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As many of you know, when I’m not writing I make 1920s vintage outfits! Visit the Clara Vale Mysteries website to see how I made my latest dress for a video about The Picture House Murders + view the video of me at the Spanish City in Whitley Bay.
Poppy Denby’s next adventure, The Crystal Crypt, will be released in November. Today, in collaboration with Love Reading, we reveal its cover! And here it is…
Reporter sleuth Poppy Denby is asked to investigate the mysterious death of an up-and-coming female scientist in an Oxford laboratory known as the Crystal Crypt. The official verdict is that Dr June Leighton died in a tragic accident, but Dr Leighton’s lab assistant believes it was murder. However, when Poppy discovers that the colleague has spent time in a mental institution and has an unresolved murder in her own past, Poppy wonders if she is being misled. But then, another female academic is attacked, and Poppy herself becomes a target. This is the sixth book in the Poppy Denby Investigates series.
All and sundry, sundry and all (at least those who live within commuting distance of Newcastle upon Tyne) are invited to celebrate the launch of the fourth Poppy Denby book, The Cairo Brief, on Saturday 20th October, 4.15pm, Jesmond Library. I do hope to see some of you there!
Happy publication day to Poppy on her latest adventure, The Cairo Brief. As of today it is available at all good bookshops in the UK and through online stores. It will be released in the USA in the new year. This is book 4 in the series and it already has some fabulous reviews!
“Poppy Denby is on top form solving the mystery surrounding the ancient Egyptian mask of Queen Nefertiti. Highly recommended!”
Dolores Gordon-Smith, author of the Jack Haldean murder mysteries.
“Fiona Veitch Smith, where have you been all my life? Poppy Denby is delightful, the plot rocks, and the 1920s era is perfectly evoked. British mystery fans, you want to read this. You really, really do.” Cassandra Chan, author of the Bethancourt & Gibbons mysteries.
“Thoroughly enjoyable mystery. Murders, sinister figures, a cursed Egyptian mask… and a séance! All the ingredients for another superlative Poppy Denby investigation.”
A.J. Wright, author of the Lancashire Detective series.
Get your hands on a copy here!
A lovely review of The Death Beat in the recent Historical Novel Review magazine.
As with the previous two novels, this was taut and entertaining. I also liked Poppy’s development from the earlier books. She’s always been torn between her upbringing as a Methodist minister’s daughter and her own desires as a career-minded young woman in the 1920s. Her inner conflict felt more pronounced to me in this book. Poppy has enlightened standards for how women should be treated that deviate quite a bit from her very traditional, conservative background, which at times cause her stress. This fits in well with the blossoming awareness about the conditions of immigrants and sweatshops and people forced into prostitution. While it was fun to see 1920s New York, I confess I missed London. In any case, it was an exciting, well written story and a good series addition. Recommended.
You can read the full review here.
Drum rolls and trumpet toots … ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the new Poppy Denby! The Cairo Brief, fourth in the series, will be published 21 September. If you haven’t read the first three books yet, I suggest you get started! They are great holiday reads (if I may say so myself).
Poppy Denby is on top form solving the mystery surrounding the ancient Egyptian mask of Queen Nefertiti. Highly recommended!
Dolores Gordon-Smith, author of the Jack Haldean murder mysteries
Intrepid Poppy Denby visits a country estate not unlike Downton Abbey in this caper. It’s great fun following Fiona’s crew of early 20th-century reporters as they seek scoops and solve murders on the side
Deb Richardson-Moore, author of The Cantaloupe Thief, The Cover Story and Death of a Jester
Thoroughly enjoyable mystery. Murders, sinister figures, a cursed Egyptian mask…and a seance! All the ingredients for another superlative Poppy Denby investigation.
A. J. Wright, award-winning author of the Lancashire Detective Series.
Fiona Veitch Smith, where have you been all my life? Poppy Denby is delightful, the plot rocks, and the 1920s era is perfectly evoked. British mystery fans, you want to read this. You really, really do.
Cassandra Chan, Author of the Bethancourt & Gibbons mysteries
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