Anna Sayburn Lane

Mystery and thriller author

New novel

September newsletter: book news, pre-orders for The Midwinter Murder, and recommendations

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Anna Sayburn Lane and Grandpa Phil at St David's CathedralI’m writing with my windows open to enjoy the sound and scent of the first proper rainfall we’ve had for months. Outside, the green is more of a brown, with scorched grass and bare patches, the same colour as the stony beach beyond. We need plenty more, but I’m enjoying the cooler air and fresh scent of petrichor.

August was quite a month! I finished writing The Midwinter Murder, and sent it to my long-standing editor Alison Jack. It’s ready to pre-order from the Kindle Store now.

The audiobook of the previous mystery, Murder On The White Cliffs, went live on audiobook sites. This is the sixth book on which I’ve worked with actor Kim Bretton, who always does a lovely job. I like to keep her on her toes, so I threw in an epilogue set in Rome to test her Italian accents.

But all this activity was eclipsed by my highlight of the month: meeting my granddaughter, Minnie Penelope. She’s perfect: dark hair, blue eyes, clear skin, ten tiny fingers and toes.

Grandpa Phil and I travelled to Pembrokeshire in Wales, where my stepson Chris and his partner Amy were adjusting to the new arrival. We stayed in a picture-perfect holiday rental, a shepherd’s hut in a field with a view over St Bride’s Bay. A perfect weekend!

I’ve also spent a lot of time on my allotment (for non-UK readers, this is a patch of land I rent cheaply from the town council, where I can grow fruit and vegetables), which has produced a bumper crop of courgettes (zucchini) which turn into marrows the minute my back is turned, and lots of lovely tomatoes.

Read on for book news, audiobook news, offers and recommendations.

Book News

The Midwinter Murder will be published on November 12 and is ready to pre-order now on the Kindle Store.

Pre-orders are really helpful for indie authors like me. Plenty of pre-orders tell Amazon that people are interested in the book, so they suggest it to other readers. It’s also very encouraging for me!

A friend recently told me she’d recommended my audiobooks to a relative going through a difficult time, and that she’d found them a welcome escape. Knowing that someone has enjoyed my books is such a boost. After all, there’d be no point writing them if you didn’t read them!

I do hope you’ll enjoy Marjorie’s Christmas outing.

Do you know what a priest’s hole is?

That’s not a joke! In Elizabethan England, Catholic priests were outlawed and the families who held to the old faith of Roman Catholicism could be executed for harbouring a priest in their homes.

So many of the stately homes of England from that period, especially those belonging to Catholic families, have a ‘priest’s hole’ – a hidden chamber where priests could hide if the agents of the state came calling.

I found out about them as part of research for The Midwinter Murder. You can read more about them on my Substack publication, The Stories Behind The Story.

Recommendations

Verity Bright has a new book out! Lady Swift and her handsome husband are charmed when they visit Stratford-on-Avon. Everyone is abuzz with chatter about the upcoming production of Macbeth… But wait, is that a body backstage? Murder Stage Left is the 26th in the Lady Eleanor Swift series.

Other things I’ve enjoyed recently:

  • William Shaw’s Burning Tide. When temporarily-unemployed policeman Eden Driscoll is approached in his tiny Devon village by a man who says someone’s trying to kill him, he doesn’t want to get involved. But soon he is involved, deeper than he could possibly realise. And who’s taking care of his orphaned nephew Finn while Eden is off sleuthing? Shaw’s books are always well-constructed page-turners.
  • A little late to this, but the BBC TV comedy Ann Droid featuring Diane Morgan and Sue Johnson. Both actresses are terrific and I’ve loved Diane Morgan’s previous comedy. I found this wry and charming.

The Midwinter Murder: pre-order now for Christmas!

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The seventh in the Marjorie Swallow series sees Marjorie and Frankie hop aboard the Flying Scotsman for a Christmas mystery adventure. They’re headed for remote Ashwick Castle, where the Earl of Ashwick was murdered on Midwinter Eve, 1925. The local police think they know the culprit, but Marjorie is pretty sure they’ve got it wrong. Can she save an innocent man – and discover the true murderer?

The Midwinter Murder will be published on November 12. Pre-order The Midwinter Murder on the Kindle Store.

 

February newsletter: Who murdered the media mogul? Extract from my new novel.

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Congratulations – you made it through January! I admit, I find the first month of the year a challenge. I love the cosiness of Christmas, but once the year has turned it feels like a long haul until spring. I’ve spent the month revising my new novel, making plans and doing a lot of reading. I’ve also indulged my love of flowers with some narcissi for my study, and enjoyed seeing these little cyclamen while out on a brisk, chilly walk in my 1920s-style cloche hat! What’s your top tip for keeping cheerful in gloomy weather?

Read on for more about my plans for audio books, recommendations for books, podcasts and television, and firstly, an exclusive extract from my new book, Death On Fleet Street, which will be published next month.

 

 

DEATH ON FLEET STREET: chapter one

Miss Beatrice Waddon breezed into the room like the figurehead of a ship, her noble brow and wide blue-grey eyes conveying a tremendous air of forward motion.

I jumped up from my desk to greet her. The young woman was the first proper client to have made an appointment at Mrs Jameson’s detective agency since Christmas, and I was keen to see what new adventure her arrival might bring.

‘Good morning. I’m Marjorie Swallow, Mrs Jameson’s secretary. Please, take a seat. I’ll let Mrs Jameson know you’re here.’

Miss Waddon shook my hand with a firm grip. ‘I appreciate you fitting me in at short notice, Miss Swallow. The matter is rather urgent.’

She wore a smart walking suit of tobacco-brown French serge, with jet beading at the collar and cuffs, and a rather chic black velvet hat. I felt rumpled by comparison, and pulled down my jacket sleeve to cover an ink splodge on the cuff of my blouse.

I ran to fetch Mrs Jameson from the drawing room, where she was reading The Times with a despondent air.

‘There you are, Marjorie. Has Miss Waddon arrived? Thank heavens. I am in severe need of distraction. The newspapers never have anything cheerful to report.’ Like me, Mrs Jameson thrived on a knotty investigation and got fretful between cases.

Unlike me, she looked as regal as Queen Mary as she entered the office, in a day dress of bottle-green cashmere with a matching turban.

‘Good morning, Miss Waddon. Marjorie, please ring for coffee. Now, how may we be of assistence?’

Miss Waddon picked up her handbag, snapped it open and withdrew a piece of paper, which she handed to my employer.

‘Please tell me what you think of this.’

Mrs Jameson read quickly, her fine grey eyes scanning the paper. She compressed her lips and handed it to me. ‘Marjorie?’

It was newspaper cutting, the ink slightly smudged on the soft paper. The headline read: ‘An unfortunate accident.’

‘Fleet Street was today plunged into mourning by the death of the popular newspaper proprietor Lord Ravensbourne, at the age of fifty one,’ I read. ‘The first Baron Ravensbourne is said to have suffered an unfortunate accident. His death, we understand, was instantaneous. He is survived by his second wife, Lady Ravensbourne (formerly Miss Annabel Quick) and his four children.’

I frowned. ‘It doesn’t say what the accident was.’ I raised my eyes to our visitor, puzzled. ‘I didn’t know Lord Ravensbourne was ead.’

‘He’s not,’ said Miss Waddon, crisply. ‘He’s my father. And that notice is dated one week from today.’

I checked. Monday, the twenty-fifth of February, 1924. As Miss Waddon said, a week away. A prickle ran up my neck. A death notice, one week early, of a man who was still very much alive…

Want to know what happens next? Death On Fleet Street will be published in March. Why not pre-order now?

Plans for 2025

I’ve wanted to make the Marjorie Swallow books available as audiobooks for a while, and I’m finally underway. My chosen narrator, Kim Bretton, is immensely experienced in audiobooks and loves cozy mysteries. Kim narrates Magda Alexander’s popular Kitty Worthington books, so she knows the 1920s period well. I hope to release Blackmail In Bloomsbury as an audiobook in March or April, with the others following on.

I’m starting research for the next Marjorie Swallow mystery now. I plan to publish three this year: Death On Fleet Street in March, then one in the summer and another just before Christmas.

I also plan to start work on a new short series of mysteries this year, set in a different historical period. I’m interested in the Regency, a short decade where a lot changed – a bit like the 1920s. I’m doing my research now, so I’ll let you know how I get on.

Recommendations

I was thrilled to be asked to join London tour guides Fiona and Alex on their Ladies Who London podcast. Ladies Who London takes a light-hearted look at some of the lesser known histories of the capital – I’m a big fan and recommend it to anyone who loves London and history. I was wearing another of my hats on this episode, as walk leader for the Refugee Tales walking project. This year we are walking around London on the Capital Ring route, so that was the focus of our talk – but we talked about writing, too! You can listen in here.

The book I’ve enjoyed most this year so far is also about London history. London Clay by Tom Chivers is a fascinating blend of geology, deep history, memoir and exploration. Tom tracks the routes of lost rivers, descends into the sewers, pokes around in the remains of London’s woodland and wetlands and communes with the spirits of Roman and medieval Londoners. It’s rather brilliant.

I’ve also enjoyed the second series of Lucy Worsley Investigates, where the historian takes a closer look at some of the better-known episodes of British history, from the Norman Conquest of 1066 to the Whitechapel murders attributed to ‘Jack the Ripper’. She uses modern historical techniques to question some of the myths about the subjects. I particularly liked her focus on the sensational reporting of the new mass media newspapers at the time of the Whitechapel murders, and how they fuelled the first ‘true crime’ obsession.

The big question!

What are your top tips for keeping cheerful when the weather (and the news) is gloomy? Hit reply and let me know! I’ll include a selection of ideas in my next newsletter.

Wishing you a fabulous February, and happy reading!

September Newsletter: one month to go!

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It’s all systems go at the seaside as I put the final touches to Blackmail In Bloomsbury, ready for launch next month. The book is back from the proof-reader; I’ve sent copies to the book bloggers for review and – most exciting of all – I’ve finally held a copy in my hands. No matter how many books I publish (and this is number five) nothing beats seeing your words down on paper in a ‘proper’ book for the first time!

You can pre-order Blackmail In Bloomsbury today!

And onto the next…

In August I dived into writing the first draft of the next Marjorie Swallow murder mystery, The Soho Jazz Murders. I absolutely love this part of writing; when the story is fresh in your mind and you have the fun of introducing the characters that have popped into your head, creating the settings and making sure all the elements needed are in place. I’m more than halfway through the first draft now.

Research for this book has been exciting. I’ve read about 1920s nightclubs, flappers, early jazz musicians and organised crime. I’ve enjoyed learning some of the slang of the era – my favourite is the phrase ‘giggle juice’ for booze! I can certainly relate to that after a glass or two of my sleuth Mrs Jameson’s favourite cocktail, the French 75 (recipe below).

So what is the story about? Well, I don’t want to give away spoilers but it involves Freddie the pianist, the American ambassador’s wayward niece, and Marjorie going ‘undercover’ as a dance hostess in a Soho nightclub on the trail of a drugs gang. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.

Recommendations: books, blogs and booze

Did you know that Dorothy L Sayers, one of the greats of ‘Golden Age’ crime fiction, worked in advertising? The wit and wordplay of copywriting obviously stood her in good stead. It also provided the setting for one of her most enjoyable novels, Murder Must Advertise. I read it for the first time recently and was blown away by its contrasting witty tone and dark subject matter. I found it completely gripping and loved the pin-sharp dissection of the work of an advertising agency.

I read it on the recommendation of Kate Jackson, a prolific blogger about classic crime and author of the entertaining-sounding British Library book How To Survive A Classic Crime Novel. I’m a big fan of the British Library’s crime books, so I’ll be picking up a copy next time I’m there for research. Kate also wrote a very funny blog post, Dorothy L Sayers Guide to Amateur Sleuthing, which you might enjoy.

My version of the French 75 comes from Cecil Beaton’s Cocktail Book, a splendid publication which kept me amused during those long evenings of lockdown. As well as delightful recipes to try, it includes lots of inspiring photographs of the Bright Young Things photographed by Beaton in his studio. As the book says, the French 75 is ‘a beautifully straightforward sweet and sour combination, with a charge of gin and a bubbling fuse of champagne leading to a kick likened to the French 75 field gun.’

Here’s how: Shake 25ml gin, 20ml lemon juice, 10ml sugar syrup together and fine strain into a champagne flute, then top up with champagne and garnish with a lemon twist. Cheers!

 

July newsletter: Blackmail In Bloomsbury cover design

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I hope you enjoyed Murder At The Ritz, the first Marjorie Swallow adventure. Blackmail In Bloomsbury, the first full-length novel in the series, is on track to publish in October. Here’s the cover! Thanks to Donna Rogers, my amazing cover designer, for another beautiful design.

A bohemian party, a handsome artist – and murder
At her first Bloomsbury party, Marjorie Swallow enjoys dancing, conversation, and the attentions of a handsome artist.
But for one guest, the night ends in murder – and Marjorie’s artist friend is a prime suspect. From the garden squares of Bloomsbury to the seedy backstreets of Soho, trainee detective Marjorie and her employer Mrs Jameson undertake a perilous hunt for the killer.
Can they save an innocent man from the gallows? Is it ever a good idea to blackmail a murderer? And will Marjorie’s new satin T-strap shoes be ruined forever?
If you enjoyed Murder At The Ritz, I think you’re going to love Blackmail In Bloomsbury.

Join my advance readers club!
I’m looking for more readers to join my advance readers club. How does it work? You get a free advance e-book copy of Blackmail In Bloomsbury, in return for letting me have your feedback within two weeks. That helps me to spot any clangers that have got past me and my editors. Then, when the book is published, I’d be most grateful if you could post an honest review on websites like Amazon and Goodreads. Fancy getting involved? Hit ‘return’ and let me know.

More about Marjorie

So who is Marjorie Swallow, my new sleuth? Marjorie seemed to spring to life almost fully-formed, perhaps because I drew on my own family for inspiration. For a start, Marjorie is my middle name. I hated it at school, I love it now!

My grandmother Marjorie Swaddling (born Marjorie Ball) grew up in South London, one of 10 children. She’s bottom right in the photo. She grew up in the 1920s and 1930s, living above the builder’s yard in Lee High Road. After working as a hairdresser she met and married my grandfather Dave Swaddling, who had a bicycle and toy shop in Catford. So my mother – like Marjorie Swallow – was the daughter of a Catford shop-keeper and also won a scholarship to Sydenham High School for Girls.

My grandmother and mother grew up in the aftermath of the two world wars that shaped the 20th century. As a child, I learned about Auntie Vi (the child on her mother’s knee), whose fiancé died in the second world war, and Auntie Dulcie (bottom left), whose husband was also killed. My grandfather was away fighting in France when my mother was a small child. It’s this aftermath of war, and the changes it brought, that first sparked my interest in writing about the 1920s.

What I love most about Marjorie Swallow is her mixture of innocence and quick-wittedness. She enjoys life, she’s kind and courageous – and she has a great sense of humour. Perhaps the many excellent women in my family history were peering over my shoulder while I wrote?

What I’ve enjoyed this month
The book I’ve enjoyed most this month is Stephen Bates’ fascinating The Poisonous Solicitor, a true-life 1920s murder mystery investigation. Did the mild-mannered small-town solicitor poison his wife with arsenic? Or was he really intending to use it to eradicate the dandelions in the lawn?

I’m also getting into the Shedunnit podcast by Caroline Crampton, which unravels the mysteries behind classic detective stories. From the forensics of Agatha Christie to 1920s slang, it’s a treasure trove for aspiring classic crime authors.

Free cozy crime and historical mysteries
There’s a banquet of crime and historical mysteries this month! I’m taking part in three promotions via Bookfunnel. Murder At The Ritz will be featured, along with lots more e-book free novels and novellas. Why not take a look?

Cozy Mystery Freebies

Free Cozy Mysteries

Historical Fiction Freebies

The big question!
What did you think of Murder At The Ritz? I love hearing from readers, so do let me know.

Haven’t downloaded your copy yet? Sign up below.

June newsletter: your exclusive free novella

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It’s finally here – the first Marjorie Swallow adventure. Murder at the Ritz will be the first in a new series of murder mysteries set in 1920s London. The novella is available free to all newsletter subscribers.

Tea, cucumber sandwiches and a sprinkle of cyanide…
October 1922. Marjorie Swallow isn’t a regular at The Ritz. But she really, really wants this job. She’s been summoned to an interview to become a personal secretary to the mysterious Mrs Jameson, who wants assistance with ‘social engagements and private investigations’.
Over afternoon tea in the Palm Court, Marjorie’s detective skills are put to the test when a fellow guest keels over in suspicious fashion. Who killed the colonel? There are no shortage of people who wanted him dead. But which of them managed to slip a spoonful of poison into his Darjeeling?

Murder At The Ritz is exclusive to newsletter subscribers – if you’re not already on the list, sign up below.

Deal Festival reminder

Tickets are selling like hot cakes for my panel session at the Deal Music and Arts Festival! If you want to hear me and William Shaw talking about crime writing by the seaside, you’ll need to book soon. Check out the website here: https://dealmusicandarts.com/festival/

Research
While the first full book in the series, Blackmail in Bloomsbury, was with the editor, I took the opportunity to do some in-person research in London. I enjoyed a (rather damp) tour of London’s West End crime hotspots, and a trip to the Bow Street police museum, tucked around the back of what was formerly Bow Street police station and magistrates court.

The eye-opening tour taught me about the close working relationship between police at Bow Street and the various nightclub owners, criminal gangs and pornographers of Soho. Apparently businesses only got raided if they weren’t sufficiently generous in their hospitality to certain policemen. Oddly enough, Bow Street museum didn’t make much of this – but you can see the original cells where the likes of the Pankhursts, Oscar Wilde and the Kray twins were held before their appearance before the magistrates.

Recommendations
Staying with the 1920s crime and nightlife theme, I’m really enjoying Kate Atkinson’s Shrines of Gaiety, a novel set among the women running and working for 1920s nightclubs. It owes a lot to the true history of Kate Meyrick, the Soho ‘Queen of Clubs’ I heard all about on my West End walk.