Storm Publishing 2024 ISBN: paperback tbc – will also be available as an ebook and an audiobook (narrated by Tamsin Kennard, who has the most gorgeous voice)
Order from Amazon UK here (affiliate link – earns me a small commission if you choose to buy the book there!), Amazon US here or Amazon Australia here; or you can order the paperback from any bookshop (all you need to do is quote the ISBN).
Georgina Drake – photographer, proud mum, and amateur detective – tackles a case that’s a little too close to home…
Georgina Drake is taking promo photos of a dress rehearsal of Macbeth, and her daughter Bea’s first starring role. But the drama becomes distressingly real when one of the actors, Neil Faulkner, is found stabbed to death. And Georgie is dismayed to see a faint spatter of blood on her daughter’s arm.
Georgie knows Bea isn’t a murderer, but the local police don’t seem inclined to trust her admittedly biased opinion. And when a distraught Bea admits that Neil was blackmailing her, things start to look serious. Undaunted, Georgie decides to prove her daughter’s innocence, even if she has to solve the case herself.
But if Bea isn’t the murderer, then who is? Someone is more than happy to let Bea take their place behind bars, and they aren’t happy about Georgie’s snooping. If she doesn’t tread carefully, she might end up as the next body beneath the stage…
An addictive and completely gripping cosy crime novel. Perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, Faith Martin and Midsomer Murders.
Behind the book
- It’s dedicated to my best friends, Fi and Phil – who’ve seen many productions with me
- It’s set mainly in London (a made-up Regency theatre in Islington) and partly in Little Wenborough, a fictional village in Norfolk – actually a mash-up of the Wensum (the river where I take my spaniels for a walk in the mornings) and Attleborough (the town where I grew up)
- The theatre is fictional, but some of the cold crime case has bits of real-life research in it (my maternal grandfather’s family is from London)
- This particular theatre is producing the Scottish Play – I thoroughly enjoyed working out my cast and which parts would double up
- There’s a cold-case crime and a modern-day crime to solve in each book in the series
- The idea for the series started when I got hearing aids, a few years back, and wondered: what if I could hear things that other people couldn’t? (Which is why there’s a character you might not expect…)
- Like me, my heroine Georgina is deaf – but neither of us let it hold us back!
- It’s not just about the murder: it’s about friendship, about making a new start in life and about second chances.
- And you can expect to find Shakespeare, spaniels, good cake, and a few sneaky musical references mixed in there
- Semi-spoiler – for those who’ve read book 1/2, this continues Doris’s story as well – and this is where you find the truth about what really happened to her
- Oh, and you might need tissues. (This is a Kate Hardy book. Of course there’s a weepie bit!)