Walks and talks

What a busy month May was! I began with a wonderful trip to Florence in Italy, where I enjoyed visiting museums, galleries, churches and palazzos, not to mention sipping wine in a Tuscan hill village. Lots of possibilities for a trip to Italy for Marjorie Swallow at some point in the future!

Back in London, I led a guided walk through Deptford for a group of American tourists who want to hear about the literary history of the area. It was a chance to revisit some of the places that inspired my first novel, Unlawful Things.

I enjoyed a study weekend exploring Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy – bliss for historical fiction fans, with talks by historians, authors and experts on all aspects of Tudor history. And I met with author friends including 1920s mystery luminaries like Benedict Brown, Lynne Morrison and Rosie Hunt at the Self Publishing Show Live 2026 conference, held opposite the Houses of Parliament at County Hall.

Mid-way through the month, my fifth Marjorie Swallow book, Death On Fleet Street, went live, so it’s now available as an audiobook. My wonderful narrator Kim Bretton is now hard at work on Murder On The White Cliffs, the last in the current series.

I also took part in the Walmer Castle Book Fair in the delightful surroundings of Walmer Castle gardens, just down the road from me.

And in between all the activity, I got some writing done. More on that next month. Read on for all the usual news, recommendations and offers.

Summer reading recommendations

Is there anything more relaxing than a book on a beach? It’s my favourite way to wind down, and you can’t beat a mystery for a spot of relaxation. Here are two books I’ve enjoyed recently.

Have you read the Augusta Peel mysteries? Emily Organ’s series set in 1920s London is very much up my street. I like her reluctant sleuth, Augusta, who would prefer to be left to a quiet life mending books in a Bloomsbury cellar, but keeps getting dragged into murder investigations. Death In Soho, the first in the series, sees her act as chaperone to a young woman intent on visiting a Soho nightclub – but she soon wishes she’d stayed at home with her books.

Death In Soho is June’s Mystery of the Month. The book is just 99p/99c from June 24 to 30. Find it here.

Jane Thynne’s Midnight In Vienna is set on the brink of World War Two, as all Europe holds its breath. Stella Fry, a young woman in search of employment, meets mystery author Hubert Newman, who is looking for a secretary to type up his latest book. But Hubert is not long for this world, and when he’s discovered dead in Westminster Abbey just hours after their lunch in his London club, she begins to suspect his death was not an accident. And what ‘mistakes’ did he want her to spot in his manuscript?

It’s an atmospheric and gripping book, and even has a walk-on role for my favourite mystery writer Dorothy L Sayers!