Anna Sayburn Lane

Mystery and thriller author

1920s murder mystery

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 had been murdered on Midwinter Eve. 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.

 

August newsletter: books, babies, and more!

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Well, August is only just upon us but the month has already delivered plenty of excitement! On August 3 my stepson Chris and his partner Amy welcomed their baby Minnie into the world. I’m beyond excited to be a grandmother. When you get this newsletter I’ll be visiting the family in Wales and I cannot wait to meet little Minnie.

Despite the excitement, I managed to finish the first draft of A Midwinter Murder this morning. I know I have quite a few ‘fixes’ to come back to with this one, but it’s always good to get the first draft finished. I’ll have it up for pre-order soon.

It’s been a hot, dry month by the seaside. I’ve enjoyed the flowers that grow along the shore: yellow poppies, fennel and viper’s bugloss, to name a few. I’ve also spent time growing fruit and veg on my allotment. And if you’ve ever wondered what happens if you leave the courgettes (zucchini) alone too long, I can show you! I’ve been begging friends and family to take a few marrows off my hands, and dusting down my recipes for stuffed marrow.

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

A Midwinter Murder

Cover reveal! Donna Rogers of DLR Cover designs has worked her magic again. I hope you like the cover for The Midwinter Murder as much as I do.

Marjorie is preparing for Christmas in Bloomsbury, when the unexpected arrival of Frankie and her Auntie Clara sent them rushing for the next train heading north.

The trio set off for a snow-bound Northumbrian castle to find out who killed the Earl of Ashwick on Midwinter Eve. His Lordship’s feuding family are all home for the holidays, but suspicion has fallen on his chauffeur – who happens to be Frankie’s cousin Will.

With Mrs Jameson away in the south of France, it’s up to Marjorie to save the day.

The Midwinter Murder is set in Ashwick Castle, which isn’t a real place but was inspired by the castles of Northumberland, several of which I visited on a cycling trip last August.

You might recognise the magnificent Alnwick Castle, seat of the Dukes of Northumberland, from the Harry Potter films, where it stood in for Hogwarts, or from some episodes of Downton Abbey which were filmed there. The castle dates back 900 years as a stronghold against the Scots, and the seat of the Percy family, dukes of Northumberland since 1309. The family still lives there.

I was also inspired by Bamburgh Castle, which sits on a rocky headland above the sea, and by the haunting ruins of nearby Dunstanburgh Castle, further down the coast. So although you can’t visit Ashwick Castle, you can visit plenty of the castles I had in mind when I created it.

Audiobook news

The audiobook of Murder On The White Cliffs is available on Audible now, and should be on Spotify and the other audiobook channels very soon.

Did you know you can borrow audiobooks via your local library? Why not ask them about it? I enable distribution of all my audiobooks through library services, so all of the titles in the Marjorie Swallow series published so far should be available.

Check out the audiobooks and listen to samples here.

 

 

Recommendations

August’s Mystery of the Month is Losing Leonard, the free prequel to Kelly Mason’s rollicking Lady Ellen Investigates series. In this introduction to the series, the newly-widowed Lady Ellen has to find out who she can trust in 1920s Somerset.

Other books I’ve enjoyed recently:

  • Olga Tokarczuk’s murder mystery with a difference, Drive Your Plough Over the Bones of the Dead, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones. Set in the Polish plains, it tells a story of cruelty, friendship, and revenge.
  • LC Winter’s creepy Spider, Spider, a gothic Victorian story of witchcraft and revenge. I had the pleasure of meeting author Libby at an Arvon course a couple of years ago. I devoured the story in a couple of days.

July newsletter: a new Marjorie Swallow book is on the way!

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It’s been full steam ahead this month, after changing track to start work on a new 1920s murder mystery. The spy thriller is on hold while I write the next in my Marjorie Swallow series. I’d long wanted to write a Christmas mystery for the series, which meant a June start if I was to hit that pre-Christmas deadline.

So while we sweltered through the hottest June and July on record, I busied myself in researching Christmas in 1920s Northumberland. It’s rather disconcerting to emerge from a mental picture of a midwinter night, the moon glinting off the frost and the Salvation Army band cranking out Christmas carols, to find sunbathers stretched out on the beach and the sun blazing down!

I also took time out to visit the Walmer Castle Book Fair, where I gave a short talk about the process behind my 1920s mysteries. Thanks to everyone who came along. You can see what I talked about in this article, How I Research And Write My 1920s Whodunnits.

All Aboard The Flying Scotsman

My first research challenge for the new book was to get Marjorie to Northumberland, which involved a deep dive into the history of the famous Flying Scotsman. If you missed it, you can read about in this article, All Aboard The Flying Scotsman.

In other transport news, I came across a rather fetching Rolls Royce at the Walmer Classic Car Show, which takes place handily close to my flat. The car dates from 1930, so only five years after the new book is set. The owners let me have a good look around. I didn’t tell them I was thinking about how you might sabotage it in order to surreptitiously bump off a nosy sleuth.

A writer’s get-together

One of the pleasures of June was meeting fellow authors at the Self Publishing Show Live conference in London. It was particularly fun to meet author Rosie Hunt, who has been an online friend since I started writing the Marjorie Swallow mysteries. We enjoyed a good catch-up over tea, and I enjoyed hearing what she has in store for her 1920s sleuth Lady Felicity Quick.

If you’ve yet to meet Lady Felicity, here’s a good place to start: her first adventure, Murder At Afternoon Tea. It’s free when you sign up to Rosie’s newsletter.

Rosie kindly answered my questions about her historical novel research process last year – you can catch up on her answers here.

I also caught up with Joanna Penn, a best-selling author of dark thrillers who has long been a legend on the indie author scene. I published my interview with JF Penn last week.

And I’ve also lined up a couple of historical mystery novelists I’m sure you’ll love, Benedict Brown and Lynn Morrison, to interview soon.

Recommendations

A few quick recommendations to round the month off. I’m:

  • Watching A Spy Among Friends, the ITV series that dramatised the defection of Kim Philby, on ITVX. The trio of leads (Guy Pearce, Damian Lewis and Anna Maxwell Martin) is top-notch. Pearce in particular is mesmerising as Philby, the oh-so-English spy who fooled the British establishment for decades before fleeing to Moscow when he was exposed as a spy.
  • Enjoying Dorothy Brande’s Becoming A Writer, on the grounds that it was Hilary Mantel’s favourite book about writing. If it’s good enough for Hilary, it’s more than good enough for me. It’s packed with good sense.
  • Loving LC Winter’s creepy Spider, Spider, a gothic Victorian story of witchcraft and revenge. I had the pleasure of meeting author Libby at an Arvon course a couple of years ago, and I was so excited to come across the beautiful bookshop edition of her first novel in the British Library bookshop. I devoured the story in a couple of days.

April newsletter: A new bookstore, two new cozy mysteries and all my news

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I’m in my happy place this week – getting stuck into the first draft of the new book. After all the research and planning, there’s something very satisfying about starting to write. The first 10,000 words is written and I’ve submitted the two opening chapters to my writing group for their verdict next week.

March was busy month. I had fun meeting readers at Beckenham Book Fayre (hello again to everyone who came along!) and other members of the Alliance of Independent Authors as part of London Book Fair.

I even spent a day in the office! I work freelance as a medical editor, and for the first time in about 6 years I went into offices in Fitzrovia, London, to meet my colleagues in person. It was a bright, sunny day and I had fun afterwards wandering the streets around Soho, thinking about where to site the offices of my fictional spies. I even found time for a haircut (a good haircut makes me feel like a new woman!).

Read on for audiobook news, a new independent author bookstore, and some fantastic new book recommendations.

Indie Author Bookstore

April is Indie Author Month, and to help celebrate, the wonderful people at the Alliance of Independent Authors have launched a new online book shop.

The Alliance does great work to help independent authors bring their books into the world. I’ve found their advice invaluable and they are my first recommendation when friends ask me about independent publishing.

So it’s fitting that they are bringing together all the books by Alliance members in one place, the Indie Author Bookstore. You can have a good browse and buy from whichever outlet the author links to. All of my books are there, and you can browse by genre. You’re sure to find something different and interesting.

Recommendations

I have two new cozy mysteries to tell you about this month, from two favourite authors.

First up, A Very Irish Mystery is book 26 (!) in the Lady Eleanor Swift series, and (you’ve guessed it) takes us to Ireland, where Eleanor is having a grand time cosying up with her husband in Dublin’s traditional pubs, eating Irish stew and soaking up the craic… Until another body ruins all their plans!

A tour of a brewery making Ireland’s famous black stout results in the discovery of a body in a barrel – and it belongs to the owner of the brewery. Can Eleanor catch the killer? It’s published on April 10.

Next, it’s Ella Strike’s latest Kitty Goring novel, The Scarab Society Murders. When Kitty sets sail aboard the RMS Mooltan to Alexandria, what should be a glamorous adventure turns deadly. A guest is found murdered, and the killer is hiding among the glittering passengers.

Armed with her keen mind, a scrappy little dog named Scottie, and her circle of eccentric friends, Kitty must navigate high society and treacherous waters to uncover the culprit before they strike again.

Death At Chelsea

With spring around the corner, gardeners’ thoughts turn to the upcoming Chelsea Flower Show, held every May in London’s Chelsea Royal Hospital.

If you haven’t read Death At Chelsea, my Marjorie Swallow book set at the Chelsea show, it’s going to be on offer at 99p/99c with Kindle from Wednesday 15 to Sunday 19 April. It’s also available as an audiobook.

Talking of which, my narrator Kim is working on the next in the series, so Murder On Fleet Street should be available soon for those who prefer to read with their ears.