March brings a bouquet of fresh reads for your springtime pleasure!

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Psychological thrillers are often centred around themes of obsession, trust and mistrust, revenge, identity, isolation, abuse and trauma. These themes seem particularly pertinent in today’s digital world, where our daily lives are influenced by social media, constant connection, non-stop notifications and peer pressure to present the right image of ourselves online. In fact, digital technology is so central to our lives that it’s impossible to write a psychological thriller without taking it into account. And in some psychological thrillers, our use – or misuse – of digital technology can constitute the hook or even the whole premise of the novel. 

While anyone – adults and children alike – can get sucked in to the darker side of the internet, as both the mother and a teacher of teenagers, it is partly my role to make my children – and my pupils – aware of the dangers they face in our modern connected society. But I feel ill-equipped for this. How can anything I say be credible when I didn’t grow up with a smartphone and my kids know more about digital technology than I do? Cyberbullying, sextortion, catfishing, online grooming … these terms – and the dangers they describe – simply didn’t exist when I was younger. Teens nowadays have to navigate virtual minefields that are largely unfamiliar to us and when their online world clashes with the real world, it leaves a digital record that is both global and permanent.

The recent Netflix series Adolescence highlights just how blind we, as parents, are to the digital codes that govern our children’s lives. It holds up a mirror to a society in which our youth is lost and anxious and where the dangers are often psychological and invisible.

A Mother Always Knows is my eighth psychological thriller. In writing this novel, I set out to explore the devastating impact of non-consensual intimate image sharing, commonly referred to as 'revenge porn,' on a teenage girl and her family.

When the body of Joshua Knoll is discovered in the woods, Carla Ashford fears that her daughter, Iris, will be the main suspect in his murder. After all, when he was alive, Joshua humiliated Iris in the worst possible way. But before long, Carla herself suspects that Iris may have had something to do with Joshua’s murder. How far is Carla willing to go to protect her daughter? And can a parent ever truly know their child?

Where would we be without friends, especially if you’re a crime writer, and one of your closest happens to be a DI in the murder squad? Having said that, I’ve had more death threats from him than anyone else I can think of. All joking aside, though, he has helped me enormously, and even come up with some great ideas.

Reading an article one day, he stumbled upon something called Oath Skulls; 16th-century German, usually, human, skulls used in Vehmic courts. Those courts were often secret tribunals, used mainly for swearing, binding, and sometimes, death-defying, oaths. The skulls are notably engraved with a magical, palindromic Sator Square. He emailed it over, thinking I could do something with it. Little did he know what he was letting himself in for. He should have known better; he’s often believed I am the product of a damaged mind—or words to that effect, wondering how it is I have yet to be arrested.

Bones on the Yorkshire Moors starts with the discovery of a woman’s skull mounted on a spear in a quiet garden just outside Leeds. Etched into the bone is a cryptic five by five grid of Latin words.

The problem of how to present the idea in modern day proved pretty challenging. But I had my trusty friend on hand—didn’t I?

The skull was fresh, almost impossible to identify; because it had been meticulously stripped of all hair and skin, with no sign of the rest of the body. More disturbing for Gardener, was the possible connection to a past case.

The team were realty tested, as more disembodied skulls were found, but I couldn’t settle for leaving them anywhere, like the first one appeared to have been. I felt I needed to carefully arrange them in the most prominent places, threatening the security of the entire team, particularly Gardener; each one linking back to a previous case: leaving everyone to wonder if perhaps the last one they would find may well be Gardener’s—or mine, should my detective friend actually manage to track me down and make good his threats.

The real fun of writing the book, as any author will tell you, is the research. You never know where it’s going to take you; or, when you discover something new, how it may affect the plot. The skulls eventually led me to public schools—a subject Gardener knew quite a bit about; but the most important thing I discovered, belonged in Gardener’s past, something I never really knew, which eventually brought about a really serious twist to the finale. If you do read Bones on the Yorkshire Moors, I really hope you enjoy it.

A Very Vexing Murder, my debut novel, is a cosy crime retelling of Jane Austen’s Emma, which transforms Emma Woodhouse’s mousy little sidekick, Harriet Smith, into a feisty con-woman-turned detective who is hired to investigate a murder that hasn’t yet been committed. The tyrannical Mrs Churchill tasks Harriet with breaking off the secret engagement between her nephew, Frank Churchill, and his unsuitable fiancée, Jane Fairfax, who Mrs Churchill claims is trying to kill her. What begins as a routine investigation among Highbury’s elite quickly spirals into a web of deception, dangerous secrets, and a game of survival.

As Harriet interrogates a growing list of suspects with the help of her long-suffering best friend, Robert Martin, not only does she have to contend with a potential homicidal maniac and striking out as a single woman in Regency society, but is also afraid her father (and former partner-in-crime) is out for revenge.

A Very Vexing Murder is the first book in my Harriet Smith Investigates series, published in the UK by Corvus (Atlantic Books) on 5th March 2026 and by William Morrow (HarperCollins) in the US on 12th May 2026.

As a die-hard Austen fan and a cosy crime enthusiast, I decided to bring my two passions together. While Austen’s novels predate the rise of detective fiction by a couple of decades, her work contains many of the characteristics that went on to define detective fiction as we know it today. Emma, for example, is full of secrets, scandals and concealed relationships and Austen lays plenty of clues for the astute reader to pick up on which Emma herself consistently overlooks. Austen’s wit, larger-than-life characters and insular communities lend themselves perfectly to the cosy crime subgenre and, if Austen were around today, I suspect she would enjoy a good cosy crime novel (and might even be writing them herself!)

As a dedicated Janeite, my biggest challenge in writing A Very Vexing Murder was to make sure that it stood alone as a valid cosy crime novel for those who aren’t familiar with Austen’s work. One of the best pieces advice I was given was to imagine that Jane Austen’s Emma didn’t exist (perish the thought!) and to write the story for Harriet Smith that I wanted to tell. The result, I hope, is a mystery that readers can sink their teeth into and a heroine they can root for, regardless of whether or not they are Austen fans, but also a narrative that will satisfy Janeites and encourage them to go back to Emma with fresh insights and a new appreciation of Harriet Smith. This is murder most Austen, and Harriet Smith is just the girl to solve it.

Author 1:  Author 1 wrote their PhD thesis on the origins and early development of the boy detective in British children’s literature.

Author 2:  Author 2 is writer-in-residence for an old-fashioned red telephone box in the Midlands. 

Author 3:  Author 3 has been both a professional and semi professional musician for over forty years, and once co-wrote a song entitled, 'Lock The Door & Throw Away The Key', which was entered into the Eurovision Song Contest.

Author 4: Author 4 once travelled in Cuba from Casablanca to Hershey on a train held together by rope.

Author 5: Author 5 once drove a tractor in the local carnival dressed as a ballerina.

What follows is the assassination of a music mogul—a man who had abused his power, coerced young people into doing his perverted bidding. It was assuredly an active of retribution. And so, I had to change the name. My previous four novels had all started with The. The Glass, The Duty, The Key to Murder and The Last Walk. This book was to have been called The Hit but it just seemed inadequate.

At a poolside party in the grounds of Mitch Hindley’s Scottish castle the fun was about to be broken.

Something caught Mitch’s attention. A flock of birds had risen from the trees on the hill. I wonder what disturbed them? he thought as he took a sip of champagne, his eyes focused on the copse. A strange hush fell over the terrace, Mitch’s mind blocking out the youngsters’ laughter. He could sense a dark force hiding in the distant trees.

And then came the shot that took his life.

The killing sparks a nationwide investigation. The police, convinced it was a professional hit, first pursue the mogul’s business rivals before widening their search. As DCI Suzanna McLeod digs deeper into the victim’s background and connections, threads unravel across the music industry. Suspicion eventually points to a man with a past steeped in covert operations—a man with connections to a young singer who had been part of Hindley’s talent stable.

I wrote this book in the knowledge that too many young women have been abused by people in power within the entertainment industry, as was highlighted by the #MeToo movement. I was also influenced by the continual premature death of young stars, thrust into the limelight at an early age and inadequately cared for by the businesses that profit from them – for example the recent death of former One Direction singer Liam Payne.

Retribution Song is fifth in the DCI Suzanna McLeod series and currently sits with a rating of 4.8 stars on Amazon. 

For almost three decades I reported on other people's worst days in 800 words or less.

When a young woman disappeared from a church in Glasgow in 2006, I was sent to stand outside that church and wait. At that stage we did not know the scale of what would follow. We knew only that something was wrong. In the early days we published hard facts about her disappearance and death as they emerged. The story moved fast.

Everything changed once an arrest was made and charges followed. From that point, Scottish contempt of court laws narrowed the field. There were details about the accused’s past that we knew, details that would have altered public understanding overnight, but which could not legally be printed while proceedings were live. The gap between what sat in a reporter’s notebook and what could appear on a page widened overnight.

That tension—between what you know and what you are permitted to say—shapes a crime reporter. It teaches discipline.

Over the years I covered the trials, the appeals, the aftermath. I interviewed family members. I did countless door knocks of people who knew him. I chased colour for splash pages. But the deeper narrative—how the case unfolded behind the scenes, how journalists worked within legal boundaries, and how the victims’ stories risked being overshadowed—never found space in newsprint.

Because newspapers demand urgency and straight facts. Books demand patience and detail.

Moving from daily reporting to long-form narrative forced me to slow down and re-examine material I had once filed at speed. Court proceedings read differently when you are not chasing a deadline. Structure becomes as important as revelation.

One of the biggest challenges was resisting hindsight. It is easy, years later, to write as though the ending was inevitable. It never is. In real time, stories are messy. Information arrives in fragments. You make calls with imperfect knowledge. Recreating that atmosphere without distorting the truth required care.

Crime writing, whether fiction or non-fiction, walks a fine line. Sensation is easy. Context is harder. I wanted to centre the victims and the investigative process rather than the mythology that can build around perpetrators.

It has taken two decades to tell this story in full. Not because the events were unclear, but because understanding what they meant – for journalism, for justice, and for those left behind—took time.

The latest in my 1920s cosy crime series, Death in a Scottish Tower, features Lady Persephone (Poppy to her friends) Proudfoot, the feisty almost-30 widow who, unable to use her law degree to train as a solicitor and yet determined to be of use to society, turns to the solving of crimes.  

When visiting her old university in Glasgow, a student plummets from the tower. It’s not long before Poppy learns of a similar event some years earlier: had it really been suicide or an accident, as the police seem to think? Then the body count starts to rise. The deaths point to a mysterious society calling themselves The Four Marys, after the ladies-in-waiting almost four hundred years ago of Mary, Queen of Scots. Poppy enlists the help of the handsome Highlander Inspector MacKenzie and, with her loyal Labrador, Major Lewis, and her disapproving maid, Elspeth, sets out to investigate. But as she starts to uncover the secrets surrounding the clique, she finds her own life in danger.

I live in Scotland and it’s a beautiful country, so all Poppy’s adventures are set here. In Death in a Scottish Tower, the action takes place in Glasgow and in Lochleven Castle, the notorious island prison where Queen Mary was held captive. As always, I visit the places I write about as part of my research. The Cloisters at the University of Glasgow are stunning; and to see a young man in a kilt striding through them, as I did on my visit, was especially memorable!  Lochleven Castle, on Loch Leven, is a spectacular setting, but I’m sure it would not have seemed that way to the imprisoned 24-year old Queen.  

My cosy crime novels naturally focus on crime detection, but, as with life itself, there’s humour and romance! Enough of each, I hope, to entertain readers as well as provide a set of problems to solve. 

Is the killer another student, an academic or the university’s porter? How does the fall from the tower some years ago fit in with these new killings? And what reason could anyone have to dispose of the unfortunate undergraduates?

Each book is great fun to write, and I hope fun to read!  

Lucy Andrew: Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak

Beck Lewis: Good Girl, Bad Girl by Michael Robotham

Ray Clark: The Girl in the Eagle’s Talons by Karin Smirnoff

Lydia Travers:  Engleby  by Sebastian Faulks

Let’s talk about events for readers.

Traditional book groups are everywhere, and for many people they’re a deeply rewarding experience. Reading a book in advance and then coming together to discuss it can push you out of your comfort zone and open up perspectives you might not have reached alone. Hearing how other readers responded to the same story can be genuinely eye-opening.

But that format also asks a lot. Finding the time to read, remember details, and commit to a specific date can make participation feel like a hurdle rather than a pleasure.

That’s where immersive reading comes in.

An immersive reading session is a shared, live experience. A group gathers in one place and the text is read aloud, in full. Participants may take turns reading if they wish, but there is no pressure to do so. The reading typically takes around 45–60 minutes, followed by a structured discussion.

Because everyone has just experienced the story together, conversation tends to be immediate and focused. Readers can easily refer to moments that struck them, and responses are often more instinctive and emotionally honest than in a traditional book group setting.

There’s no preparation required beyond turning up.

Crime fiction thrives on tension, moral ambiguity, and unanswered questions. Hearing a story unfold in real time sharpens all of those elements. Listeners experience suspense collectively. They notice different details. They react differently to moments of danger or misdirection. When discussion begins, the room is already alive with opinions and conflicting interpretations.

Questions arise naturally:

Short crime fiction is especially well suited to this format. A complete story can be experienced in one sitting and then unpacked in depth, without relying on memory or drifting away from the text.

The short story 'Man or Bear' was written with immersive reading in mind. It centres on the familiar internet debate: if a woman were alone in the woods, would she rather encounter a man or a bear? Hearing the story aloud and then discussing it as a group often reveals just how differently readers interpret risk, intent, and responsibility.

When it works well, immersive reading is absorbing and intense. There’s no anxiety about having “done the homework” and no pressure to perform.

Instead, readers share a moment of concentrated attention, followed by an open conversation. It’s social without being demanding, thoughtful without being academic, and often surprisingly personal.

Immersive reading works well for:

All that’s needed is a facilitator, a suitable text (generally under 7,000 words), and around two hours.

Many libraries already have reader development officers, and local authors are often keen to support or lead sessions. If you’re curious about immersive reading, your local library is an excellent place to start the conversation.

‘No Vote, No Census’ is the opening line of my new historical mystery, Murder at Big Ben.

These were the words shouted by Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst, leader of the suffragettes, as she encouraged women to boycott the 1911 census. After all, she argued, if the government has deemed us incapable of writing X on a ballot paper, how can we be expected to fill out a census form?

The head of every household was required to provide the government with details of each person residing in their dwelling on the night of Sunday 2nd April 1911 – and could incur a £5 fine or a month in prison if they refused to complete a census form.

But that didn’t stop thousands of women from rallying to Mrs Pankhurst’s call to either stay away from home that night or spoil the census form by writing ‘No Vote, No Census’ across it. 

Wealthy suffragettes and heads of colleges opened their doors to women who needed somewhere to stay for the night. In London, suffragettes camped in horse-drawn caravans on Wimbledon Common, while others hired the roller-skating rink at Aldwych and skated throughout the night.

Women who would previously never have considered breaking the law saw this as a peaceful way to protest, leaving the government and police with no choice but to ignore the widespread census evasion.

Suffragette Emily Davison took the protest one step further, deciding that if she couldn’t have a say in what went on in parliament, she could at least have it recorded as her address. Emily managed to break into the Houses of Parliament and hide overnight in a broom cupboard in the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft underneath Westminster Hall.

The following morning, the clerk of works at the House of Commons was forced to complete a census form that included Emily, noting she had been ‘found hiding in the crypt of Westminster Hall’.

In 1988, the Labour MP, Tony Benn, put up a plaque in the cupboard in the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft to mark Emily’s overnight stay in parliament on census night 1911.

In Murder at Big Ben, six suffragettes, including Emily Davison, break into the Houses of Parliament on census night. While Emily takes her rightful place in the broom cupboard of the chapel, three others hide in Big Ben. But only two leave the clock tower alive…

It’s that time of year again… the 2027 Daggers are now open for entries!

Every year the CWA awards the best novels in 13 categories, from cosies to thrillers. Read more about the awards and how to enter your book here.

Have you been thinking about joining the CWA, but the price of membership is giving you pause? The CWA has bursaries available for applicants to cover the cost of membership. The process is confidential and easier than ever. See this page for more details.

Author 1:  Lucy Andrew

Author 2:  Beck Lewis

Author 3:  Ray Clark

Author 4: Lydia Travers

Author 5: Michelle Salter