Welcome to the New Reads edition of the Readers' News. See what's just arrived, or what's coming soon. And don't forget to check out all of the exciting events happening this month for National Crime Reading Month!

Occasionally, the Readers' News may be so feature packed that some email clients cut it off. Don't worry! You can always read the Readers' News online here.

My seventh novel, Phantom at the Feast, is the follow-up to my last one, The Fountain in the Forest, and marks the return of Detective Sergeant Rex King of Holborn Police Station in London. The novel is set against a backdrop of the current Undercover Policing (or ‘spycops’) Inquiry, and years of government cuts, while the investigation stretches back to the death of a union official during the UK Miners’ Strike of 1984–85. 

Readers are sometimes surprised to learn that traditionally-published authors don’t generally have too much of a say in our book covers. Sometimes we get to input, but our ideas might be based on little more than guesswork. Luckily, book publishing is in many ways a collaborative process, and there’ll be others on the team who are book cover experts. Which is not to say every cover turns out great, but to acknowledge the experience, overview, and fast-moving design literacy that goes into harnessing all the work a cover must do, not just in story terms, but across retail, library, print, and other bookish settings.

I’m thrilled with No Exit Press’s cover for Phantom at the Feast, and am grateful to all involved. I love designer Mark Ecob’s zingy typography, and that this frames a striking and otherworldly image by my friend the great London photographer Chris Dorley-Brown. It’s a fitting choice: Chris and I have collaborated before, and we share a long-term interest in London as subject matter: me with novels like Foxy-T, set in a rapidly changing Whitechapel at the turn of the Millennium; while Chris set up his photographic practice in 1984, concentrating on documenting East London, focussing on social housing, workplaces and architecture. This image is part of a recent series called Near Dark, that reflect London at dusk. 

At the inaugural Bloody Barnes crime fiction festival back in February, I bumped into multi-award-winning author Vaseem Khan, who’d just arrived from his home in the East End. When I showed him the cover, Vaseem did a double-take: 'I know where that is!'

'Yes,' I said, 'Stratford High Street!'

There is a (fictional) minicab office at the centre of the investigation, and Stratford, London E15 features briefly but decisively in the novel, when... Ah, but that would be a spoiler! I hope you like our cover, and I very much hope you enjoy the return of DS Rex King in Phantom at the Feast.

Read more about Tony and his books here.

Phantom at the Feast by Tony White is coming on 18 June from No Exit Press. You can pre-order it here.

I was a handwriting analyst for more than fifty years before I decided to start killing. On paper, of course—I’m not a homicidal maniac. 

As a mystery lover ever since I found Enid Blyton’s Rockingdown Mystery in the pile of presents on my eighth birthday, I always wanted to write one. I’d had two non-fiction books published on handwriting psychology, but mystery writing was a very different challenge.

We’re often told to 'write what you know.' Having written from a male detective’s point of view, and I’m neither male nor a detective, I’ve never entirely believed that. Still, two devastating cases involving fellow handwriting analysts found their way into my fiction.

People tend to assume handwriting analysis is a quiet, academic profession. The truth is, documents often sit at the center of betrayal, greed, obsession, and desperation. A signature can change a will, destroy a reputation, end a marriage, or send someone to prison. The emotional stakes can be enormous.

Poison Pen is based on a colleague who, in her mid-30s, was found dead of an overdose. The coroner, ignoring signs that pointed elsewhere, ruled it suicide. Under the cover of being a handwriting analyst, she was an international madam and a dominatrix with a little black book containing high profile names. The “

'suicide note' in the book is challenged as a forgery. 

In Written in Blood, another colleague—a lovely woman, also in her 30s—was apparently strangled by her partner, her body stuffed in the boot of her car. He didn’t remember killing her, but said he must have done, and was convicted. In my story, a wealthy older man has died and his children accuse his young wife of forging his will (don’t worry, there is a connection).

Long ago, I heard about a couple in Washington—two handwriting analysts—who were bludgeoned to death by someone who didn’t like the opinion they gave in his case. I haven’t used that one yet…

As the mother of a daughter who was killed by her partner, I take murder very seriously. I write psychological suspense, not cozies. The crimes I write about may be fictionalized, but the emotions behind them are not. The darkest acts rarely begin with monsters. More often, the people behind them carry secrets, resentment, fear, or rage—and inevitably leave traces of themselves behind in ink.

In my new novel, The Lies Between the Lines, two of Claudia Rose’s cases—anonymous threats sent to a tech CEO, and a young man accused of car theft—explore exactly that.

Read more about Sheila and her books here.

The Lies Between the Lines by Sheila Lowe is coming on 17 June from Write Choice Ink. You can order it here.

Locked room mysteries have fascinated me for years. I associate them with quirky TV shows like Jonathan Creek and Death in Paradise, where the sleuth is presented with an impossible crime scene and solves the puzzle by the end of the episode. How can murder have been committed in a locked or inaccessible location where a killer couldn’t enter or leave unnoticed? The sleuth’s mission is not only to apprehend the fiendishly inventive killer but also to discover how the crime was orchestrated.  

Early examples of this crime fiction sub-genre were short stories, namely Edgar Allan Poe’s 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue' (1841) and Conan Doyle’s 'The Adventures of the Speckled Band '(1892).  One of Agatha Christie’s most acclaimed novels is And Then There Were None (1939) is set on an island, cut off from the mainland where no one can arrive or leave. The ten people there are victims, suspects and killers –- but which is which? And how is the killer able to strike repeatedly without the others realising their identity?

Despite the locked room mystery having been around for years with many authors throwing their writing pen into the ring, fresh approaches are still possible. A recent example is Dead Mile by Jo Furniss (2024), where a murder takes place on a gridlocked motorway. Which car in the traffic jam contains the culprit and how were they able to enter another vehicle and kill without being seen?

This year I’ve created my own locked room setting. In Her Rising Star, the third book in the Gloucestershire Crime Series, DI Steph Lewis comes under an unforgiving media spotlight when murder is committed live on air. During a West Gloucestershire Police conference in Cheltenham Town Hall, Steph is summoned to a nearby film studio. Viewers of a popular chat show have reported one of the panelists collapsing on screen. At the scene, Steph discovers the man sprawled on the floor. The livestream is still running, other panellists are horrified and the studio is in chaos. 

Is the death accidental, the result of a severe allergy, or is there more to the fatality than meets the eye? And if so, how was that possible in the locked studio in full view of the audience watching at home? Then a video of the detective’s unsuccessful resuscitation attempt goes viral, causing Steph unwelcome media attention. She must ignore the press intrusion to investigate the suspects: the producer, the studio runner, the cameraman and the diverse cast of panelists. Nothing about this on-screen death adds up. Is just one of them a murderer? Or do they all have something to hide?
 

Read more about Rachel and her books here. 

Her Rising Star is published by Hobeck Books, and you can buy it here.

June is National Crime Reading Month, presented by the Crime Writers' Association, in partnership with The Reading Agency.

Readers, check out the NCRM website to find author events, crime festivals, and more in your area. 

Writers, are you having an event in June? Tell us about it here and let us give your event a free boost on our socials! 

And everyone, let's celebrate our favourite genre!

A hotel full of ghosts. A haunting murder. A most unusual investigation...

August 1915: Alma Timperley is fully settled in the bustling coastal town of Falmouth with her fiancé, Alan. In her new role as owner of the extraordinary Timperley Spiritualist Hotel, Alma offers residents the chance to contact the dead -- and since the start of the war, the hotel has never been busier.

But when a guest is found dead in their bed, talking to ghosts is suddenly the least of Alma's worries. The police are quick to suspect foul play, which can only mean one thing: there is a killer lurking in the hotel's shadows.

Time is of the essence, so Alma is recruited by the police to help with their investigation. Can she crack the case, before she finds herself in grave danger?

A Ghost Hunter's Guide to Catching a Killer is available now from Hodder Paperback. You can purchase it here.

Discover nine dark and twisted mysteries from bestselling author Rachel Amphlett in this second collection of disturbing short stories.

This second page-turning collection features The Date, in which Lucy and Michael meet every year for a sinister  anniversary; in All Night Long Zoe soon wishes she wasn't working the late shift; and in A Burning Question a young Detective Kay Hunter suspects a serial arsonist is targeting a small community of river dwellers with chilling results...

Case Files: Collected Short Crime Stories Volume 2:

The Date
The Back Nine
The Protégé
Devil of a Favor
Six Underground
Three Ways to Die
A Toxic Remedy
All Night Long
A Burning Question

Case Files: short crime fiction stories that will have you on the edge of your seat.

Case Files, Volume Two is available now from Saxon Publishing. You can purchase it here.

Welcome to Westport, where the wild beauty of Ireland’s western coast hides deadly secrets…

Reeling from a devastating breakup, landscape gardener Ali Brennan escapes to the small coastal town of Westport, hoping its rugged shoreline and quiet rhythms will help her rebuild her life. But peace is short lived when wealthy landowner John Clifford-Murphy is found dead on a remote island in Clew Bay – alone, and inexplicably without his phone or vital medication.

The local Gardaí are quick to rule the death an accident. Ali isn’t so sure… especially when Clifford-Murphy’s widow begs her to look more closely. Joined by her enthusiastic college-dropout nephew, Gav, Ali begins to ask questions the tight-knit community would rather leave unanswered. And when her ex-boyfriend, Detective Aidan Cahill, turns up to inform her that her life is under threat, Ali is forced to confront the past she thought she’d left behind.

As secrets surface, the danger escalates. When Ali herself becomes a target – waking terrified and alone on the shores of nearby lake Doo Lough – it’s clear the investigation has drawn her into something far darker than she ever imagined. Can Ali uncover the truth before the killer strikes again?

The Clew Bay Detectives is available now from Storm Publishing. You can purchase it here.