the four women has been keeping a dark secret, but surely no one would wish Jeremy dead? Or perhaps revenge truly is a cake best served cold...

You love your family. They make you feel safe. You trust them. But should you...? Exhausted mum Natalie struggles to put baby Erin down for the night, her tiredness exacerbated by the party preparations for her eldest's 16th birthday. It's supposed to be a joyful celebration, but the family is stretched to breaking point. As the alcohol flows at the birthday party, tensions come to a head. Later, there is widespread horror and panic when baby Erin disappears. Eventually the missing child is found in nearby woods, but any relief is short lived. Erin is rushed to ICU at the local hospital, a criminal investigation into her abduction and attempted murder begins. SIO Max Fleming tears this once loving family apart, as he investigates the crime. Minute by minute, hour by hour, he dissects the events of that fateful night, as a host of secrets and lies are revealed. This will be a party to remember. For all the wrong reasons. The Mistake is by MJ Arlidge and Lisa Hall 

June 2025

Death on Set (Location) is by Richard Coles. Canon Daniel Clement is back. In the spring of 1990, we return to Champton, where the characters we've come to love are all aflutter as a glamorous movie set takes over the village. As the actors don their bonnets, gowns and crowns, a murder interrupts filming on set - and it's an ingenious murder. Can Daniel solve the mystery with help from his sidekick Detective Sergeant Neil Vanloo - even when things are so sticky between them?

Margate is in the grip of a heatwave when David Whitehouse stumbles across the mysterious story of a local woman who lived on the ground floor of Saltwater Mansions, a block of flats not far from the sea. On paper, Caroline Lane was unremarkable. She paid her mortgage every month. She always paid her bills. But nobody had seen or heard from her for 13 years, and no one had ever come looking. She had disappeared completely. David quickly becomes as fascinated by this missing woman as the residents of Saltwater Mansions, all of whom have their own theories to share, and their own unique stories to tell. As his obsession grows, David unearths vital clues that private detectives and amateur investigators alike have failed to spot. But the closer he gets to the truth, the clearer it becomes that this mystery was never meant to be solved, and that some stories don't want to be told. What if this one was never about Caroline Lane at all? From acclaimed and award-winning author David Whitehouse, Saltwater Mansions is an astonishing work of creative non-fiction blending reportage and memoir to explore the extraordinary hidden lives of ordinary people, the impact of grief, and the dangerous allure of taking true crime stories into our own hands.

After an accident that nearly kills her, Emily and her husband, Freddie, move from London to a beautiful Dartmoor country house called Larkin Lodge. The house is gorgeous, striking―and to Emily, something about it feels deeply wrong. Old boards creak at night, fires go out, and books fall from the shelves, and all of it stems from the terrible presence she feels in the third-floor room. But these things happen only when Emily's alone, so are they happening at all? She's still medically fragile; her postsepsis condition can cause hallucinatory side effects, which means she can't fully trust her own senses. Freddie doesn't notice anything odd and is happy with their chance at a fresh start. Emily, however, starts to believe that the house is being haunted by someone who was murdered in it, though she can find no evidence of a wrongful death. As bizarre events pile up and her marriage starts to crumble, Emily becomes obsessed with discovering the truth about Larkin Lodge. But if the house has secrets, so do Emily and her husband. And they live here now. We Live Here Now is by Sarah Pinborough.

July 2025

Into the Fire is by M J Arlidge. Nowhere to hide. No-one to turn to. Nothing to lose.Helen Grace is sure she made the right decision to quit the force. Until the day she looks out from her window to see a desperate young woman being beaten by two thugs. Still a force to be reckoned with, Helen races into the night and strikes the men down. For a moment, it feels like she doesn't need her badge to do good, but as she leads the girl to safety, she's struck from behind, regaining consciousness just in time to see the victim being dragged into a white van. Helen's determined to find the woman and save her, but even begging her former colleagues to help gets her nowhere. It's clear it'll be up to her alone to make the rescue. Taking matters into her own hands, Helen uncovers more women connected to the first who need her help. But fighting crime as a maverick is a dangerous game. One that could cost Helen her life, and the life of those she holds most dear...

At the beginning of the twentieth century, as America grapples with forces of human and natural violence more powerful than humanity has ever seen, Bessie Holland yearns for the love that she has never known. She finds a soulmate and mentor in a brilliant but tormented suffragette English teacher, who inspires Bessie to fight the forces of evil that permeate her world. Watching the vast Texas countryside being destroyed by an oil company and a menacing figure with a violent past, Bessie is prepared to defend her home and her family. But when she accidentally kills an unarmed man to defend her father Hackberry, she must flee to New York. There, her older brother introduces her to boys who will grow into gangsters, but as children admire and respect Bessie's spirit and fortitude as she is cast into a gangland that yearns for justice and mercy. A welcome return to the beloved Holland series and populated with characters both radiant and despicable, Don't Forget Me, Little Bessie is by James Lee Burke and is an epic story of a remarkable young girl who fights against potentially overwhelming forces.

Matchmaking for Psychopaths is by Tasha Coryell. Alexandra was expecting a nice evening with her fiancé for her birthday. Instead, her best friend is sitting next to her man, and what's worse: They're in love. To escape her relationship troubles, Alexandra throws herself into her job where she works as a matchmaker for psychopaths-a label that the clients themselves are unaware of-and becomes entangled with two of her most recent clients, both of whom have mysterious pasts that inspire Alexandra to breech work protocol and spend time with them outside of the office. One of them, Rebecca, becomes a candidate to take on the role of Alexandra's new best friend, while the other, Aidan, claims that he's her soulmate, despite her insistence that her significant other is going to return in time for their scheduled wedding. When her fiancé goes missing and threatening packages begin arriving at her doorstep, Alexandra has to figure out who is trying to target her and how it relates to her own dark past. Can she trust her instincts as a matchmaker or has she set herself up with her enemy?

When Isla Hanson's husband, Jerry, dies, leaving his entire estate to her, she knows she'll be set for life. But contrary to the belief of his wealthy friends and business associates, who all seem to think she was only ever interested in him for the money, Isla truly loved Jerry and struggles to imagine life without him. With no children of her own, and no real family to speak of, Isla is grateful for the support of her best friend, Tia. But when a strange woman and child appear at the funeral, Isla's entire world is turned upside down, and she is shocked to learn that the loving husband she dedicated fifteen years of her life to might have been living a double-life all along. The Child is by Mandasue Heller.

In The St Hilda's Spotlight - The Reverend Richard Coles

 Name:- Reverend Richard Coles

Job:- Author/Retired cleric/Broadcaster

Website:- Reverend Richard Coles | Official Website

Facebook: ReverendRichardColes

X: @RevRichardColes

Introduction

Reverend Richard Coles up until 2022 was a Church of England priest. Prior to this he was the instrumentalist half of the pop band The Communards. His first book in the Canon Clement series Murder Before Evensong was published in 2022 and was shortlisted for the 2023 British Book Awards Crime & Thriller Book of the Year. His most recent book is Murder at the Monastery.   He is also the co-host of the podcast The Rabbit Hole Detectives.

Current book (This can either be the current book that you are reading or writing or both)

Hillbilly Elegy by J D Vance

Favourite book:

The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa.

Which two musicians would you invite to dinner and why?

Josef Haydn and Nana Mouskouri. I think they’d get on and they had/have impeccable manners.

How do you relax?

Watching niche stuff on YouTube

Which book do you wish you had written and why?

Middlemarch by George Eliot.  Life in all its loveliness and awfulness and quite a lot in between.

What would you say to your younger self if you were just starting out as a writer.

Write every day. Doesn’t matter if it comes easily or stickily. Just write.

How would you describe your latest published book?

The winner of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature.

With A Dance to the Music of Crime: the artful crime to murder being the theme at St Hilda's this year, which are you three favourite albums?

The Smiths (The Smiths)

Last Leaf (The Danish String Quartet)

The Ring of the Nibelungen (Wagner)

If you were given the ability to join a band which would it be and why?

I would have loved to have played in the Burt Bacharach Orchestra. The maestro.

If you were to re-attend a concert which would it be and why?

Chaka Khan, NY 1987. Best I’ve ever heard, I think.

What are you looking forward to at St Hilda's?

Gossip and drinking with other writers.

Murder at the Monastery by The Reverend Richard Coles (Orion Publishing)

Daniel Clement has suffered a secret humiliation and to recover, takes respite at the monastery where he was a novice. But the monastery doesn't allow Daniel a break, for there are tensions building there too, as the secret past of novice master Father Paul is emerging. Tension mounts and a murder ensues. Meanwhile back at Champton, Daniel is the subject of village gossip, his mother Audrey is up to something again, there's trouble at the dress shop, up at the big house, and the puppies are running riot. Can Daniel be reconciled with detective Neil and solve the mystery?

A Christmas Novella Murder Under The Mistletoe will be published in October.

Murder Under The Mistletoe by The Reverend Richard Coles (Orion Publishing) October 2024

It is Christmas Day and at Champton Rectory, Canon Daniel Clement and his mother Audrey are joined by the residents and guests of the big house to drink, eat and be merry. At the festive feast, peace and goodwill prevail. Until two meet under the mistletoe. One of them falls down dead. And Daniel suspects murder has returned to Champton... Can Daniel and Detective Sergeant Neil Vanloo solve the crime and catch the Christmas killer?

Information on how to buy online tickets can be found here. #HCFW24

The Wrong Child and the Writer's Room

Writing is a lonely business. Despite feverish bouts of activity during literary festivals and inspiring one-to-one chats with readers at bookshop events, novel writing is essentially a solitary pursuit, the writer spending endless hours alone wrestling with the rigours of plot, character, theme and pay-off. But what if it wasn’t? What if you could lighten the load and banish the loneliness by teaming up with another writer, sharing and exploring all the major decisions about your new story together? Why not draw on the experience, inspiration and narrative nous of a pair of writers, fulfilling the maxim that two heads are better than one?

That was the thinking behind a major new Writers Room style initiative dreamt up by myself and publisher Sam Eades at Orion Fiction, which will see five co-written novels released over the next eighteen months, the first of which – The Wrong Child  - has just launched on Kindle, Amazon and in Waterstones. The genesis of the project was simple. We would take the kernel of an idea I’d had, then find an inspirational, story-savvy crime writer to climb inside it, then watch it blossom into something new and surprising. It was risky for sure – what if we didn’t get on, what if the ideas didn’t “take” – but the results have been exhilarating. Three novels are already in the bag, two more are on the way, and The Wrong Child, co-written with the amazing Julia Crouch, is already getting rave reviews on Good Reads, Amazon and beyond.

So why did we decide to do embark on this co-writing experiment? Partly it was to vanquish a common writer’s fear that good ideas will simply wither and die if left untouched and ignored in our computer files. But it was also a chance for me to explore new and exciting genres. I’m principally known for the DI Helen Grace series and for high concept, serial killer thrillers in general. The Writers Room initiative allowed me to explore unfamiliar worlds, taking bold steps into domestic noir, suburban suspense, twisty procedurals and nail-biting abduction thrillers. There is truly something for everyone in this collection of compelling, innovative mysteries and I loved exploring new worlds, new characters and new approaches to story-telling.

Once we’d decided on our top five ideas, our first job was to identify our crack team of co-writers. Aided by Leodora Darlington at Orion, we set about our task in earnest, spending many happy hours reading the very best of modern crime fiction. Before long, we had our five authors. Julia Crouch, the queen of domestic noir, Steph Broadribb, ex-bounty hunter and international best-seller, Andy Maslen, the prolific, hugely popular creator of the Gabriel Wolfe series, Lisa Hall, the undisputed master of jaw-dropping psychological thrillers and Alex Khan, a nailed-on star of the future, whose DS Mumtaz Ali thrillers had me teetering on the edge of my seat.

So how would this collaboration work? Friends and colleagues were immediately curious. Who would shape the story? Who would create the characters? Would we write one chapter each, firing them back and forth to each other in a blizzard of bodies, betrayals and bloodshed? Drawing on my background in television, I took on the role of producer and show runner, locking myself in a room with my fellow collaborators for an extended bout of “story bashing”, to use the official TV term. Hunkered down in the basement of Carmelite House, Orion’s HQ on the Thames, we set off on a gruelling but exhilarating series of one-to-one ideas sessions, during which we defined, shaped and mapped out our new novel.

The approach was similar on each, starting with a session designed to define the unique selling point of our story – the killer concept – before moving on to bespoke sessions exploring character, setting, plot and pay-off. An exhaustive – and occasionally exhausting – process for sure, but the endless pacing and “What ifs?’ allowed us to dig deeper, to go further in our pursuit of original ideas and surprising narratives. The instant response in the room – be it a big thumbs up or a quizzical “maybe” – is incredibly useful when shaping a new story, allowing you to junk unpromising notions, running instead with those angles and insights that inspire both of you. Writing is often a question of confidence and in the Writers Room a shared idea that electrifies both writers is a sure sign of good things to come.

Of course, the real benefit of co-authorship was revealed when we moved on from the planning stage to the hard graft of crafting chapters of tightly coiled prose. Time and again I was thrilled by the originality, personality, wit and personal experience that my co-writers brought to the table, taking an initial idea and bringing it to life in ways I would never – could never – have thought of. I could cite endless examples of this, but here I’d like to highlight Julia Crouch’s writing in The Wrong Child. A sinister tale of child abduction and dark family secrets, it introduces us to Sarah, a mother of three who’s struggling to bond with her new baby, following a difficult birth. Julia, with her eye for detail and trademark mordant humour, was able to capture the physical, emotional and psychological rigours of childbirth with an honesty, piquancy and wicked wit that would have been way beyond me. Happily, and appropriately, The Wrong Child is dedicated to Julia’s first grandchild, Frank, who arrived safely during the writing of the novel.

There are many more such stories I could tell, but instead I will let the new novels speak for themselves. Don’t miss out on The Wrong Child and brace yourself for Steph Broadribb’s chilling thriller, The Reunion, which will be released on September 5th 2024. Please enjoy them responsibly though, as they are seriously addictive…

 The Wrong Child by M J Arlidge and Julia Crouch (Out Now) Orion Publishing.

When 3-month-old Max is abducted, his parents are plunged into their worst nightmare. Devastated mum Sarah only took her eyes off him for a second, but that doesn't stop her guilt. Even husband Jake can't hide his anger that their little boy went missing on her watch. By contrast there are smiles and celebration at a caravan park in Lincolnshire, as baby Blaze is introduced to the Star family. Jenna and Gary are delighted with the new addition to their family. He is their fourth child and a real object of delight to their eldest - fifteen-year-old Willow - who once again will raise the child. But trouble is brewing for the Star family. Willow is concerned by the desperate online appeals from Sarah and Jake, baby Max has neonatal diabetes and without regular treatment will die. As baby "Blaze" becomes seriously ill, Willow makes a shocking discovery. What is the truth about her family? And how far will they go to hide their deadly secret?

 

 

Social, Cultural and Political climate of Victorian England

How the social, cultural and political climate of Victorian England combined to create a perfect storm of crime, murder and sensationalism.

Kim Donovan, author of The Mysterious Mrs Hood, provides the historical backdrop to her great -great aunt’s murder in 1900.

England 1898 --It has been ten years since Jack the Ripper terrorised the streets of Whitechapel, London. Charles Booth and his team of socialists have been working on a project to map wealth and poverty across the city since 1886, and have recently named Stockwood Street, which was home to Mary Jane and Herbert Bennett, as being one of the ‘lowest class’ streets in Victorian London. It was at this point that Mary Jane and Herbert made a choice: to turn to crime to escape poverty. Mary Jane’s desperate struggle for survival had begun.

Charles Booth’s work would eventually result in a colour-coded map of the city, which carved out and demarcated the poorest streets with thick black lines. Booth classified these areas as being home to the ‘lowest classes.’ The notebooks that accompany Booth’s poverty map add vivid detail about the social character of each street, which helps to give us a sense of the conditions in which people were living at the time. Stockwood Street, a dingy thoroughfare off Plough Street, near Clapham Junction, was described as being awash with ‘drunken, rowdy and troublesome people’. It is easy to imagine the danger that may have lurked on the ‘vicious and semi-criminal’ street after dark. It is no surprise, then, that a heavily pregnant Mary Jane would have urgently sought to liberate herself from these challenging social conditions.

The researchers documenting the conditions on London’s streets would at times be accompanied by the police officer for the district in which they were charting. It was a time when officers walked their beats. Forensic science was in its infancy, and the police still relied heavily on clues to solve crimes. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Scotland Yard had been set up ten years before, and plain clothed police officers, who had originally been thought of as ‘spies’ had made significant strides in winning the trust of the public. Despite this more robust police force, Mary Jane and Herbert would successfully evade the scrutiny of the authorities as they travelled across the country, graduating from fraud to theft, and eventually to arson, while leaving a trail of disgruntled people in their wake.

When relations between the couple eventually began to sour, it is unlikely that they would have considered divorce. Although legal by that time, divorce was expensive and brought with it great shame, especially for women. Mary Jane would have been dependent on her marriage for reasons of reputation, and she would have been reliant on her husband for money.

Despite the great swathes of black on Booth’s map of London, social conditions across the country were being to improve. The Bank holiday Act of 1871 had introduced four regular bank holidays, which gave workers more time for leisure activities, and the development of the railways made it possible to travel longer distances with more ease. Seaside resorts had begun to spring up, and Great Yarmouth in particular became a popular holiday destination. It was here, on a holiday with her infant daughter in September 1900, that Mary Jane would meet her tragic end.

This increase in leisure time coincided with a rise in literacy levels and the development of a more affordable and less regulated press, which, in turn, led to a dramatic rise in newspaper readership. The Victorians had a reputation for being avid consumers of violent entertainments, and a new-fangled form of journalism dubbed ‘Tabloid Journalism’, or ‘Yellow Journalism’ (in North America) had started to develop. Articles in this style had a focus on bold headlines, emotive writing and sensationalist stories. They were, broadly speaking, a development of the Broadside, a type of street literature that had been infamously sold at public executions in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

The sensationalist reporting of crime was at odds with a legal system that required impartiality, and there were calls at the turn of the 20th Century to regulate the press through fear that sensationalist reporting would prejudice active cases. It was into this press that the story of Mary Jane’s murder found its way, and it was through a newspaper report that her father would learn of his daughter’s murder. The press whipped up such a frenzy around the case that the ensuing trial attracted attention from across the country and Mary Jane Bennett became a household name. She had escaped poverty, and her desperate struggle for survival had come to an end, but not in the way she would have hoped for.

The Mysterious Mrs Hood by Kim Donovan (Orion Publishing) Out Now

A true Victorian murder mystery... Great Yarmouth, September 1900: A young woman is found dead on the beach, a bootlace tied tightly around her neck. Despite her death attracting national attention in the press, nobody claims her. Detective Inspector Robert Lingwood of the Great Yarmouth police force declares he will not rest until the mystery of the young woman's death is solved. But it's only once the case has been referred to Scotland Yard that the layers of mystery start to peel away... 'Mrs Hood' was in fact Mary Jane Bennett, and this is her story. Following clues and tracking red herrings leads the police to close in on their one and only suspect. With arson, fraud, an affair and a sensation-hungry press, the murder gripped the nation in one of the most eagerly anticipated trials of the early twentieth century.

Kim Donovan can be found on X @Kim_Donovan_