Anna Sayburn Lane

Thriller author

Death At Chelsea

March newsletter: Celebrating a year of Marjorie Swallow

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I can’t believe it’s only a year since I started writing the Marjorie Swallow mysteries! Marjorie already feels like part of my family – perhaps because she is inspired by my wonderful grandmothers and great-aunts.

I celebrated a year of Marjorie in the way she’d have loved best: delicious afternoon tea at a posh London hotel. The Goring, which opened in 1910 around the corner from Buckingham Palace, has served royalty and statesmen for more than 100 years. It makes a brief appearance in my next mystery, Death At Chelsea. I went with a writer friend, Kathy, and strolled around St James Park afterwards, watching the pelicans on the lake.

I’m also celebrating with a free short story featuring more adventures from Mrs Jameson’s past.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Short story: Jackdaw Jubilee

Marjorie and Mrs Jameson are off to the countryside for their next adventure, Death At Chelsea. But on the way, Mrs Jameson tells Marjorie about a visit to Hawkshill Manor for the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, when a valuable piece of silver went missing.

Did she manage to retrieve it? Did the schoolchildren’s Jubilee Pageant go ahead? And did everyone enjoy a slap-up afternoon tea? Subscribe to the newsletter to find out!

 

 

 

Death At Chelsea

Death At Chelsea will be out in May in time for the Chelsea Flower Show.

The Royal Horticultural Society’s Spring Show at Chelsea is a gardening celebration attended by the Royal Family and celebrities, as well as keen gardeners. Think Superbowl for flowers!

I visited once and was amazed by the scale of the event and the beautiful display gardens. It’s a very English occasion which has been running since 1862, although it only moved to Chelsea in 1913. I loved the idea of setting a murder mystery at the show.

Thank you to everyone who has pre-ordered. If you want to be sure of getting a copy on publication day, you can do so here.

 

 

Recommendations

I had the great pleasure of visiting Sargent And Fashion at the Tate Britain Gallery, a tremendously jolly exhibition of John Singer Sargent’s portraits, with an emphasis on the wonderful clothes. Several of the outfits that the sitters wore were in the exhibition alongside the paintings, which added interest.

As you may have gathered from my books, I love beautiful clothes and get much enjoyment from concocting outfits for my characters to wear! This exhibition was very helpful for thinking about the clothes in Jackdaw Jubilee, although I couldn’t find an excuse for anyone to wear this exquisite cherry-coloured velvet gown!

 

 

 

Cozy Mysteries Promotion

If you’re still looking for more cozy mysteries, try the March Free Cozy Mysteries promotion at Bookfunnel, which you can find here.

January news: January sale, signed book giveaway and new book news

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I hope you had a restful break over the holidays. I certainly needed some quiet, after a busy, exciting and challenging year. Between Christmas and New Year, I took a little time to think through some of my highlights from 2023.

  • I wrote the first two novels in the Marjorie Swallow 1920s murder mystery series (plus the free prequel, Murder At The Ritz).
  • I was lucky enough to travel more than I had done for years – in the UK to Wales, Brighton, and Oxford, and further afield to Rome, Nice in France and Izmir in Turkey.
  • I sold more than 2,500 books, my best year as a self-published author so far.

Thank you so much to everyone for helping me meet that milestone, whether you’ve read or bought a book, posted a review or just generally been encouraging! May your 2024 be everything you wish it to be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

January sale and book giveaway
To celebrate the launch of my second Marjorie Swallow book, I’m reducing the price of the Blackmail In Bloomsbury e-book to 99p/99c in the UK and the US for the whole of January. If you’ve been meaning to get a copy, now’s the time! And then you’ll be ready to dive into the new book, The Soho Jazz Murders, in a couple of weeks.

I also have three signed copies of The Soho Jazz Murders to give away, to the first three people who reply to this email with the answer to the question at the bottom of this letter! So keep reading for your chance to win.

All That Jazz!

I loved writing The Soho Jazz Murders. Jazz music in the 1920s was the equivalent of punk in the 1970s or rock ‘n’ roll in the 1950s – rebellious, youthful and disapproved of by mainstream society.

So I enjoyed thrusting Marjorie into a night club full of jazz musicians, dance hostesses of dubious morality, aristocrats and gangsters. She visits the Harlequin with Daisy Caldwell, the jazz-loving flapper niece of the American ambassador to London. And when disaster ensues, Marjorie is drawn deeper into peril as she investigates the illegal drugs trade.

The Soho Jazz Murders is Marjorie’s biggest challenge yet. It’s coming out on January 18 and I can’t wait for you to read it!

Book news
If you follow me on Amazon (which you can do here) you may have spotted that I have a third book in the Marjorie Swallow series in the works, Death At Chelsea.

Marjorie thinks that an assignment to investigate the sabotage of plants destined for the famous Chelsea Flower Show will make a restful change from murder… but soon it’s not just the flowers that are dying. Even the prettiest bouquet can be poisonous!

It’s due to publish in May. If you want to pre-order, you can do so here.

Recommendations
Before Christmas I had the great fortune to go to the stage production of Cabaret in London’s West End. I’ve always loved the musical and this production was stunning – raw, thrilling and decadent. Expensive, but highly recommended.

I love a wander around an art gallery or museum in the run-up to Christmas. I visited the National Portrait Gallery in London for the first time since it’s big rebuild and I loved it. I always enjoyed visiting as a child, seeing all the Holbein portraits of Henry VIII and his wives, which really brought history to life. This time I focused on the early 20th century, finding out about the women artists, policewomen and photographers active during the 1920s.

The Christmas break is always a good time to catch up on reading. I love a historical thriller, and I’m devouring Robert Harris’s gripping novel set in the aftermath of the English civil war, Act of Oblivion. It’s not so far from a detective novel, with a man hunting down the men who signed Charles I’s death warrant, from an uneasy England to the New World.

Cozy mystery promos
Just one e-book promotion to tell you about this month – the January Cozy Mysteries Wonderland Sales Event. I’m taking part with Blackmail In Bloomsbury and there are loads of other cozy mysteries to browse, too.

The big question!
To win a signed copy of The Soho Jazz Murders, tell me: Who was the murder victim in Blackmail In Bloomsbury? First three out of the bag are winners.

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