Blog – Anne Coates

Murder in the Lady Chapel

Murder in the Lady Chapel is the sixth book in the Hannah Weybridge series.

“All that is now hidden will some day come to light. If you have ears, listen! And be sure to put into practice what you hear.” Mark 4, verse 22

A chorister is found dying in the Lady Chapel when the Reverend Peter Savage is about to begin morning prayers. It’s a suspicious death and no one seems to know much about the victim. The vicar implores Hannah Weybridge to find out what she can.

Little did the journalist know that this investigation would have her joining the choir in preparation for the Christmas services or that her daughter, Elizabeth, would be so enchanted by the church.

Hannah soon discovers that the deceased, Daniel Lyons, seems to be a man without a history and that’s suspicious in itself. Apparently, an insurance fraud investigator, he leaves no records: even his landlady knows little about him.

But, as Hannah discovers, someone does know him – and he was definitely not who he seemed to be…

And while she investigates, someone is trying to intimidate Hannah in a series of seemingly unconnected ways. The past as well as the present haunts her. Will she be able to solve the mystery before Christmas is ruined?

Murder in the Lady Chapel is available in bookshops and libraries (sometimes you need to order) and online from Blackwell’s with a £1 discount and free delivery.

Ebooks and paperbacks are also available from Amazon, the former is free on Kindle Unlimited.

Urban Fox Books

Urban Fox Books is the new imprint I have created to reprint my Hannah Weybridge crime thriller series and in preparation for the launch of book six – Murder in the Lady Chapel – on 21 November, 2023

The series so far Includes:

Dancers in the Wind

Death’s Silent Judgement

Songs of Innocents

Perdition’s Child

Stage Call

All are available on Amazon as paperbacks and ebooks, the latter are free with Kindle Unlimited.

The series is available to order from bookshops and online from Blackwell’s with free delivery and £1 discount,

Killer Bodies by Heleen Kist

I love a locked room murder mystery and Heleen Kist has aced it with her latest novel, Killer Bodies, choosing as the setting a private gym for residents of an exclusive Edinburgh apartment block. One of the receptionists, Evie, has an amazing talent for drawing manga type graphics depicting ways she’d kill off those who use the gym and irritate her… She shares her thoughts with Mrs M the only resident she has any time for and who isn’t a gym user…

On her birthday Evie is called in to work as the other receptionist is apparently sick. Most of the residents have received a notification that the gym will be closed for repairs – apart from six who all turn up. Evie has a reason to dislike all of them except S the newest resident… When one of them keels over on an exercise bike, Evie puts her first aid training to the test but to no avail and to make matters immeasurably worse the phones aren’t working, there’s no internet access and the gym doors are all locked. When another resident collapses, Evie realises the deaths resemble her drawings. Is she being framed or will she be a victim?

If you like dark humour mixed with your murder you’ve got the right book! A bonus is the drawings throughout the book. Kist has a cast of rather unlikeable – if not downright despicable – characters and you will be on the edge of your seat wondering who will be next as the body count rises and tempers fray.

So who is behind all these deaths? Heleen Kist creates intriguing twists and turns to keep you guessing right until the end as you try to work out how characters die and why. Read carefully and pick up the clues as you proceed but beware of red herrings and unreliable narratives.

Killer bodies is available as an ebook and paperback on Amazon.

Thirty Days of Darkness by Jenny Lund Madsen

As soon a I read that Jenny Lund Madsen is an acclaimed scriptwriter – her work includes the international hit, Follow the Money, which is one of my favourites – I knew I was in for a treat with her début literary thriller, Thirty Days of Darkness translated by Megan E. Turney. Indeed Thirty Days of Darkness won the Harald Mogensen Prize for Best Danish Crime Novel of the year and was shortlisted for the coveted Glass Key Award.

This novel is a dark but sometimes humorous narrative following the trials of Danish literary novelist Hannah Krause-Bendix who, having taken up the challenge to write a popular crime novel in a month, finds herself in a small town in Iceland where two days after her arrival a murder takes place – or at least a suspicious death. The victim is the nephew of her host, Ella, who speaks neither Danish or English but manages to communicate a little via writing the latter – after a fashion. The limited hours of of daylight and the haunting landscape play a major role in creating mood and motivation.

Never having had a bad review for her literary works, and contemptuous of genre fiction, Hannah searches desperately for a plot. Could she use the unfolding drama in the small town? Maybe if she follows the clues it will inspire her? She gives little thought to the sensitivities of those involved and if she were staying in an Airbnb should wouldn’t receive any accolades as a guest. Ella is amazingly forgiving until Hannah breaks into her host’s locked study! What was she thinking? Actually she was looking for alcohol – something she relies on more than she’d care to admit.

In fact her quest for drinks leads her to the “local” where she meets to local police officer (the town only has one), Viktor and then his wife. The bar owner is a source of the town’s recent history and the personalities involved. But another regular, an enigmatic woman with a slobbering dog is less forthcoming. Hannah is determined to discover the truth about what happened and her sense of superiority makes her impervious to reason thus putting herself and others at risk.

Jenny Lund Madsen has created a spider’s web of a plot that leaves her rather unlikeable protagonist at risk. Hannah does have some redeeming features as you will discover as the author plays with our expectations and pulls the strings of our emotions. As the plot gathers momentum and the dangers accumulate, the breathtaking dénouement of what is the first in a series, is explosive. I’m intrigued to know what Hannah does next.

Thirty Days of Darkness is published by Orenda Books and is available online and from bookshops.

The Midnight News by Jo Baker

What a jewel of a book, this is. Set during the London Blitz it encompasses love, friendship and dysfunctional family relationships as well as treachery and death.

Charlotte Richmond, daughter of an MP, has a dull job as a typist, and lives in digs, refusing an allowance from her father. At twenty she has already suffered the loss of her mother when she was a young girl and her beloved brother never returned from France. Sharing gin and confidences with her best friend Elena keeps her sane, but when she dies in an air raid her fragility intensifies. Only the sight of a young man who feeds the birds amidst the rubble of the Blitz brings an unexpected joy into her life. But then she is haunted by the deaths of two more friends and the sense that she herself is being stalked intensifies… In her grief and suspicion, Charlotte becomes increasingly vulnerable not knowing whom to trust or if she can rely on her own instincts.

This is a superbly written story, which grips the reader from the beginning. The evocative descriptions of a city under attack witnessed from a very personal viewpoint add a poignancy to the historical perspective that is at times heart-breaking and terrifying. Jo Baker has created characters who will linger in your mind and the present tense narrative keeps you totally immersed in their dangerous journey.

Jo Baker is an acclaimed author of seven previous novels including the Sunday Times bestselling Longbourn. The Midnight News is published by Phoenix Books, an imprint of The Orion Group.

The Forgetting by Hannah Beckerman

Imagine waking up, not knowing where you are and having no memory. This is Anna’s plight. Even Stephen who claims to be her husband is a stranger to her. Where she lives in London does not feel like home. Apparently she has no job but was a librarian. No friends contact her. Her parents are dead. There is something strange about her marriage but she has no reference points. Stephen controls everything – for her own protection. She is lost in a sea of unknowns.

In Bristol Livvy, newly married to Dominic and looking forward to returning to work after six months maternity leave, is thrown by the unexpected arrival of Dominic’s estranged mother. Why is she stalking her daughter-in-law and what really happened in Dominic’s childhood? Livvy’s own close family is concerned when the couple decides to move to London for Dominic’s new job while Livvy has to give up the promotion she had longed for.

This is domestic suspense at its best. The Forgetting will grip you from start to explosive finish. It is an exquisitely written narrative of coersive behaviour. Two women’s stories brilliantly balanced: Anna’s in the first person; Livvy’s in the third. Two professional women, one determined to further her career, the other has no idea what the future holds until she can remember her past. The narratives are juxtapositioned until their two worlds collide with dramatic results.

This is Hannah Beckerman’s fourth novel and she handles her subject matter with an assured confidence. Highly recommended.

Published by Lake Union Publishing, available from Amazon.

The Lost Man Of Bombay by Vaseem Khan

The Lost Man of Bombay is the third in the Malabar House series set in Bombay 1950, featuring the intrepid Inspector Persis Wadia.

The discovery of the body of a white man found frozen in the foothills of near Dehra Dun plus two new murders of Europeans within days of each other grips the imagination of the city. As the first – and only – female police inspector, Persis Wadia has her work cut out for her. Not everyone is happy with the results of her research. Her investigation links the three deaths but she is missing vital clues, hindered by misogynist Inspector Oberoi, and aided by Met Police criminologist, Archie Blackfinch. As she fights the mutual attraction between her and Archie, she puts her own life on the line before resolving the mystery.

With a deft hand, Khan recreates the world of India, post partition and British rule, in which the first female police inspector fights her own demons and prejudices. The balance of the personal and political is masterfully handled, perfectly interwoven in the intricate plot involving religious hypocrisy, family dilemmas, racial tensions and historical wrongs. If, like me, you enjoy solving clues and codes, you’ll love this series. The vibrancy of the city, the interplay of cultures and perfect characterisation make for a fascinating read.

The Lost Man of Bombay is published in hardback, paperback and ebook by Hodder & Stoughton. The previous two titles are Midnight at Malabar House – Winner of the CWA Historical Dagger 2021 – and The Dying Day.

Vaseem Khan was born in Newham but spent ten years working in India as a management consultant. As well as the Malabar House series, he is the author of the Baby Ganesh Agency series, of which the first book, The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra was a Times bestseller, translated into 15 languages.

Christmas Crackers

Books make great stocking fillers and perfect presents when you buy someone the whole series as you could do with my recommendations of Christmas crime novels.

What Child Is This? by Bonnie MacBird (Collins Crime Club)

The fifth in MacBird’s oeuvre of Sherlock Holmes’ adventures, this Christmas one has a Dickensian flavour with its sweep of characters from the meanest existing in poverty and workhouses to the higher echelons of society living in luxury. Holmes is rather in the Scrooge frame of mind bah humbugging all the festivities but he takes on two cases both involving sons: the attempted kidnap of a beloved three year old child and the disappearance of a younger son of a marquis.

Inspired by Conan Doyle’s The Blue Carbuncle, and illustrated by Frank Cho, What Child Is This? brilliantly recreates the Victorian London of the Holmes oeuvre and offers another intriguing mystery novel to delight fans and those new to the genre. MacBird has produced a page-turning tale full of cracking characters and devilish plots with style and wit with a dénouement to warm the cockles of the reader’s heart.

Born in San Francisco, educated at Stanford, Bonnie MacBird lives in London with her husband, computer scientist Alan Kay. A fan of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle since age ten, she’s active in the Sherlockian community in both the UK and the US, and lectures regularly on Sherlock Holmes, writing, and creativity. A veteran of Hollywood, MacBird has been a screenwriter (original script for TRON), an Emmy winning producer, a playwright, studio exec (Universal) and actor.

Murder Most Royal by S. J. Bennett (Zaffre)

What’s not to like about our late Queen Elizabeth solving murder mysteries while others flap around trying not to upset her sensibilities? The third in the series in which the Queen’s trusted assistant, Rozie, aids the “detective” by going to the places and asking the questions the monarch cannot, is a delightful read.

A body part washed up on the beach near the Sandringham Estate where the Queen and most of her immediate family are spending the Christmas holidays, threatens the peace and tranquility of the festive season especially when Her Majesty recognises a ring on the dismembered hand. The victim is a distant cousin but the murderer could be much closer to home.

Witty and brilliantly observed by Ms Bennett, Murder Most Royal is full of intriguing possibilities, fabulous set pieces relating to the royal family and is a great who-done-it. The author has been a royal watcher for years, but is keen to stress that these books are works of fiction: the Queen, to the best of her knowledge, did not secretly solve crimes.

SJ Bennett was born in Yorkshire, England, and travelled the world as an army child and a student of languages. After various jobs as a lo bbyist, strategy consultant and start-up project manager she wrote several award-winning books for teenagers before turning to adult crime novels with the Her Majesty the Queen Investigates series, set in 2016. She lives in London.

Stage Call

At The Old Vic, one of London’s most iconic theatres, the stage is set for one of our national treasures to tread the boards in a new, sell-out play. Joan Ballantyne, now in her sixties, has attracted a new fan base with her role in an award-winning soap, Chicory Road, and they’ve turned out in force. As the curtain rises, it reveals the strangely still body of the leading lady, slumped in an armchair. The show will not go on…

Still recovering from the attempt on her life, Hannah Weybridge is stunned. She had been collaborating with the actress on her memoir. Now she has to contribute to her obituary. Suicide is suspected, but Hannah, from the little she knows of the woman, is sceptical. As is Joan’s son, the famous TV actor, Leo Hawkins, who implores Hannah to investigate the circumstances of his mother’s mysterious death.

Hannah is drawn into the lives of those who knew Joan. But who can she trust in a world where everyone seems to be playing a part?

You can order Stage Call from bookshops or online at Blackwell’s with £1 discount and free delivery.

Stage Call is also available from Amazon in paperback and ebook. the latter free on Kindle Unlimited.

Reviews in The Arbuturian

I have never had the courage to do a “My Top Reads” but this year I have read and reviewed some amazing books for The Arbuturian. During the pandemic I found it difficult to concentrate on reading but writing reviews brought back my focus. Here are the books in chronological order (a couple are missing from the photo) which reignited my love of reading throughout 2021. I hope you will enjoy them too. Click the book link to read the review.

The Dark Room by Sam Blake

The Last Thing To Burn by Will Dean

The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin

The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

The Body on the Island by Victoria Dowd

The Plague Letters by V.L. Valentine

Two Wrongs by Mel McGrath

The Three Locks: A Sherlock Holmes Adventure by Bonnie MacBird

Catch As Catch Can and Syn by Malcolm Hollingdrake

This Is How We Are Human by Louise Beech

Fragile by Sarah Hilary

One Good Lie by Jane Isaac and The Invitation by A.M. Castle