Tag: alis hawkins

The Sapere Books Historical Dagger Award Shortlist 2020

Sapere Books are proud to be sponsoring the Crime Writers’ Association’s Historical Dagger Award, which is for the best historical crime novel set in any period at least 50 years prior to the year in which the prize is presented.

The 2020 shortlist has now been announced, and features seventeenth-century plotters, stolen diamonds, sainted monks and more.

 

In Two Minds, Alis Hawkins, The Dome Press

Set in nineteenth century Wales, In Two Minds follows two investigators – Harry Probert-Lloyd, a young barrister, and John Davies, a solicitor’s clerk – as they attempt to solve a grisly mystery. A faceless, naked corpse has washed up on a remote Cardiganshire beach, and no one can identify it. Harry’s attempts to solve the crime are met with local hostility and suspicion – especially when he chooses to consult an eccentric doctor with radical and controversial methods.

And when Harry’s own relations appear to be implicated in the crime, it seems he may be forced to choose between professional duty and familial ties…

Click here to find out more about In Two Minds

 

Metropolis, Philip Kerr, Quercus

Detective Bernie Gunther is back in the fourteenth – and final – book in Philip Kerr’s gripping series of twentieth century thrillers. It’s 1928 and Bernie is just beginning his career in Berlin, at the height of the Weimer Republic. He is soon faced with a gruesome investigation when the bodies of four prostitutes are found, all murdered in the same brutal fashion. Before Bernie can make any headway with the case, yet another girl is found dead – this time the daughter of one of Berlin’s most notorious gangsters.

A murderer with a twisted agenda is prowling the streets of Berlin, and it’s up to Bernie to put a stop to their deadly spree…

Click here to find out more about Metropolis

 

Death in the East, Abir Mukherjee, Harvill Secker

Set in 1920s India, Death in the East follows the continuing adventures of dynamic duo Captain Sam Wyndham and Sergeant Surrender-not Banerjee. Wyndham is haunted by an old case from his early days as a young constable, when his old flame Bessie Drummond was found beaten to death in her own room. Arriving at the ashram of a sainted monk – where he hopes to overcome his opium addiction – Wyndham finds a shadowy figure from his past, a man he believed was long dead.

Certain that the man is out for revenge, Wyndham once again calls on Sergeant Banerjee for help. Together, they prepare to take on a sadistic and slippery killer…

Click here to find out more about Death in the East

 

The Bear Pit, S. G. MacLean, Quercus

Captain Damian Seeker – a trusted member of Oliver Cromwell’s guard – must once again step in when Cromwell finds himself the target of a ruthless assassin. Conspiracies against the Lord Protector are once again on the rise, and there are many who would stop at nothing to see Charles Stuart restored to the throne. Meanwhile, Seeker is also faced with an illegal gambling den and the body of a man savaged by a bear. Yet it was believed that all bears were shot when Cromwell banned bearbaiting – so where did this one come from?

As Seeker investigates further, the two cases start to converge, and he begins to realise the magnitude of the treacherous forces that threaten the realm…

Click here to find out more about The Bear Pit

 

The Anarchists’ Club, Alex Reeve, Raven Books

Following on from The House on Half Moon Street, The Anarchists’ Club leads us back into the dark underbelly of Victorian London. Determined to live his truth while maintaining his freedom and safety, pharmacist Leo Stanhope is doing his best to move on from the trauma and heartbreak of the past. But then a woman is found murdered at a club for anarchists – and she’s carrying Leo’s address in her purse. When Leo arrives at the club under police escort, he is dismayed to see an unwelcome face from his distant past – a man intent on blackmailing him for an alibi.

And now Leo must make a painful choice – risk having his lifelong secret exposed, or protect a possible murderer in exchange for his silence…

Click here to find out more about The Anarchists’ Club

 

The Paper Bark Tree Mystery, Ovidia Yu, Constable

The Paper Bark Tree Mystery is the third book in Ovidia Yu’s page-turning Crown Colony series, set in 1930s Singapore. Su Lin has landed a job as an assistant at Singapore’s new detective agency. But her dream role is cut short when Englishman Bernard ‘Bald Bernie’ Hemsworth decides that a ‘local girl’ can’t be trusted with the agency’s investigations. Su Lin therefore loses her job and is replaced with a privileged white girl. Soon after, Bernie – widely disliked – is found dead in the filing room. And when the father of her best friend is accused, Su Lin is determined to prove his innocence.

During the course of her investigations, Su Lin uncovers stolen diamonds and treacherous arms deals. And it seems that the closer she gets to the truth, the more danger she is in…

Click here to find out more about The Paper Bark Tree Mystery

Distract Yourself with these Heart-Pounding Thrillers

To help keep you entertained during quarantine we’ve put together a list of some of our most absorbing thrillers, featuring mysterious disappearances, historical conspiracies, ghostly dreams and more…

Paternoster, Kim Fleet

A compelling timeshift mystery, Paternoster moves between 18th Century and modern-day England. In 1795, kept woman Rachel Lovett is left homeless and destitute when her benefactor loses his money. Forced to steal jewellery to survive, Rachel finds herself constantly on the run from the law and the hangman’s noose. And when she joins a brothel, she is soon introduced into the ruthless Paternoster Club…

In 2013, Private Investigator Eden Grey is called in to examine a pair of skeletons found in the grounds of a prestigious school. It soon becomes obvious that these are not recent murders – the bodies have been buried for centuries. And now Eden must unravel a historic mystery while concealing her own personal demons…

Click here to order Paternoster

The Black and the White, Alis Hawkins

Set in 1349, The Black and the White is a chilling medieval mystery that explores the ravages of the infamous Black Death. Martin Collyer wakes up in his family’s charcoaling hut, having made a miraculous recovery. But his father, who showed no signs of the plague, is dead.

With no home to go to, Martin seizes his second chance at life and goes on a journey to seek salvation for his father’s unconfessed soul. Along the way, he befriends another traveller, the enigmatic Hob Cleve. But when more suspicious deaths occur, Martin begins to wonder whether he is travelling with a killer…

Click here to order The Black and the White

Abduction, Gillian Jackson

Abduction is an emotional psychological thriller that confronts every parent’s worst nightmare. During her third birthday party, little Grace disappears without a trace while playing a game of hide and seek.

As the years go by and the case goes cold, Grace’s parents lose hope of ever finding her and do their best to move on with their lives. But her older sister, Elise, refuses to give up. And a chance encounter leads her to believe that she may have found her…

Click here to order Abduction

Past Imperfect, John Matthews

Spanning three decades, Past Imperfect is a gripping international crime novel with a paranormal twist. In 1963, a boy is kidnapped and murdered in the French countryside. The killer is seemingly caught, but young policeman Dominic Fornier is convinced he is innocent.

In London thirty years later, a boy loses his parents in a car accident and is left comatose. And when he regains consciousness, he is plagued by eerie dreams of a life that isn’t his. When Fornier hears of a possible link between the two boys, he throws himself into a desperate race against time to catch a brutal killer and right the wrongs of the past…

Click here to order Past Imperfect

The Catherine Howard Conspiracy, Alexandra Walsh

The Catherine Howard Conspiracy is an absorbing dual timeline conspiracy thriller with a shocking twist on Tudor history. In 1539, young Catherine Howard is brought to the court of King Henry VIII to be a lady in waiting to the new queen, Ann of Cleves. But when she catches the king’s eye, her uncle begins scheming to secure a Howard heir to the throne. After the fate that befell her cousin, Anne Boleyn, Catherine is terrified of the unpredictable king and begins to fear for her life.

In 2018, Perdita and Piper Rivers inherit Marquess House from their estranged grandmother, renowned Tudor historian Mary Fitzroy. When Perdita sets out to uncover Mary’s reasons for abandoning them, she is drawn into the mysterious archives of Marquess House: a collection of letters and diaries that claim all records of Catherine Howard’s execution were falsified…

Click here to order The Catherine Howard Conspiracy

 

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Celebrating International Women’s Day

To celebrate International Women’s Day (8th March) we asked five of our authors to tell us all about their favourite female writers. Read on to find out more about their literary heroines!

Alis Hawkins, author of The Black and the White and Testament

My all-time favourite author is Joanna Trollope. An odd choice for a crime author? Not at all. Wonderful writing transcends genre, and she inspires me by drawing characters with a fine eye to dialogue and interaction; by bringing whole scenes to life with a few telling details; by making her readers care passionately about what happens to her characters.

Joanna Trollope has shown me how essential it is to do your research meticulously, to immerse your readers in the world you’re writing about – whether it’s a cathedral close or a dairy farm, a ceramics factory or a Spanish vineyard – but never to include a single unnecessary fact that might slow the action down.

Each Joanna Trollope novel begins with a single key event that turns the lives of all her interrelated characters upside down – and what else does a murder at the beginning of a book do but that?

Order THE BLACK AND THE WHITE here

Order TESTAMENT here

M. J. Logue, author of the Thomazine and Major Russell Thrillers

My busy little mind raced over all the possibilities – Tanith Lee, Storm Constantine, Dorothy Dunnett, Helen Hollick … but there can be only one, for me. Aphra Behn, of course. It’s not the what or the how of her writing, but the enigma and the old-school glamour of the writing persona she created – the international woman of mystery, the myths with which she surrounded herself – that inspires me. (Three hundred and fifty years later, she’s still a mystery!)

She was the first female literary professional, she did all her own publicity, and she’s still incredible. Possibly a spy, possibly bisexual – both, I suspect, images she manipulated to the hilt – and definitely a woman who knew how to work an audience. The fact that her plays and poems still resonate with us now is remarkable. She created characters that speak to us, no matter what clothes they’re wearing.

Order AN ABIDING FIRE here

Or find out more about the Thomazine and Major Russell Thrillers here

Deborah Swift, author of Past Encounters and The Occupation

The first Rosie Tremain novel I read was Music and Silence, set in the Danish court in the early 17th Century. Marvellously atmospheric, it shifts between different narrative styles: small vignettes that add up to a magnified version of life in Copenhagen that is so real, you feel you are there.

I’ve read all her other books since, including the more contemporary The Road Home, about an economic migrant arriving in the UK, who observes with bafflement the English obsession with status and success. I admire Tremain’s precision, and that is something I want to achieve in my own writing.

Order PAST ENCOUNTERS here

Order THE OCCUPATION here

Gaynor Torrance, author of the DI Jemima Huxley Thrillers

I write in the genre I love to read, and being an avid reader of crime fiction, there are so many female authors whose work I admire. A particular favourite of mine is Sophie Hannah. I first stumbled across her books by chance, when I borrowed a copy of Little Face from my local library. Once I started reading, I couldn’t put it down.

Since finishing that particular book, I’ve worked my way through much of the Culver Valley Crime series. I adore the originality and complexity of Sophie’s plots, which have lashings of intrigue and misdirection. The central characters, DS Charlie Zailer and DC Simon Waterhouse, are such a great pairing. They’re both so dysfunctional and vulnerable in many ways, yet somehow form a compelling and likeable team.

Order REVENGE here

Or find out more about the DI Jemima Huxley Thrillers here

Alexandra Walsh, author of The Marquess House Trilogy

She may be old-fashioned, and her comments can make me wince, but take away the occasionally dubious contents of a bygone era and Enid Blyton remains a huge inspiration with the breadth of her storytelling skill. In her adventure books, her plotting is deft and sharp, while in her fantasy books her imagination is broad and tantalising.

As a child, she shaped my reading habits but my eureka moment came when I was reading In the Fifth at Malory Towers. I was already harbouring ambitions to be a writer, but it was only a dream. Then, the heroine of the series, Darrell Rivers, wrote the school pantomime. Suddenly, I thought, If Darrell can do it, then so can I! My life path was set. From reading Enid Blyton’s work, I learned that girls were stronger and more effective if they worked together, that girls could do as much as boys and usually more, and that if you were determined you could solve anything – lessons that still resonate today.

Order THE CATHERINE HOWARD CONSPIRACY here

Or find out more about The Marquess House Trilogy here