An annual highlight for the UK
Crime Fiction community is PenguinRandomHouse imprint Michael Joseph’s Party.
During the proceedings, we are
treated to a preview of the upcoming offerings from this important imprint.
Invited guests include Booksellers, Authors, Reviewers, Bloggers, Journalists
and Literary Champions. Last year, the party was held in The Crypt in St
Martins-in-the Field – Click
Here for the Shots 2025 Report.
Last Year’s startling
discovery [thanks to Rowland
White] was debut author Travis
Kennedyand his novel THE
WHYTE PYTHON WORLD TOUR, which is released in Paperback this summer [11TH
June 2026]. I would urge pre-ordering.
This novel was one of my top
ten reads for 2025 when released in Hardcover. I wrote at the time “This
novel gripped me like the snake it eponymously references, preventing me from
doing anything apart from purely reading the story. During the times I was away
from the book – I was thinking about it, even dreaming about the characters and
the narrative in my sleep. It is clever, thought-provoking and witty, which at
times becomes ‘laugh-out-loud’ as the absurd plot unravels at a fevered pace.”
Read my full review HERE
This year, the venue was
Browns Court Rooms in Covent Garden. It was surreal seeing Steve
Mosby – as his debut novel was launched here over twenty years ago as part
of Orion
Publishing’s NEW BLOOD. Steve Mosby publishes under his Alex North penname crime
novels that stray into the horror genre. We’re all looking forward to the NETFLIX
adaptation of his first Alex North thriller THE WHISPER MAN.
Thanks to Publisher Rowland
White, I learned of two British espionage thrillers that appear to be VERY
interesting – and WELL worth pre-ordering - namely OCTAGON
by CJ Merritt [Hardcover: 28 May 2026] and Simon
Conway’s THE BRITISH AGENT [Hardcover: 20 Aug 2026].
Publisher Joel
Richardson gave a rousing welcome to the party. He stressed that the
Michael Joseph imprint prides itself in the diversity of its crime list
subgenres, from espionage, thrillers, domestic noir, cozy, historical et al.
Shots Magazine wish to pass
our thanks to the Michael Joseph Team for managing a wonderful event, with
special thanks to Sriya and Rowland for our invitations.
Penguin Michael Joseph
organised an Official Photographer so the event has been recorded HERE
And for more information on 2026
books from Penguin Michael Joseph click HERE
Mike Stotter and I were
thankful to Publisher / Editor and Literary Raconteur Otto Penzler, for a
specific book he’s just released, and we got the opportunity to thank him
personally while we were at Bouchercon 2025 in New Orleans.
I first heard of this book
during the London Book Fair when I had a meeting with Otto Penzler. As a long
time reader of Lee Child’s
Jack Reacher novels - I quizzed him about this book during last May’s Crimefest
event in Bristol.
The book I am referring to is ‘Reacher: The Stories behind the Stories’
– a book that I was highly anticipating.
So, what are my thoughts once
I had a copy in my hands?
This interesting book will not only appeal to readers of
the Jack Reacher novels, but also to readers [and writers] who wish to uncover
the physical mechanics behind the writing process; the dynamics that powered
one of the world’s best-selling thriller series.
Written in a series of short chapters [which were initially
short introductions to the limited print run special editions of each Jack
Reacher novel solely written by Lee Child] from the first [Killing Floor] to
the twenty fourth [Blue Moon], this book is so very interesting.
It opens - On Monday September 5th, 1994, at home, at the dining
room table, I sat down to write. An hour later, I gave the first chapter to my
wife. I asked, “Should I continue?”
“Yes,” she said. “I like it.”
Child’s self-deprecating, modest and amusing style at times
raising a smile, while at others forcing the reader to pause for thought and
ponder upon the hand of fate. The combination of the author’s work ethic,
built-in self-reliance, positive [and generous] nature - collided many times
with the hand of fate as he watched the cards fall, not always in his favour –
but he always seemed to play the best possible hand. Case in point – the
circumstances of the purchase of his Property in Southern France, as well as
its subsequent sale.
After completing this slim
tome, including the new Jack Reacher short story “A Better Place” which closes this interesting book – I had a few
questions, and thanks to publisher Otto Penzler, who spoke with Lee – I got my
answers, which are presented below for our readers.
I closed my review –
“This is the most informative and entertaining book I’ve
read so far in 2025. Reacher: The Stories behind the Stories helped recall how
much pleasure reading the Lee Child novels had on me, enriching my own life by distracting me
from my own [at times] Bad Luck and Trouble.”
I understand the importance of
literature - good writing – and the power of stories in helping manage the
randomness of life and its challenges.
Stephen King summed this
importance in his book “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft”.
“Life isn't a support-system for art. It's
the other way around”
I managed my life through my
love of books and reading, so over to a story teller that helped me overcome
the challenges that life presented me from 1997’s ‘Killing Floor’ to 2019
and ‘Blue Moon’ – Mr. Lee Child.
Ali: I first heard about ‘Reacher: The Stories
behind the Stories’ in March, from Otto Penzler during the London Book Fair.
Would you tell us about the book’s genesis and was it your idea or that of
Penzler’s Mysterious Press?
Lee: Entirely Otto's idea - both originally and
contemporaneously. Otto did very limited
editions of the Reacher books for his collectors, 126 printed per title, and
asked for added-value forewords for each, year by year. I did them as diaries, really - where I was,
what I was thinking, etc, while I was writing each book. Then he wanted to publish them in a single
widely-available volume. Which felt
weird, frankly. I knew collectors rarely
even open the book - they shelve them reverentially and worry about cracking
their spines. So I thought no one would
read this stuff, so I made the intros quite personal and unguarded. Transworld picked it up as a subsidiary deal
for the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
AK: I see there will be an audio release,
will you be narrating / reading it or will Jeff Harding do the honours again?
AND what’s your take on the growth of Audio Books, and the Reacher novels in
particular?
LC: I narrated the
main part of the audio myself, because it feels a bit autobiographical, like a
memoir. That was the first time ever for
me. Jeff Harding did the non-me parts,
including a brand new Reacher short story we put in as bonus content. Audio is getting huge now - inevitably, I
think, because for most of our evolution storytelling has been oral, and we
seem to be hardwired for it. I'm all in favour
- I'm a storyteller rather than a writer, so I'm happy for people to get the
story any way they want.
AK: I enjoyed the Reacher short story “A
Better Place” that closes “Reacher: The Stories behind the Stories”, so after
last year’s collection ‘Safe Enough’ and previously ‘No Middle Name’, will we
be seeing more short fiction from you?
LC: I'm sure I'll do short stories now and then. There's always someone asking. If I'm around long enough, there could be
enough to make another collection.
AK: As a fellow
bibliophile - I was amused when you mentioned about renovating the manor house
in Sussex, including building a library “…for
the first time in my life, I had more shelves than books….though that moment
did not last long…” So tell us about your own book collecting over the
years, and what is the state of your book collection currently?
LC: I'm not a collector per
se - I have probably ten thousand books here and there, but fewer than
twenty are actual valuable volumes. I
have a Kelmscott Chaucer - folio size, hand-printed by William Morris,
illustrated by Edward Burne-Jones, often called the most beautiful book in the
world, and a first edition, first printing of The Catcher in the Rye, and a signed first of The
Silence of the Lambs. Plus a couple of
James Bonds. Stuff like that. But most of my books have little resale
value, except they're much loved by me.
AK: Naturally, there is little mention of the
Amazon series REACHER due to the time frame [Killing Floor to Blue Moon] – so
what can you tell us about Season Four – and is it based on your novel “Gone
Tomorrow”? And what about the spin off series “Neagely”?
LC: Yes, the TV seasons post-date the forewords in the
book. Reacher season four is almost done
- yes, Gone Tomorrow - and the Neagley spin-off is almost through
post-production.
LC: Like the memoir book [Reacher: The Stories behind the
Stories], the archive is another thing I never expected. UEA is very much "the writers'
university", a bit like Iowa State in the U.S., and I know Henry Sutton,
who teaches there. He asked for my
archive. I wasn't sure I had one, as
such - just a bunch of old boxes with all kinds of stuff thrown in. But they have made wonderful sense of it - it
has turned out to be beautifully curated and quite impressive. I started long enough ago that plenty of it
is on physical paper, not just electronic.
LC: I love festivals, and go to as many as I can fit
in. Readers and writers are like my
family, and it's great to see them periodically. I like to meet the new writers - such
passion, energy, and ideas - and such great books! And yes, I'll be there on
November 8th, at 7pm at Whitby in November.
Now I'm back in the UK, I decided to do stuff I had to miss
before. I like Whitby - I had a nice holiday
there once. And it's a new festival, so
I wanted to help launch it.
LC: By an outrageous coincidence, unknown to each other, I
was their fan and they were mine, and eventually we met. Obviously we immediately pledged to make an
album together - I would write the lyrics, they would write
the music. It took us fifteen
years to get it done, but we did it. A
real high point in my life. Total fun,
with two lovely people.
AK: Thank you for your time, and the trip
down memory lane with Reacher: The Stories behind the Stories. Your work has
always been important to so many readers.
LC: My pleasure as ever.
Shots Magazine would like to pass our thanks to Otto
Penzler of The Mysterious Press / Penzler Publishers and Patsy Irwin of
PenguinRandomHouse for helping organise this short interview and of course to
Lee Child for his time.
5 Min video Below: Lee Child
and Andrew Grant at Crimefest May 2025 Bristol UK recorded in Gonzo-Vision.
The Shots Magazine team of Blogger Ayo Onatade accompanied
by Editors Mike Stotter and Ali Karim were delighted to accept invitations to
the 2025 Michael Joseph annual crime fiction party, hosted in The Crypt at St Martins-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square,. London.
We have been attending for many years now, previewing the
forthcoming crime fiction publications that would be released by this important
imprint of the PenguinRandomHouse group.
Previous reports remain archived, here for 2019,
and video footage from 2018 Joel Richardson's welcoming speech -
....and 2017 as well as a video collage from 2008 -
The Michael Joseph 2024 Crime Fiction Catalogue &
Publishing Schedules can be downloaded as a .pdf HERE
OR click the link below >
2025 marks the 90th anniversary of the formation
of Penguin Publishing.
Michael Joseph was a bestselling author before he turned
publisher in 1935 – the same year Penguin paperbacks were launched. In 1985,
exactly half a century after their mutual founding, Michael Joseph became the
commercial imprint of Penguin Books.
So it was a delight to chat to Penguin’s Publishers Rowland
White and Joel Richardson together with Deputy Publicity Director Gaby Young and
her colleagues – who we thanked for throwing a wonderful party as ever – a far
cry from the days of The Union Club in Soho, where
Rowland would stand precariously on a rickety chair to welcome the guests to
the Penguin Michael Joseph annual soiree.
We were delighted to learn that Steve Mosby’s alter ego is
coming to film featuring Robert De Niro and directed by James Ashcroft –
What is The Whisper Man about?
Based on the New York Times bestselling novel by
North: When his 8-year-old son is abducted, a widowed crime writer looks to his
estranged father, a retired former police detective, for help, only to discover
a connection with the decades-old case of a convicted serial killer known as
“The Whisper Man.”
We feature and array of photos for the event as we mingled
with the Penguin authors and their Editorial and Publicity teams – and many
colleagues from the London Literary scene.
To plan your own crime and thriller reading, download the Penguin
schedule HERE
Shots Magazine would like to thank Rowland White, Joel
Richardson and Gaby Young for inviting us to the 2025 Penguin MJ Crime Party.
The Michael Joseph 2024 Crime Fiction Catalogue & Publishing
Schedules can be downloaded as a .pdf HERE
We enjoy discovering intriguing debut novels, so after
penning our thoughts about ‘Nobody But Us’ by Laurie Van Rensburg, we had a few
questions.
“Prescient and jarring, this unexpected and
unheralded debut novel takes the current #MeToo and male-female dynamic and
refracts them through a dark prism making the reader question what is real and
what is artifice.
One has to atone for past sins, or does one?
That is the question for the reader, as is the adage ‘does retribution amount
to atonement’?
The reader must consider that when other eyes
are viewing the proceedings of our lives; are our friends, our lovers, and our
acquaintances really that friendly?
I have to leave a warning.
This novel is disturbing, nay, distressing –
but well worth the journey”
We tracked the author down vis her publishers PenguinRandomHouse
to learn a little more about this startling debut novel for our readers -
Ali:Welcome Laure Van Rensburg
to Shots Magazine, so firstly tell us a little about yourself.
Laure: Even
though I have a very Dutch sounding surname I’m actually French. I moved to the
UK after I finished university in Paris and never went back. I now live outside
London with my rescue cat, Phoebe.
Nobody But Us is my
debut novel however I have been writing on and off since I was a child. I
stopped writing for a while after I moved to the UK because my French wasn’t
strong enough anymore to write in French but my English wasn’t good enough to
write in English, so I spent a few years in some kind of writer’s limbo.
I’m a big film buff so when
I’m not writing you can usually find me at the cinema, or watching classics on
Prime (I love old films from the 40s and 50s such as The Big Sleep, Notorious
or All About Eve…)
Ali: And so, what were the
early books that made an impression?
The biggest impression
happened when I was about 13 and borrowed this book from the local library
called Les Hauts-De-Hurle-Vent, which the French title for Emily Bronte’s Wuthering
Heights. It was a revelation for me, it shows me how dark stories and
relationships could be and how far people could go to hurt and destroy each
other. It ignited my love for dark fiction and unlikeable characters. A lot of
people call Wuthering Heights a tragic love story, but for me it’s all
about toxic relationships and their devastating consequences.
Ali:And of contemporary work,
what would consider the work that engages you currently?
Laure: I am
a big fan of Chris Whitaker’s writing. He knows how to create a moving crime
story, populate with unforgettable characters, and all wrapped up in a
beautiful prose. We Begin At The End is one of the most devastating and
heart breaking novels I’ve read in a long time. I’ve read all of his books, and
the next one cannot come soon enough!
Another contemporary writer
who I immensely enjoy is Catriona Ward. I am attracted to how she blends
beautiful prose with horror stories which are still deeply human. I have her
debut, Rawblood on my reading pile; I’m saving it for a special occasion
as I’ve already read all her other books.
Finally, I can’t talk about
contemporary work without mentioning Gillian
Flynn. Her work has been a big influence on my writing in general and Nobody
But Us in particular. I enjoy her portrayal of deeply flawed female
characters and how she is not afraid to make them the heroine of their own
stories.
Ali:And you path to
publication with the Michael Joseph imprint at Penguin Random House?
Laure: I
have a first novel in a drawer which I submitted to agents without success,
although I did get lots of complimentary comments about my writing. The
rejections stung, but after a short time wallowing, I picked myself off the
floor and got on with my second novel which would become Nobody But Us.
After eighteen months of writing and editing, I started submitting to agents.
That was back in December 2019. By March 2019 I was lucky to have three offers
of representation, including my dream agent who is now my agent, Juliet
Mushens.
I did a couple of rounds of
editing with Juliet, before Nobody But Us went out on submission to publishers
(the title at that time was The Downfall). The whole process was an
absolute rollercoaster and I am so grateful I had Juliet there to keep me sane
and talk me through everything. We got quite a bit of interest within 24 hours
from UK and foreign publishers, and ended up going to auction in the UK and the
US. When I spoke with Clio Cornish, at Michael Joseph it felt right. Clio was
so passionate about the story and the characters and I really like the vision
she had for the book.
Ali:And were conscious of the
backdrop of NOBODY BUT US, with the ‘#Metoo movement?
Laure: That
was a very deliberate choice. The #MeToo movement has open the door for women
to share and discuss their experiences. I was on Twitter that day and it was a
humbling moment realising that we weren’t alone and we all shared the same
lived experiences. I believe that those subjects can be explored in different
ways and media, including novels, or films, such as Promising Young Woman. I wanted
to talk about situations I believe most women have experienced in one shape or
another and the anger of feeling powerless against those, but put it in a
format I know how to write — that is psychological suspense.
Another big motivator to write
this book was to explore how women’s rage and anger is often dismissed and
brushed aside as being overly emotional. I wanted to create a story where I
could legitimise those feelings, and pose the question — how far would you go
if this happened to you or someone close? I’m not trying to provide an answer
though, but a opportunity for discussions.
Ali:I know much is made of
NOBODY BUT US being an audacious debut novel however I enjoyed your previous
short fiction, currently available on your website > https://www.laurevanrensburg.com/short-stories-online so
tell us a little about the context to your short fiction, and why you decided
to write a novel?
Laure: Thank
you! Funny enough I never really set out to write short stories in the first place. My mind was set on novel writing from the start. I have a first novel in
a drawer that didn’t find an agent, and around the time I was editing it I had
an idea for a story but not enough for a full novel so I ended up writing my
first short story as an exercise to practise my editing skills as you have to
make sure that every word counts. The ideas kept coming so I wrote more
stories. I wasn’t sure what to do with them. I thought why not try to get them
published. Submitting short stories and flash fiction was a really good lesson
as well about learning to handle rejections.
Unfortunately, between the
full-time day job and the full-time novel writing I haven’t had the chance to
write more short stories. I do miss it and I hope I can get back to it when
things settle.
Ali:And would like to give our
readers a little peek into what’s next in store for us?
Laure: I’m
currently editing my next book which is another psychological suspense, again with
feminist themes and undertones, set in South Carolina, this time during a
blistering summer. The story centres around a religious cult who lives in a
disused hotel/plantation house by the swamp. It opens with the aftermath of a
fire which has claimed the lives of the leader and his wife. The story flicks
back and forth, pre and post fire.
Ali:Thank you for your time.
Laure: Thank you for having me!
Shots Magazine would like to thank Jen Harlow
of PenguinRandomHouse, London for organising this interview.
More information on the work of Laure Van Rensburg is
available from >
Merilyn Davies is a new name on our book-shelves and on our
eReaders; with two novels bisected by this Covid-19 business. Her debut was
released in the summer of 2019, and for readers awaiting her sophomore work,
there has been a delay due to the ubiquitous nature of this plague, but the
wait has been worth it, as this March [2021], we finally get to read the disturbing
follow-up.
I use the word disturbing, because of the authenticity of the
backdrop to IF I FALL –
We were told to meet at a rooftop bar.
Four friends, bound by one terrible secret.
No one knew why we were there.
Then we saw a woman, watched as she fell from
the edge and plunged to her death.
The police think it's suicide, but I know
better.
Someone is sending a message.
Now they're coming for us.
This appears to be taking a sinister turn for Crime Analyst Carla
Brown and Detective Sergeant Nell Jackson following their first appearance in
2019’s When I Lost You
I was intrigued at her work because some of us enjoyed
works of Russian Literature from writers such as Dostoevsky and Bulgakov, which
also appealed to Davies, so for Shots’ readers we present some insight into
this interesting writer of disturbing crime thrillers.
Ali Karim: As a
new writer, with this COVID business bisecting your debut When I Lost You
released 2019 and the sophomore work IF I Fall this March 2021, can you
tell us what it’s been like to be a new name on the crime fiction scene, during
the pandemic?
Merilyn Davies: I
want to say something uplifting here but I’m struggling! There was a much
longer gap between the two books than usual and that sort of took the wind out
of my excitement at ‘being a published author’. I struggled a lot to focus on
writing a new book, to read other people’s books, or to focus on anything other
than just surviving this pandemic really. Home-schooling doesn’t help but it’s more
than that, it’s like my brain is using all its energy to keep me from getting
very depressed about it all and it has no room left to imagine anything else.
Or maybe it’s just because imagining a new plot can never match up to the plot
structure of this pandemic with all its twists and turns. But it’s still been
amazing to see my book in my hands and to hear people say how much they liked
it and even a global pandemic can’t ruin that!
Ali: Your biography
indicates you worked as a criminal analyst for the Metropolitan Police, but
what does that actually mean?
Merilyn: The role of a crime analyst
is very varied. Some work with officers going out on a shift, providing local
intelligence information – who is wanted, what vehicle needs a stop, the types
of crimes being committed – and others, like me, work on murders or murder
re-investigations. My role was to analyse the information given to me, so, for
example, I may be given a number of witness statements and have to go through
them to see where they match and where there are discrepancies. I would then
plot these so they were easily viewable by officers or a court. My favourite
analysis was telephone analysis. You get reams and reams of calls – both made
from a phone and made to it – and you work through identifying potential
accomplices or plotting the activity of the subject. You can tell an awful lot
about a person from their telephone bill, from the takeout food they like to
the friends they meet and the car they drive.
Ali: And the background I
assume helps inform your writing, as well as give the reader an insight and
high level of authenticity to your crime writing?
Merilyn: Analysts use software which
slows them to show visually how people link to each other, what they did, the
weapons they used, the cars they drove, the address they live at and I tend to
do a manual version of this for my books. So, I draw all my characters and put
lines between them, with a note for why they are linked, and it gets larger and
larger as the book goes on! I think very analytically about everything, always
thinking what would happen if I wrote X, what would that mean for Y, but I am a
more ‘seats of my pants’ writer than a bog plotter. I tend to plot three
chapters at a time – how is this moving the story forward being central to this
as well as where do I want to be at the end of them – and go from there. I
always know my beginning and ending though but how I get from one to the other
is a bit of a muddle!
Ali: What spurred you to
write crime fiction, and was When I Lost You your first attempt at a
novel?
Merilyn: When I Lost You was a
total rewrite of the first book I ever submitted to an agent (and got
rejected!). It was also the second one I sent to my agent after my first one
didn’t get any interest from publishers. I think I had written five books by
the time I got an agent and If I Fall is a rewrite of the second. Is
that confusing?! I’m confused. I write crime because it fascinates me as to why
people commit criminal acts – what motivates them, what options did they have
and what choices did they make and why – and also because I love reading crime
books. It also really helped that I knew how the police work so could write it
authentically and without having to do too much research. The fact my husband
is a police officer aids that process because I can just yell ‘how long does it
take for a body to decompose?’ and have the answer right away!
Ali: Can you tell our
readers a little about the new work, IF I FALL?
Merilyn: This is a hard one because I
can’t say what it’s actually about because it will give the plot away! A lovely
blogger recently said “without giving too much away the subject in this
novel deserves to be widely recognised and confronted” which is very much
how I feel. The book starts with three people turning up to a university
reunion at a rooftop bar in Oxford. They don’t know who invited them or why
they are the only guests but when a homeless woman falls from the building,
they realise whoever invited them knows their long-buried secret. Carla Brown,
the crime analyst, and DS Nell Jackson, have to work out what links the dead
woman and the three friends and what it is in their past that they are trying
to hide.
Ali: And your writing
process, are you a plotter or do you chase an idea seeing where the muse leads?
Merilyn: As I said earlier, I know the
beginning and end but the middle just sort of happens! But I don’t think I go
where the muse leads either. I’m very practical about writing; if you don’t sit
down every day and write as if it is a job, you won’t ever finish a book (a
theory I have proved during this pandemic!). I am also very ruthless; if it
isn’t working, I take it out, regardless of the number of words or how much
work I would need to do to the rest of the book. Writing a book is a lot like
building a house, so when you decide to knock a wall down you have to make sure
you put a support in, so the ceiling doesn’t fall down! The editing process is
very much like this – if you are lucky you will get an editorial note that just
means you have to do a bit redecorating, but if you’re not you’ll get feedback
that means you have to knock down walls, build extensions, or, sometimes, just
demolish the whole house!
Ali: And tell us about your
work at the Chipping Norton Literary Festival?
Merilyn: Myself and a group of other
writers in West Oxfordshire decided to start a literary festival, with Clare
Mackintosh at the helm. For the first two years I programmed the children’s
element of the festival weekend but I also developed a school programme which
saw authors going into all schools in the area over a two-day period. This came
as a bit of a shock to Clare, who had assumed she had asked me to just cover
the small number of schools in Chipping Norton itself, and who was slightly
shell shocked when I came back with a programme covering twelve school across a
very rural area. It was a logistical nightmare and the first year aged us all
but it’s the part of the festival I am most proud of. For another three years I
programmed the adult part of the festival which meant I got to beg publicists
for their authors to such an extent I’m sure some took out restraining orders
against me. It was extremely hard work, not least for the festival itself –
authors are not easy to get from one place to the other and caused much
shouting into the radio of ‘broken arrow, author down’ when we lost them – but
I would go back and do it all again in a second.
Ali: And keeping on the
literary theme, who are writers that you enjoyed in-so-far as enticing yourself
to have go penning a novel?
Merilyn: I think reading Crime and
Punishment was when I knew I wanted to be a writer. I was at University and
going through a Russian phase and it was that book as well as The Master and
Margarita which really made me want to create a world as real as Dostoevsky and
Bulgakov had. When I became a mum, I started reading crime fiction. Partly
because I missed being a crime analyst but also because I found I could be
immersed immediately in the story and pulled along without even realising it,
which was vital in the early months with a baby. Tana French is my absolute
hero, and I loved Mark Billingham, Stuart MacBride and any police procedural I
could find. Later, I discovered Psychological suspense and devoured everything
Sophie Hannah wrote along with SJ Watson and Elizabeth Haynes. I think it was
then that I decided I wanted to give writing a real go. To make twisty-turny
books that dragged people in, making them desperate to get to the end but
knowing that when they did, they would not want to leave the characters behind.
Ali: And what have been up
to while under lockdown? And any clues as to what we are likely to see from
your pen?
Merilyn: I’ve been watching a lot of Netflix to the
extent most of my time now is spent scrolling through films I’ve seen in a
desperate attempt to find one I haven’t. I’ve also eaten far too much and
developed a terrible internet shopping addiction. But I have started my third
book, working title, ‘Ivy’s Lie’ which is less procedural and more suspense. It’s
about a troubled young woman – Ivy – who is released from a mental health ward
and is placed overnight in a hotel. When she arrives, she finds a note saying
‘I know what you did, you’re next’ but who knew she was going to be there, how
do they know her secret, and how much danger is she in? It spans the past and
present – winding her past living at Blenheim Palace in West Oxfordshire,
through her present, where the two intertwine to reveal what Ivy’s lie was, and
the devastating outcome that lie created.
Ali:Thank you for your time,
and we look forward to book #3
Merilyn: Thank you so much for having
me!
So, with both her novels now available [and can be ordered
together, online], as they provide an excellent distraction, a dark escape from
this ubiquitous plague and associated lockdown protocol.
They can be ordered direct from her publishers
PenguinRandomHouse HERE
More information on the work of Merilyn Davies is available
from her Twitter feed > @nellbelleandme as well as this interesting article
which can be accessed HERE
Shots Magazine would like to thank Lydia Spooner for her
help in organising this article.
