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Welcome to the latest Dead East newsletter: news and exclusive content from crime authors based in East Anglia, in the UK.

In this issue:
Crime News from East Anglia — Dead East News and Events — Interview: Ruth Dugdall — Crime Fiction News and Events — Writer’s Corner: Nick Guthrie — Tricks of Memory by Julia Stone — Reviews — New Releases by Other Hands — More from Dead East — And finally…

Crime News from East Anglia

The Expert Witness shortlisted for the Noose Award

Dead East author Julia Stone is thrilled to be shortlisted for The Noose Award for Best Crime/Thriller novel 2026 for her third psychological suspense The Expert Witness. The winner will be announced at the Sykehouse Film and Writers Festival Gala Awards on 17th May 2026. Watch this space!

New Releases:

Fire on the Norfolk Broads by Heather Peck

The third DCI Geldard novel to be reissued by Joffe Books was published on 27th April.

Winner of the Firebird Book Award 2022.

Detective Greg Geldard is wolfing down a quick sandwich lunch at his desk when he gets the call. There’s been a devastating explosion at the local Science Park. Multiple casualties. Seven people dead. Sixteen unaccounted for.

Professor Lai, Head of Chemistry, is one of the missing. She’s thought to have been killed in the explosion. But then the Forensics come back. The body that’s been found isn’t hers.

Someone was deliberately left to die in the blaze.

[Fire on the Norfolk Broads can be bought online at Amazon and other booksellers.]

Buried on the Norfolk Broads by Heather Peck

Book 4 in the DCI Geldard series, Buried on the Norfolk Broads, is published on 18th May.

With his ex-wife receiving threatening phone calls, loose ends still flapping from his last big case and a ritual burial found in an archaeological dig, the last thing Greg Geldard needs is an East Coast flood and a cliff fall that reveals — what exactly?

Ritual burials are rare. Finding them — rarer still. When three turn up, Greg Geldard knows he has a problem.

[Buried on the Norfolk Broads can be pre-ordered at Amazon and other booksellers.]

Charlie Flowers Four-book Reissue

The first four books in Charlie Flowers’ Rogue Hunter thriller series have been republished in a single volume by Lume Books. Over 1,000 pages of relentless action. Four explosive thrillers. One unstoppable hero.

Former al-Qaeda operative turned covert counter-terrorism agent, Rizwan Sabir, dives into a dangerous world of high-stakes missions, deadly enemies and deadly secrets. From the backstreets of London to the war-torn deserts of Somalia, Riz and his team face relentless challenges — from rogue cops to explosive confrontations and shadowy extremists. Every mission pushes them to their limits, and the cost of failure is unimaginable.

‘Absolutely rocks. Every line reeks with the raw authenticity of a writer who knows first-hand what the hell he’s talking about.’ Tom Cain, bestselling author of the Sam Carver thrillers

[Rogue Hunter Thrillers Books 1-4 can be bought online at Amazon and other booksellers.]

Look Death In The Face by Martin Sterling

Two cities.
Manchester and New York.
Facing the same deadly threat.

Two cops.
British and American.
Forming a very special relationship.

A woman is murdered in a Manchester graveyard. There’s no motive. No mercy. No obvious suspect. For DI Kate Stiles, the case should be local. One brutal death. One difficult victim. One investigation that begins and ends in a city she knows too well. Instead, it’s part of something far bigger.

From Norfolk-based Martin Sterling, former Coronation Street writer and author of We Create Monsters.

[Look Death In The Face is available from Amazon and most other booksellers.]

Getting Away with Murder by Russell Wate

When celebrated British violinist Arthur Barrington is found dead in his Vienna hotel room, the Austrian police are left scrambling. Was it an accident? Did he somehow take his own life? Or did someone kill him?

With Arthur being a British citizen, and not much to go on, the Austrian police call in the help of DCI Sandy McFarlane from the Foreign Office, to help them investigate this young man’s death. As Sandy digs deeper, the investigation takes a dark turn, leading him not only through the streets of Vienna but also back to his home turf, and the quaint country lanes of Stamford, England.

Will he be able to patch together this twisted case? Or will this be the one that finally stumps the infamous detective?

Former UK Investigator Russell Wate delivers a fond farewell to Sandy and his colleagues in this authentic and intricate final instalment of the DCI McFarlane series.

[Getting Away with Murder was published on 28th April, and is available from Amazon and most other booksellers.]

Dead East News and Events

Great Dunmow BookFest, Saturday 13th June

As part of the Essex Book Festival, the entire town of Great Dunmow is turning itself into a bookshop for the day! Shops throughout the town will be partnering with authors to include window displays and bookselling space. There will be readings, opportunities to meet and chat with the authors, and a range of other activities. As part of this, Dead East members Julia Stone, Keith Brooke, Michelle Kidd, PN Johnson and Robert Chandler will be taking part as a group, sharing shop space. Other authors taking part include science-fiction author Peter F Hamilton, fantasy author Anna Smith Spark, psychological suspense author AJ Campbell, and thriller author Samantha Lee Howe.

Dead East Author Appearances

Julia Stone and others will be appearing at the Anglian Authors Book fair on Sunday 31st May, 10-3pm, at Sudbury Arts Centre, CO10 2EA. Free entry and local parking. Readings and discussions and a chance to meet authors and buy books. Genres include crime and suspense, historical, fantasy and speculative, poetry, ‘how to’, children’s and YA.

Michelle Kidd will be appearing at Eye in Suffolk with all her books on Sunday 21st June as part of the Foreword Festival. Michelle will also be giving a talk to the Hadleigh book club (private event).

Heather Peck is giving a talk at Fakenham Library on 17th June.

Gary Powell and Theo Harris are presenting an author event — When Gary Met Harry — at Sheringham Masonic Centre, 36 Cromer Rd, Sheringham from 7pm to 9pm on Friday 29th May.

CWA East Anglian Chapter lunch

Members of the Crime Writers’ Association’s East Anglian Chapter got together in Ipswich for a lunchtime catch-up at the end of April. Pictured around the table, from front left: Ivor Eisenstadt, Phil Johnson, Maureen Austin, Sarah Doig, Sue Saunders, Timothy Williams, Iain Andrews, Nick Guthrie, Gary Powell, Julia Stone and Rosie Sandler.

Interview: Ruth Dugdall

You have two books out this month, reissues of the first two Cate Austin Casefiles novels. How did you get your break into crime writing?

I won the CWA Debut Dagger in 2005, with an early draft of The Woman Before Me, and that really change the direction of my life.

I was a full-time probation officer at the time, and as a result of the Dagger I was signed by a literary agent and encouraged to step into writing as a career. Looking back, this was a brave and foolhardy move, and not necessarily one I would advocate! But I also had two children under five and I was juggling, so something had to give. I resigned from probation and have been writing ever since.

In the two decades since, my writing career has been a roller coaster ride, of accolades and rejections, with many hair-raising twists.

Some of my highlights have been working as a Royal Literary Fellow, and also getting my PhD in Creative Writing. But I’ve learned that success is about sticking with it, and that resilience is crucial.

Your background as a probation officer comes through strongly in your work. I’d imagine that most people who work in a field that can be so intense and impactful would try to get away from it outside work, but you write about it - how do you separate the real from the fictional?

What a great question! It really gets to the heart of why I write.

Firstly, I went ‘to the page’, to try and resolve some of the challenges I’d faced in the workplace. My first Cate Austin novels are especially aligned with my probation experiences, and writing them was almost an act of therapy and certainly cathartic.

Now, I’d say my primary goal is to shine a light on the probation service, who are the unsung heroes of the criminal justice system. It’s so rare to see them in crime fiction, and I want to reveal a little of the fantastic and challenging work they do.

Is there any concern that you might be typecast as ‘the probation officer novelist’, or do you embrace that as an under-explored field?

I would welcome that — if I can help raise the profile of the probation world then I’m happy.

Maybe someone reading a Cate Austin novel will consider probation as a career and I’d be so delighted — I loved being a probation officer, and I still miss it.

You’re currently working on a PhD in Crime Fiction (according to your website). How does that connect with your fiction writing and your professional experience as a probation officer.

I passed my Viva last month and graduate in July!

It’s been a really rewarding experience, to think reflectively about my writing, and what it contributes to crime fiction. You won’t be surprised to know that my thesis was on the role of probation.

You have four novels being released this month — tell us about them.

The first four Cate Austin novels are released this month. The first time we meet Cate is in The Woman Before Me, when she arrives in prison to write a parole report on Rose Wilks, who is a convicted child-killer. Cate, as a single mum, is especially triggered by the case and has to make a sound judgment call when she’d receiving conflicting information.

It’s shining a light on the parole process, from inside the system.

What are you working on now? What can we expect to see from you in the next year or two?

Book 5, Mother Missing, is out in September and I’m currently working on Cate’s sixth outing, which will be published next year.

I have ideas for two more novels after that, which I’m already researching — I like to delve into darker stories, and I love research. It’s pure joy.

[Author photo: @adrianpope.]

Ruth can be found online at ruthdugdall.com

The Woman Before Me is published on 21st May, along with three more novels in the Cate Austin series, and pre-orders are available from Amazon and most other booksellers.

Crime Fiction News and Events

Crime fiction festivals coming up:

• 13 May 2026 Noir at the Bar, Sunderland

• 29-30 May 2026 Heart of Stone Crime Writing Festival, Stonehaven

• 11-14 June 2026 Shetland Noir

• 13-14 June 2026 Slaughter in Southwold: Southwold Library Crime Writers Festival

• 18-20 June 2026 Capital Crime, London

• 23-26 July 2026 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, Harrogate

Crime Awards

’Tis the season for awards… In addition to the Noose Award mentioned at the start of this newsletter, the following awards have published shortlists and winners.

• Crime Writers’ Association
  The longlists for this Crime Writers’ Association Dagger awards have been announced in thirteen categories, including awards for best crime novel, whodunnit, first crime novel, psychological thrillers, short stories and more. The winners will be announced on 28th May.

• Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year
  The longlist has been announced for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, featuring 18 novels published in 2025. The winner will be announced at the opening ceremony of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, on Thursday 23 July 2026.

• The Edgar Allan Poe Awards
  On 29th April the Mystery Writers of America announced the winners for the 2026 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honouring the best in mystery fiction, nonfiction and television published or produced in 2025. Winners included The Big Empty by Robert Crais for Best Novel, The Backwater by Vikki Wakefield for Best Paperback Original, and “Julius Katz Draws a Straight Flush” by Dave Zeltserman for Best Short Story.

• The Anthony Awards
  Winners in categories including Hardcover Novel, Paperback/E-Book/Audiobook Original, Short Story and more, will be announced at a ceremony at Bouchercon in Calgary, on Saturday 24th October.

• The Fingerprint Awards
  Shortlisted titles for the Fingerprint Awards have been announced in various categories, with winners to be announced at London’s Capital Crime Festival on 18th June.

• The Derringer Awards
  On 1st May, the Short Mystery Fiction Society announced winners of the Derringer Awards for various categories of short mystery fiction. Full details at the SMFS blog.

Writer’s Corner: Nick Guthrie

I really am spoilt. I live with my wife Debbie, and Arlo the cat, in a beautiful 17th-Century thatched cottage in the depths of the Suffolk countryside, a decent walk from the beautiful village of Orford, and surrounded by nature reserves. We have deer, hares and badgers wandering through the garden, and we watch marsh harriers and barn owls over the neighbouring fields. It really is idyllic.

For the first few months, I found it hard to settle down to write here — there were so many distractions! I’ve hit my stride now, and a typical writing day is a careful balance between all the regular jobs you need to do when you live somewhere like this, and sitting at my desk with a view out through an ornate arched window across the neighbouring meadows.

Today I’ve been working on the second DI Bolam novel, bursts of writing punctuated by pauses when I reach for my binoculars to watch hares boxing in the meadow or a red kite swooping over the garden.

I get a lot of my best ideas when I’m out walking, so perhaps that’s what I’ll do later. Or I might just sit in the garden and watch the sun set over the fields.

[The first DI Bolam novel, The Custodian, is published by No Exit Press in November 2026, and is available for pre-order from Bookshop.org, Amazon and most other booksellers.]

Tricks of Memory by Julia Stone

Our brains like things to make sense and will ‘helpfully’ interpret and fill in the gaps using prior experience and information gleaned from all the senses. This allows us to understand the partial words in the accompanying photo, to see a white triangle on the image even though it has an incomplete outline. To make sense of the world, the brain looks for patterns and makes assumptions. Without this talent it would be hard to operate in the world.

But this ability to fill in gaps can have an impact on our memories. Not everyone interprets a shared experience in the same way. We each interpret events in line with our self-perception, beliefs, past experience, culture, etc. This can lead to our brains misinterpreting what we heard or saw: filling gaps, imagining things that didn’t happen, or overlooking aspects if they don’t fit with expectations. When we form a memory, recall an event, or recount it to others, we edit and add in order to create a cohesive narrative. We like to tell ourselves (and others) a story that makes sense.

Think you can trust your own memories? Think again!

Julia Stone’s latest psychological suspense novel, The Expert Witness, tackles the theme of memory. The story delves into the mind and experiences of an expert in memory, as she tries to atone for an event in her past. The Expert Witness is available at all good booksellers. For more snippets on memory and psychology sign up to Julia’s readers club at www.juliastonewriter.com.

Reviews

The Woman Before Me by Ruth Dugdall

This is the story of Rose Wilks, an obsessive babysitter trapped in a family tragedy and blamed for the death of the child she cares for. The novel opens in first person, present tense that occasionally becomes second person, addressing the story to a listener, Rose’s partner Jason. The effect is to make everything immediately intimate and intense, and the reader is sucked into the protagonist’s terror and confusion from the outset. All along, this mode of storytelling leaves open the possibility that we have a very unreliable narrator. And if the police don’t believe her, why should we?

After a few chapters we switch to Cate Austin, a probation officer on her first day working in a prison. Her first case is Rose, who is halfway through an eight stretch with a parole hearing in five weeks. As Cate gets sucked into the mystery of what actually happened, the viewpoint switches between Rose’s diary entries and occasionally other characters, creating an intricate mosaic of a novel. The effect is a very clever build-up of the story both from the viewpoint of someone too close to be objective and someone desperately trying to build an objective understanding. It’s not all about artful storytelling, though; none of this would work if the characters weren’t compelling and richly portrayed, and the setting thoroughly convincing.

It’s only May but this is already a very strong contender for my book of the year.

(review by Nick Guthrie)

For more excellent crime reviews, see Barry Forshaw’s Financial Times reviews and Maxim Jakubowski’s To the Max reviews, both courtesy of Crime Time.

New Releases by Other Hands

Five by Ilona Bannister — “Five passengers. Five minutes until the next train… five minutes until someone dies.”

An Accidental Death by Peter Grainger — “An experienced detective’s unorthodox methods land him in troubled waters…”

The Girl in the Attic by John Nicholl — “Olivia thought she knew darkness. Now, as the door clangs shuts behind her — with her captor’s promise ringing in her ears that she’s ‘his’ forever — she realises that nowhere before has been as dark as her attic cell.”

The Pretenders by Agatha Zaza — “Three couples. Two exes. One day of reckoning.”

More from Dead East: the Anglian Crime Authors Collective

Facebook: Dead East: the Anglian Crime Authors Collective

Contact Dead East: acacwriters@gmail.com

And finally…

“People don’t read books to get to the middle. They read to get to the end.” —Mickey Spillane

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Welcome to the latest Dead East newsletter: news and exclusive content from crime authors based in East Anglia, in the UK.

In this issue:
New Crime Fiction from East Anglia — Dead East News and Events — Crime Fiction News and Events — Writer’s Corner: PN Johnson — For Writers — Tricks of Memory by Julia Stone — Reviews — New Releases by Other Hands — More from Dead East — And finally…

New Crime Fiction from East Anglia

Murder in the Blue by PN Johnson

Escape to Greece — while you can!

A TV reporter running for her life — islands full of secrets — and a top detective missing!

The gripping sequel to Run to the Blue.

TV reporter Tess Anderson and her rock star lover, Jason Howard are on a romantic cruise sailing the Greek islands when it hits stormy seas. An urgent caller asks Tess to investigate the disappearance of a former senior London detective on a nearby island. Tess is warned she’s being targeted by hit men, desperate to stop her being the star witness at the headline hitting trial of a disgraced Government Minister.

As she plays cat and mouse with ruthless killers determined to silence her forever, Tess gets mysterious messages from an unknown girl begging for help.

Tess and Jason are drawn deeper in to a web of deceit, and police loyalties come under suspicion when they uncover a murderous gang robbing priceless treasures on a fabled island.

But as the body count rises and her enemies close in, Tess is shaken to the core when shocking secrets emerge!

This latest novel from PN Johnson, the author of Killer in the Crowd and Run to the Blue, is a fast-moving action thriller set in the beautiful Greek islands. A perfect summer read!

Extract

In this extract from Murder in the Blue, Tess and Jane are in a taxi running from would be assassins. On a rough, Greek hillside road, the car hits an animal and begins to roll, over the edge…

I put my hands over my head and curled up as much as I could. I felt a bang, then another, and then a falling sensation, I could hear the driver, shouting and screaming. Jane was emitting a long loud moan. I felt myself forced forward, but held fast by the seatbelt as if my chest was in a vice. My head was flung backwards onto the headrest. The car turned over and the ground and the night sky changed places, then there was a massive crack as the vehicle came to a stop on its roof.

I could hear the car’s wheels spinning. We were upside down. I pushed my legs against the back of the driver’s seat to release the pressure on my seat belt then pressed the clip to undo it. I fell forward but I seemed to be okay. The driver was silent and still. Somehow the wipers were on, their ghostly screech repeating over and over as they forced their way over the cracked and dusty, blood-splattered windscreen.

‘Jane! QUICK, get out!’ I screamed. I could smell fuel. We had to get out and quickly. ‘JANE!’ I said, shaking her, but she was motionless. A low moan crept from her lips. ‘Don’t you fucking dare die on me!’ I bellowed. I crawled out, and half standing, half stumbling, I went around the back of the wrecked taxi. It was covered in dents. We’d come down a small ridge. I could see a cliff-like edge above us. I pulled and kicked Jane’s door, luckily it wasn’t crumpled and it opened. She was breathing. Pushing my shoulders under her, I lifted her upwards to relieve the pressure on her seat belt. The button wouldn’t budge, so I hit and pressed it. Then I pushed her upwards one final time, and at last it clicked undone. She tumbled down on top of me. I slid out from under her and grabbed her legs. ‘I’m getting you out of here,’ I told her, pulling as hard as I could. She hit the ground, banging her head on the bottom of the car door. I was exhausted but I dragged her out of the taxi. Holding her arms I pulled her away from the wreckage.

Looking around I could see the remains of a deserted building; it was just a couple of walls standing beside rubble and stone. There were no signs of life. No lights, other buildings, or roads. I pulled her around the back of the ruined walls in case the car went up. ‘Stay here,’ I said, realising it was a stupid order, she was unconscious.

My thoughts then focused on our driver. Somehow, I had to get him out. I went back to the taxi but as I got close to him, I knew he was dead. His head was thrown back and twisted, his eyes rolled back into their sockets, and blood leaked from the corner of his mouth. Swallowing hard I reach through the window to check for a pulse. His wrist was cold. There were no signs of life. I opened the rear door as best I could and grabbed our bags. The smell of fuel was suddenly overpowering.

I had to get back to Jane and the safety of the walls. As I reached them and dropped down behind the old stonework there was a loud whoosh. The petrol had ignited.

[Murder in the Blue is published on 20th April 2026, and can be bought online at Amazon and other booksellers.]

Murder Most Brazen by Theo Harris

Some secrets should stay buried. This one won't.

Harvey Ross has finally found his rhythm in Sheringham. His consulting work keeps him sharp, his relationship with Dr. Rose Morgan is flourishing, and he's reconnecting with his daughters after years of estrangement. Life is good. Quiet. Perfectly ordinary.

Then he opens a fifty-year-old cold case and everything changes.

Sir Winston Bartholemew, found dead at Cromer Pier in 1976. Official verdict: accidental death. But Harvey's late Aunt Agatha left cryptic notes suggesting murder, espionage, and a priceless medieval artefact that disappeared the same night Winston's son vanished without a trace.

As Harvey digs deeper, the past refuses to stay buried. Russian agents emerge from the shadows. A mysterious list of Cold War double agents surfaces. And shocking revelations about a seven-hundred-year-old order of Knights Templar turn everything Harvey thought he knew upside down.

Perfect timing, really, because Harvey's daughters have just arrived for a surprise visit.
Now Harvey must solve a decades-old murder, protect his family from very real danger, and convince his terrier Max that showing teeth at salad plates is not appropriate behaviour—all while navigating pub dinners, romantic getaways, and the occasional confrontation with desperate operatives.

From the picturesque Norfolk coast to medieval Lincolnshire, Harvey Ross is about to learn that some family secrets are worth protecting at any cost.

Murder, mystery, and Templars. Just another week in Norfolk.

[Murder Most Brazen is published on 24th April 2026, and can be bought online at Amazon and other booksellers.]

Dead East News and Events

Great Dunmow BookFest, Saturday 13th June

As part of the Essex Book Festival, the entire town of Great Dunmow is turning itself into a bookshop for the day! Shops throughout the town will be partnering with authors to include window displays and bookselling space. There will be readings, opportunities to meet and chat with the authors, and a range of other activities. As part of this, Dead East members Julia Stone, Keith Brooke, Michelle Kidd, PN Johnson and Robert Chandler will be taking part as a group, sharing shop space. Other authors taking part include science-fiction author Peter F Hamilton, fantasy author Anna Smith Spark, psychological suspense author AJ Campbell, and thriller author Samantha Lee Howe.

Bloggery

Over on the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine blog, Dead East author Nick Guthrie discusses how being in a rock band and being raised by a jazz-loving father inspired his latest story, “Where’s Pete?” from the magazine’s Jan/Feb issue.

Meanwhile, on the Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine blog, he writes about the view from his kitchen window, to accompany his story “It’s Complicated” from the magazine’s Mar/Apr issue.

The Complete Detective Nicki Hardcastle Mysteries Books 1-4 by Michelle Kidd

The boxed set of the first four books in this series are currently on offer at Amazon: £0.99 for all four! The books are: Missing Boy, The Trophy Killer, The Hardwick Heath Killer, and Skin Of Their Teeth.

Four addictive crime mysteries set in the lush Suffolk countryside.

In the historic market town of Bury St Edmunds, darkness hides in plain sight…

Death on the Norfolk Broads by Heather Peck

The second DCI Geldard novel to be reissued by Joffe Books is available for pre-order.

Newly promoted Detective Greg Geldard is back in Norfolk, ready to build a life in his new home. He barely has time to unpack before he’s plunged into a baffling murder investigation.

A farmworker spots a human arm among a crate of dead turkeys. It’s DCI Geldard’s first day with Norfolk Police, and he didn’t expect to be dealing with murder quite so soon.

[Death on the Norfolk Broads can be bought online at Amazon and other booksellers.]

Crime Fiction News and Events

Crime fiction festivals coming up:

• 19th April 2026 Warrington Crime Festival

• 1st-3rd May 2026 Crime and Thriller Weekend, Cromarty

• 13 May 2026 Noir at the Bar, Sunderland

• 29-30 May 2026 Heart of Stone Crime Writing Festival, Stonehaven

• 11th-14th June 2026 Shetland Noir

• 18th-20th June 2026 Capital Crime, London

Derringer Awards Shortlist Announced

The Short Mystery Fiction Society’s annual Derringer Award shortlists have been announced. The winners will be determined by member vote in April and announced 1st May.

The award categories are Best Flash Story, Best Short Story, Best Long Story, Best Novelette and a new category for Best Anthology. Shortlisted stories this year come from a very diverse range of publications, from the big magazines to indie magazines and anthologies, with only one publication having more than one shortlisted story.

Writer’s Corner: PN Johnson

Written on Location!

Author PN Johnson’s new international thriller Murder in the Blue, was researched and part written on location in the stunning Greek islands. Phil, who writes as PN Johnson, said, “If I was setting a novel in such a fabulous location, for me, it was essential to soak up the warm blue skies and immerse myself in the beautiful blue waters of Greece.”

Phil’s previous novel, Run to the Blue, which Murder in the Blue follows on from, was set largely in the Ionian islands of Paxos and Corfu. This time his heroes move through the Corinth Canal and sail to the stunning Aegean islands. Phil said, “I know these areas well, having sailed the Greek islands for 20 years. The locations — and there are many— are all places I have visited numerous times. Each has its own flavour and feel, even the mysterious Lochos is based on the real island of Dokos, near Hydra.

“As we nosed our small sailing boat through the entrance to the Corinth Canal, that amazing piece of human ingenuity which dissects Greece, I knew I had to include it in the new novel. The awe-inspiring passage through towering white walls and technicolour blue water had to be brought into the story, especially the amazing way you enter the canal from the west side, and watch the road literally disappear under the water.”

It may be a romantic and seductive setting, but for TV reporter Tess Anderson and her rock star lover Jason, this is no holiday, and danger, murder and mysteries await. Phil tells us he wrote quite a few scenes of the book on the boat, sitting in harbours, on quaysides and whilst sailing, sometimes accompanied by dolphins, all of which is reflected in his novel. He said, “There’s no way of getting closer to your action than being where it actually happens, and, when I was unsure of how the story would develop, I wrote notes, took photographs, and let Tess just tell me.”

Phil added, “Writing on location lets you taste the air, see the light, feel the temperature and hear the sounds that wrap themselves around you and bring the landscape to life. There is simply no substitute. I wrote scenes for the second of my two new novels coming out this year — Killer on the Set — whilst touring Spain and France with my wife in a campervan. Of course, not every writer can visit every location they want to use, but for me, I write about the ones I can, and ones I have visited myself, so I can take the reader with me and try to bring the locations alive. Maybe it will inspire them to go there themselves one day too, with of course, a perfect summer read!”

[Published on 20th April 2026, Murder in the Blue is the sequel to Run to the Blue, and and is available now at Amazon and other booksellers.]

For Writers

CWA Daggers Open for Submissions

The Crime Writers’ Association’s 2027 Dagger awards are now open to submissions. The CWA Daggers are considered a marker of excellence in the industry and have been synonymous with quality crime writing for over half a century. There are thirteen categories, nine of which are open for CWA members to submit their books. Awards include Novel of the Year, Best Thriller, Historical and Short Story.

Copyright Exception for AI Scrapped

In mid-March all the UK publishing and even general news sites had headlines telling us that the UK government has scrapped its previously proposed copyright exception, which would have given AI developers free rein to use copyrighted works to train their systems. This is being seen as a big win for creative industries. It remains to be seen whether AI developers will revert to the stance many of them previously adopted, which was to use copyrighted works regardless of copyright law…

Tricks of Memory by Julia Stone

Doubled exposed images were common in the days when film had to be wound on between taking each photo. The second image used to be superimposed on the first creating a blurred combined photo.

The same process of overlaying can happen with recall. Without realising we blend our memories, adding and revising each time we revisit a past experience. For example, 30 years ago I visited Rhodes with a friend, other times we holidayed in Zante and Crete. I’m convinced the abandoned swimming baths I’d photographed were in Zante. Chatting with my friend, she accepts my version and tells me that was the holiday where we went snorkelling, so I add that to my memory of Zante. We chat about historic ruins we visited: I say I drove us there; she says it was closed when we arrived, but I know I saw the mosaics. In her version we went to a market on the way back and she bought a necklace that she still has. The memory of the Zante holiday is updated in our minds once again.

Later, I look for the photos of the abandoned swimming baths — they are clearly labelled ‘Rhodes’. In another album I find shots of us outside the historic ruins — both posing theatrically, pointing to a sign saying ‘closed’. That photo was taken in Crete…

Think you can trust your own memories? Think again!

Julia Stone’s latest psychological suspense novel, The Expert Witness, tackles the theme of memory. The story delves into the mind and experiences of an expert in memory, as she tries to atone for an event in her past. The Expert Witness is available at all good booksellers. For more snippets on memory and psychology sign up to Julia’s readers club at www.juliastonewriter.com.

You Might Have Missed These…

Here are a few features from earlier Dead East newsletters:

• August 2025: What a difference an ‘A’ makes — Aphantasia versus Phantasia. Julia Stone writes about the different ways witnesses remember and misremember, including aphantasia, an inability to visualise.

• July 2025: Award-winning crime author Heather Peck interviewed.

• June 2025: Location, Location, Location! Phil Johnson writes about the importance of authenticity in a novel’s sense of place.

Reviews

Nine Missing Girls by Steena Holmes

I’ve always been a fan of short fiction, and I love that murky hinterland between short stories and novels, where the stories connect and bounce off each other, combining into a bigger story. So of course I was drawn to Steena Holmes’ Nine Missing Girls, a set of nine stories exploring connected disappearances being investigated by a detective whose own sister is possibly one of the victims. What surprised me was that these stories aren’t straight police procedural investigations. Rather, they occupy the dark hinterland between crime and horror, or the traditional ghost story — not because of any supernatural elements, but because of the wonderfully dark and creepy atmosphere Holmes constructs.

I enjoyed this, but the stories didn’t always entirely work for me. The detective repeatedly walks alone into potentially dangerous situations; she doesn’t follow up on evaded questions and frustrating “that’s not my story to tell” comments from witnesses; and far too often the detective is the passive recipient of clues dripfed to her by third parties rather than discovered through her own efforts. But these niggles are overcome by that wonderfully creepy atmosphere and the storytelling pace.

Is this a story collection or an episodic, mosaic novel, and does it deliver as either? I like that I’m not really sure: it’s great to see an author exploring form. I’d far rather read a book full of ambition that pushes against genre boundaries, even if it occasionally misfires, than one that plays it safe. So while this one didn’t entirely work for me, it’s flagged the author as one to watch and explore further.

(review by Nick Guthrie)

For more excellent crime reviews, see Barry Forshaw’s Financial Times reviews and Maxim Jakubowski’s To the Max reviews, both courtesy of Crime Time.

New Releases by Other Hands

The Wife Before by Sheryl Browne — “She says your new boyfriend killed his ex. He says it’s all lies. Who do you believe?”

The Drowning Place by Sarah Hilary — “Every place has its ghosts. Edenscar, a town in the Peak District, has more than most.”

Going, Going, Gone by Nasheema Lennon — “Twenty years ago, Imani’s best friend Kaitlin vanished. Now, Kaitlin’s crumbling childhood home is up for auction.”

It’s Not What You Think by Clare Mackintosh — “When Jamie claims to be at work late, Nadeeka knows he’s lying. But when she arrives home to confront him, Jamie can’t explain himself. The house has become a crime scene… Jamie is dead.”

Hot Shots: Celebrating Thirty Years of the Short Mystery Fiction Society edited by Josh Pachter — “To celebrate the Society’s 30th anniversary, this volume collects one Derringer-Award-winning story from each year the awards have been presented.”

More from Dead East: the Anglian Crime Authors Collective

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Contact Dead East: acacwriters@gmail.com

And finally…

“Surprise is when a leader is unexpectedly shot whilst giving a speech. Suspense is when the leader is delivering a speech while an assassin waits in the audience.” —Unknown

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Welcome to the latest Dead East newsletter: news and exclusive content from crime authors based in East Anglia, in the UK.

In this issue:
New Crime Fiction from East Anglia — Dead East News and Events — Death in Disguise by Gary Powell — Crime Fiction News and Events — Writer’s Desk: Michelle Kidd — For Writers — Tricks of Memory by Julia Stone — New Releases by Other Hands — More from Dead East — And finally…

New Crime Fiction from East Anglia

The Silent Boy by Michelle Kidd

The Silent Boy is the eighth book in the DI Jack MacIntosh crime series, and in this outing Jack is faced with a particularly sensitive and difficult case.

When little Joshua Maguire is found home alone, covered in blood, it soon transpires that the six year old might be the sole witness to his parents’ brutal murder.

But Joshua Maguire isn’t talking — at all. Rendered mute by the trauma, Jack and his team have the delicate task of trying to coax the boy to speak and tell them what he witnessed. But if he did, what would he say? And who did he see?

All the while, the killer is watching and wishing they had finished the job properly the first time…

Extract

Time: 11.25 p.m.
Date: Sunday 8 November 2015
Location: Richmond, South-West London

The first thing I notice are his eyes.

Huge, saucer-like eyes with their whites almost glowing in the half-light. I’ve seen eyes like this before — and I know they’re eyes full of fear.

Shit.

The knife in my hand feels heavy and awkward, its handle slick with recently spilled blood. I know without looking that my hands are covered — as are my clothes, my face, my hair. I can feel a drop of blood leave my left eyebrow, dripping down onto my cheek.

Shit.

The eyes continue to stare out into the dark, widening by the second — eyes looking right at me. A distinct chill shudders through my body.

What did he see?

I momentarily tighten my grip on the bloodied knife, my mouth quickly turning dry. If he starts to scream, I’ll have to silence him, too. Could I do it? I swallow past the unnecessary question — I already know that I can.

I stand completely still, my muscles tense. I daren’t even breathe. I can feel my heart thumping, each beat quicker than the last. The knife feels even heavier now, and I start to have panicked visions of it clattering to the polished floorboards at my feet. I don’t want to startle him, so my grip strengthens.

The easy option would be to surprise him now and be done with it — make it all go away.

But what if he hasn’t seen me?

It’s impossible to tell.

As the seconds tick by, no scream erupts from his mouth. Instead, the silence deepens. The bodies are in front of me. I know they’re both dead because I slit their throats and watched the blood pump out. I surprised myself at how easy it was, how easy it was to take a life. Two lives. But what should I do now that the deed is done?

Holding my breath, I watch him step forward, his movements stiff and robotic. I can see his bottom lip trembling as he nears, but he seems to look right through me, as if I’m merely a ghost. Maybe I am. The knife in my hand reminds me that I’m in charge and I could deal with the problem right here, right now. It wouldn’t take long.

Instead, I take a silent step backwards. His unblinking gaze is locked solidly onto the bodies of his parents — as if he’s unable to see anything, or anyone, else. He kneels down beside them, hesitating for only the briefest of seconds before lying down in between and placing an arm protectively over his mother. Then, and only then, do his eyes finally close.

I let out a painful breath, still mindful of making a noise that might break the boy’s trance. I edge towards the door.

I no longer want to be here.

I can’t be here.

I need to disappear.

[The Silent Boy was published on 5th March 2026 by Joffe Books, and can be bought online at Amazon and other booksellers.]

Murder on the Norfolk Broads (DCI Greg Geldard Book 1) by Heather Peck

Previously published as Secret Places, the first of Heather Peck’s DCI Greg Geldard series to be reissued by Joffe Books is available for pre-order now, and for sale on 16th March. The remaining eight will be issued at three-week intervals, culminating in the publication of the tenth, a new novel in the series, published on 21st September.

A human skeleton is unearthed in a forgotten World War 2 bunker on a remote Yorkshire farm. Detective Geldard welcomes the distraction. His wife is away on a solo trip to America, and he’s starting to tire of ready meals and wondering what she’s getting up to.

Then the forensics come back. This was no accident. It was murder.

The farmer insists she knows nothing about the body beneath her land. And Coombe Farm’s former occupants, Matthew and Rachel Wade, have vanished without trace.

Geldard follows the trail south to Norfolk, where Rachel was last seen. Here, among winding rivers, empty marshland, and tight-lipped communities, people know how to disappear – and how to keep secrets buried.

[Murder on the Norfolk Broads is published on 16th March 2026 by Joffe Books, and can be bought online at Amazon and other booksellers.]

Book two in the series, Death on the Norfolk Broads, is republished on 6th April.

Dead East News and Events

Pre-order: Theo Harris

Murder Most Brazen, the third Harvey Ross Coastal Mystery novel by Dead East author Theo Harris is now available to pre-order, before its 24th April publication:

Some secrets should stay buried. This one won't.

Harvey Ross has finally found his rhythm in Sheringham. His consulting work keeps him sharp, his relationship with Dr. Rose Morgan is flourishing, and he's reconnecting with his daughters after years of estrangement. Life is good. Quiet. Perfectly ordinary.

Then he opens a fifty-year-old cold case and everything changes.

Reissues and appearances: Heather Peck

As highlighted above, Joffe Books are in the process of republishing Heather Peck’s DCI Greg Geldard series, with the first book, Murder on the Norfolk Broads, out this month. Book 2 in the series, Glass Arrows, is republished on 6th April as Death on the Norfolk Broads, and Book 3, Fires of Hate, comes out on 27th April as Fire on the Norfolk Broads. Books 4 to 6 follow on 18th May, 8th June and 29th June respectively.

In other news, Heather had a warm welcome and a lovely audience at Wells-next-the-Sea Library in late February, and the best set of questions she’s had since she was guest at her local school on World Book Day. Her next library appearance is at Fakenham on 17th June.

Events with Julia Stone at Sudbury Arts Centre

• Saturday 11th April – ‘The Path to Traditional Publication’, an informative workshop for readers & writers run by Julia Stone
  1pm to 3pm at Sudbury Arts Centre CO10 2EA

• Sunday 10th May – ‘How to Plot a Novel’, a workshop for readers & writers run by Julia Stone
  1pm to 3pm at Sudbury Arts Centre CO10 2EA

• Sunday 31st May – Anglian Authors Book Fair, books, talks and panel discussions
  10am to 3pm at Sudbury Arts Centre CO10 2EA
  Authors can apply for a stand now. Check the Fairs and markets tab on the Sudbury Arts website.

More information on all these events can be found at https://sudburyartscentre.com/whats-on/

Author interview: Nick Guthrie

Over on the website of Ipswich-based indie, Urban Pigs Press, Nick Guthrie is interviewed about a story he recently wrote for them and his writing plans for the year.

CWA East Anglian Chapter lunch

Members of the Crime Writers’ Association’s East Anglian Chapter got together in Norwich for a lunchtime catch-up last month. Pictured around the table, from front left: Sean Enright, Sarah Doig, Iain Andrews, Stephanie George, Maureen Austin, Heather Peck, Martin Sterling, Fiona Leitch, Nick Guthrie, Phil Johnson and Sue Saunders. With several new members, there were introductions and lots of chat, ranging from book promotion to behind-the-scenes stories from Coronation Street, by way of where not to put a 17th century plague mask…

Death in Disguise

The Amazing True Story of the Chelsea Murders 1870

by Gary Powell

Prior to 1870, violent crime in Chelsea was almost unheard of; this area of mainly market gardens, differed greatly to the dark, dank, filthy streets of Whitechapel to the east, which would, in eighteen years’ time, harbour a killer of infamous savagery. But in May 1870 the attention of Londoners, and the rest of the country, would be drawn to their newspapers as the media of the day reported, in gruesome detail, two horrific murders that shook the residents of this quiet London suburb to its core.

The Reverend Elias Huelin, born on the predominately French-speaking Channel Island of Jersey in 1785, was a curate in the Lincolnshire village of Navenby before moving, in the early 1850’s, to London, with his young housekeeper Ann Boss, to take up similar positions in the French Protestant Church in Soho Square and then the Brompton Cemetery in West London. By 1865 Huelin, now in his late seventies, had retired and turned to Capitalism, building an impressive property portfolio in Seymour Place (now Seymour Walk), and Paulton’s Square, just off Chelsea’s Kings Road. In May 1870 Huelin had just completed the purchase of No.24 Wellington Square and was preparing the property for rental.

On the morning of Monday 9th May 1870, Huelin was seen, by the Paulton’s Square Keeper (a modern day PCSO), leaving No.15 Paulton’s Square where Huelin now lived with Ann Boss; at 11.20am he was again seen climbing the stairs leading to the front door of his latest acquisition: No.24 Wellington Square. This would be the last sighting of Huelin alive.

Late that evening, next-door neighbour — Samual Stainsby, an actor who rented No.14 Paulton’s Square from Huelin — became suspicious when he saw Huelin’s small dog on the doorstep of his neighbour’s house. He reported the fact to the police at Chelsea Police Station who sent a couple of constables to the address. They gained entry to No.15, via an open back window, and searched the address. They found a wooden clothes box in the basement kitchen secured by a padlock.

The police reported back to Stainsby, explaining there was nothing suspicious in the property therefore not a police matter. Stainsby knew that Huelin and Boss travelled to Lincolnshire this time of year to visit the farm in Navenby, which he stilled owned, to check on its tenants and that the property was being maintained to the standard agreed in the rental agreement. This was something Huelin and Boss (who was a local Lincolnshire woman) regularly did every year but Stainsby was confused: his landlord hadn’t told him he was going and that the property was left insecure and the dog seemingly abandoned.

On Tuesday, 10th May, a Frenchman, professing to be the nephew of Elias Huelin, moved into No.15 Paulton’s Square. He had employed a local charwoman, Harriet Middleton, to clean and cook for him, telling her that his uncle had left London, with Ann Boss, to travel to Lincolnshire.

The Frenchman continued to live at No.15 Paulton’s Square, his uncle’s house, for the next couple of days with Harriet Middleton looking after him. He decided to travel to the West End for a day of drinking and entertainment on Wednesday 11th May, returning to Chelsea late that evening. He took a diversion to the address of local greengrocer — Henry Piper. Piper also moved furniture and goods for local people, using an old handcart. The Frenchman asked him if he would move some property from Paulton’s Square to an address in Fulham that night. Piper eventually agreed, even at that late an hour, and arrived at No.15 at 11pm. He was directed down to the basement kitchen and shown the padlocked clothes box noticed by the police constables two evenings before. He was told to move it, but when Piper placed his hand under the box, he felt something sticky. He looked at his hand and saw blood. He remonstrated with the Frenchman, who ran from the property into the square heading for the junction with Kings Road. Piper chased him, and there, standing on the corner, was a police officer! Piper spoke to the officer explaining the circumstances and showing him the blood on his hand. The Frenchman didn’t make to run but remained where he was, as if about to give some explanation. The inexperienced police constable walked the Frenchman and Piper back to the house to investigate. The Frenchman this time made a bid to escape but was caught by Piper and eventually detained by the constable and taken to Chelsea Police Station where he was searched.

Back at No.15 Paulton’s Square, local Police Sergeant, John Large, arrived at the scene and questioned Piper before escorting him to the basement kitchen. Sgt Large broke the padlock that fastened the clothes box, discovering the body of Ann Boss the housekeeper inside. She had been strangled with such force, the rope still about her neck, that blood had escaped from her nose and mouth before her death, seeping through the bottom of the box. Large sent word to the police station asking if the suspect had any keys on him and if so to return them to him. A set of keys found on the suspect were returned, one of the keys fitted the padlock. Attention now focused on Elias Huelin, who had not been seen since 11.20am on Monday morning.

Scotland Yard’s Detective Branch was assigned to the case, following huge media interest, with Detective Superintendent Fisher in charge. Elias Huelin’s body was eventually discovered, buried in the garden of No.24 Wellington Square. He had been struck on the back of the head with a sharp instrument. The surgeon, who carried out the post-mortem, believed the murder weapon to be a slater’s tool — commonplace in London at the time, although the murder weapon was never recovered.

Fisher’s attention returned to the suspect, still held at Chelsea Police Station. It was discovered the so-called nephew of Elias Huelin was in fact Walter Millar, a plasterer who worked for Huelin. Millar had adopted a disguise so good that those close to him didn’t recognise him. He stood trial for the murder of Elias Huelin (not Ann Boss, who as a woman was insignificant in Victorian society) at the Old Bailey. Millar was convicted and executed in Newgate prison in August 1870. Both victims share the same grave situated in the grounds of the Brompton Oratory. A motive for the murders was never established at the trial — it was thought to be for financial gain. The only person, who could provide the answer, took it to his death at the end of the public executioner’s rope.

Gary Powell is a retired London police detective, having served thirty-three years with the British Transport Police, and now resides in the North Norfolk seaside town of Sheringham. He has published seven books to date on true crime, crime thrillers and poetry. He has been a guide at St Paul’s Cathedral for the past sixteen years, a public speaker and a member of the Crime Writers Association. His most recent novel is The Cutting Room.

Crime Fiction News and Events

All Booked Up, Suffolk, early 2027

A new two-day book event “full of authors and vendors, as well as having book-themed crafts, quizzes, raffles and more” will be held in Suffolk in February or March 2027, date and location to be finalised.

Crime fiction festivals coming up:

• 28 March 2026 Anglesey Crime Writing Festival

• 19 April 2026 Warrington Crime Festival

• 1-3 May 2026 Crime and Thriller Weekend, Cromarty

Writer’s Desk: Michelle Kidd

This article should really be titled The Writer’s Sofa, The Writer’s Bed, or sometimes The Writer’s Garden Chair, as I don’t actually have a desk! I write on a combination of the sofa, the bed, out in the garden, or occasionally in libraries or coffee shops. I write long hand with a pen and paper, so I can be quite versatile! One common denominator with all locations (apart from in the library and coffee shop) is the presence of a cat…. Livi is my tabby cat, although I’m sure she thinks she’s a tiger, and she can often be seen on my bed ensuring I’m getting my word count in. Tom is my other half’s cat, and he too has started to take the supervising editor role quite seriously.

I plan a lot of my writing while out and about on my daily walk. I’m lucky to live in the Suffolk countryside and there’s nothing better to unblock a plot line problem, or character issue, than a good old power walk in the fresh air. I try to get out every day, weather permitting and I find I get a lot of my book ideas while out and about. When I return, I scribble them down in my trusty ‘ideas’ notebook for future use! So, I’m really looking forward to the better weather, as then there’s no excuse not to get those walking boots on and get the creative juices flowing.

So far, neither Livi not Tom have joined me on my creative walks – they’re both house cats and seem quite happy where they are! And we all know that famous phrase – never wake a sleeping baby or a sleeping cat!

For Writers

Pellerin Books is a new publisher looking to work with authors who already have some experience with publishing and self-publishing: “We partner with experienced authors — whether traditionally published or self-published — who are ambitious to reach more readers.” The company was founded by Head of Zeus co-founder Laura Palmer, Jessie Sullivan, identified as a ‘Future Industry Leader’ by The Bookseller, and Peyton Stableford, former editor at the Head of Zeus crime and thriller list. They’re looking for commercial fiction and are interested in crime and thrillers. More at: https://pellerinbooks.com/

Urban Pigs Press are compiling a second charity anthology, with all profits going to Suffolk-based charity FIND — Families in Need. They’re looking for short fiction between 500 to 2000 words inspired by the prompt Hunger. They’re open to a wide range of genres but find that crime, horror and gritty realism work best. The submission window is now open and will close on the 1st May 2026, aiming for a summer release. Full details from the Urban Pigs website.

There is now a CWA chapter for self-published authors. Self-published authors will see a banner in the members’ area of the website when they log in, inviting them to join the new chapter. Members can also join or leave chapters via their member dashboards on the website. Self-published members are also welcome to join the CWA Self-Published Members Facebook Group.

In brief:

• The DHH literary agency is partnering with Capital Crime to take part in a pitching event looking for the next standout voice in crime fiction. Submissions are open throughout April.

• Tickets are now on sale for Jericho Writers’ London Festival of Writing, taking place on Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th June 2026. The weekend will be packed with workshops, one-to-ones and inspiring sessions as writers, literary agents and industry professionals gather from around the world.

• The Crime Writers’ Association is looking for two enthusiastic individuals to join the CWA Board. For more information, please contact Heather Fitt at coordinator@thecwa.co.uk

• The Crime Writers’ Association has left Twitter/X. “The safety and well-being of our members is always our priority, and following ongoing concerns around user safety, privacy, and recent AI-related issues, we’ve decided to step back from active use of this platform.” The organisation remains active on Facebook, Instagram, BlueSky and Threads.

• Literary agents are increasingly unhappy with the increasing number of AI-generated manuscripts, synopses and cover letters they're receiving these days.

• Spotify have launched audiobook charts in the UK and US.

• 8th Marsh was National Proofreading Day.

• Bookseller on the need for publishers to be honest with authors about expectations around projected sales and publicity budgets.

Tricks of Memory by Julia Stone

My friend, Ali, recently showed me a few faded photos of her and her mother on a beach with another teenage girl.

‘Who’s that other girl with you?’ I asked.

Ali looked at me quizzically and said, ‘It’s you, of course!’

Aside from not recognising myself in the photo, I have absolutely no memory of ever going to a beach with Ali and her mother. In fact, no recall of going on any outing with her parents, ever. Any memory of the event has completely gone, to the extent that I would have sworn such a trip to the seaside never took place had there not been photographic evidence.

Was it forgotten because, as teenage girls, we had a lot ‘more important’ things going on in our lives? Was it a fairly dull day that didn’t warrant recalling in the midst of our exciting teenage lives? It’s a shame that I can’t recall the what, where and when of that summer’s day, but that’s how memory works.

Think you can trust your own memories? Think again!

Julia Stone’s latest psychological suspense novel, The Expert Witness, tackles the theme of memory. The story delves into the mind and experiences of an expert in memory, as she tries to atone for an event in her past. The Expert Witness is available at all good booksellers. For more snippets on memory and psychology sign up to Julia’s readers club at www.juliastonewriter.com.

New Releases by Other Hands

• The Murder Pool by Stella Blómkvist — “Sometimes murder runs in the family. Or does it?”

• The Dark Heart by Neil Lancaster — “DS Max Craigie uncovers a chilling connection between a series of brutal murders…”

• The Truth About Ruby Cooper by Liz Nugent — “If my sister hadn’t been beautiful, none of it would have happened.”

• Lost Girls by Charlotte Philby — “There are no witnesses and no ransom demand: thirteen-year-old Freya Sjöberg has vanished into thin air.”

• The Harvey Girl by Dana Stabenow — “1890. The New Mexico Territory is a lawless frontier where criminals steal money and land alike with impunity.”

More from Dead East: the Anglian Crime Authors Collective

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Contact Dead East: acacwriters@gmail.com

And finally…

“If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word.” —Margaret Atwood

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Welcome to the latest Dead East newsletter: news and exclusive content from crime authors based in East Anglia, in the UK.

In this issue:
Crime News from East Anglia — Dead East News and Events — Crime Fiction News and Events — Writer’s Corner: Heather Peck — For Writers — Tricks of Memory by Julia Stone — Back List Spotlight: Keith Brooke and Eric Brown — Reviews — New Releases by Other Hands — More from Dead East — And finally…

Crime News from East Anglia

Two Book Deal for Nick Guthrie

Dead East author Nick Guthrie has signed a two-book deal with editor Maxim Jakubowski at No Exit Press. Both novels feature off-beat Detective Inspector Bolam, and are set in coastal Suffolk. The first, The Curator, is scheduled for November 2026 publication.

Of the books, Nick says: “Severed fingers in the mail, dark and convoluted family relationships, a Suffolk town that’s turned a blind eye for far too long, and maybe a serial killer who’s decided to step things up a notch or two. What’s not to love?”

This news comes on the back of a highly successful run in short fiction for Nick, with back-to-back-to-back stories in the top two English-language crime magazines: “From Grace” in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine (Nov/Dec 2025), “Where’s Pete?” in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine (Jan/Feb 2026), and then “It’s Complicated” back in Hitchcock's (Mar/Apr 2026). Nick also finished 2025 with short story acceptances for “Old Friends” in the Crime Writers’ Association anthology Guilty Secrets, and "In the Ruins", to appear in Cold Caller magazine, both due to be published later this year.

Then 2026 started with a piece of flash fiction, “The Youth of Today”, accepted and very rapidly published by the excellent Ipswich-based indie publisher and webzine, Urban Pigs Press. In February, another short story, “Wrong Notes” was published in Black Cat Weekly.

Dead East News and Events

Author Appearances

Dead East authors will be making several appearances over coming weeks. Julia Stone has the following appearances scheduled:

• 15th February 2pm to 4pm: ‘Writing for Wellbeing’ at Brightlingsea Museum CO7 0DT.

• 21stFebruary, 1pm to 3pm: writing workshop, The Psychology of Character : from backstory to beliefs to behaviour. Sudbury Arts Centre.

Michelle Kidd will be joining Julia Stone for a signing and meet the authors event:

• 8th March, 10am to 3pm: ‘Meet the Author Book Sale’ at The Institute, Kelvedon CO5 9AA.

And Heather Peck will be talking about her books and writing, followed by a book signing at Wells Library, Norfolk:

• Friday 27th February, midday, Wells-next-the-sea Library.

In brief:

• We’ve been busy making some Dead East promotional videos, hosted on Nick Guthrie’s TikTok and YouTube channels.

• All four books to date in the Girls on Tour graphic novel series by Dead East author Charlie Flowers and Danielle Fray are now available on GlobalComix.

Crime Fiction News and Events

Mark Billingham, author of the DI Tom Thorne series among others, has been awarded the Crime Writers’ Association’s Diamond Dagger 2026 award for lifetime contribution to crime writing in the English language. Mark Billingham said: “Presuming this is not an administrative error, I could not be more thrilled or honoured. To be added to a list that features most of my literary heroes is fantastic.”

The Society of Authors have launched a co-authored report Brave New World? Justice for creators in the age of GenAI, a major study of GenAI’s impact on creative work. It calls on the Government to immediately implement CLEAR, a new regulatory framework to protect the livelihoods of authors, illustrators, musicians, performers, and photographers, or risk the decimation of the UK’s £124.6 billion creative industries sector. The report can be downloaded from the SoA’s website.

Crime fiction festivals coming up:

• 17-22 February 2026 Granite Noir, Aberdeen

• 6-8 February 2026 Bloody Barnes Literary Festival

• 7-8 February 2026 Cheshire Crime Writers Festival

• 28 February 2026 Bay Tales, Whitley Bay

• 28 March 2026 Anglesey Crime Writing Festival

• 19 April 2026 Warrington Crime Festival

Writer’s Corner: Heather Peck

For reasons not unconnected to the number of times I fell off horses in my younger days, I have a slightly dodgy back. This means my absolute prerequisite for concentration is a comfy chair with my feet up.

I write my first drafts on my iPad before transfer to the master manuscript on my laptop; which gives me the flexibility to have two Writing Corners, one for summer and the other for the colder months. And if the weather’s really good I transfer to my garden. Here are the spaces I share with DCI Greg Geldard…

The first DCI Geldard novel, Secret Places, is reissued this month by Joffe Books, and can be bought online at Amazon and other booksellers.

For Writers

Glencairn Glass Crime Story Competition

The Glencairn Glass Crime Short Story competition returns this year, inviting both experienced and novice writers from around the world to submit an original crime story of under 2,000 words. This year’s theme is that the story’s protagonist must be from Scotland.

Further details about the competition and the online entry form can be found at: www.whiskyglass.com/crime-short-story-competition

The competition closes at midnight on Tuesday 31st March 2026. The winner and runner up will be announced in the summer.

In brief:

• Joffe Books, one of the UK’s leading independent publishers of commercial fiction, especially crime and mystery fiction are open for unagented submissions.

• And not to be left out, Embla Books, the digital-first imprint of Bonnier Books UK, is opening up its submissions for the first time, accepting fiction manuscripts directly from unagented authors. They’re looking for “compelling, original manuscripts” in three commercial genres, comprising domestic thrillers, Christmas murder mysteries and “witchy romances”. Submissions are open from 9th to 20th February 2026 and are welcomed from debut and experienced writers, with a strong encouragement for authors from backgrounds currently underrepresented in publishing.

• The WriteMentor 2026 Novel and Picture Book Awards for unpublished and unagented authors, running in partnership with the Darley Anderson Literary Agency, are open for submissions until 31st March 2026. Prizes include cash awards, and one-to-one consultations with an agent.

• During February, The National Centre for Writing is offering CWA members a £50 discount on their 12-week Introduction to Crime Writing Course. Use the code from the CWA members’ newsletter when registering.

• The Brick Lane Bookshop Short Story Prize is open for entries from previously unpublished authors until 2nd March. First Prize is £1,000, 2nd Prize is £500, and 3rd Prize is £250. The twelve shortlisted stories will feature in the Brick Lane Bookshop Short Story Prize 2026 anthology.

• The Gutsy Great Novelist Chapter One Prize is open internationally to writers over 18 who are working on an as-yet-unpublished fiction novel. First prize is $1,000; entries 3rd February to 3rd March.

• Call for Judges: The CWA Daggers is seeking new judges for the 2026/7 awards. Interested parties, please read more here: https://thecwa.co.uk/news/seeking-judges-for-the-cwa-daggers/ or email secretary@thecwa.co.uk

• The CWA’s Emerging Author Dagger and Margery Allingham Short Mystery Contest are closing on 27 February at 6.00pm.

• Chalk Scribblers are holding a Meet the Agent session with Hannah Schofield of LBA. 18th February, 7pm, £5 fee.

Tricks of Memory by Julia Stone

My earliest memory — one which I’m fairly confident is ‘true’ — stems from when I was seven years old and was rushed to hospital with a burst appendix. Before that, I have no memory of the birth of my sister, nor moving house at around the age of three. There are the vaguest memories of infant school days: blackboard slates and chalk; coloured rods for adding up; and not being able to master the 6 times table. (Still a struggle!) I am not alone in recalling very little: most adults have few memories of events they experienced before the age of 7 to 8.

On average, adults report their earliest memory as occurring at around 3 to 4 years of age. This tendency to forget early events is a well-researched phenomenon, known as childhood or infantile amnesia. There are several things that can influence early recall — for example, the significance of the event (eg first time on a plane) and the emotion associated with the experience (eg great excitement or fear). We often recall the place, activity, and people present, but other details less so. And research suggests that our earliest memories are sometimes not purely our own, but created from a mix of family stories, old photos, things we’ve read/seen and others’ shared memories.

Think you can trust your own memories? Think again!

Julia Stone’s latest psychological suspense novel, The Expert Witness, tackles the theme of memory. The story delves into the mind and experiences of an expert in memory, as she tries to atone for an event in her past. The Expert Witness is available at all good booksellers. For more snippets on memory and psychology sign up to Julia’s readers club at www.juliastonewriter.com.

Back List Spotlight

Wormhole by Keith Brooke and Eric Brown

Detective Inspectors Gordon Kemp and Danni Bellini are pulled off their routine cold case investigations and ordered to investigate a murder from 2109. Eighty years ago...

Sebastian White, a leading expert in suspension technology, killed by a single stab wound. Three suspects: his deputy, his business partner and his wife. Three perfect alibis. Simple as that? Not quite.

Ten years before White’s death, we discovered the first Earth-compatible planet orbiting the star Mu Arae. In 2110 a starship was sent on the eighty year journey to the planet, its crew held in stasis by the tech designed by White. A short way into the voyage the ship blew up, killing the crew and ending our hope of a new world.

Who killed White? What happened to the ship? Why re-open the case now?

Keith Brooke is the author of many books and short stories, ranging from mystery and dark thrillers to science fiction and fantasy. The late Eric Brown was author of even more books and stories, equally wide-ranging, including the popular Langham and Dupré 1950s mystery novels.

Extract:

Kemp swivelled his recliner and stared through the narrow window of his office. Somewhere outside, he knew, the sun had come up over London. Snow had fallen during the night. On the rooftops it would be crisp and white, but down here in the shady alleyway to the rear of Homicide HQ all was grey slush and windblown litter. As Kemp peered up at the sliver of dawn sky, he caught the glare of a sub-orb rising like a slow firework from the Thames estuary hub fifty kilometres away, heading east to China.

Around Kemp, images of the dead shimmered in the unlighted office. He knew he owed it to these people – or rather to their loved ones and relatives – to turn his seat back to the console and engage with the database, but he was struck by a soul-sapping inertia that kept him staring through the window.

His imp bleeped and, reluctantly, he turned and signalled to take the call.

The image of an overweight man in a crumpled suit resolved itself over his desk: the lawyer, Edouard Bryce. Kemp sat up. “Ed. It’s been months.”

“I’m sorry,” Bryce said, “but Ma Holding died yesterday.”

Kemp’s automatic response was to glance immediately at the ghost image of Sophie Holding. “I knew she was ill.”

“I saw her just before… She wanted to thank you for everything you’d done.”

Kemp swore. “That was fuck all, Ed.”

Bryce shrugged. “You could say that. Or you could say that you gave her hope. That was all she had to cling to. I saw her before those meetings you had with her, and I saw her afterwards. You were incredible. You gave her something to live for.”

“For all the good it did.”

“Nevertheless.”

Kemp sighed. “I’m sorry. It’s just…” He signalled, swung his hand around his head and the images of the dead processed around the room and lined up behind him so that Bryce could see the gallery.

“Look, Ed. Fifty-five of them. They’re from nine years back to… to around twenty-five years ago. You know what they say on this job? The law of diminishing returns: the older a case is, the less chance there is of solving it. I worked my balls off on the Holding case and got nowhere. Dead end after dead end after…”

Bryce nodded, conciliatory. “I know, Gordon. But, you know, you do tend to dwell on the cases that remain unsolved. Don’t forget all the ones you do resolve. Every time you do that, you allow entire families to move on, and you’re damned good at what you do.”

“When I crack the fuckers.”

He waved again, killed the images – all but one. He dragged it before him, so that the 3D portrait of the eighteen year-old Afro-Caribbean girl hung between him and Bryce, smiling out at him. He gestured, and the image started to cycle through a short recording of the girl laughing and talking to camera. He didn’t have to unmute her to hear the soft tones of her voice in his head.

“Look at her, Bryce.” Kemp shook his head. “You went to Ma Holding’s place. You saw all the pix she had of Sophie. They were her way of coping, of keeping her only daughter alive and with her. And she trusted me to find her killer.”

“As I said, you gave her hope.”

“And there are fifty-four others. And their families and loved ones who haven’t been able to move on. You know something?”

“Go on.”

“Days like today, I feel like retiring.”

Bryce smiled. “A little way to go yet, Gordon.”

“Or requesting a transfer. Not that anywhere else would have me.”

“Surely, with all your experience…”

“You know me, Ed. I don’t fit anywhere else, and I can’t take authority. Too bolshy by half – Tsang’s own words.”

Which wasn’t the whole truth. Even Ed Bryce, who Kemp considered his best friend, didn’t know why he’d been put out to pasture in the ‘morgue’ after twenty years in homicide.

They chatted for another five minutes before Bryce was called away and cut the connection.

Kemp reinstated the gallery of the dead, pushed it back to the darkened walls, and once again turned to stare out at what passed for a view.

A month ago he’d gone to see Ma Holding in her bedsit by Hackney Lakes to give her what he euphemistically called a progress report. He visited her every once in a while, like a dutiful son, although it became harder on each occasion. This time he’d even considered lying about a new lead – anything to stoke her hope, particularly when her health was clearly failing. She’d gripped his hand and stared at him with her massive, yellowing eyes. “You’ll find him for me, won’t you, Gordon?”

He’d prised her fingers from his and promised that he’d find Sophie’s killer if it were the last thing he did.

He willed himself to turn the seat, access the database and go through the Holding case yet again. He knew that for the next few days he’d be fired up, until frustration at not getting anywhere overcame him and he took up the freshest case on file, leaving Sophie’s murder unsolved and Ma Holding’s hope to die with her.

He looked up, seeing Danni in the doorway, leaning slantwise against the frame, and wondered how long she’d been there.

“You look, if you don’t mind my saying, as if you’ve slept all night in that seat.” Her voice was Home Counties, primly correct. Anyone less like a DI he’d never met. She wore a dark trouser suit like a uniform, with its side-fastening tunic and high collar, and her jet hair was long and straight. She looked like a high-flying executive up for an interview with a pan-global consortium.

“‘My saying’,” he mocked.

She was twenty-five years his junior, and even though they shared the same rank, she was his superior in charge of this unit. When she was instated over him in the morgue, he’d come in for relentless flak from colleagues. Kemp had shrugged and told them, truthfully, that he couldn’t give a damn. In fact, he was glad of the company, and Danni Bellini turned out to be a decent kid who didn’t rub his nose in the fact that she was a fast-tracked Cambridge graduate and he an ill-educated slob who’d risen, slowly, through the ranks.

“But no, I haven’t been here all night. No more than an hour. Oh – I just had a call from Bryce. Ma Holding passed away yesterday.”

“I heard.” She entered the room, picked her way round discarded curry cartons and beer bulbs biodegrading on the floor, and sat down.

“So I’m setting a couple of things aside and going through the files again,” he said.

She stared at him through the shadows, then shook her head. “Not today, Gordon.”

“What?”

“I’ve just seen Tsang. You’re not going to like this.”

“Like what?”

She gestured around the office at the fifty-five dead people staring at them. “Tsang has just ordered us to put everything aside for a while.”

“Everything? You’re joking?”

“He wants us to look into something else. Priority. A single case. We’ve to give it our full attention.”

Kemp grunted, “Fuck him.”

“That’s what I nearly said.”

Kemp smiled at that. For all her middle-class primness, Danni could swear with the best of them. “So what’s this case? Must be important.” He had to admit, if only to himself, that his curiosity had been piqued.

“It is. A top research scientist, working at the cutting edge of suspension technology. Well-connected. A very high-profile case.”

“Why haven’t I heard of this before now? And since when has suspension technology been cutting edge?”

She combed a long strand of dark hair from her cheek and smiled at him. “Because this cold case is really cold,” she said. “The victim was Sebastian White, and he was murdered eighty years ago.”

Kemp blinked, processing her words. “That’s not a cold case, Danni. That’s an archaeological dig.”

Wormhole by Keith Brooke and Eric Brown is available from Amazon and other booksellers.

Reviews

Driftnet by Lin Anderson

Time for an older one this month, first published in 2011. Driftnet, the first book in the series about Edinburgh forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod, opens with the graphic death of a rent boy. Nothing surprising in this, perhaps: risk goes with the territory. Then we join forensic pathologist Rhona MacLeod as she’s called to the scene. Everything is very matter of fact until we learn that the physical resemblance between Rhona and the victim is so strong that others have noticed it too…

Soon the scope of the story opens out to embrace the upper echelons of those in power in Scotland and the author rips through a gripping tale of power and corruption, set against the very personal impact of crime. All this embedded in a tangle of personal relationships that makes you feel as if you’ve joined in partway through the series rather than at the start — which is a great way to open a series, because it makes it feel as if these characters haven’t just sprung into life for this story.

This is a long-running and bestselling series for Lin Anderson, and it’s easy to see why it has been such a success, and I’ll certainly be returning for book two.

(review by Nick Guthrie)

For more excellent crime reviews, see Barry Forshaw’s Financial Times reviews and Maxim Jakubowski’s To the Max reviews, both courtesy of Crime Time.

New Releases by Other Hands

A Bad, Bad Place by Frances Crawford — “Glasgow, 1979. Twelve-year-old Janey won’t take her dog, Sid Vicious, for a walk. Not anymore. It’s Sid’s fault she found the murdered woman.”

Anatomy of an Alibi by Ashley Elston — “Two women. One dead husband. And only one alibi...”

It’s Not Her by Mary Kubica — “Two families at a secluded lake resort are at the centre of a chilling crime in this twisty thriller from the bestselling author of Local Woman Missing.”

Very Slowly All At Once by Lauren Schott — “Modern life is expensive, so the anonymous payments Mack and Hailey Evans start to receive are spent before they know it. Could this money be from Mack's estranged father? Or one of Hailey's clients? Does it really matter?”

A Study in Secrets by Jeffrey Siger — “A retired gentleman with a complicated past. A missing priceless treasure. A young woman in trouble.”

Better Off Dead by Sean Watkin — “Some secrets are best left buried.”

More from Dead East: the Anglian Crime Authors Collective

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Contact Dead East: acacwriters@gmail.com

And finally…

“There are a number of writers who believe it is their duty to throw as many curve balls at the reader as possible. To twist and twist again. These are the Chubby Checkers of crime fiction and, while I admire the craft, I think that it can actually work against genuine suspense.” —Mark Billingham

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Happy new year from all of us at Dead East! And welcome to the latest Dead East newsletter: news and exclusive content from crime authors based in East Anglia, in the UK.

In this issue:
Dead East Events — Dead East Interview — Crime News from East Anglia — Crime Fiction News and Events — Tricks of Memory — Reviews — For Writers — More from Dead East — And finally…

Dead East Events

Author Appearances

Dead East author Julia Stone has several appearances scheduled:

• 10th February, 7pm to 9pm: ‘In conversation’ discussion at Coggeshall Library CO6 1UH.

• 15th February 2pm to 4pm: ‘Writing for Wellbeing’ at Brightlingsea Museum CO7 0DT.

• 8th March, 10am to 3pm: ‘Meet the Author Book Sale’ at The Institute, Kelvedon CO5 9AA.

And fellow Dead East author Heather Peck will be talking about her books and writing, followed by a book signing at Wells Library, Norfolk:

• Friday 27th February, midday, Wells-next-the-sea Library.

Dead East Interview: Michelle Kidd

Tell us about your new book.

My latest book was released in November 2025 – Skin of Their Teeth. It is the fourth book in my Suffolk based DI Nicki Hardcastle crime series. Jacob Towers is standing on the roof of a four-storey building in Bury St Edmunds – moments later he falls, impaled on the railings below. The question for Nicki and her team is, did he jump, or was he pushed? The investigation is further complicated when seven of his own newly extracted teeth are found in his pockets. A short time later, there is another untimely death – and another seven teeth found in the victim’s pockets. Nicki and her team find themselves embroiled in another complex investigation where someone is exacting his revenge, one victim at a time. The question is, why?

As with the other books in this series, I try to include as many local references to Bury St Edmunds as I can, giving readers who are familiar with the town a sense of locality. I really enjoy writing this series as, living in Bury St Edmunds myself, it is fun writing about somewhere you are so familiar with.

What’s a typical writing day for you?

I gave up a 17-year career in the NHS in May 2025 to focus solely on my crime writing, so my writing days are now very different to how they were when I had to juggle a full-time job as well. I write longhand, with a pen and notepad, so I can write just about anywhere. I don’t have an office or a dedicated writing room; I tend to do most of my writing on my bed with the cat anchoring my feet! I also write on the sofa, in the garden, in coffee shops, on the train… the possibilities are endless!

Now writing is my full-time career, I do try and work Monday to Friday as much as possible. I start quite early, around 7am, with a cup of tea and either pull out my notepad or fire up the laptop. I will write fairly continuously until early afternoon, when I usually go for an hour’s powerwalk outside if the weather is kind. If not, I’ll do some exercise indoors, and maybe some housework. I will then go back to writing for another hour or two in the early evening before finally putting the pen down for the night.

What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

When am I not writing?? As writing is also my hobby as well as my job, I don’t do a lot else! I do try and fit some form of exercise into my day, whatever the weather, going out for an hour’s walk in the fresh air is really important to me. I listen to music as I walk, or sometimes an audiobook, and just unwind. I find that as my mind relaxes, if I’ve had a problem with a particular storyline or character, then ideas come to me as I walk. Maybe its all the blood and oxygen rushing to my brain… In the evenings, I do like to catch up on some TV dramas, and I always have a read before bed.

Between April and December, you will often find me at craft fairs and markets at the weekends, as my other half has a craft business where he turns unwanted items into something more useful, stopping them going into landfill and being wasted. We have a stall at a variety of markets in and around Bury St Edmunds, sometimes a little further afield, so watch out for us! We have a website at www.the3rsdesigns.com

Do you write in a single genre, or do you like to jump about a bit?

At the moment, I have always written crime/police procedurals. I have two detective series – one based in London with DI Jack MacIntosh, and the other is my DI Nicki Hardcastle series set in Suffolk. With 11 books published across both series, and another three set for publication in 2026, my publishers have asked if I would consider trying a psychological thriller next… which I have curiously agreed to! So, watch this space…

With all your professional experience, could you commit the perfect crime?

I’d certainly have a very good go at it! But I do think pulling off the perfect crime is getting harder and harder. Advances in technology mean that it is very difficult to remain undetected. With every contact meant to leave a trace, the progress in forensics means that it is very hard, if not impossible, not to leave something of yourself at a crime scene, be it a fingerprint, shoeprint, DNA or other trace evidence. And then there are the advances in camera technology. There are cameras everywhere these days, including those that are now on people’s doorbells! Cars can be traced via ANPR and other fixed cameras, plus mobile phones can be traced with GPS. It certainly makes crime writing a little more difficult, as you generally need your perpetrator to remain at large for the duration of the book, when in reality they may have been traced and apprehended that little bit sooner!

How much research do you do, and what kind?

Research is very important in any genre, but especially in crime writing, even more so in police procedurals. It’s important to get the big things right when you’re writing a detective series, as it adds credibility to your writing. I will do a lot of research myself – Google is certainly my friend! And you can find out so much these days too – Google Maps and Street View is really helpful in finding out what places actually look like without having to go and visit in person. You do, of course, need to be wary of information that you find on the internet, because not all of it is true or up to date. I do have a background in the law – I was a legal executive specialising in criminal litigation for ten years – so I do have a fair degree of knowledge in that area. But I also have two police officers who help me on any procedural aspects that need checking out; one is a uniformed Police Sergeant who gives me the immediate 999 response, and the other is a Detective Inspector who gives the investigation side of things.

As my DI Jack MacIntosh series is set about ten years in the past, I find I am checking out what might have been happening at that time (once again, Google is my friend!) and it adds another strand of credibility to the storylines, as readers can remember and relate to events they remember happening. For example, the first book in the series is Seven Days to Die, and it is set in 2012 in the run-up to the London Olympics. At the time, the Mayor of London was Boris Johnson… and we all know what happened with him!

I also did a lot of interesting research for book four in the series, Twenty Years Buried. In this book, a body is found inside a suitcase under London Bridge. As the Thames is tidal at that location, I needed the tide to be out sufficiently for the suitcase to be found. I spent a large amount of time researching tidal times from the Port of London Authority to make sure the date and time I needed my dog walker to be walking along the banks coincided with the tide being out! Although most readers probably wouldn’t have minded, there will always be that one who points out that the tide was in at that specific time!

Is setting important in crime and mystery fiction?

I think the setting and location of the story is another character in its own right. I put a lot of effort into getting my locations accurate and fitting for the story I want to tell. This can be a physical setting, or it can be a time and date setting, and can be just as important as the main characters themselves.

Do you ever worry that your writing might influence people in negative ways?

It’s not something that I have in mind when I’m writing. I don’t think anyone would read my books as a ‘how to get away with murder’ instruction manual! The plot lines are quite intricate and there are any number of threads that weave together to bring about a certain set of circumstances, that I’m not sure any would be able to be recreated in the real world. Plus, my perpetrators generally get found out and brought to justice…

Michelle can be found online at michellekiddauthor.com

The latest DI Nicki Hardcastle novel, Skin of Their Teeth, was published in November 2025 by Joffe Books, and can be bought online at Amazon and other booksellers.

Crime News from East Anglia

Girls On Tour Hits the Big Screen

Working with Danielle Fray, Dead East author Charlie Flowers is currently making his first anime feature film, called What We Did On Our Holidays, based on their graphic novel. They have a provisional date for a cinema screening, which we’ll list in this newsletter when it’s been confirmed. All four books to date in the Girls on Tour graphic novel series are available on Amazon.

Crime Fiction News and Events

Crime fiction festivals coming up:

• 31 January 2026 Stockport Noir

• 17-22 February 2026 Granite Noir, Aberdeen

• 6-8 February 2026 Bloody Barnes Literary Festival

• 7-8 February 2026 Cheshire Crime Writers Festival

• 28 February 2026 Bay Tales, Whitley Bay

• 28 March 2026 Anglesey Crime Writing Festival

Writer’s Corner: Julia Stone

This is the view from the window of the room where I write. It can sometimes be quite distracting, particularly when there are sheep in the field, a bird of prey overhead, or a muntjac deer wanders past the gate.

Other than the view from my window, I try to minimise distractions. I dislike clutter and prefer to have a relatively clear working space with just my notebook, pens and scrap paper to hand, all email files closed, no open tabs, and no ‘to do’ lists in sight. I also prefer to work in silence, no music, podcasts or radio, my phone on silent. To be honest, I create enough of my own diversions, frequently stopping for tea, or to put the washing on, or make a phone call. I admire those writers who have a structured routine and write a specific target number of words a day. My diary changes from week to week and I tend to work in a very ad hoc way, but if there’s a deadline I will always meet it!

Aside from writing I also make artworks, working primarily in 3d and ceramics but also in print, collage and photography. This compilation of photos was taken as part of a charity fund raiser, A Letter in Mind, back in 2016 and shows how the view changes with the seasons. The idea behind A Letter in Mind is simple: artists use a plain, white envelope as the starting point to create an artwork based on that year’s theme. (In 2016 the theme was ‘A View on Nature’.) All the artworks they receive are priced at £85 and sold via an online gallery with all money raised for the work of the National Brain Appeal. But the key is that the artists remain anonymous until the work is sold – you may be buying something by a famous artist, like Grayson Perry, as many known-names take part. The artists behind sold pieces are revealed at the end of an exhibition in a gallery in central London, the unsold works remaining on sale online.

Julia Stone’s latest psychological suspense novel, The Expert Witness, is available at all good booksellers. For more about Julia and her work see www.juliastonewriter.com.

For Writers

CWA Mentorship Scheme

New/emerging authors, would you like a little support and advice from an author who’s been where you are now? Established authors, do you have advice and experience to share?

The Crime Writers’ Association is introducing a new mentorship scheme, where an author in the early stages of a writing career will be paired with an experienced mentor. Over a six-month period each pair will meet, either online or in person, once a month for up to an hour, to discuss how to navigate the writing and publishing world. Note: this is not a critiquing service.

More details at:

• Mentors: thecwa.co.uk/dashboard/support/mentorship-scheme/mentorship-scheme-apply-to-be-a-mentor/

• Mentees: thecwa.co.uk/dashboard/support/mentorship-schemeapply-for-a-mentor/

In brief:

The Margery Allingham Short Mystery Competition is open to submissions, with a deadline of 27th February 2026. The competition is open to all, and is for short stories written in English of up to 3,500 words. Stories should follow Margery’s definition of a mystery to be in with the best of chance of winning the prize: “The Mystery remains box-shaped, at once a prison and a refuge. Its four walls are, roughly, a Crime, a Mystery, an Enquiry and a Conclusion with an Element of Satisfaction in it.”

The CWA’s Emerging Author Dagger award for unpublished writers working on a crime novel has the same deadline.

As part of their very useful series of features on craft and marketing for authors, IngramSpark recently published Six Strategies for Getting Your Self-Published Book into Libraries and Psychological Thrillers and Killer Twists: A Conversation with Kiersten Modglin.

Festival Discount! The new Bloody Barnes crime festival (6th-8th February 2026) is offering a 10% discount to CWA members, lowering the price for a weekend pass to £110. Use the code CWA. Tickets are on sale now at https://www.bloodybarnes.com/home. For a list of other crime festivals, of interest to both readers and writers, see the Links section of the Dead East website.

Over on the Society of Authors website, Davina Hamilton celebrates the changing face of indie publishing in The Evolution of Self-publishing.

Tricks of Memory by Julia Stone

Last summer I went to see Tim Minchin in Brighton. Before the concert, my partner wasn’t enthusiastic. He swore that he once gave me a DVD of Tim Minchin and hadn’t enjoyed the humour when we’d watched it together. I corrected him: ‘You’re wrong. You gave me a Bill Bailey DVD.’ He wisely didn’t argue further (!), but we were both equally convinced we were right.

Back home after the concert, I went to find evidence to support my case. As predicted, there was the Bill Bailey disk in the stash of DVDs, but also a copy of Tim Minchin’s Albert Hall performance dated 2011. However, it is still in the plastic wrap untouched and unwatched – probably as our DVD player had broken down around that time and we’d never replaced it.

Whereas I had forgotten the gift completely, my partner had misremembered and unknowingly fabricated a memory of having watched it together.

Think you can trust your own memories? Think again!

Julia Stone’s latest psychological suspense novel, The Expert Witness, tackles the theme of memory. The story delves into the mind and experiences of an expert in memory, as she tries to atone for an event in her past. The Expert Witness is available at all good booksellers. For more snippets on memory and psychology sign up to Julia’s readers club at www.juliastonewriter.com.

Reviews

The CBGB Conspiracy by Gabriel Rotello

When Detective Benny Cherin and his partner Moran are called to a fire at a bathhouse known as a gay hangout, Moran is happy to write it off as an accident. He’s the kind of cop who resents that it’s not okay any more to shake down the queers and let them bribe you to take it no further. Unlike his partner, Benny isn’t that kind of ‘old school’ cop. He’s the kind who actually cares that at least nine men have died in the tragedy, and he thinks it’s their business to find out if anyone’s responsible. The next time we join Benny, in this viewpoint-jumping mosaic of a novel, he’s at the scene of an OD, a guy sitting in his chair with a syringe hanging out of his arm. Grisly murders, gang killings, rapes… Benny is hardened to pretty much any crime scene, but he struggles with overdoses.

The stiff is Lucien Lowe, an attractive young poet on the downtown scene that centres around hip music venue CBGB. In life, Lucien had been pulled in opposing directions by his best friend Finn Burdon — drug-using fashion designer to hip yet-to-be famous musicians like Debbie Harry — and rich British girlfriend Julie Baroda. When there’s virtually no investigation into Lucien’s death Finn and Julie join Detective Benny Cherin to become an unlikely team of sleuths - all the more unlikely because Julie had initially very publicly blamed Finn for Lucien’s death.

It’s 1977 New York and Rotello’s punchy hard-boiled style, packed with nifty lines and observations, takes you right there. The sweeping narrative style, dipping into the different stories that build up to the whole, is perfect for constructing a view of this period and this place that combines verisimilitude with an urgent pace that hooks you from the start.

(review by Nick Guthrie)

New Releases by Other Hands

On the Trail by Kerry J Donovan — “When a car crash kills a woman and leaves her husband in hospital, Ryan Kaine answers the call. As Kaine digs deeper, he uncovers a web of lies and intimidation that leads straight to a violent crime family who will do anything to bury the truth.”

A Killer in Paradise by Tom Hindle — “The trip of their dreams is about to end in murder. When five old friends are invited to join Abigail Blythe at the launch of her luxury hotel in the Costa Rican rainforest, they jump at the chance to spend a week in paradise.”

The Water Lies by Amy Meyerson — “A harrowing journey where two mothers―one of a woman who drowned and the other of a toddler who might know what happened to her―are the only ones searching for the truth.”

First Do No Harm by SJ Rozan — “With River Valley Hospital in the midst of negotiations to avert a nurses’ strike, a wealthy benefactor is set to give a large donation to honor of the Chief of Emergency Medicine. But before the donation can be finalized, a member of the nurses’ negotiating committee is found murdered.”

More from Dead East: the Anglian Crime Authors Collective

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Contact Dead East: acacwriters@gmail.com

And finally…

Proofreading is important. This is the eighth issue of the Dead East newsletter and we’ve only just noticed that the standard opening line we’ve used reads “Welcome to the the Dead East newsletter…” Talk about embarrassing…

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Season’s greetings, and welcome to the the Dead East newsletter: news and exclusive content from crime authors based in East Anglia, in the UK.

In this issue:
Crime News from East Anglia - Events - Crime Fiction News - 2025: Recommendations - Looking Forward to 2026 - For Writers - Review Feature: Audiobooks - Reviews - New Releases by Other Hands - More from Dead East - And finally…

Crime News from East Anglia

Ten Book Deal for Heather Peck

Dead East author Heather Peck has signed a deal with Joffe Books for the whole of the DCI Geldard Norfolk Mysteries series. Through 2026 Joffe will be republishing all the Geldard series previously self-published by Heather, following on with new books. Book 10 is already with the proofreader and Book 11 is on the way!

Joffe Publishing Director, Kate Lyall Grant, says, “Heather Peck is a real find. Set amidst the stunning beauty of the Norfolk coastal landscape, I can’t wait to introduce her atmospheric, intricately-plotted, character-driven DCI Greg Geldard crime thrillers to a host of new readers.”

Heather says, “Set in the haunting Norfolk Broads, the DCI Greg Geldard Mysteries deliver gripping, morally complex crime thrillers where quiet landscapes hide dark secrets. I’m absolutely thrilled and excited to be working with Joffe Books to take this series forward.”

Hindsights

Straying a little from crime fiction, Dead East author Keith Brooke’s second collection of short stories written in collaboration with the late Eric Brown, Hindsights, was published in late November. Both authors’ work, even when it’s overtly science fiction or fantasy, often contains crime and mystery elements, and that’s true of the stories in this collection, particularly the near-future cyberpunk thriller, “Assets”. Individually, both authors have also written more conventional crime fiction, and Eric Brown is the author of nine novels in the Langham and Dupré crime series, set in the 1950s. Their collaborative SF-crime mash-up, Wormhole, was published in 2022 by Angry Robot.

Hindsights is published by PS Publishing.

Unwritten…

Over on the Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine blog, Trace Evidence, Dead East author Nick Guthrie writes about Enjoying the Books We’ll Never Write.

Girls on Tour

All four books to date in the Girls on Tour graphic novel series by Dead East author Charlie Flowers and Danielle Fray are now available on Amazon.

Events

Author Appearances

Dead East author Julia Stone has several appearances scheduled:

• Saturday 13th December, 2pm to 6pm: Christmas at the Courtyard, Pebmarsh CO9 2NU. Earlier in the year, the scene of Julia Stone’s launch party for her new book The Expert Witness, The Courtyard is now the venue for a Christmas celebration where Julia will be selling her books and book giftbags.

• Sunday 14th December, 1pm to 3pm: Sudbury Arts Centre, CO10 2EA. Julia Stone will be running the last in the year’s Writing for Wellbeing workshops. Places can be booked via Sudbury Arts.

• 10th February, 7pm to 9pm: ‘In conversation’ discussion at Coggeshall Library CO6 1UH.

• 15th February 2pm to 4pm: ‘Writing for Wellbeing’ at Brightlingsea Museum CO7 0DT.

• 8th March, 10am to 3pm: ‘Meet the Author Book Sale’ at The Institute, Kelvedon CO5 9AA.

And fellow Dead East author Michelle Kidd has some author talks and signings:

• Saturday 13th December, 2-4pm, Wattisfield Village Hall, author talk and signing.

• Tuesday 16th December, 2-4pm, Bay Tree Cafe, Bury St Edmunds, signing only.

• Thursday 18th December, 7-9.30pm, Moreton Hall Community Centre, author talk and signing.

CWA Lunch

The East Anglian chapter of the Crime Writers’ Association met for lunch in Bury St Edmunds in November. There was much discussion of promotion, approaches to writing, AI, traditional versus self-publishing, short versus long fiction, and much more.

Pictured, left to right: Michelle Kidd, Sue Saunders, Nick Rippington, Julia Stone, Sue Tort, Nick Guthrie, Iain Andrews and Peter Hallinan.

Behind Bars: Suffolk’s criminal past

Running until 17th January 2026, Behind Bars is an exhibition organised by Suffolk Archives exploring crime and punishment in Suffolk’s lawless past. It’s a small but well-packed display of fascinating documents and artefacts illustrating famous local crimes such as the Red Barn Murder, the Acton Dumpling Murderess, and the last public execution in Suffolk. Well worth a visit, even if it’s too late to attend the excellent panel event held in late November, when Laura Polley and David James led their audience through an overview of Suffolk’s history of crime and punishment, illustrated with fascinating case studies and statistics. One talk remains, the story of Margaret Catchpole, a devoted Suffolk serving girl transported to Australia for falling in love with the wrong man — according to local legend.

The talk on Margaret Catchpole is on Friday 9th January 2026, and costs £5 per person. Admission to the exhibition is free.

Crime Fiction News

Joffe Books have agreed terms to acquire the Severn House imprint from Canongate Books. Joffe are the UK’s largest independent fiction publisher, and are already a leading publisher of crime and mystery fiction, primarily in paperback and ebook formats, a position strengthened by their acquisition of The Book Folks imprint earlier this year. Severn House began life just over fifty years ago as a publisher of hardback fiction for libraries, developing and expanding over the years. Crime and mystery fiction have always been a core part of their catalogue, including the Crème de la Crime list, launched in 2011.

2025: Recommendations

Phil Johnson, who writes as PN Johnson (author of Killer in the Crowd and Run to the Blue):

In times of uncertainty, anxiety and insecurity we look to the past for comfort and hope; hope that things will get better, as they often did. The temperature of rhetoric, threat and hatred seems to have been rising in the past 12 months like the sea levels around us, but we’re an optimistic breed, and there’s a bright new year thundering towards us. But looking to the past is where my first, favourite screen offering of the year takes us.

Mix Tape is based on the book by Jane Sanderson. The series, available on BBC iPlayer, is an Irish/Australian co production. The series deliciously captures the angst and pain of first love and first loss in a brilliantly crafted, superbly uplifting journey of two teenagers growing up in Sheffield. After a painful launch into adulthood, these troubled teens part, only to meet again years later and, well… watch and see!

For me it was exquisite and gripping. Sad secrets, unpleasant events but a love that couldn’t be allowed to die. The acting, production and soundtrack were fantastic. This interpretation of the story was set in the 80’s, whereas the original was in the decade before, but I guess, locations, costumes and cars were easier to replicate by setting it later. It’s also reawakened an interest in some of the bands in the series soundtrack – I’m listening to one of the key songs from the show as I write this — The Cure, Lovesong.

Is it a crime story? Yes, but it’s also a romance which is, I guess, why I’m drawn to it, as I write along similar lines. Without romance, without love, who and what are we? Mix Tape took me back and left me glad to be alive, and glad to be in love.

Riot Women, BBC iPlayer. So having written a crime thriller based on a punk band in the early 80’s, how could I not be drawn to this! A group of older women, just like the members of the band in Killer in the Crowd — proving that age is no barrier to women on a mission! Brilliantly written, superbly acted, and a stand-out performance from Rosalie Craig as singer Kitty. Uncertain fingers stumbling around guitar strings, keys tentatively touched and drum sticks dancing on the skins. Watching them develop from unsure amateurs to confident performers, even with just a couple of tracks, takes many of us back to teenage bedrooms, first guitars and sore fingers, practising riffs from favourite songs. Riot Women offered tortured angst, perfect locations and characters to get behind and cheer for. The second series is a must and will no doubt grab the massive audience it deserves.

One more TV course to pile on your plate if you’re planning a feast of viewing this month! A Murder at the End of the World, now available on ITV X.

Emma Corrin leads and steals this American psychological thriller made for TV, with an amazing portrayal of the protagonist Darby Hart. The English actor was heralded for her portrayal of Diana, Princess of Wales, in the fourth season of the Netflix drama The Crown, for which she won a Golden Globe.

The 7-episode series is set in a futuristic hotel complex in Iceland, where amateur sleuth and hacker Darby, is invited to join a select few in a retreat with a reclusive tech billionaire. Mysterious deaths begin, and Darby Hart is soon facing the demons of her past, as well as the brooding dangers of the present. Her intimate back story is slowly revealed when one of the guests turns out to be her former lover, the one who got away; but this time don’t expect a romantic ending!

It certainly appealed to me, as a writer of fast moving action thrillers, and it stands out from the usual offering in this genre. A great cast, an almost sci fi feel, and all the elements of a tense, gripping thriller peppered with surprises.

—

Julia Stone, whose most recent novel is this year’s The Expert Witness:

Currently enjoying the writing voice of William Boyd in Armadillo. He really brings 1990s London to life in a layered, many charactered, story of property insurance fraud.

The Family Experiment by John Marrs. A speculative dystopian future story where people raise a computer-based child for a TV show. Whilst the book is probably not categorised under crime, a great deal of criminal activity (and murders) can be found in the tightly woven plot.

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? by Henry Farrell. Classic crime thriller.

—

Nick Guthrie, fast becoming a regular in the US’s top crime magazines:

I’ve been lucky enough to read some excellent crime novels for review this year. Ask me for a top three and it would probably be different every time you ask, but as I write this, my top three are:

• The Vanishing Place by Zoë Rankin. A novel packed with mystery, cleverly interweaving story strands set in the present day and twenty years earlier, building to a dark and atmospheric finale.

• Silent Bones by Val McDermid. I’ve read other novels by McDermid, but this is the first I’ve read from the Karen Pirie series. Jumping into book seven isn’t necessarily the best introduction, but an indicator of just how very good it is, is that I’ll be going back to the start of the series soon and I’ve already bought the first Pirie book as a Christmas present for someone else.

• The Inside Man by Trevor Wood. My crime book of the year. A wonderful balance is struck between suspenseful mystery and a masterful portrayal of character and setting. I loved it.

Straying outside the crime genre, two books I particularly enjoyed were:

• A History of Punk: Punk & Pistolry by Stephen Palmer. This took me right back to the 1970s, managing to both infuse me with those “Oh yes, I remember...” moments, and to fill in a lot of the detail that I either missed at the time or have forgotten in the meantime.

• My Family and Other Rock Stars by Tiffany Murray. Brilliant. The story of a young girl growing up in the countryside where her mother was caterer for practice and recording studios, so her playmates included chickens, dogs, and the likes of Freddie Mercury, Lemmy and Ozzy Osbourne.

In TV and film, it’s been a year of binges and rewatches for me. Highlights include:

• Unforgotten, for its clever inter-weaving of plot strands, and protagonists you can’t help rooting for. One quirk of binge-watching things like this is that you’re more likely to pick up on the writers’ mannerisms, in this case DCI Cassie Stuart’s fondness for the Columbo moment, pausing in a doorway, turning, smiling, and saying, “Oh... one more thing...” And the recurring scene where a person of interest glances out of a window, sees two complete strangers getting out of a car, and instantly knows they’re police. When Nicola Walker left after the fourth series, I wasn’t sure how things would go, but Sinéad Keenan’s DCI Jessie James is a refreshingly not like-for-like replacement, and I’m still loving this series.

• Recently, I rewatched Shetland, based on Ann Cleeves’ Jimmy Pérez novels, from the point when Ashley Jensen’s DI Ruth Calder took over the lead role. Another not like-for-like swap, and Jensen has stepped straight in and owned her role. The tenth series (the third for DI Calder) is currently airing on BBC and will be binged over the Christmas period.

• Other TV series that I’ve enjoyed this year include Department Q, The Bay, Ludwig, Karen Pirie (it took an episode or two to get to grips with Lauren Lyle’s performance, and then I realised she’s actually a powerhouse who just initially comes across as a little lightweight and out of her depth, because that’s the character; a very clever portrayal), Bad Sisters, Trigger Point, and more.

This year I’ve watched a lot of non-fiction crime TV of varying standards and degrees of sensationalism, and with similar titles — so many that they tend to blur. The Emergency 999 and 24 Hours in Police Custody series stand out, though. Slightly off-topic, but 24 Hours in A&E is another great window on people dealing with what are often the worst experiences of their life: full of human stories and trauma, it often sparks ideas and is great for getting perspective on our own lives.

—

Some TV recommendations from Michelle Kidd, author of the DI Jack MacIntosh novel series:

I watched many excellent crime and drama TV shows in 2025, so it is very difficult to pick out the highlights.

1. Slow Horses (Apple TV) — this is very possibly my favourite series of the year. Based on a set of novels by Mick Herron, Slow Horses is a spy thriller type drama, centring on a failed and disgraced MI5 unit who are squirrelled away in Slough House and given dull and meaningless jobs to keep them away from trouble. Under the control of Jackson Lamb, played by the brilliant Gary Oldman, we see the team stumble on cases and investigations that threaten national security. Thoroughly recommend!

2. Trigger Point (ITV) — this is a crime thriller series featuring Vicky McClure as a police bomb disposal expert. It gives a different side to the usual police dramas on TV, with the storyline revolving around bomb threats and the steps taken to neutralise such threats. It is fast paced and addictive viewing!

3. Blue Lights (BBC) — this is a crime thriller series set in Northern Ireland. It is more of a police procedural drama, and differs from the usual detective based dramas as it is from the perspective and viewpoint of the response officers on the street. Gritty and true to life, there are personal storyline threads that weave themselves through the series making it another one that grabs you and won’t let you go!

Looking Forward to 2026

Heather Peck: See the first story in this newsletter for what 2026 holds in store for Heather!

Nick Guthrie: I’m currently in the middle of a streak of publishing stories in the world’s top two English-language crime magazines. Back when I started, selling a story to either Alfred Hitchcock’s or Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazines was a bucket-list item, so I’m thrilled to have hit this streak: my story “From Grace” is in the Nov/Dec issue of Hitchcock’s, then I have “Where’s Pete?” in the Jan/Feb Ellery Queen’s, and then in Mar/Apr it’s back to Hitchcock’s for “It’s Complicated” . Accompanying these stories, I’ve written guest posts for the magazines’ blogs, exploring the background to the stories. I also have a story coming up in Black Cat Weekly. My main projects in 2026 are going to be working on my DI Bolam novel series, set in coastal Suffolk, and writing some more short fiction.

Phil Johnson, who writes as PN Johnson: Pushed by the enthusiasm of readers who have been asking me if there’s a sequel to Run to the Blue or any other stories coming out, I am pleased to say “Yes!” The sequel to Run to the Blue, which sees more murder mysteries, jeopardy and bad guys for TV reporter Tess and former rock star Jason to face in the beautiful Greek islands, should be available by April; and an exciting new crime thriller set in the world of television will hopefully be out in May. More later!

Julia Stone, as Author-in-Residence at Sudbury Arts Centre: I’m looking forward to working with readers and writers on a number of events. Dates will be confirmed in January but the schedule will include:

• A monthly writing group for first time novelists.

• Writing skills workshops for novelists.

• Writing for Wellbeing sessions.

• Two Anglian Authors Book Fairs — 31st May and September 27th 2026.

Michelle Kidd: I have three books tentatively scheduled for publication in 2026 from Joffe Books — all three are in my London based DI Jack MacIntosh crime series, and are due to be published in March, June and September. This will bring the series up to a nice, round ten books.

For Writers

Mslexia’s Independent Press Guide

The 5th edition of Mslexia’s Independent Press Guide is out now, with details of over 750 literary magazines and independent book publishers based in the UK and Republic of Ireland. The indie press sector changes fast, so this year’s directory includes 150 completely new ventures, all looking for fresh voices. All entries are classified by genre, with all the information you need to create a shortlist of editors to submit to.

Human Authored

From the Society of Authors: “In a world of generative AI, recognising human creativity is vital. This is why we’re developing a Human Authored mark to enable all types of writers, illustrators and literary translators to label their work as Human Authored. It is due to launch in 2026. Find out more at www.humanauthored.co.uk and sign up to receive an alert when the scheme goes live.

Work for Jericho Writers

Jericho Writers are looking for experienced writers and commissioning editors to tutor their novel-writing courses, or to work as specialists on their genre-specific creative writing courses. Full details on their website.

Review Feature: Audiobooks

I know audiobooks aren’t for everybody, but there is a significant market out there. Some folk like to listen to a story while doing something else — driving and ironing come to mind And then I have some fans who simply struggle with reading on the page, whether because of dyslexia or because English isn’t their first language. Audio is definitely for them. Investing in a good narrator for my DCI Geldard series led me to listen much more critically to audiobooks generally, and I discovered several things.

First, some very big name authors from big publishers use surprisingly bad narrators. I’m not referring to bland or inaccurate AI narration — that’s a whole other can of worms! I’m talking about people who can’t phrase a sentence correctly and wreck its meaning by pausing in bizarre, ungrammatical places. They’d better remain nameless, but if you’ve heard them too, you’ll know what I mean.

Second, a good narrator, by which I mean one who not only reads grammatically but can also act your book, giving different characters distinct and recognisable voices, lifts the story to a whole new level. Scott Fleming, who narrates the Geldard series, is a past master at this. And it’s not just the major characters who get distinctive voices. Listen to his rendition of the Yorkshire WI scene in Secret Places, and I guarantee you’ll think you’ve stumbled into an excerpt from Last of the Summer Wine.

This has led me to the point that I now search for new thriller audiobooks to listen to, not by author but by narrator. I started with JD Kirk’s DCI Logan series. They are, of course, nail-biting thrillers with engaging characters in traditional book form, but as audiobooks narrated by Angus King, they make for spellbinding listening. I would characterise Angus King as a narrator in the Scott Fleming mould, but in a range of mellifluous Scots accents. I enjoyed the JD Kirk books so much, that a search on Angus King led me to JM Dalgleish, whom I’d not read before. Then moving from his books based in Scotland led me to the ones based in York (an old stamping ground of mine) and another good narrator in the shape of Greg Patmore.

So, if you haven’t yet given audiobooks a try, don’t assume they’re just a lazy way of reading a book. With the best narrators, they’re an art form in their own right.

(feature by Heather Peck)

Reviews

None of This is True by Lisa Jewell

I listened to this book on audio and I would recommend listening to it, rather than reading it, as it does lend itself particularly well to audio as several sections are part of a podcast.

Celebrating her 45th birthday at her local pub, podcaster Alix Summer crosses paths with an unassuming woman called Josie Fair. Josie is also celebrating her 45th. The two women become unlikely acquaintances and Alix decides to feature Josie in her new podcast about inspiring women and women turning their lives around. But all is not what it seems and it appears that Josie is hiding a strange and dark secret. Josie worms her way into Alix’s life, and then into her home where things take a shockingly macabre turn.

Lisa Jewell is the queen of page-turning books, and this is no exception. Thoroughly recommend the audio version.

(review by Michelle Kidd)

Silent Bones by Val McDermid

Silent Bones opens ten years earlier at a swanky party attended by the glamorous celebs and politicos of Scotland’s elite, rallying support — and funds — for the Yes campaign in the nation’s Indy referendum. And because this is a DCI Karen Pirie Historic Cases Unit novel, you just know that all the layers of glam and glitz presage something far darker. Jump ten years or so and a storm-induced mudslide has revealed human remains… In the meantime the HCU gets a walk-in case, a man unsatisfied with how his brother’s apparently accidental death was handled five years ago, insisting it was murder. The connection between these strands still isn’t clear but with little visible effort other than the patient recounting of these events, the suspense and mystery are palpable from the off. The team continues to investigate both cases in parallel, uncovering the webs of people around a journalist with a history of exposing high-level scandal and a hotelier whose biggest vice seemed to be a love for reading. And what was it that happened on that night in 2014, in the lead-up to the Indy Ref, intriguingly sketched in the prelude? McDermid writes this kind of multi-layered, character-led mystery with a skill the rest of us can only dream of, and Silent Bones is no exception.

(review by Nick Guthrie)

For more excellent crime reviews, see Barry Forshaw’s Financial Times round-up of the year’s best crime and thrillers and Maxim Jakubowski’s To the Max reviews, both courtesy of Crime Time.

New Releases by Other Hands

A Grave Deception by Connie Berry — “Antiques expert Kate Hamilton dives into the past to solve a fourteenth-century mystery with disturbing similarities to a modern-day murder...”

Behind Her Smile by Caroline England — “Buried secrets are dangerous. Unearthing them might be deadly ... Laurie Dunn has returned to her childhood attic bedroom and her old nightmares have come rushing back.”

Fun City Heist by Michael Kardos — “A washed-up rockstar gets his old band back together for one final gig . . . and one daring robbery! A brilliantly funny, twisty heist caper from Pushcart Prize-winning author Michael Kardos.”

Watch Us Fall by Christina Kovac — “A thrilling account of the lies and delusions that lurk beneath cloistered groups of female friends and the sinister realities of celebrity...”

True Crime Stories of the South by Cathy Pickens — “The South boasts a rich storytelling tradition--and a rich history of criminal behavior. From Texas to the Virginias, each place has different stories to tell.”

One Little Mistake by Miranda Rijks — “Kate thought the spreadsheet was harmless—a private ranking of her four best friends detailing their various strengths and weaknesses. But when it leaks online and goes viral, her carefully curated life implodes.”

More from Dead East: the Anglian Crime Authors Collective

Facebook: Dead East: the Anglian Crime Authors Collective

Contact Dead East: acacwriters@gmail.com

And finally…

“Write about what you never want to know.” —Michael Connelly

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Welcome to the the Dead East newsletter: news and exclusive content from crime authors based in East Anglia, in the UK.

In this issue:
Book Launch: Skin of Their Teeth by Michelle Kidd - Dead East Events - Dead East News - Crime Fiction News - For Writers - Reviews - Back List Spotlight: Missing Boy by Michelle Kidd - More from Dead East - And finally…

Book Launch: Skin of Their Teeth (DI Nicki Hardcastle Book 4) by Michelle Kidd

In Book 4 of the DI Nicki Hardcastle series, Nicki and her team are confronted with two deaths in the town, occurring within days of each other, which on the face of it appear to be suicides. But it soon transpires that things are not quite what they seem and the deaths become murder investigations.

As the case progresses, the team discover a sadistic killer is working his way through a list of people he wants dead, and it is Nicki’s job to stop him before he reaches the last name… a name that is particularly close to home.

One broken body. Seven missing teeth. A killer who’s only just begun.

[And for those of you who would prefer to start at the beginning of the series, scroll down for an extract from the first DI Nicki Hardcastle book, Missing Boy.]

Extract

Crown Street, Bury St Edmunds
Wednesday 22 May 2019

Jacob Towers raised his head towards the sky. With the night as clear as it was, all he could see was a carpet of winking stars. It was truly a beautiful sight. And it was while standing some forty feet above the ground that he came to realise he didn’t know any of the stars’ names, not a single one.

Why don’t I know what they’re called? They’ve looked down on me every night of my forty years on this planet, and I don’t even know their names.

His brain careering into overdrive, Jacob felt a shudder travel the length of his spine. Blood thudded in his ears, while his stomach clenched with an ever-sickening squeeze.

Was tonight a good night to die?

It was a question he’d asked himself repeatedly that evening, and in the weeks leading up to it. Dragging in as deep a breath as his lungs could manage, he shuffled closer to the edge.

Shit.

How had it come to this?

Eyes still trained on the dark skies above, he started to wonder what would happen if he took that extra step and did the deed. Would his life flash before him like so many said it would? Jacob wasn’t sure he particularly relished that thought. Acidic bile bubbled as memory after memory tumbled through his head. He would welcome one last look at his beautiful wife, Denise, and one last chance to gaze at his children. But there were other, more troubling parts of his life that he didn’t wish to revisit, memories he’d done his utmost to forget, burying them deeper and deeper so he could convince himself they hadn’t happened at all.

But, of course, he couldn’t.

Memories, especially the ones you desperately wanted to hide, always managed to find their way out. Shit always floated to the top, wasn’t that the saying?

And the very reason Jacob was standing here tonight was down to one such memory.

He glanced down at his feet as the temptation to edge forward surged again; one more step and it would all be over. He wouldn’t have to deal with the guilt anymore. As he balanced on the edge, a curious thought entered his head.

I wish I’d worn better shoes.

He knew his underwear was clean, his clothes recently ironed — but his shoes were scuffed and tatty looking. Would that be how people remembered him? For having crappy shoes?

Dark humour twitched at his mouth. He could feel the dried blood encrusting his lips as his head pounded in rhythm with his rapidly increasing heart rate. His face throbbed. The pain had been partly tempered by the pills he’d swallowed, but it hadn’t gone away completely. Pain never did — not true pain, anyway.

And he should know — he’d spent the last fourteen years trying to do just that.

Wesley Barton.

It was inevitable that Jacob would think of the man as he teetered on the edge. Some people might call it karma, the past finally catching up with him and giving him his long-overdue punishment — and maybe that was exactly what this was. Retribution. Revenge. Call it what you will, he was being made to pay for his past.

Barton may not have deserved to die the way he had, but as Jacob stood on the brink of his own mortality, he knew that jumping off the top of a tall building in Bury St Edmunds wasn’t going to change that one bit.

[Skin of Their Teeth is published on 25th November 2025 by Joffe Books, and can be bought online at Amazon and other booksellers.]

Dead East Events

Michelle Kidd author talks and signings:

• Saturday 13th December, 2-4pm, Wattisfield Village Hall, author talk and signing.

• Thursday 18th December, 7-9.30pm, Moreton Hall Community Centre, author talk and signing.

• Tuesday 16th December, 2-4pm, Bay Tree Cafe, Bury St Edmunds, signing only.

Other author events featuring Dead East authors:

• Sunday 23rd November, 10am to 3pm – Anglian Authors Book Fair at Sudbury Arts. 18 East Anglian Authors will be taking part in this event, including Dead East authors Heather Peck, Gary Powell and Julia Stone. Join us for author talks, panel discussion and a chance to chat about all things books.

• Tuesday 25th November, noon to 3pm - Essex Authors book sale at Galleywood Heritage centre

• Sunday 7th December, 10am to 4pm – Christmas Fete with Essex Authors at Grays Inn Yard, Chelmsford

Dead East News

Dead East authors have been busy!

Gary Powell has a new website: https://gpowellcrimeauthor.com/
… as does Nick Guthrie: https://nickguthrie.co.uk/

In September we reported that Nick Guthrie has stories in back-to-back issues of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Since then we’ve learned that it’s actually going to be three back-to-back issues, with a story in the Nov/Dec issue of Hitchcock’s, one in the Jan/Feb Ellery Queen’s, and then another in the Mar/Apr Hitchcock’s. Subscriptions and single issues are available from alfredhitchcockmysterymagazine.com and elleryqueenmysterymagazine.com

Meanwhile, the first seven books in Michelle Kidd’s DI Jack MacIntosh series have been made available in a boxed set at the knockdown price of £1.99 (UK) / $2.99 (US): Amazon UK / Amazon USA.

Crime Fiction News and Events

Black Cat Weekly to close?

The 12th October issue of Black Cat Weekly, one of the best sources of quality short crime fiction (and other genres), included the following announcement from editor and publisher John Betancourt:

The Halloween 2026 issue will be the final Black Cat Weekly (at least, under my editorship). It’s been a very difficult decision, but I feel it’s the right one at the right time. Now that my wife has retired, I’m feeling a need to spend less time working and more time doing fun things with her. And truth be told, I want to have more time for my own writing. So, I’m beginning the countdown—only 54 more issues to go and we will call it a wrap...

Since then it has emerged that John is having discussions with interested parties about continuing the magazine beyond this cut-off date, so it might not be a wrap after all. Watch this space!

Crime Festivals

There’s just one UK crime festival that we’re aware of in the next month or so:

5th-6th December 2025 Newcastle Noir

For a more comprehensive list of crime festivals, of interest to both readers and writers, see the Links section of the Dead East website.

National Year of Reading 2026: Go All In!

The UK’s National Literacy Trust, in partnership with the Department for Education, has today unveiled “Go All In” as the brand identity for the National Year of Reading 2026, the initiative kick-started to address what’s described as the reading-for-pleasure crisis. Reported in The Bookseller, NLT chief executive Jonathan Douglas said: “‘Go All In’ captures exactly the kind of energy and optimism we need to transform how the nation sees reading. This is about making reading feel relevant, exciting and rewarding right now, not just in the future.”

Little Miss Marple and Mr Poirot

In a literary mash-up that, perhaps, might not have been predicted by many, four of Agatha Christie’s mysteries have been adapted for children… as Mr Men and Little Miss books. James Prichard, Agatha Christie’s great grandson, described it as a “dream collaboration”.

Author Interviews at Crime Fiction Lover

The Crime Fiction Lover website has some great recent interviews with Abir Mukherjee, Shane Peacock and Michael Bourne.

For Writers

ALCS

Not familiar with the work of the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society? Their mission is to make sure writers receive the money they’re entitled to, and most members receive one or two payments a year for secondary use rights to their work, primarily photocopying and other forms of redistribution and re-use. For example, in September 2025 they paid 31,486 members their share of £11,862,152. Lifetime membership costs only £36, and if you’re already a member of the Society of Authors that fee is waived. To find out more, visit the ALCS website, where there are also lots of useful resources relating to copyright, contracts, and more.

If you’re already a member of ALCS, voting has now opened for the two vacancies on the ALCS Board, as well as for advance voting on resolutions at the upcoming AGM. Check your inbox for an email from alcs.voting@cesvotes.com. You have until 17th November to cast your vote in the Board election, and 24th November to vote on the agenda items.

Finally, ALCS members have until 30th November to claim for eligible magazine and journal articles in order to receive payment in the March 2026 distribution. Log in to the ALCS members’ area to submit your claims.

Reviews

Kill for Me, Kill for You by Steve Cavanagh

A standalone thriller it really packs a punch. With more than a passing acquaintance with Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train, it opens with a powerful scene where one of the central characters, Amanda, is planning to exact her revenge on the man she believes is responsible for the deaths of her husband and daughter. As the book evolves, we learn more about Amanda and what happened to destroy her perfect family, and the depths she would go to to avenge their deaths.

By chance (or was it?) she meets Wendy, and they hatch a plot that seeks to satisfy them both — I’ll kill for you, if you kill for me…

The book is split into chapters told from each character’s perspective, and is a real page-turner. Highly recommended.

(review by Michelle Kidd)

Two Kinds of Stranger by Steve Cavanagh (audiobook)

This book really leant itself well to audio. Book 9 in the bestselling Eddie Flynn series, we learn about Elly Parker, a social media influencer who seemed to have the perfect life. When her new husband betrays her with her best friend, in front of millions of internet followers, her world implodes. As if that wasn’t enough, she then finds herself in the centre of a murder investigation, with herself as the prime suspect, and the only person she can turn to is trial lawyer Eddie Flynn. The book has a second plot line that runs alongside, and the two cleverly interweave as the book progresses. Another first class Eddie Flynn outing and not to be missed.

(review by Michelle Kidd)

For more excellent crime reviews, see Barry Forshaw’s Financial Times reviews and Maxim Jakubowski’s To the Max reviews, both courtesy of Crime Time.

Back List Spotlight

Missing Boy (DI Nicki Hardcastle Book 1) by Michelle Kidd

In the first DI Nicki Hardcastle crime book, Nicki is plunged into the search for six year old Lucas Jackson who disappears from a local winter fair. One minute he’s there, the next he’s gone.

The team are particularly concerned for his safety as there have been two unsolved child murders in a neighbouring county and the fear is that little Lucas might become victim number three.

The case is particularly poignant for Nicki because, when she was ten, she went to the fair with her family and was given the task of looking after her five-year-old brother, Dean. Distracted by the candyfloss stall, Nicki takes her eye off Dean for a minute or two, during which time he disappears and was never found.

The book has a lot of local flavour, with various popular landmarks and local businesses getting a mention!

A missing child. A killer on the loose. A past that refuses to die… and the past that Nicki thought buried forever is about to catch up with her.

Extract

Tuesday 30 October 2018
7.45 p.m.

Six-year-old Lucas Jackson could still taste the sickly sweetness of the toffee apple on his tongue beneath the sticky tape that stretched across his mouth. The hot dog from earlier was churning in his stomach.

Trying to move, he found his hands were bound tightly behind his back, and his ankles tied together with some sort of rope. All he could do was lie still and stare up at the ceiling. He was in a van — he knew that much. It was the same type of van the man from next door drove. He would often see it parked on the man’s driveway and Lucas wondered what was inside. Mummy had said he was a plumber — but Lucas didn’t really know what that was.

The bindings around his wrists were hurting, cutting into his flesh. Each time he tried to wriggle free, they bit into his skin, deeper and deeper with every turn. It felt like when Darren Porter from the year above at school would grab him in the playground, twisting his arm up behind his back, digging his fingernails in just for fun.

But this wasn’t fun.

Lucas felt himself shiver, and not just from the coldness inside the van. He wanted his mummy, and he wanted Amelia. Where were they? Why did they let that man take him?

The thought of the man sent another shudder coursing through Lucas’s tiny body and he felt the unmistakable sensation of warm urine seeping into his underwear.

Tears prickled at the corners of his eyes. “Mummy, where are you?”

* * *

Tuesday 30 October 2018
7.45 p.m.

Sophia ran from one side of the inflatable slide to the other, screaming Lucas’s name. Hot tears flooded her cheeks, stinging as they met the chilled air. Flinging the four-foot teddy bear to the ground, she yelled again.

“Lucas!” she screamed, pushing through a group of parents waiting by the pile of abandoned shoes. “Lucas!” Her words sounded dull and empty: no sooner had they escaped her mouth than they were swallowed up in the damp air, snuffed out like a spent candle.

“Amelia!” Sophia ran back towards her daughter who was standing, rooted to the spot, by Lucas’s discarded toffee apple.

Amelia’s face was as white as a sheet. “Mum? What’s happened to Lucas, Mum?” The strain in her voice was palpable, her bottom lip beginning to tremble.

Sophia grabbed hold of Amelia and pulled her close. “I don’t know, sweetheart. I don’t know.” Roughly wiping away her tears with the back of her hand, Sophia turned back towards the slide. “Let’s check again. He has to be here. Check the slide again.”

Both Sophia and Amelia scoured the slide once more for any sign of Lucas — for any sign of the excitable six-year-old in the Batman costume.

But there was none.

“Has anyone seen my son?” Sophia began to run, forcing herself between the waiting parents, randomly grabbing hold of arms and elbows. “My son? Lucas. He’s six? He’s six today.” She choked back fresh sobs as people parted to let her through the crowd, most eyeing her warily and stepping out of her way. “My son,” she yelled. “Can anybody help me?!”

Nobody seemed to hear.

The sounds of the Fayre were dim and distant, as if she were encased in her own bubble of cotton wool. Words were muffled and incoherent. She could no longer hear the screams of the children as they tumbled down the slide; the music from the nearby merry-go-round was faint and subdued. All she could hear was her own rapid breathing and the hammering of her heart.

Sophia’s eyes roamed the faces staring at her, each one swimming in and out of focus. “He’s got a Batman costume on. He’s six!” she screamed, making a lunge for a man, who wrenched his arm away from her and shrank back into the crowd. “He’s got blue eyes and fair hair. He’s called Lucas!” More wary faces eyed her suspiciously and turned away, dragging their children with them. “Why won’t anyone help me?” she sobbed. “Why won’t anyone help me?!”

Sophia felt her legs give way as she sank down on to the frost covered muddy grass below. “Please help me, please . . .”

The next thing Sophia felt was a pair of sturdy hands guiding her to her feet. She turned and collapsed into the arms of a police constable.

[Missing Boy was published on 3rd May 2023 by Joffe Books, and is available from all good booksellers.]

New Releases by Other Hands

Murder Most British by Helena Dixon — “Big Ben chiming in the distance, chilly walks along the river Thames, cocktails at the Ritz… and a government secretary dead?”

The Perfect Hosts by Heather Gudenkauf — “A couple’s gender reveal party turns deadly and everyone is a suspect... Is it a boy or a girl? They would die to know...”

The Red Scare Murders by Con Lehane — “July 1950: Mick Mulligan, a former Hollywood cartoonist whose life fell apart when he was blacklisted during a Communist witch hunt, is in need of a paying gig to make his child support payments. But maybe not this gig. First off, it’s impossible. Worse, it’s liable to get him killed. ”

Dead On by Bryan J Mason — “Belfast 1990. The Troubles. Harry Burnard and The Squad are back looking for new criminal cases to work. They are not allowed to work terrorist cases, only crime. But there is no crime. Only terrorism.”

The Burning Grounds by Abir Mukherjee — “In the Burning Ghats of Calcutta where the dead are laid to rest, a man is found murdered, his throat cut from ear to ear.”

The Man Next Door by EM Scott — “When retired police detective inspector Thomas Maitland finds his art-collector benefactor dead at the bottom of her garden, he feels death casting its net over him again.”

More from Dead East: the Anglian Crime Authors Collective

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Contact Dead East: acacwriters@gmail.com

And finally…

“There are only two pieces of advice any would-be writer needs. The first is Give up. Those who heed that don’t need to hear the second, which is Don’t give up.” —Mick Herron

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Welcome to the the Dead East newsletter: news and exclusive content from crime authors based in East Anglia, in the UK.

In this issue:
Crime News from East Anglia - Book Launch: Last Act by Heather Peck - New: What We Did on Our Holidays by Charlie Flowers and Danielle Fray - Dead East Events - Crime Fiction News and Events - For Writers - Reviews - New Releases by Other Hands - More from Dead East - And finally…

Crime News from East Anglia

Mind the Killer

Dead East author Gary Powell recently appeared on the America Tonight programme with Kate Delaney, with over 3 million listeners. Talking about his time with British Transport Police, and his novel Mind the Killer, the interview can be heard as an MP3 download or on SoundCloud.

Book Launch: Last Act by Heather Peck

Book 9 in the DCI Geldard series

Norfolk is on edge.

Five attacks. No connection. One detective who has to find it — before the killer strikes again.

Juggling a new job, a newborn, and an untested team, Greg already has more than enough to handle — and then a prison escape throws everything into confusion.

Someone out there is killing without pattern or mercy. And the closer Geldard gets to the truth, the more certain it becomes that they haven’t finished yet.

Heather Peck’s Norfolk Mystery No 9, Last Act, starts where Spinning into the Dark left off.

Heather says, ‘the concept for Last Act came from my long held love of amateur theatre. It’s a while since I last graced the boards (Cousin Hebe in HMS Pinafore, if you’re interested!) but I have so many happy, and hilarious, memories of the mishaps that can occur on the amateur stage. Some of my favourite anecdotes feature in the book, providing a little light relief to the serious sections — Greg’s investigation of an apparently unconnected string of lethal attacks. Fans of Greg and Chris may also be pleased to learn about major developments in their family and careers. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Extract from Last Act

19 July 2021: The curtain rises on The Garage, Norwich

Chalk lines on the rehearsal room floor marked the actors’ entrances and exits. A row of chairs indicated where unpainted scenery flats would be propped, and more chalk announced the edge of the stage. The first rehearsal of Kiss me Kate, as interpreted by the Northfolk Players, was underway.

Most of the cast, jubilant about rehearsing after the long period of lockdowns, were celebrating their reunions and the return of drama to their lives. Sitting in the centre of a row of chairs, as far away from the chalk stage as possible, Aubrey Sinclair was clutching his head in his hands.

‘No, no. Nooo,’ he howled at the lady, very much of a ‘certain age’, holding centre stage. ‘OK, I said come down to centre stage, but I also said, keep all gestures light and airy. Which bit of light and airy didn’t you understand? I said keep all gestures at shoulder level, so they’re dramatic and flamboyant. And what do I get? Someone who looks as though they’re shovelling coal! I really don’t feel you’re channelling this part dear. Come on darling. This is the opening scene. It sets the, the…’

‘Scene,’ suggested Hattie helpfully.

‘All right, yes, it sets the scene for the drama to come; and for an evening of hilarious entertainment for our audience. At the moment, the audience will be either anticipating hemlock shots all round or leaving in droves.’

Hattie marched to the chalk line with determined steps. Given that she weighed north of 120 kilos, the sound on the echoing wooden floor was impressive.

‘Look here Barry,’ she snapped. ‘Just give it to me straight. If you want louder or softer, say so. If you want me to come forward or move back, say that. I just don’t get all this high falutin’ poncing about. Tell me what you want in words of one syllable, and I’ll deliver it.’

‘Aubrey,’ corrected Barry/Aubrey. ‘I don’t use Barry now.’

‘Humph,’ said Hattie, and retired to the back of the stage before her impulse to bluntness overcame her again.

‘Let’s leave the opening scene for now,’ said Aubrey, knowing when he was beaten. ‘Where’re Lois and Bill? Let’s go through Why can’t you behave, and make sure Fred and Lilli are ready to block Wunderbar.

‘Ok Maggie,’ he said to the long-suffering pianist, who had seized the opportunity to open a packet of wine gums and shovel a few in. She could see this was going to be one of those evenings when a high blood sugar level would be a prerequisite. ‘From the top, and speed it up a bit.’

‘OK Aubrey,’ she spluttered through the sweets and set off at a merry gallop. But as the introduction ended, there was a marked lack of Lois.

‘Cut,’ shouted Aubrey, forgetting for a moment that he was producing an amateur theatrical company not a film. ‘Where the hell’s Lois?’

There was a scuffle, then a teenager dressed all in black emerged with some difficulty at the back of the stage. ‘Sorry Aubrey,’ she gasped. ‘I parked my bike in the alley, and then I couldn’t get up the back passage.’

There was a snort from Hattie, still hanging around stage left, and an outright guffaw from Bill, waiting his turn for some dialogue. Aubrey decided to rise above it.

‘No problem, Lois,’ he said to the girl. ‘Take it from the top Maggie, and Lois, remember what we said last week about singing to the audience, not to Bill. She’s a nightclub singer, remember?’

‘Oh, yes,’ said Lois. ‘Right. Ok.’

Maggie set off again, and this time Lois managed to take her cue. Aubrey began to relax and Bill got ready for his line. The Northfolk were up and running again. At least, until the next interruption.

‘Aubrey,’ shouted a voice from the room next door. ‘Aubrey, we’ve got a problem.’

Aubrey clutched his head again, Maggie came to a sudden stop and Lois, carolling ‘cos you’re all in the world I crave,’ in a throaty alto, trailed off in the sudden silence.

‘What now?’ demanded Aubrey.

‘More congestion in the back passage?’ asked Hattie, with another snort.

The voice came round the door, turning out to belong to the old chap cast as Pop, the Kiss me Kate doorman. ‘Fred’s been run over,’ he said with all the relish due to the bearer of bad tidings. ‘Just out here, in front of the theatre.’

There was a concerted dash for the door and Lois was left alone on stage, demanding ‘why can’t you behave?’

Last Act, DCI Greg Geldard Norfolk Mysteries Book 9, is published on 24th October. Available from www.heatherpeckauthor.com, Bittern Books, Amazon and other booksellers.

New: What We Did on Our Holidays by Charlie Flowers and Danielle Fray

The Red Sea. One of the most dangerous places on the planet.

The Romanian cruise ship the Esther is under siege from a Houthi splinter cell - lives are in peril as the Houthi steer on a suicide ride towards the NATO fleet. Who can surely save the day? Romanian problems require Romanian solutions, so... four high class escorts of course, the Girls On Tour, taking some vacation time on a yacht nearby. The girls on tour are back, and they’re hungry for action with lipgloss and automatic weapons!

High octane combat, aerial warfare, and ill-advised small arms drills abound in... WHAT WE DID ON OUR HOLIDAYS!

Available from Amazon and other booksellers.

Dead East Events

The Expert Witness Launch

On September 4th, Dead East author Julia Stone launched her new novel The Expert Witness at a well-attended gathering at The Strand hairdressers in Pebmarsh, Essex. Why such an unusual setting? Julia’s hairdresser Stacey is a big fan, and at every appointment asks when Julia is going to write A Murder at the Hairdressers. “Well, I can’t do that,” the author tells us, “but I did manage to find a way to get Stacey into my new book.” You’ll have to go to page 138 of The Expert Witness to find Stacey’s scene! Attendees at the launch included Dead East author Nick Guthrie, and authors Sarah Banham, Rosie Sandler and TG Trouper, along with a large number of fans and friends.

Literary Events in East Anglia

Here are a few events coming up in our region, featuring Dead East authors and many more:

• 12th October, 1pm to 2pm: Writing for Wellbeing at Sudbury Arts. A 2-hour workshop designed to explore writing exercises that are good for wellbeing.

• 17th October: Literary luncheon at Hintlesham Hall, to raise funds for dance lessons for children in special needs schools. Each table hosted by a Suffolk writer.

• 18th October: Essex Authors book sale at Kelvedon Labour Club 10 - 3pm. Eight Essex authors from a range of genres will be there to chat about all things books and sell their novels.

• Throughout November: SuNoWriMo ‘Sudbury Novel Writing Month’. If you’ve got an idea for a novel November is the time to start! If you want to take part in this free event get in touch to receive a briefing pack to help you get prepared fro a flying start in November.

Crime Fiction News and Events

Crime Festivals

There’s still time to sign up for these crime festivals, of interest to both readers and writers:

17th October 2025: Murder One, Ireland’s International Crime Writing Festival
17th-19th October 2025: Death in the Dales, Sedbergh
17th-19th October 2025: Bloodshed Crime Festival, Swindon

For a more comprehensive list of crime festivals, see the Links section of the Dead East website.

The Petrona Award

The shortlist for the 2025 Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year was announced on 18th September, featuring crime novels from Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The shortlist is:

• Samuel Bjørk – Dead Island tr. Charlotte Barslund (Norway)

• Pascal Engman – The Widows tr. Neil Smith (Sweden)

• Malin Persson Giolito – Deliver Me tr. Rachel Willson-Broyles (Sweden)

• Óskar Guðmundsson – The Dancer tr. Quentin Bates (Iceland)

• Aslak Nore – The Sea Cemetery tr. Deborah Dawkin (Norway)

• Satu Rämö – The Clues in the Fjord tr. Kristian London (Finland)

• Gunnar Staalesen – Pursued by Death tr. Don Bartlett (Norway)

The winner will be announced on 16th October.

Podcasts

Many of you will be familiar with the excellent Crime Time website, but did you know they also run a Crime Time FM podcast? Regular crime, thriller & mystery interviews, features and reviews from bestselling thriller writer Victoria Selman, Financial Times crime critic Barry Forshaw and more.

Sean Watkin, author of Black Water Rising, launched a new podcast, The Incident Room, on 1st September 2025. He describes it as “a podcast for crime readers and writers, packed with sharp insights, behind-the-scenes intel, and lively chats. Featuring well-known authors, industry insiders, and the occasional expert witness, all breaking down the craft of crime fiction. Curious, fun, and always on the case.”

At Murder Junction, crime writers Vaseem Khan and Abir Mukherjee “bring to life history’s most intriguing murders, true crime and fictional, in the company of the world’s best known crime writers. They make murder… fun.”

Mystery Hour sees Rabia Chaudry partner up with award-winning, long-running suspense magazines, Ellery Queen’s and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazines to narrate stories from recent issues, including Dead East author Nick Guthrie’s “Protection”.

As well as podcasts looking at crime fiction, true crime podcasts are hugely popular. Here are a few recommendations:

• Crime Junkie

• Minds of Madness

• Casefile

• Criminal

• Dark Down East

• The Deck

For Writers

Crime Writers’ Clinics — from the CWA

The Crime Writers’ Association is running a monthly set of writers’ clinics this autumn, each Zoom session hosted by an expert in their field. Sessions are free to CWA members and £15 per session to non-members. Remaining sessions are:

• What Are TV Agents Looking For? with Hannah Griffiths of Banijay UK

• How to Change Genres Successfully with Antony Johnston

• Award-Winning Best Practice with Jo Callaghan

• Write Your Detectives Right with Graham Bartlett

The Margery Allingham Short Mystery Competition

The Margery Allingham Short Mystery Competition invites writers to submit an unpublished short mystery (3,500 words or less) for a chance at £500 and, new for 2025, a free year’s membership in the CWA.

Writing Suspense with Vanessa Walters

Tuesday 25th November, 7:00pm-8:30pm (UK time) | Online | £30

From unexplained disappearances to murderers that leave no trace, crime and thriller books have a long history of keeping us on the edge of our seats, and turning those pages late into the night. But how do they get us so hooked?

Join author Vanessa Walters (The Lagos Wife), a master of the crime-thriller craft, for this online evening session dedicated to the art of writing suspense. She’ll delve into how you can use character, setting and atmosphere to create a world of ‘what ifs’. Vanessa will also discuss structure and detail, and offer advice on how you can build tension into every part of your story.

Plus Vanessa will discuss her own publication journey, and her experience of pivoting from YA writing to adult writing.

Cheshire Crime Festival Seeks Authors

From 6th-9th February 2026, the Curious Cat Bookshop will put on a three-day celebration of crime writing at the Frodsham Community Association. They’re inviting pitches for author participation, including three headline slots and a wide range of themed panels and fringe events. Interested? Contact James Caldwell at hello@thecuriouscatbookshop.co.uk.

Anthropic AI Settlement Update

From the Society of Authors:

In the ongoing action involving Anthropic (the US corporation that illegally downloaded authors’ works to train its AI models) a searchable list has been released, which allows authors to identify whether their works were used. The list includes many UK authors. If your work was used, you may be eligible to file a claim.

READ THE background to the case here: Authors Guild ‘What Authors Need To Know

The settlement website in the Bartz v Anthropic class action can be found here: www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com.

The website includes comprehensive information about the case and settlement, including a searchable tool to see if your books are included in the settlement and a claim form.

Reviews

The Vanishing Place by Zoë Rankin

The Vanishing Place opens with a prologue, both dark and intriguing, and immediately making this novel unputdownable. A young half-starved girl, Anya, staggers into a remote New Zealand shop and descends on a punnet of fresh strawberries and then a bottle of milk as if she hasn’t eaten or drunk anything in weeks. She looks just like a child who’d gone missing… but nearly twenty years earlier.

The main part of the novel consists of two narratives alternating, a little over twenty years apart. The storylines feature the same protagonist, Effie, and both are immediately engaging, but in very different ways. The first tells the story of young eight-year-old Effie in 2001, living in a remote part of New Zealand, her mother having an unexpected baby and things going rapidly downhill from there. In the second, Effie, a mountain rescue volunteer with relationship issues on the Scottish island of Skye in 2025, is stranded with a friend on a remote mountain as the weather descends. The strands come together when Effie is drawn back to New Zealand to investigate the puzzle of her own history, and that of the mystery child who has turned up in her old home town. Relentlessly compelling to the end, The Vanishing Place has been rightly acclaimed both as a fine debut novel in its own right and the launch of a writer to follow. But maybe not into those remote mountains.

(review by Nick Guthrie)

For more excellent crime reviews, see Barry Forshaw’s Financial Times reviews and Maxim Jakubowski’s To the Max reviews, both courtesy of Crime Time.

New Releases by Other Hands

Black Notice by Joy Ellis — “A Black Notice means one thing: unidentified human remains. And this time, five skeletons lie interlocked in the darkness of a wartime pillbox.”

Keep This For Me by Jennifer Fawcett — “One hot August night in 1993, a young couple go to a party. When their car breaks down, they are picked up by a truck driver who attacks the man and abducts the woman. She is never seen again. That woman was Fiona Green’s mother.”

Quantum of Menace by Vaseem Khan — “Filled with wit and verve, Vaseem Khan brings his vibrant and dynamic style to this spin-off cosy crime series set in the world of James Bond.”

Nine Dolls by Rupa Mahadevan — Winner of the Joffe Books Prize 2024. “A remote Scottish manor. Nine sacred dolls. One brutal murder. We find the doll shattered on the floor, its broken pieces scattered like a warning.”

Silent Bones by Val McDermid — “When torrential rain causes a landslide on a motorway in Scotland, it reveals a crime scene: someone hid a body in the tarmac eleven years before.”

The Mumbai School for Murder by Meeti Shroff-Shah — “Mystery novelist Radhi Zaveri has a new job, teaching spoiled kids at Mumbai’s prestigious North Star High School. But a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing...”

We Create Monsters by Martin Sterling — “When Jez Barty is found dead, Manchester’s Detective Inspector Kate Stiles is pulled into the toxic soap-opera world of Villiers Court, where egos clash, grudges fester, and fame is only ever skin-deep.”

The Stalker by Teri Terry — “When an anonymous note sends Lou rushing home, she discovers a betrayal that shatters her carefully built life.”

More from Dead East: the Anglian Crime Authors Collective

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Contact Dead East: acacwriters@gmail.com

And finally…

“Life is about working out who the bad guy is.” —Sophie Hannah

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Welcome to the the Dead East newsletter: news and exclusive content from crime authors based in East Anglia, in the UK.

In this issue:
Crime News from East Anglia - Dead East Fiction: “This Life” by Heather Peck - Crime Fiction News and Events - Dead East Novel Extract: The Expert Witness by Julia Stone - For Writers - Reviews - New Releases by Other Hands - More from Dead East - And finally…

Crime News from East Anglia

Dead East double

Dead East author Nick Guthrie has two short stories due to be published in top magazines this winter. “From Grace”, where a disgraced ex-senior-detective stumbles across a body at the scene of a years-old crime, set in Suffolk’s Rendlesham Forest, will be in the November/December issue of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. “Where’s Pete?”, due to be published in the January/February issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, is the story of an Essex band on the verge of breaking into London’s 1970s punk scene… until their guitarist disappears on the night of their biggest gig. Nick says: “Ever since I started making a serious effort to break into crime fiction, two of my bucket list items have been to get stories into Ellery Queen’s and Hitchcock’s, the two top English-language crime magazines. To have stories in successive issues is way beyond a dream come true.”

Ipswich Book Festival

Although not primarily a crime festival, the first Ipswich Book Festival features crime authors Tim Sullivan and Vaseem Khan, along with plenty more of interest to readers and writers. The festival runs from 3rd to 5th October 2025.

Dead East Fiction

This Life

by Heather Peck

I’m not sure I like this life. It started well enough. There was food in plenty and I was hungry for sure. I always am, at that stage. Always so far, anyway. I suppose there may be a time when I’m not hungry, but I haven’t found it yet.

There I was, munching away as usual, until I was ready to sleep. If I noticed anything had changed, it was that the food seemed – well – different. And I don’t just mean different the way nettles and cabbages are different. I mean it felt different. Firm in places, and runny in others. Smelt alright though, at least to the new me. Anyway, as I said, I went to sleep as normal and woke up transformed as normal. But that was where normality ended.

First, I had very little time to get myself airborne, and some of my siblings never made it at all. In the confusion of the moment, it was all I could do to get away. The food disappeared into a bag. Those of my brothers and sisters who weren’t in the air by then presumably perished, and only the few of us who were flying made it out of the door and into the garden.

I sat down in the sun on the garden fence for a breather and cleaned my legs and antennae. It was then I picked up a goodly scent from nearby and flew over to check it out.

There were lots of flowers in a border by the fence. I flew straight through them without stopping. That puzzled me later, when I stopped to think about it. Normally I would have been checking out the nectar, provided the blooms weren’t already occupied by a big fat bee. But that was my last life, I reminded myself. That was then. This was now. And I headed for the food smell.

It was on a table. It was warm, but not too warm, and smelt strongly of something very, very appetising. I walked over it to check it out, and I was just settling down to feed, when one of the people standing by the fence, watching the events next-door, turned round.

‘Ugh. Disgusting,’ was the cry. And the woman rushed over, flapping a napkin or some such. I just about got away before she hit me and went to sit on the fence again. Close enough to pick up the food scents. Far enough away to be safe.

I cleaned my feet through my mouth and realised I felt hurt. How ridiculous to feel hurt by one of them. Why should I care what they think? But it did hurt.

I was used to cries of ‘Oh Look,’ and ‘How lovely.’ Not cries of disgust. I paused in my cleaning and looked at myself, as well as I could. I still had six strong legs. I still had wings, just like before. My body was black, just like before. OK, it was shorter and fatter, and my wings were small and clear instead of big and covered in coloured patterns. But was I really so disgusting? Wasn’t there room in this world for someone who was useful instead of beautiful?

‘Feeding on flowers is all very well,’ I said to myself. ‘But they’d be knee deep in food if we didn’t clear it up.’

I turned round on the fence and watched what they were watching. The food in the bag was being put into a dark vehicle. Soon it was driven away, and they all turned back to their meal. The one I’d tried to share, until they flapped at me.

‘Just think, he’d been lying there for at least a day, so I heard,’ said one, picking up the food I’d started on.

‘That’s mine,’ I said to myself. ‘Mine.’ But I stayed where I was for the moment.

‘Flies all over him,’ said another with a shudder. ‘I overheard the doctor say they’d got into the body through the stab wounds.’

‘Ugh, do shut up,’ said the first. ‘I don’t want to hear that while I’m eating.’ And he took a big bite just where I’d tried to graze.

Hope it chokes you, I thought. And flew off on my stumpy clear wings to look for another body to clear up.

Copyright: Heather Peck 2025

Heather Peck is the multi award-winning author of the DCI Geldard Norfolk Mysteries and winner of the 2024 Page Turner Award for best crime novel, Milestones. Her latest novel, Spinning into the Dark, was published in June 2025 and is available from Amazon and all other good booksellers.

Crime Fiction News and Events

Shamus Award

The Private Eye Writers of America have announced the 2025 Shamus Award Winners:

Best Original Hardback PI Novel: Trouble in Queenstown by Delia Pitts
Best Original Paperback PI Novel: Call of the Void by JT Siemens
Best First PI Novel: Twice the Trouble by Ash Clifton
Best PI Short Story: “Deadhead” by Tom Andes (Issue 10.1: Cowboy Jamboree Magazine)
The Eye Lifetime Achievement Award: Christine Matthews

Southwold Events

16th October: Ann Cleeves, author of Vera, Shetland and more is talking at the Southwold Arts Centre in the evening, after signing books earlier in the day at Red Lion Books, Colchester
17th October: Ann Cleeves is signing books at Waterstones in Bury St Edmunds
9th November: Sophie Hannah: “Poirot writer & Queen of the thriller” is talking at the Southwold Literary Festival

Crime Festivals

Autumn is a good time for crime fiction festivals around the UK and Ireland, of interest to both readers and writers:

12th-14th September: 2025 Bloody Scotland, Stirling
4th October 2025: Chiltern Kills
4th October 2025: Moffatt Crime Fest
17th October 2025: Murder One, Ireland's International Crime Writing Festival
17th-19th October 2025: Death in the Dales, Sedbergh
17th-19th October 2025: Bloodshed Crime Festival, Swindon

For a more comprehensive list of crime festivals, see the Links section of the Dead East website.

Dead East Novel Extract

The Expert Witness

by Julia Stone

1988 – one afternoon in June

It’s the hiccupping bawling of the child that makes her stop outside her friend’s bedsit, her hand raised ready to knock to announce her visit. Not a grizzly, whiny, woe-is-me cry that you might expect on a clammy uncomfortable day like today, but one of those desperate crying sessions that sounds as if it’s been going on for some time, unanswered.

She reverses her steps to the bay window to peer through a crack in the curtains — closed to keep the sun out — hoping to see what’s going on. If the baby’s kicking off and her friend’s in a foul mood she’ll just get the bus back to her own rooms at the college. She’s got an essay she could finish. Maybe stop and buy an ice cream from the corner shop on the way. Pop into the library to see if they’ve got that book she reserved.

The room is gloomy, the only sources of light a lava lamp and the muted black and white TV. Her friend is lying on the floor, her eyes closed, although she can’t possibly be asleep with all the racket the child is making. The bottom half of her body is out of sight behind the threadbare sofa, but the arm that’s in view is bent above her head, the hand resting on the carpet palm up. The finger tips are dirty, as if dipped in mud and red paint and there’s more smeared on her forehead.

Blood. It’s blood.

There’s a horizontal slash of red below her eye and her cheekbone looks misshapen, swollen as if a wasp sting has reacted badly.

The child is next to her, his podgy belly spilling over his sagging nappy. He’s plucking at the fabric of his mum’s t-shirt trying to get her attention.

‘There’s nothing here!’ A male voice she doesn’t recognise. Loud, frustrated. ‘There’s nothing here!’

Spying from outside the room she shuffles slightly, adjusting her view through the curtains until she can see the source of the words. There’s a man squatting on the floor with his back towards her. Saucepans, dried pasta, tinned baked beans, all heaped around his feet where he has pulled out the contents of the kitchen cupboards. A rice packet has spilt its contents over the lino and she is momentarily distracted by the mess, appalled by the waste, her Mother’s voice in her head. A saucepan lid rolls across the floor before hitting something out of sight with a clatter and she freezes as the man stands, kicking the discarded objects to one side. He pulls out the drawers one by one: cutlery, a bottle opener, rubber bands, coins, torn scraps of paper — everything tumbling to the floor as he turns each one over to inspect the underside before discarding it to join the pile on the floor.

She doesn’t understand what is going on, but her first instinct is to run away. While she wouldn’t admit it to anyone else, she knows she’s a coward; the type who crosses the street to avoid a group of teenagers just in case something kicks off; the person who looks the other way when an argument starts on the bus. The one who keeps their head down to avoid trouble. All three of the wise monkeys rolled into one.

Her friend groans. Mumbles something that sounds like ‘for fuck’s sake’. She’s conscious at least.

The man comes into full view…

The Expert Witness is a psychological suspense novel published on 14th July 2025, and is available from Amazon and all other good booksellers. A psychologist with expertise in memory has her own memory challenged and breaks the laws she previously endorsed to atone for this forgotten wrong.

For Writers

Connections Clearinghouse for Thriller & Mystery Authors

As well as being a handy listing of genre authors active on Substack, the Connections Clearinghouse for Thriller & Mystery Authors sends a weekly-ish post with connection opportunities for authors working in these genres. It’s described as like a classified ads for Directory members, a structured way for us to let each other know of opportunities to connect, co-promote, offer or request guest posts and interviews, and much more.

Anthropic AI Settlement

The first major class action against “AI” companies’ use of pirated books has recently been settled* in the US, and this is now potentially open to authors beyond the US.

*As of a few days ago, the judge has decided it’s not quite settled yet, as the details are all still too vague. The general advice we’ve seen is to follow the steps below to ensure that you at least have a chance of being part of whatever is finally agreed…

Here’s some of the text from the lawyers’ website:
“Bartz v. Anthropic PBC is a class action lawsuit under the Copyright Act brought by authors on behalf of copyright holders against Anthropic PBC, an AI company. The Class of copyright holders — consisting of authors and publishers – claims that Anthropic took books from pirate websites Library Genesis (“LibGen”) and Pirate Library Mirror (“PiLiMi”) without authorization.”

If you think any of your books might be affected, here's what it’s suggested that you do:

Get a list of your possibly pirated titles from this database:
https://www.theatlantic.com/.../search-libgen.../682094/

List your details and titles at the now-revised online form to sign up as part of the class in the class action suit:
https://www.lieffcabraser.com/anthropic-author-contact/

Note: there's no guarantee your titles will have jumped through enough hoops to qualify, but it’s worth trying; and it’s now open to non-US authors.

Competitions

The Exeter Novel Prize is open to entries until January 1st 2026. The competition is open to all authors who are without representation by a literary agent at the closing date, whether or not they have previously been published. To enter, read the rules and then submit the first ten thousand words, including a synopsis of no more than 500 words, of a novel that has not been accepted for publication by a traditional publishing house.

Norwich’s National Centre for Writing’s Escalator programme offers successful applicants one-to-one mentoring and other development opportunities. The scheme is open to under-represented writers of fiction at the beginning of their careers, who are based in the East of England (Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk). This year they particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and ethnically diverse writers and LGBTQI+ writers, offering at least 50% of places to writers who identify as such.

IngramSpark have a long list of writing contests and book awards, particularly of interest to indie writers.

Sudbury Novel Writing Month

Got a novel idea but don’t know where to start? This November Sudbury Arts Centre Author-in-Residence, crime author Julia Stone, will guide and motivate you throughout the month as you work toward completing a 60,000-word rough draft. Email info@sudburysartscentre.com for your info pack.

The Science of Eyewitness Memory

The July issue of Trends in Cognitive Sciences has an interesting paper on the cognitive science of eyewitness memory: memory can be contaminated, exactly as other types of forensic evidence can be, but under the right conditions it can still be both vital and reliable.

Tough Ending

As of September 2025, Tough magazine, for eight years a great market for, and source for reading, short crime fiction, has gone on indefinite hiatus.

Reviews

A Cold Heart by Doug Sinclair

A desperate mum with no money and on the edge of breakdown, struggling to hold it together; desperate to do whatever it takes to spare her adolescent daughter from yet more bullying at school, she makes a difficult choice — and from that one bad decision, her world starts to collapse around her...

Two coppers whose banter regularly crosses over into tensions, bounces around their dark back stories, and always just about comes back together because their bond is so strong... Each faces tough choices, often on the spur of the moment when they both acknowledge that they have particularly short fuses, and those choices, too, will have repercussions not only for them, but for those around them.

Sinclair does a fantastic job of establishing these characters, their relationships and dilemmas, in a very short space, and then proceeds to pull the strands together, tangle them, and deepen them, in a kind-of* police procedural thriller that plunges you headlong into the dark depths of Scotland's criminal hinterland (*kind-of, because it's not really about the police or the procedures at its core — as Joseph Wambaugh once said, it's not about how the police work on a crime, it's about how the crime works on the police).

(review by Nick Guthrie)

New Releases by Other Hands

A Calculated Murder by Jo Cunningham — “Una McMurray is puzzled. Surely, statistically, the international cat show scene shouldn’t be this… lethal?”

Death in the Aviary by Victoria Dowd, the first in the new series The Blood Chronicles — “New Year’s Eve 1928 — In the grand residence of Ravenswick Abbey, isolated in the wilds of Dartmoor, nine members of the household step into an ornate lift. The power fails. The lift stops. In the darkness, a single shot is fired.”

Clown Town by Mick Herron (Slough House Thriller 9) — “The new thriller in the bestselling series that inspired the hit show Slow Horses... With time to kill, and with his grandfather — a legendary former spy — long dead, River Cartwright investigates the secrets of the old man's library, and a mysteriously missing book.”

The Silent Ones by Anna McPartlin — “One cold January morning in 1980, on a beach in Kerry, the body of a newborn baby is found in its most sheltered sand dune. Local Garda Mary Shea is first on the scene.”

The Nothing Month by Cat Miller — “Thirty days off-grid. No contact with the outside world. No way to call for help.”

Dutch Treats: Crime Fiction by Dutch and Flemish Authors edited by Josh Pachter — “Twenty-one stories of mischief, betrayal, and murder from some of the most celebrated authors in the Netherlands and Flanders... fourteen of which first appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.”

Murder in Northumbria by Martyn Taylor — “Barry Dance is found dead in his remote farmhouse, a gun in his right hand. But former mob leader ‘The Dancer’ didn’t shoot himself — this was an execution.”

More from Dead East: the Anglian Crime Authors Collective

Facebook: Dead East: the Anglian Crime Authors Collective

Contact Dead East: acacwriters@gmail.com

And finally…

“Crime fiction confirms our belief, despite some evidence to the contrary, that we live in a rational, comprehensible, and moral universe.” —PD James

Subscribe now

Welcome to the the Dead East newsletter: news and exclusive content from crime authors based in East Anglia, in the UK.

In this issue:
Crime News from East Anglia - Dead East Events - Crime Fiction News - New Audio Fiction: Spinning into the Dark by Heather Peck - Dead East Features: Julia Stone on Aphantasia, and Phil Johnson on Crime and Passion - For Writers - Reviews - Back List Spotlight: Wormhole by Keith Brooke & Eric Brown - New Releases by Other Hands - More from Dead East - And finally…

Crime News from East Anglia

Dead East Authors in Red Herrings

Two members of Dead East have features in the Crime Writers’ Association’s Red Herrings magazine. In the October issue, Julia Stone writes about aphantasia (for more on this, see below), and in the August issue Nick Guthrie has written about how a group of East Anglian crime authors got together to create a new collective: Dead East, the Anglian Crime Authors Collective.

Meet the Author

A number of local authors, several of whom specialise in crime fiction, are taking part in a Meet The Author book sale event at Kelvedon Labour Club on Saturday 13th September, 10am to 3pm.

Anglian Authors Book Fair

The Anglian Authors Book Fair, featuring readings, panels and opportunities to meet the authors, takes place at Sudbury Arts Centre on Sunday 23rd November, 10am to 3pm. Authors interested in taking part should complete the expression of interest form.

Dead East Events

Gary Powell talk and signing

Dead East member Gary Powell is giving a talk and book signing at Chelmsford Central Library on 21st August. Gary is a former London detective who retired in 2011 and began writing true crime books in 2012. His first crime novel Mind the Killer, set on the London Underground, is out now. The event will start at 5pm for informal chats and refreshments, with the author talk running from 5.30pm to 6.30pm. Tickets are £3 each via the library website.

Nick Guthrie and Julia Stone interviewed

Dead East member Nick Guthrie, one of the compilers of this newsletter, is interviewed over at the excellent Cold Caller, talking about his convoluted journey through the publishing industry, favourite books, influences, and Dead East itself.

Meanwhile, over on YouTube, TG Trouper interviews another Dead East member, Julia Stone, about her new novel Expert Witness.

Local Authors Book Fair

Stowmarket Foreword Festival 2025 – Saturday 9th August

“I am your number one fan!”

Misery is one of my all-time favourite films, based on the book of the same name by Stephen King. For those that have seen it, I’m sure you will also remember this iconic line delivered by Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates) as she tended to the ill-disposed Paul Sheldon (James Caan).

At the Foreword Festival on Saturday 9th August, I got to meet a fan of my books — someone who had travelled to the Festival just to tell me that they have read all my books (and loved them, thankfully!). And they didn’t need to strap me to the chair or break my ankles to say it! It was really lovely to meet a true book fan, making all the hard graft creating these plots and characters all the more worthwhile.

It was a great honour and pleasure to be involved with the Book Fair — there were in the region of twenty authors set up with their stalls inside St Peter’s Hall, and we were kept well fed and hydrated by tea, coffee and a selection of homemade cakes. And we all know how writers love a good cuppa and a slice of cake…

There was a huge range of books on offer — from crime fiction (me!), to romance, fantasy, historical fiction, local folk tales and non-fiction, too. Those that came to browse the stalls were real book fans and welcomed a chance to learn about the books, the writing process and even buy a few signed copies to take home.

The festival was really well organised, with a storytelling trail set around the town which publicised the book fair and really brought in the crowds afterwards.

Already looking forward to next year!

—Michelle Kidd

Crime Fiction News

2026 Dagger Nominations Now Open

Authors, agents, and publishers are invited to submit their books to the Crime Writers’ Association’s most prestigious awards, including the two new Daggers, the Twisted Dagger for psychological thrillers and the Whodunnit Dagger for Traditional, Cosy, and Golden Age Inspired mysteries. For more information visit: https://thecwa.co.uk/awards-and-competitions/the-daggers/

Noir at The Bar

Noir at The Bar is a series of events where crime writers get together to read from their work. The latest UK event takes place at the National Centre for the Written Word, South Shields, on 19th September.

New Audio Fiction: Spinning into the Dark by Heather Peck

A note from Heather Peck:

Thanks to my amazing narrator, Scott Fleming, completing his recording 2 weeks early, the Audible version of Spinning into the Dark will be available from mid-August.

I am offering a free Audible link to the recording, in exchange for a review on Audible/Amazon, to the first three subscribers who contact me at info@heatherpeckauthor.com

My apologies, but this offer is limited to UK only, as that's where my free links work!

About the book

With his partner Chris just home from hospital, a baby on the way and a ten-year-old murder to solve, Greg really doesn't need any distractions. But when cyclists start vanishing on the county’s empty roads, he can’t ignore the pattern. Are the disappearances tragic accidents, or is something more sinister happening?

Audiobook Extract

Spinning into the Dark by Heather Peck is available from Amazon and all other good booksellers.

Dead East Feature

What a difference an ‘A’ makes — Aphantasia versus Phantasia (by Julia Stone)

If my partner went missing, I could give a vague description to the search party, but it would be based on things I’ve observed about him and stored in my memory as words: I can’t see him in my mind’s eye. ‘Six foot, pale-skinned and bald’ may not hack it.

I have always known I can’t visualise faces — even those of my family members. (This is not the same as prosopagnosia, which is an inability to recognise people even when they are in front of you.) However, I hadn’t realised how much I think in words, rather than pictures or sounds. It was only a few years ago I discovered Aphantasia as a concept. Phantasia refers to imagination, the capacity of the brain to form images or representation of things that are not present or real. Aphantasia is defined as an inability to visualise, ‘image-free thinking’. It affects 2-3% of people and — like the proverbial goldfish asking ‘what’s water?’ — most of us assume it’s ‘normal’.

At a personal level this effects my experience of personal memories (episodic memory in psychology). Where you may visualise a past event, even feel the emotions, hear the voices, recall smells, I do not. My memories are word based and consequently lack visual details and texture: usually more like a side bar in a newspaper, the bare facts summarised, rather than a six page illustrated article in a Sunday magazine.

So, what impact does this have on my writing?

Like most writers, I usually start a novel with a catalyst, something that sparks a thought which I follow down various paths of ‘what if…?’ ‘why would…?’. But I don’t ‘see’ it as the story evolves: the process is all in words rather than imagery. I don’t (can’t) visualise my characters and — to be honest — unless it’s important to the plot, it doesn’t matter to me what they look like, what their home is like, how they dress.

I was completely shocked when my partner told me he ‘sees’ the characters and settings when he’s reading. To me as an aphantasic reader, long passages of description in a novel are something to skim over. It’s not useful information to me — I can’t visualise it, won’t be able to hold it in my head and, to be honest, only care what the environment or people look like when it’s important to the story. But I know the majority of readers aren’t like me and these things are part of their experience of the novel. So, I have to find a way of bringing my characters to life for others. But, how do aphantasic authors deal with description in their work? How do you tell readers what a character looks like when you can’t visualise them yourself?

This made me think about my writing process and the workarounds I use to help me to paint verbal pictures of things I don’t see. Other aphantasic writers will have their own approaches, but I start with a vague idea of the protagonist: their approximate age, colouring, build. I may identify an actor to represent them — the lead character in my second novel, The Accident, was Joanna Scanlan. Otherwise, I carry out an online image search, looking through the options until I spot him or her — ‘That’s them!’ A copy of the photo is then stuck into my notebook and now I have something to describe. As the story develops I add imagery of their home, clothes, friends and anything else I need to bring them to life for readers — and myself.

As a psychologist and psychotherapist, I’m intrigued by personal memory: the things we recall or forget; the misremembered in contrast to the verifiable; the things we are certain are true, versus the memories that are no more than a vague sense of something. In line with ‘write what you know’, the lead character in my third novel, The Expert Witness, is a memory expert and a psychologist with aphantasia. As you’d imagine, it was relatively easy for me to put her experience of the world into words!

The Expert Witness, focuses on the field of memory in witness testimony. My protagonist, Dr Amanda Dunstan, is an academic psychologist who studies the errors and biases in recall. When she takes early retirement she writes a book on the topic and it quickly gains publicity. A friend from her past reappears, bringing a memory of an incident with life-changing consequence; an event Amanda had elected to forget. With no detailed recall of the event, she is shocked by her friend’s story. Wanting to atone for her past behaviour, Amanda vows to offer support and to be the friend she should have been all those years ago. But in doing so, she gets sucked into a world far removed from her middle-class experience, ultimately ends up breaking the laws she had previously upheld. But as an aphantasic, whose memory should she trust?

If you want to know more about aphantasia you can find information and research at www.aphantasia.com

Julia Stone is a writer of psychological suspense and her latest novel, The Expert Witness, came out in July 2025. She has a background in business psychology and is a registered psychotherapist and coaching psychologist. The Expert Witness can be bought at Amazon and all other good booksellers.

Dead East Feature

Crime and passion?
Why writing love scenes can be the hardest (by Phil Johnson)

Every writer is different, and each has their own creative reasons for writing love and sex scenes as they do, and sex scenes clearly have different roles in different crime novels. This came up recently when I was invited to run a creative writing course at a Norfolk library. One of the questions that was raised by the enthusiastic and interested audience, was How do you write love or sex scenes? My answer was: very carefully.

I was once at a seminar with a very successful steamy romance writer who said whenever she wrote a new book, her husband would read it and then ask: Who did you do that with?… because it wasn’t me! She said she told him she just had a very good imagination. All writers need that, but it’s how we use it that has the impact.

My female protagonists, while trying to stay ahead of criminals, are both involved in love scenes. Now, writing first person female when I am male is obviously fraught with pitfalls. Not least, writing a love scene from a woman’s point of view when I can never experience how a woman feels. Luckily, I have a brilliant female editor and happily, no one has questioned the believability of these scenes. This I hope, is partly due to my letting the reader use their imagination.

I prefer writing what I call TV sex, where the camera follows a couple, who we see embracing and showing affection, but then leaves them to enjoy their moment alone. Viewing the place they are, from the outside – seeing closed curtains or, a using distant shot of a boat with the camera tilting up to the sky. For me, in my books, love, tenderness and affection are more important than sex itself. These scenes also give light and shade in fast action crime thrillers where life often hangs by a thread.

My protagonists face desperate and dangerous criminals, but without giving anything away, to quote my friend the singer/songwriter Steve Harley (Cockney Rebel), who’s sadly no longer with us, they’d probably both say at the end — “I'm alive, all right. I'm (now) just a victim of love.”

I’ll leave the last words to Tess Anderson, my TV reporter in the Greek islands on the run from killers and spies in Run to the Blue by PN Johnson.

“We nearly died today. Kiss me, like it’s our last ever kiss… even if we never touch again, we’ll always have this moment …”

Writing as PN Johnson, Phil’s novels Killer in the Crowd and Run to the Blue are published by Burning Chair Publishing, London, and are available by order from any bookshop or from Amazon in paperback or on Kindle.

For Writers

Competitions and Awards

The Historical Novel Society First Chapters competition is open to unpublished and published authors anywhere in the world, writing in English; every entrant can receive feedback — whether you’re a member or not. The top prize is £1,000, with £500 and conference tickets for each of the ten category winners. Submit the first 3,000 words and a synopsis by the deadline of 17th November; entry fee £25 for members, £35 for non-members.

The Nero New Writers Prize for Unpublished Writers, in association with Brunel University, is open to original, unpublished writing of up to 5,000 words, either fiction or non-fiction. The winner will receive £3,000, a scholarship for an MA in Creative Writing at Brunel, and an introduction to a literary agent. Each runner-up will receive £1,000 and a mentorship session with a member of Brunel’s Creative Writing faculty. Submissions close at 5pm BST on 29th August 2025.

Deadlines for other two competitions are drawing close: the Mslexia Novel Competition open to women who are not yet published as novelists, 22nd September; the Joffe Books Prize for crime writers from Black, Asian, Indigenous, and minority ethnic backgrounds, deadline 30th September.

Writing for Wellbeing

Sudbury Arts Centre is running a series of writing workshops designed to support wellbeing. Subjects explored include: using writing to help us understand and manage our emotions; clarifying our personal goals and what gets in the way; and identifying small day-today steps we can take to improve our well-being. These take place at 1pm to 3pm on Sundays: 14th September, 12th October and 14th December. Contact the Sudbury Arts Centre for more information.

Mercury Script Submissions Window

The August submission window for new play scripts is open at Colchester's Mercury Theatre. The Mercury is dedicated to finding, supporting, and producing the next generation of playwrights based in the East of England. They’d like to see the first 30 pages, and a short email letting them know where you are based, your experience so far as a writer and if you have any access needs. Deadline August 31st.

Reviews

The Inside Man by Trevor Wood

This, the second book in the DCI Jack Parker series, is a complex book in the best possible way. Within a few pages, we’re in the thick of three strong plotlines, or perhaps two and a strong context. One is the story of a lone mother, subject to some kind of stalking which is being largely ignored by the police, despite her calls for help. The second is a continuation from the first Jack Parker novel, his off-the-book investigation into the crash that killed his former detective sergeant — a crash he’s convinced was no accident.

The third element, a plotline or perhaps just the context for the other two stories, is Parker's personal struggle against early onset dementia, which was identified in scans following the crash and is now being tackled in the trial of an experimental drug which, itself, brings risks and the possibility of significant side effects. Just to complicate things further, nobody at work knows about Parker’s condition. As the end of the novel approaches, it becomes clear that there’s even more going on, with motifs of illness and mental decline, suicide, and deceit in relationships playing out among the characters and their lives in clever and subtle ways.

All of this is a lot to juggle, and not only does Trevor Wood rise to the challenge, he twists and deepens things relentlessly to create a moving — and frequently dark — psychological thriller that stands with the best.

(review by Nick Guthrie)

Back List Spotlight

Wormhole by Keith Brooke and Eric Brown

“That’s not a cold case. That's an archaeological dig...”

Detective Inspectors Gordon Kemp and Danni Bellini are pulled off their routine cold case investigations and ordered to investigate a murder from 2109. Eighty years ago...

Sebastian White, a leading expert in suspension technology, killed by a single stab wound. Three suspects: his deputy, his business partner and his wife. Three perfect alibis. Simple as that? Not quite.

Ten years before White’s death, we discovered the first Earth-compatible planet orbiting the star Mu Arae. In 2110 a starship was sent on the eighty year journey to the planet, its crew held in stasis by the tech designed by White. A short way into the voyage the ship blew up, killing the crew and ending our hope of a new world.

Who killed White? What happened to the ship? Why re-open the case now?

A collaboration from two of the genre's most respected names, Wormhole is a multi-layered, twisting SF murder mystery that spans decades and light years, the hope of the world and the lies of the few.

Keith Brooke is the author of many books and short stories, ranging from mystery and dark thrillers to science fiction and fantasy. The late Eric Brown was author of even more books and stories, equally wide-ranging, including the popular Langham and Dupré 1950s mystery novels.

Extract:

Gordon Kemp swivelled his recliner and stared through the narrow window of his office. Somewhere outside, he knew, the sun had come up over London. Snow had fallen during the night. On the rooftops it would be crisp and white, but down here in the shady alleyway to the rear of Homicide HQ all was grey slush and windblown litter. As Kemp peered up at the sliver of dawn sky, he caught the glare of a sub-orbital rising like a slow firework from the Thames estuary hub fifty kilometres away, heading east to China.

Around Kemp, images of the dead shimmered in the unlighted office. He knew he owed it to these people — or rather to their loved ones and relatives — to turn his seat back to the console and engage with the database, but he was struck by a soul-sapping inertia that kept him staring through the window.

When he looked back he saw Danni in the doorway, and wondered how long she’d been there.

“You look, if you don’t mind my saying, as if you’ve slept all night in that seat.” Her voice was Home Counties, primly correct. Anyone less like a DI he’d never met. She wore a dark trouser suit like a uniform, with its side-fastening tunic and high collar, and her jet hair was long and straight. She looked like a high-flying executive up for an interview with a pan-global consortium.

“‘My saying’,” he mocked.

She was twenty-five years his junior, and even though they shared the same rank, she was his superior in charge of this unit. When she was instated over him in the morgue, he’d come in for relentless flak from colleagues. Kemp had shrugged and told them, truthfully, that he couldn’t give a damn. In fact, he was glad of the company, and Danni Bellini turned out to be a decent kid who didn’t rub his nose in the fact that she was a fast-tracked Cambridge graduate and he an ill-educated slob who’d risen, slowly, through the ranks.

“But no, I haven’t been here all night. No more than an hour. Oh – I just had a call from Bryce. Ma Holding passed away yesterday.”

“I heard.” She entered the room, picked her way round discarded curry cartons and beer bulbs biodegrading on the floor, and sat down.

“So I’m setting a couple of things aside and going through the files again,” he said.

She stared at him through the shadows, then shook her head. “Not today, Gordon.”

“What?”

“I’ve just seen Tsang. You’re not going to like this.”

“Like what?”

She gestured around the office at the fifty-five dead people staring at them. “Tsang has just ordered us to put everything aside for a while.”

“Everything? You’re joking?”

“He wants us to look into something else. Priority. A single case. We’ve to give it our full attention.”

Kemp grunted, “Fuck him.”

“That’s what I nearly said.”

Kemp smiled at that. For all her middle-class primness, Danni could swear with the best of them. “So what’s this case? Must be important.” He had to admit, if only to himself, that his curiosity had been piqued.

“It is. A top research scientist, working at the cutting edge of suspension technology. Well-connected. A very high-profile case.”

“Why haven’t I heard of this before now? And since when has suspension technology been cutting edge?”

She combed a long strand of dark hair from her cheek and smiled at him. “Because this cold case is really cold,” she said. “The victim was Sebastian White, and he was murdered eighty years ago.”

Kemp blinked, processing her words. “That’s not a cold case, Danni. That’s an archaeological dig.”

This book is available from Amazon and other booksellers.

New Releases by Other Hands

No Safe Place by Hannah Brennan — “Fifteen years ago, five vulnerable teenagers took part in a life-changing study of OCD. Now, their psychologist has been brutally stabbed and left for dead.”

You Lied First by Annabel Kantaria — “The truth is, everyone lies. All that matters is who lies the best...”

Deadly Fortune by Jared Cade — “When Andrew Rogers dies on his yacht off the coast of Prospect Island, no one is expecting his eldest daughter Madison to inherit his fortune – instead of his only son.”

Murder at St Paul’s Cathedral by Jim Eldridge — “May, 1941. One of the senior choristers at St Paul’s, Edwin Roberts, is found beaten to death in the crypt of the cathedral...”

Deadly Remains by Kate Ellis — “DI Wesley Peterson is called in to investigate the murder of Barry Brown, a celebrity ghostwriter, and the theft of his laptop suggests that the motive for murder may lie in his work.”

The House at Devil’s Neck by Tom Mead — “This gripping locked-room mystery sees Joseph Spector investigate his most sinister case yet: murderous machinations at a haunted manor house.”

Our Last Resort by Clémence Michallon — Once so close they finished each other's sentences, siblings Frida and Gabriel drifted apart after escaping life with a cult. Fifteen years later, they have a chance to reconnect, until murder intervenes with Gabriel the prime suspect.

More from Dead East: the Anglian Crime Authors Collective

Facebook: Dead East: the Anglian Crime Authors Collective

Contact Dead East: acacwriters@gmail.com

And finally…

“The best crime stories are not about how cops work on cases. It’s about how cases work on cops.” — Joseph Wambaugh

Subscribe now

Welcome to the Dead East newsletter: news and exclusive content from crime authors based in East Anglia, in the UK.

In this issue:
New Crime Fiction from East Anglia: Julia Stone - Dead East Events - Crime Fiction News - Dead East Interview: Heather Peck - For Writers - Reviews - Back List Deal - New Releases by Other Hands - More from Dead East - And finally…

New Crime Fiction from East Anglia

The Expert Witness by Julia Stone

Think back to your earliest childhood memory. Maybe you see an image, hear dialogue, sense the temperature or the smells; engaging all your senses as you look back. Or maybe you only have an impression of the event — a narrative description you’ve stored in your mind — possibly something you’ve shared with friends or partners as an anecdote over the years. My question is, how do you know that these events really happened as you recall them now?

Yesterday, I helped a young lad with directions as he and his friends were lost as they completed a Duke of Edinburgh activity. We chatted for a while and poured over his map together, before he confidently led his team off across a field. Today, only one day later, would my recreation of the conversation be accurate? Would it match his?

As a psychologist and psychotherapist, I’m intrigued by personal memory: the things we recall or forget; the misremembered in contrast to the verifiable; the things we are certain are true, versus the memories that are no more than a vague sense of something.

My third psychological suspense novel, The Expert Witness, focuses on the field of memory in witness testimony. My protagonist, Dr Amanda Dunstan, is an academic psychologist who studies the errors and biases in recall. When she takes early retirement she writes a book on the topic and it quickly gains publicity. Then a friend from her past reappears, bringing a memory of an incident with life-changing consequence; an event Amanda had elected to forget. Wanting to atone for her past behaviour, Amanda vows to offer support and to be the friend she should have been all those years ago. In doing so, she gets sucked into a world far removed from her middle-class experience, ultimately ends up breaking the laws she had previously upheld. But whose memory should she trust?

The Expert Witness can be bought at Amazon and all other good booksellers.

Dead East Events

The Anglian Authors Book Fair

Dead East were represented by Michelle Kidd and Julia Stone at the first Anglian Authors Book Fair at Sudbury Arts Centre on 22nd June, joining 18 other authors from across the region. Aside from opportunities for readers to chat to the authors and buy books from a range of genres, they could also attend readings and panel discussions.

For the crime panel discussion — Crime in all its Guises — five authors explored the differences in the many subgenres in crime, representing the range from cosy crime through to dark thriller, via political crime, police series and psychological suspense. They touched on the appeal of the different styles and themes and the tropes readers have come to expect.

During the event, Michelle read from the first DI Jack MacIntosh book, Seven Days to Die. She also launched the seventh novel in this series: No Red Lines focuses on the suspected return of a notorious serial killer; a man previously dubbed The Central Line Killer as his victims were all found close to the Central Line tube in London.

In her reading, Julia introduced her third stand-alone psychological suspense novel, The Expert Witness. The protagonist is an academic who specialises in the field of memory research. But she begins to doubt her own recall when an old friend reappears with the story of a life-changing incident from their past: a memory which Amanda had elected to forget. Recognising how she had let her friend down, she feels she must atone for her past behaviour, but gets sucked into events she couldn’t predict.

The Anglian Authors Book Fair was the first of many writing/book related events that are being planned at Sudbury Arts, so keep your eyes open for opportunities to join in. https://sudburyartscentre.com/contact-us/

Crime Fiction News

The CWA Dagger Awards

The Crime Writers’ Association’s Dagger Awards were presented at their annual awards dinner in London on 3rd July. Winners are:

• Ian Fleming Steel Dagger: Dark Ride by Lou Berney (Hemlock Press/ HarperCollins)

• ILP John Creasey First Novel Dagger: All Us Sinners by Katy Massey (Little, Brown /Sphere)

• Twisted Dagger: Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra (PRH/ Viking)

• Whodunnit Dagger: The Case of the Singer and the Showgirl by Lisa Hall (Hera)

• Historical Dagger: The Betrayal of Thomas True by AJ West (Orenda Books)

• ALCS Gold Dagger For Non-Fiction: The Peepshow: The Murders at 10 Rillington Place by Kate Summerscale (Bloomsbury Circus)

• Crime Fiction In Translation Dagger: The Night of Baba Yaga by Akira Otani, translated by Sam Bett (Faber)

• Short Story Dagger: ‘A Date on Yarmouth Pier’ by JC Bernthal, in Midsummer Mysteries edited by Martin Edwards (Flame Tree Publishing/Flame Tree Collections)

• Dagger In The Library: Richard Osman

• Dagger for the Best Crime And Mystery Publishers: Orenda Books

• Emerging Author Dagger: Ashland by Joe Eurell

• CWA Diamond Dagger Award: Mick Herron

CWA Anthology

Coming on 9th September from Flame Tree Press: And Then There Were More edited by Martin Edwards, an anthology of stories by members of the Crime Writers’ Association, including Simon Brett, Cath Staincliffe, Ann Cleeves and Peter Lovesey. This is now available for pre-order.

Macavity Awards

Shortlists for the Macavity Award, named for TS Eliot’s “mystery cat” from Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, have been released. Winners are announced at the annual world mystery convention, Bouchercon, to be held this year in New Orleans, 3rd to 7th September. The awards are split into five categories: Best Mystery Novel, Best First Mystery, Best Mystery Short Story, Sue Feder Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery, and Best Mystery-related Nonfiction/Critical.

Death in the Dales

The Death in the Dales Festival of Crime returns to Sedbergh, 17th to 19th October, featuring MW Craven, Tom Mead, Kate Ellis and more.

Dead East Interview: Heather Peck

Tell us about your new book.

Spinning into the Dark is Book 8 in the DCI Greg Geldard Norfolk Mysteries. It’s set in the second half of 2020, so Greg and his colleagues are facing all the problems of a nation coming to terms with a new Covid ‘normal’ as well as the challenges of their job. He has just brought his wife-to-be and fellow police officer, Chris, home from hospital, where she had been in a coma thanks to an attack in the line of duty. Coming round to discover that she is pregnant has been a bit of a shock.

Greg has a ten-year-old murder to solve, and cyclists are going missing on Norfolk’s quiet roads. It becomes clear that the disappearances are not just tragic accidents and that he must find the culprit before the next cyclist disappears for good.

Which of your characters are you most pleased to have created, and why?

It’s a hard choice, but I think Greg edges it over Chris. He’s flawed, like any of us, but deeply principled and fiercely loyal in a way that drives his approach to his life as well as his job. When I wrote my first crime book I had a very vague idea it might become a series and planned to use one of the other characters in Secret Places as the series link. Somehow, Greg took over and the characters seem to develop by and of themselves. I often feel as though I am recording their adventures rather than creating them.

How did you become a writer?

I grew up in a house full of books and learned to read when I was four, when everyone around me got tired of my constant requests for ‘a story’. Writing has always seemed a natural corollary to my love of reading, but a busy career got in the way of me finishing any of the projects I started. Then I did the National Centre for Writing course on An introduction to Crime Writing in 2019. The feedback was very positive and I haven’t stopped since. There are now eight books and three novellas in the Geldard series, and one standalone thriller.

What's a typical writing day for you?

Walk the dogs, feed the hens and collect the eggs, then sit down and edit the roughly 1500 words I wrote the day before into my master manuscript. After that I write another 1500 words or so on my iPad, using the notes function. Around those fixed points I devise adverts, write my newsletter and short stories, paint, make jewellery to sell for charity, try to play my harp (the emphasis is on try) and do all the normal household tasks everyone has to do.

Who are your favourite authors?

In crime writing I like Reginald Hill, Elly Griffiths, PD James and JD Kirk. I enjoy science fiction and fantasy writers such as Anne McCaffrey, Isaac Asimov, George RR Martin and Julian May. And I love Jodi Taylor – but she is undefinable by genre.

What do your friends and family think about your writing?

My partner tells everyone he sleeps with one eye open! Some of my friends act as beta readers and don’t hesitate to point out where I’m going wrong. My mother, who lived to be 96, regularly complained about my (moderate) use of what she termed bad language.

What do you like to do when you're not writing?

Enjoy the company of my partner, our dogs and cats, our family and friends. We go to the theatre a lot in Norwich and enjoy the amazing county we live in – especially the Broads and the beaches.

Do you write in a single genre, or do you like to jump about a bit?

I have also written animal-based books for children. And I have an idea for an historical novel. Some day, perhaps.

Are you a city person, or do you prefer to be out in the wild?

I have lived in cities at different times but I’m a country person at heart.

How do you set about writing a novel?

Start at the beginning and keep going until I get to the end.

How much research do you do, and what kind?

A lot of my writing is based on my professional experience of farming and the NHS, and my personal knowledge of Norfolk. I’ve volunteered in the Witness Service, with Coast Watch and in Citizens Advice, which provides me with useful background. I research areas I’m less familiar with or where I feel my knowledge is out of date by eg visiting inquests and the courts, exploring particular areas of Norfolk and in one case a sugar beet factory. I am advised by two retired police dog handlers on their specialism, and I research facts online.

Is setting important in crime and mystery fiction?

I think authenticity of setting is very important to a lot of readers.

A writer's life doesn't just involve sitting down and writing – how do you feel about all the other elements, like promotion, admin, research, developing ideas, public speaking and so on?

I’ve done a lot of public speaking in my professional career, so I’m comfortable with that. I’m not so keen on the social media stuff. That is work if you like, whereas writing is fun. On the other hand, I’ve met and made friends through social media and reconnected with some I’d lost touch with, so it’s not all bad. I enjoy learning new things, so research is also squarely in my comfort zone.

What kind of music do you like to listen to?

All sorts, from rock to mediaeval polyphony. But I belong to two choirs, so a lot of what I listen to is choral music or ballads.

Heather Peck can be found online at www.heatherpeckauthor.com

Spinning into the Dark was published on 25th June 2025, and is available from Amazon and all other good booksellers.

For Writers

Competitions and Awards

The RSL Giles St Aubyn Awards — three annual awards of £10,000, £5,000 and £2,500 — are available to support authors through the completion of their first commissioned works of non-fiction (you can previously have published work for an academic audience or edited books of writing by others, but this must be your first full-length work written for a general readership). Applicartons close on Monday 1 September 2025 at 5pm.

The National Centre for Writing’s International Literature Exchange (ILX) returns in 2025–26, inviting literature professionals from around the world to participate in its latest digital programme.

The Mslexia Novel Competition is open to women who are not yet published as novelists, for novels of at least 50,000 words in any genre for adult or young adult readers. Just submit your first 5,000 words to be in with a chance of winning £5,000, manuscript feedback, pitch training and editor intros. Deadline: 22 Sep. Entry fee: £26

The Joffe Books Prize is looking for the next bestselling crime writer from Black, Asian, Indigenous, and minority ethnic backgrounds open for submissions. Deadline for submissions is 30 September 2025.

The Penguin Michael Joseph Undiscovered Writers Prize is open for entries from underrepresented writers. This year there’s a horror theme.

Opportunity for true crime writers: award-winning audio production company, Noiser, are looking for freelance writers to work on their hit podcast Real Survival Stories.

For unpublished writers: Good Housekeeping has teamed up with Rachel Mills Literary Agency to launch a novel-writing competition.

Shetland Noir 2026

Would you like to be part of Shetland Noir 2026?

Shetland Noir 2026 takes place 11th - 14th June, during Da Simmer Dim, the twilight of a Shetland summer. The sun barely sets and 19 hours of daylight cast long shadows across the islands. It's a time when the beauty, remoteness and the quiet mystery of the islands are enhanced, the perfect backdrop for Shetland Noir.

Applications are now open for authors wishing to be part of the festival, with opportunities to take part in panels, readings and other events.

Cheshire Crime Festival

The Curious Cat Bookshop is hosting a three-day celebration of crime writing at the Frodsham Community Association from 6th-9th February 2026 . They’re inviting pitches for author participation, including three headline slots and a wide range of themed panels and fringe events. Interested? Contact James Caldwell at hello@thecuriouscatbookshop.co.uk [Thanks to the CWA for drawing attention to this.]

Free Forensic Resources

Florida International University's Research Forensic Library is available to everyone at no charge. It's a huge resource of online journal articles and reports covering every major forensic discipline. Subscriptions to the library's Daily Digest are also free. [Thanks to the CWA for drawing attention to this.]

How to Get Featured on Podcasts

The IngramSpark blog is full of useful resources for authors. It includes a useful guide to promoting your writing on podcasts, taking you through the process from identifying suitable podcasts and making the approach, to what to say and how to promote your appearance. Another of their blog entries is all about creating your own audiobook.

Reviews

The Crow Trap by Ann Cleeves. Returning to The Crow Trap twenty-six years after its first publication, and perhaps a decade after I first read it, was an interesting experience. I think this was the first Cleeves novel I’d read, and like an awful lot of her readers my expectations and the way I visualised the story and its characters were shaped by having watched Vera on TV. Back then, it took me a while to push Brenda Blethyn’s brilliant on-screen interpretation of Vera Stanhope into the background and immerse myself in the author’s original portrayal. Blethyn added some wonderful layers to the character — she can do so much with a slight shift in expression or a pause that’s hard to convey on the page — but Cleeves’ original is equally as iconic. She has the enviable skill of being able to bring a character alive off the page with the briefest of observations, and not only Vera but the entire cast of this novel are rich and real from the moment they appear. Right from the outset, it’s clear that this novel marks the start of something special: the opening of The Crow Trap is a masterclass in establishing suspense. The novel opens with a careful description of a location in terms of how it relates to its OS map. This is most definitely not an obvious choice, but every sentence of description adds to the sense that we’re leading up to something significant. When characters appear, it’s an instant portrayal of a couple’s relationship and their challenging circumstances in a few deft and economical brushstrokes. All this finishes with a single, almost throwaway, detail that hints at something entirely unexpected going on: a moment of reassessment, or even a betrayal, but whatever it is, it’s the perfect pay-off to tell the reader that the build-up of suspense is going to be rewarded. A fine introduction to one of the stand-out series in the last three decades of British crime fiction. (review by Nick Guthrie)

Back List Deal

The first four Detective Jack Macintosh Mysteries by Michelle Kidd for £0.99

Boxed set containing Seven Days To Die, Fifteen Reasons To Kill, Sixteen Carved Pieces, and Twenty Years Buried are now available for only £0.99/$0.99.

Who is Detective Inspector Jack MacIntosh? He’s a dedicated police officer, the one person you would want to fight your corner. But he has been known to cross the line to get the job done. As a four-year-old boy he discovered his mother’s body swinging from a light fitting. Jack and his younger brother were taken into care — Jack did OK, his brother not so much. A bit of a loner, Jack has never married — although plenty of women would like to give it a shot. He lives in a charming mews cottage in central London. No one is quite sure how he can afford it on a detective’s salary.

New Releases by Other Hands

Crimeucopia: A Load Of Balls — For fans of short mystery fiction, the long-running Crimeucopia anthology series presents a sports-themed volume, with stories by John M Floyd, Ed Teja, Wendy Harrison and others.

The Other Boy by Heidi Field — “A knock on the door one day changes everything… Bodies have been found… the detective suspects one is Jamie, the final victim of a brutal and prolific serial killer.”

It’s Not Even Past by Anna Scotti — A collection of the popular “Librarian on the Run” stories, many of which have previously appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and Best Mystery Stories of the Year.

The Red Shore by William Shaw - the first in a brand new series of Devon-set crime thrillers featuring ex-Met detective DS Eden Driscoll.

How to Make a Killing by Kate Weston — “A £10-million mansion? It's a property to die for... literally...”

The Inside Man by Trevor Wood — “The second Newcastle-set police thriller with a twist. DCI Jack Parker fights to hide his Early Onset Dementia while he continues to do the job he loves - investigating crimes and bringing villains to justice.”

More from Dead East: the Anglian Crime Authors Collective

Facebook: Dead East: the Anglian Crime Authors Collective

Contact Dead East: acacwriters@gmail.com

And finally…

“I’d have to say that most of my ideas originate with everyday anxieties. What if I forgot to lock the door? What if a horrific crime happened next door? What if my daughter didn’t show up at work? What if I woke up one day and the house was empty?” — Linwood Barclay

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Welcome to the first full issue of the Dead East newsletter: news and exclusive content from crime authors based in East Anglia, in the UK.

In this issue:
Crime News from East Anglia: Spinning into the Dark by Heather Peck - Dead East Events - Crime Fiction News - Dead East Interview: Michelle Kidd - For Writers - Reviews - New Releases by Other Hands - More from Dead East - And finally…

Crime News from East Anglia

Book Launch: Spinning into the Dark by Heather Peck

Book 8 in the award winning DCI Greg Geldard Norfolk Mysteries by Heather Peck, Spinning into the Dark, is published 25th June 2025.

Set in the last months of 2020 and early in 2021 DCI Greg Geldard and his colleagues investigate major crimes as the country copes with Covid 19 lockdowns, rules that change faster than the weather, and a raft of new restrictions and frustrations.

About the book

With his partner Chris just home from hospital, a baby on the way and a ten-year-old murder to solve, Greg really doesn't need any distractions. But when cyclists start vanishing on the county’s empty roads, he can’t ignore the pattern.

Are the disappearances tragic accidents, or is something more sinister happening?

Available from Bittern Books, good bookshops, and Amazon.

Spinning into the Dark: extract

Norfolk: 31 August 2020

After the light traffic of the past few months, the roads were, unfortunately for the cyclist wobbling a little at the edge of the quiet lane, getting back to normal. She’d already had to abandon the centre ground to get out of the way of an oncoming tractor. That had necessitated a hurried foot down, to save herself from flatlining on the grass verge. She’d acknowledged the cheery wave from the driver and pushed herself back into the saddle with another alarming wobble, reflecting that the old saying - you never forgot how to ride a bike - was some distance short of accurate: in her case at least. It had taken several days swerving and teetering up and down her drive before she’d felt competent to emerge onto the quiet roads of lockdown. Even then, she’d fallen off twice - once onto the middle of a, luckily empty, road when her arthritic knee had failed to bend swiftly enough to reach the pedal. Once into a wild rose, from which she had extricated herself with much caution and considerable difficulty.

She was startled by the blast of a horn behind her, as the driver of a battered pickup lost patience with her slow progress. She pulled as close to the verge as she dared; and he roared past, much too close, with another toot of the horn, then disappeared round the bend ahead. She shook her head and pedalled on, reflecting that if she’d held him up at all, it must have been for all of 30 seconds. If the traffic is going to get much worse, then I’d better go back to my exercise bike, she thought. But I’ll miss the fresh air, the scents and the sights.

The sound of an engine approaching round the bend drew her attention back to the road, and she was surprised to see what looked like the same pickup coming back. That was her last thought. The 4by4, coming much too fast and on the wrong side of the road, hit her right leg a glancing blow before scraping along her rear wheel. She flew sideways across the verge and went spinning into the ditch, landing face up with all the wind knocked out of her.

After the hot summer, the ditch was dry, but that was where the good news ended. Her cycling helmet had come off, and something was wrong with her leg. She tried to move, but agony shot through her right side. She was trapped, head and torso in the ditch, legs up on the higher ground. A shadow moved between her and the sun, and a pang of relief went through her. Help was on the way. Then her bicycle dropped on top of her and the shadow moved away. She tried to call out, to beg for help, but she had no breath to spare.

The pickup driver moved away, dusting their hands, and got back into the vehicle. Looking back, they noted that from the road, all that was visible above the edge of the ditch was a foot and the slowly turning rear bicycle wheel. Then the truck drove off.

Spinning into the Dark by Heather Peck is available from Amazon and all other good booksellers.

Dead East Events

National Crime Readers’ Month

If you’re free and within travelling distance, come and support those of us taking part in the Anglian Authors Book Fair on Sunday the 22nd of June. It’s at Sudbury Arts Centre (St Peter’s), Market Hill, Sudbury, Suffolk CO10 2EA, where Dead East’s Julia Stone is author in residence. The event starts at 10am and finishes at 3pm. There are 22 authors representing a range of genres and writing services, including seven crime writers, and there will be discussion panels and readings throughout the day. Café and parking at the venue, and free to attend.

To find out about more NCRM events, visit www.crimereading.com

Crime Fiction News

Crime Authors’ Social Media Links

In recent months a large number of crime authors have made the move to Bluesky as one of their main social media sites for sharing news and general interaction with other writers and readers. Ben Bruce has put together a big starter pack of CWA members on Bluesky. Whether your main focus is writing or reading, this is a great way to connect with crime writers - the starter pack allows you to follow all of the included writers with a single click, or you can go through it to find those you’re most interested in. And if you’re a CWA member on Bluesky, contact Ben via the links from the starter pack to ask to be included.

Meanwhile, here on Substack, David Bruns has compiled a Thriller and Mystery Author Directory, pulling together Substack links for authors active in the field.

Also on Substack, Coldcaller Magazine is a great source of interesting content, including interviews with crime authors and their “Three Things We Loved This Week” posts, highlighting other interesting posts on Substack. They start publishing new fiction this month.

Shamus Award Finalists

The finalists for the 2025 Shamus awards, for private eye novels and short stories first published in the United States in 2024, have been announced. The winners will be announced at the 2025 Bouchercon's Opening Ceremonies to be held Thursday, September 4th at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Dead East Interview: Michelle Kidd

Tell us about your new book.
No Red Lines is the seventh DI Jack MacIntosh crime novel and I feel it could be the best one yet! Jack is back at work after a few months off recovering from injury, but he is flung straight into a new case. A body has been found hanging in the window of an abandoned building, a screwed up copy of a London Underground map in her mouth. It soon transpires that the killer is a notorious serial killer, previously dubbed The Central Line Killer as his victims are all found close to the Central Line tube in London. Seventeen years ago, he terrorised the streets of London – and now he seems to be back. It's a fast paced, twisty crime thriller – and for those that aren't familiar with my writing style, I don't just explore the 'who' and 'how' of a crime, I also explore the 'why'. I love getting inside the head of my killer, finding out what makes him or her tick, and crucially what has driven them to take the path they have. I think I am a frustrated psychologist…

Which of your characters are you most pleased to have created and why?
I think this has to be Detective Inspector Jack MacIntosh. He was the first character that popped into my head in 2008 when I started writing this series, so he is the one character I feel I know the best – as he has been with me the longest. Jack is an excellent police officer, and will always go that extra mile for justice. He does sometimes step across the line on occasion, though, bending the rules, but only when he knows he is in the right. Jack had a traumatic start to life – at four years old he discovered his mother's dead body. As there were no other family members on the scene, he and his younger brother, Stuart, were taken into care. After a while they were separated and followed very different paths. Jack fared well, but his brother not quite so much. In the first book, Seven Days to Die, Jack and Stuart come crashing back into each other's lives, having not really seen much of each other for the previous 20 years. I have really enjoyed writing both these characters – as they are so different – and over the course of the series so far I have been able to explore them getting to know each other again, which has given me some great plot lines!

How did you become a writer?
I always wanted to become a writer. As a child I was a prolific reader, the proverbial bookworm with my head always in a book. Although I knew being a writer was what I wanted to do, there isn't really an established career path for an author. Therefore, it took me some time before I embarked on it as a career. I have always written though – I wrote my first full length novel when I was 12, bashing it out on my mum's typewriter. But it wasn't until 2018 that I actually took the plunge and self-published my first book. This book would eventually become the first Jack MacIntosh book, Seven Days to Die. I self-published another six books until I signed a book deal with Joffe Books in 2022. Joffe Books have now republished my self-published books, and I now have 10 published with them. Up until this year, I worked full-time alongside my writing – but a month ago I decided to give the writing a go as a full-time career.

What's a typical writing day for you?
Until recently, my writing would be squeezed into the weekend, or days off. Now I have given up work, I try to write every day and treat it like a job (except it isn't a job, I love it!). I write better in the mornings, so I tend to start about 7 a.m. I will work through until about 4 p.m. on a normal day – with an hour off to power walk around Bury St Edmunds at some point in time! I write longhand with pen and paper, so I can really write just about anywhere. My favourite places are either on my bed, on the sofa, or out in the garden. I usually have my tabby cat, Livi, sitting on my legs – I think she does this to help me stay focused and not get up and do something else!

Who are your favourite authors?
Far too many to list! I think Stephen King is the most wonderful storyteller – he is the one writer who really got me into storytelling as a child. I tend to read crime fiction (no surprises there!) and enjoy Peter James, Peter May, M W Craven, Michael Connolly, to name but a few.

Who or what are your biggest influences?
Enid Blyton was the first author I remember and the one person who got me hooked on reading as a child. Without her, would I have become a writer? Who knows.... Stephen King drew me into storytelling and I think it was reading his books that really sowed the seed of me wanting to be a writer. I also admire J K Rowling – her Harry Potter series is remarkable, with so many intricate plot lines that weave themselves together over the course of the books, it makes for fantastic reading.

What do you like to do when you're not writing?
I love gardening and exercising. I try and get outside for an hour's powerwalk each day, I find it helps clear the mind and I'll often sort out a plot hole while I'm striding along. I've been a member of a gym for the last 30 or so years, although I've just let my membership lapse while I try out the power walking instead! At the weekend, you'll often find me at a craft fair or farmer's market, as my other half has a part-time craft business.

Spring, summer, autumn or winter?
For me it has to be summer. I love the sun and the heat. Everything looks and feels better when the sun is shining. I'm not a fan of the cold or the wet!

Is setting important in crime and mystery fiction?
I think the setting is almost a separate character on its own. I feel that the story needs to be set in the right place, it has to feel right to the reader and the writer. It has to be believable to some extent. I put a lot of thought into where I'm going to set my book. My Jack MacIntosh series is set in London – which gives me an awful lot of scope for settings. My other crime series, featuring DI Nicki Hardcastle, is set in Bury St Edmunds. I really wanted to write a series set in Bury as this is my current home town. There is something very satisfying about writing about somewhere you know so well, and I try to make the settings as realistic as possible so locals can really visualise the storyline as they read.

How do you set about writing a novel?
When I tell people how I write my books I get a variety of reactions – mostly people look horrified! I don't plan or plot the books very much to begin with – I'll have a general and very vague idea of a main plot line, but that is about it. I then just dive right in. I don't write in chronological order; I don't write the chapters in sequence – rather, I write small scenes that I then move around into the right places. This means that I might write a scene towards the end, then a scene from the beginning, then a scene in the middle, then another scene from the end again… After a while I move them into some kind of order, and then start the whole process again with more scenes. I also don't name my characters until the very end... It all sounds very chaotic, but it's the only way that works for me.

How much research do you do, and what kind?
I do a lot of research. I think to write a truly good book, especially a crime book, then you need to. I have two police officers who help me on police procedure – one is a uniformed police sergeant who gives me the 999 immediate response, and then I have a detective inspector who gives me the investigation side of things. They are invaluable! I do lots of other research myself – Google is a close friend! I'll go on site visits if I need to. In the fourth Jack MacIntosh book, Twenty Years Buried, I spent a lot of time researching the tide times on the Thames, specifically for London Bridge, as this featured in the book. Let's just say, the London Port Authority tide times for 2014 is a very good aide for insomniacs!

A writers life doesn't just involve sitting down and writing, how do you feel about all the other elements like promotion, admin, research, developing ideas, public speaking and so on?
Oh, if we could just sit and write it would be fantastic! I enjoy the research and developing plots, as that is really all part of the process. I also do enjoy talking about my books, and talking about my experiences. I've spoken on a variety of panels at book festivals, and also at book clubs, libraries, and other organisations, and it is great to connect with readers in that way. When I self-published my books, I had to also get on top of the promotion and advertising sided of things, which I didn't enjoy quite so much! I found it detracted from valuable writing time! Luckily, my publisher takes on the majority of the promotion and advertising and I can concentrate more on the creation of the books.

Is writing an isolating choice or have you found a community of fellow eccentrics… I mean writers?
Writing is by its very definition a solo occupation, and can feel quite isolating at times. But I think most writers welcome that! I am more than happy on my own, creating my characters. But the book world is such a friendly place, and when we choose to poke our noses above ground we can surround ourselves with likeminded people which is really enjoyable.

With all your professional experience, could you commit the perfect crime?
I would certainly give it a go! Due to the rapid increase in the numbers of TV detective dramas, and CSI programmes, I think we all feel we know a lot about crimes and how to commit the perfect one. But I suspect it isn't so easy in real life! I certainly know a lot about police procedure, and I would be very confident on how to handle myself in a police interview. I spent ten years as a legal executive, specialising in mostly criminal litigation. I've listened to countless hours of police interview tapes, and sat through numerous Crown Court trials. I'd like to think that some of that has rubbed off on me!

Michelle Kidd can be found online at michellekiddauthor.com

No Red Lines was published on 15th May 2025, and is available from Amazon and all other good booksellers.

For Writers

Location, Location, Location! (by Phil Johnson)

So apart from a gripping or intriguing opening page, a stunning story and great characters, what holds a reader’s attention? To me it’s location, location, location; and not the one on Channel 4 with Phil and Kirsty. As a writer, I think it’s essential to provide a sense of place, and the best way to do that is by visiting every location where scenes, stories and action happens.

As a former TV reporter, I know that doing a piece to camera at the place that sums up a story is key to taking the audience there, and only by visiting or knowing a location can you be truly immersed in its ambience, character and qualities.

Stories set in unique and atmospheric locations hold a fascination and draw the reader back for more. The atmospheric Highlands and islands brilliantly resonate in the work of Neil Lancaster who clearly understands his locations. Many of my East Anglian colleagues have the same ability, setting their novels close to familiar locations where they live or know.

It doesn’t have to be exotic or mysterious landscapes and places either, the everyday urban street or town centre are just as valid as any location for crime, passion or action – provided we have a sense of place. I explained at a course I ran how I had visited every location in my novels, been absorbed by the essence of the place and breathed its air; and in doing so had been better able to offer my readers a snap shot of its attraction and beauty.

I’m currently working on a new novel set in my beloved Greek islands, many of which I have sailed for 20 years and written about for magazines. To taste, smell and feel the warmth of the weather and the people, and to take the reader there, as I hope I did in my last novel set largely in Paxos and Corfu, is the essence of providing escapism, adventure and excitement; and with it a true sense of place.

Phil Johnson writes as PN Johnson. His novels Killer in the Crowd and Run to the Blue are published by Burning Chair Publishing, available on Amazon, Kindle and other outlets.

The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, 17th – 20th July 2025

The world’s longest-running and most prestigious celebration of crime writing, the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, takes place next month. This is the UK’s foremost gathering of crime writers, full of panels, talks and other programmed events — a great place to meet writers and publishing professionals, and get all the latest news and gossip in the industry.

Society of Authors Talks

The Society of Authors are offering some interesting talks this month, including video content in book marketing, author branding, accounting, a scriptwriters’ social, and sustainability in book production. They’re free to members and others can attend for a small fee. More information here: societyofauthors.org/events/category/soaathome/

CWA Member Pack Update

If you’re a member of the Crime Writers’ Association, if it's been a while since you've looked through your welcome pack, a lot has changed! The latest New Members Welcome Pack is available in the members’ area of the CWA website.

Author Care: A Toolkit for Authors

The Society of Authors has made available a free digital resource designed for authors at all stages of their careers. Author Care: A Toolkit for Authors outlines the three principles of author care, and aims to help authors navigate a complex industry and empower them in their working relationships with publishers, agents and other publishing professionals. The toolkit also signposts sources of further support for authors if required.

Selling Stories to Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine

On her Substack, Angelique Fawns has a great interview with Jackie Sherbow the new editor of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.

Jericho Writers

Jericho Writers are running a Writing Crime & Thriller Novels course, taught by ex-police superintendent Graham Bartlett. It's an intensive, genre-specific course that will teach you everything you need to know about crafting a suspenseful page-turner. It was a sellout this spring, and there are only 15 places available - so act fast if you're interested in joining the September session.

Note: Dead East members have attended events led by Graham, and we highly recommend his courses.

Reviews

Run to the Blue by PN Johnson. It should have been a career-defining moment for Tess Anderson. A landmark trial, bringing to justice a remorseless villain, and it's all down to Tess's relentless investigative journalism exposing the story. The reality is very different, though, as scandal descends, overshadowing Tess's successes and driving her into a nailbiting journey to stay alive. Relentlessly, her pursuers - mysterious and otherwise - close in, despite her best efforts, and she ricochets around the Greek islands in a race to survive. The revelations are cleverly set up, the deepening of suspense unforgiving, and the reader is hooked on a story that is, ultimately, about Tess's efforts to save herself while she struggles to understand the forces at play. And where many people would be happy just to survive in such a scenario, Tess is also driven to do the right thing and secure justice. The author clearly has in-depth knowledge, both of the settings and of the social media paparazzi whirl of London politics and crime (is that a tautology?), which adds authentic layers to a breathless and edge-of-the-seat survival story. (review by Nick Guthrie)

New Releases by Other Hands

A Fatal Silence by Rachel Amphlett - "After the music stops, the killing begins..."

The King of Ashes by SA Cosby - "A son returning home. A dangerous debt. Secrets about to ignite . . . and a family consumed by flames."

No Quarter by Paul Finch - the new Heck novel

Black is the Night edited by Maxim Jakubowski - "A gritty and thrilling anthology of 28 new short stories in tribute to pulp noir master, Cornell Woolrich, author of 'Rear Window' that inspired Alfred Hitchock's classic film."

Broken by Jón Atli Jónasson - two misfit police officers end up searching for a missing teenager in Iceland

Murder Under the Sun by Faith Martin - "Former Detective Hillary Greene and her cold case team are sweltering in their stuffy basement office on the hottest day of the year when they are handed an impossible case."

The Putney Bridge Killer by Biba Pearce - "A brutal murder. A deadly secret. A killer who’s done this before..."

An Imposter in Shetland by Marsali Taylor - "When an internet lifestyle influencer arrives on Shetland to document her 'perfect' holiday, the locals are somewhat sceptical... But when it's time to leave, there's no sign of her."

Quiet Bones by Sarah Ward - "A dead child. A missing student. A darkness at the heart of Jericho College."

More from Dead East: the Anglian Crime Authors Collective

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And finally…

“The first chapter sells the book; the last chapter sells the next book.” —Mickey Spillane

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Welcome to the pre-launch issue of the Dead East newsletter: news and exclusive content from crime authors based in East Anglia, in the UK.

In this issue:
Crime News from East Anglia - Dead East Events - Reviews - For Writers - National Crime Reading Month - Odds and Ends - More from Dead East - And finally…

Crime News from East Anglia

Book Launch: No Red Lines

Michelle Kidd’s, No Red Lines, Book 7 in the bestselling DI Jack MacIntosh series, was published on Thursday 15th May.

After a three month absence from work, recovering from his last brutal case, Jack's next investigation plunges him right back into the thick of it. The body of a young woman is found hanging from a curtain pole, but it is the sinister detail that stops Jack in his tracks. Inside her mouth is a London Underground map. He's back. Seventeen years ago they called him the Central Line Killer, and he was never caught. Can Jack unravel the twisted clues and catch the killer that is always one step ahead?

No Red Lines is available from all the usual places, and can also be bought online at Amazon and other booksellers.

Book Launch: The Mithraeum Connection

Stephanie Amey launched her new novel, The Mithraeum Connection at Olives in Norwich, on Thursday 15th May. It’s the sequel to her first Roman era thriller The Edge of Empire.

AD 171 Banna Fort, Hadrian's Wall Centurion Aurelius Petrus reluctantly joins the secretive cult of Mithras. Drawn deeper into its initiation ceremonies, Petrus must navigate the politics of the cult as well as their clandestine rituals. When the body of a man is found, Petrus is charged with the investigation.

The Mithraeum Connection can also be bought online at Amazon and other booksellers.

Audio Fiction

On 19th March an audio version of Nick Guthrie’s story “Protection” (first published in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine) was broadcast on Rabia Chaudry’s podcast*, The Mystery Hour:

*Rabia Chaudry is a respected attorney, advocate, New York Times best-selling author, documentary producer, podcaster, and has co-produced and co-hosted multiple podcasts that have garnered 450 million downloads to date, including fiction and true crime podcasts.

Dead East Events

No events this month — we’re all busy writing!

Reviews

Dead Man's Grave by Neil Lancaster. The story of a generations-old feud between two of Scotland's biggest crime families, Dead Man's Grave is a gripping, fast-paced police procedural thriller that's as authentic as you would expect from an ex-police officer with Lancaster's experience. But above all, it's a powerful story of one man's efforts to adjust to change and work out his place in the world. As this is the first in the DS Max Craigie series, I'll definitely be seeking out more. Highly recommended. [review by Nick Guthrie]

For Writers

Market Listings

Nick Guthrie has added a crime and mystery short-fiction markets listing on his website, at https://nickguthrie.co.uk/markets/

New Imprints

Bridge House Publishing has put out a call for submissions for its new imprint, Walela Books. They’re after ‘quirky’, ‘cutting edge’ and ‘genre-bending’ fiction. They say ‘if you have an adventurous, free-spirited, or even unconventional idea up your sleeve, we would love to hear from you.’ Deadline: 30th September 2025. You can find more information on their submission guidelines here.

Writer Jude Cook has launched Conduit Press, a new independent focusing on publishing works by male writers, ‘The topics and themes that appeal to men, particularly working-class men, can sometimes be dismissed as unserious or unevolved.’ … ‘The emphasis at first will be on ambitious, funny, political and cerebral fiction by men that is being passed by.’

Competitions

The Novelry has launched the Next Big Story Prize, with a £75k prize for the winner, plus a package of mentoring, to the writer who pens the best 1,500-word opening. The judges include actor and book club host Emma Roberts, Booker-winning author Yann Martel, and Women’s Prize winner Tayari Jones. Entries close on 31st July.

For script writers

Film Hub North’s initiative, Script Lab, will support ten writers in making a short film.

The Sir Peter Ustinov Television Scriptwriting Award is specifically aimed at non-US writers, and there have been lots of winners from the UK in previous years.

Crime Writing Festivals

There’s still time to get a ticket for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, which is coming up in Harrogate 17-20th July, 2025. https://harrogateinternationalfestivals.com/crime-writing-festival/

National Crime Reading Month

The Crime Writers Association celebrates June each year as National Crime Reading Month and encourages members to organise events. The theme is staying the same as last year, which is about reading for wellbeing, but with a focus on local libraries and independent booksellers, to reflect the support they have given us, as authors, over the years.

If you have any ideas or know of venues that could be interested, do reach out to other members to take part via CWA Eastern Chapter coordinators, Iain or Julia. You can find your nearest indie bookshop via this link: https://www.booksellers.org.uk/

• The CWA are organising a London event at Capital Crime on 13-14th June.

• Their main launch will be in East Anglian territory at Bodies in the Bookshop in Cambridge on 31st May. They are planning a Noir at the Bar type of event at 6pm on the Saturday.

• There will also be an online launch event in the first week of June.

• On a smaller scale, if you are interested in taking part in the Anglian Authors Book Fair at Sudbury Arts Centre, Sudbury, Suffolk, on 22nd June, there’s still time to sign up. There are spaces for up to 30 authors and there will be a mix of writers, but the plan is to have specific slots for readings by genre with time set aside for crime writers of different subgenres. Depending on final numbers it may also be feasible to hold a panel interview. Julia Stone is the writer in residence and hosting the event and hopes to link it in with NCRM. You can see more information and apply for a table here: https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=1v7zDE8lD0yfzXQ-haU34b2TjAB8RDlIjS7V9fai0DtUODIyNFhRUVFCWlFHWDlRRE82WTlRWTdYVS4u&origin=lprLink&route=shorturl

Both the CWA and the Reading Agency will be promoting events widely. They have been approaching libraries across the UK and the association of independent booksellers who are looking for authors for events.

Odds and Ends

UK licensing bodies are developing a licence to allow authors to be paid for the use of their works to train AI models. The Copyright Licensing Agency will work on the licence, which will be available to AI developers this summer. The collective licence ‘will further demonstrate that licensing is the answer and can provide a market-based solution that is efficient and effective,’ said Mat Pfleger, CEO of CLA, and offers an alternative to the government’s proposed solution of allowing AI companies to train models by giving them an exception for ‘text and data mining’.

More from Dead East: the Anglian Crime Authors Collective

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Thanks for reading the pre-launch issue of the Dead East newsletter. Please spread the word to anyone who might be interested in crime fiction news, interviews and fiction from the east of the UK.

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