Book 3 release announced! Cover reveal video.

I’m so incredibly excited to share this cover reveal video, not least of all because it’s my husband on guitar! This is my favourite bit of the process, seeing the cover and showing it to everyone for the first time. It makes it all seem very real! Can’t wait for people to start reading. Meanwhile, enjoy the first look at book 3 – The Supper Club Murders. It’s available to pre order here and is released 16th September.

And you can view the video here

Meanwhile, here is the very beautiful cover!

Appearing at International Agatha Christie Festival

I’m so incredibly excited to be appearing at this year’s International Agatha Christie Festival and on the Agatha’s birthday as well!! I’m so honoured to be asked to speak at this amazing event. I’ll be talking about adaptations of And Then There Were None. There’s plenty to talk about and it should be a wonderful setting at Torre Abbey. It promises to be a wonderful festival with lots of great appearances which I will be going to as well! Here’s the link to book.

May be an image of Victoria Dowd and text

A live reading of Body on the Island

I’ve not done one of these for a while, as the very excellent Esther Wane does them so well on her narration for the audiobook. But they’re a lot of fun to do so I thought I’d dive back in. I started doing these at the beginning of the first lockdown and they’ve become a bit of a tradition in our house. I hope you enjoy it. Have a brilliant day. Here’s the link.

Audiobook news!!

I’m a huge fan of listening to audiobooks. There’s always a Miss Marple or Poirot on in my car. I think a book takes on a subtle change and different nuances arise when it’s read aloud. People don’t read to each other very often anymore and yet it used to be quite popular. My little boy still does and it’s an utter joy and so relaxing to be read to. He’s listening to How to Train Your Dragon read by David Tennant and now when he reads that book to me, it’s always with a Scottish accent!

I’m utterly thrilled that the first three books in my series have been picked up by Tantor and are going to be produced as audiobooks. The first in the series, The Smart Woman’s Guide to Murder, is out on 29th June and is being read by the incredibly talented Esher Wane. I’m so excited to hear it. The Smart women have been talking inside my head for a very long time. It will give them a whole new dimension to hear someone else’s interpretation.

In the meantime, as many of you know, I’ve been doing a little live reading every week since the lockdowns began. I’ve done a special one today to celebrate the audiobook launch and you can listen to it here.

Thankfully, a professional will be doing the real thing and you can find that on Audible here or Amazon here.

I hope you enjoy it and maybe you’ll be tempted to read aloud to someone or be lucky enough to have someone read to you. Have a lovely day.

Body on the Island playlist

The Smart women have a playlist! I was asked in a recent interview if I would ever consider doing one for the book and it kind of kick started this. I’ve been adding to it over time and really it’s become more what I thought Ursula would listen to rather than just me. Here’s a link to it if you’d like a listen. There’s also a clue to what might be in store for Ursula in later books! If you prefer Spotify to Apple music, here’s the link to that too.

Crediton Literary Festival 2021

Crediton Literary Festival was fabulous fun this year. I gave a talk on Agatha Christie and the rules of modern detective fiction. As you can see, great fun was had by all! It was recorded for their Youtube channel so you can watch the full event and all the other panels too. It was a real whistle stop tour through some of Agatha Christie’s ground breaking novels and some very recent whodunnits that have redefined the genre too. Here’s the link to the talk and I hope you enjoy it. x

And here’s the award!

The People’s Book Prize 2020/2021 for fiction. Hats reader’s own.

I still cannot believe The Smart Woman’s Guide to Murder has won The People’s Book Prize! To celebrate, here’s a reading of my very favourite bit of the book and an introduction to Ursula’s darker side. I hope you enjoy it and thank you so so much for all the support. It means the world! Here’s the link to the reading.

The Smart Woman’s Guide to Murder wins the People’s Book Prize for fiction 2020/2021

I cannot believe that The Smart Woman’s Guide to Murder has won the People’s Book Prize for fiction! I just wanted to say thank you to all the wonderful readers, reviewers, bloggers and authors who have been so supportive over the last year. I received the announcement on the book’s first birthday – what an amazing present! I can’t believe it’s been a year! I’ve learned so much and met so many amazing people. Most of all I want to say a massive thank you to Joffe Books for taking a chance on a dark comedy whodunnit that was an homage to Golden Age fiction – not something everyone would be willing to take a chance on! Jasper, Emma, Laurel, Nina, Annie and all the team are unbelievable, kind and brilliant. Thank you so much for giving me my dream. Here’s a link to the prize and the truly amazing trophy!!!