Tag: Poppy Denby Investigates

The Crime Writers’ Awards Dinner

This week I am back at my desk after a whirlwind week in London where I went to attend a gala awards dinner, hosted by the Crime Writers’ Association. The Jazz Files did not win the CWA Endeavour Historical Dagger award. It was pipped at the post by the very worthy Stasi Child by David Young. But what a fantastic night we had! A gang from my publishers’ Lion Hudson were there to cheer Poppy along and my husband, Rodney, came down from Newcastle with me. Here are some pics from the night. The one with my eyes closed is me waiting to hear the result …

Illustrious company. The Jazz Files alongside fellow nominees AJ Wright’s Striking Murder (wonderful book) and David Young’s Stasi Child (a worthy winner).
Me and editor Jessica Tinker in our flapulous 1920s gear. Photo courtesy of the very lovely Amy Boucher Pye from the Woman Alive Book Club who was also there to cheer us on.
And the winner is … not me!
Pride in the pride. Me with Lion Fiction editors Tony Collins who first commissioned the Poppy Denby series, and current editor the flapulous Jessica Tinker
Me and fellow Lioness Elizabeth Flynn, author of the D.I. Costello crime series.
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Flappers, fops and murder

Anyone in the Newcastle area on Monday 26 September, between 5 – 6.30pm (you can come straight from work), I am giving a talk at the central library on writing historical crime fiction in the jazz age. The event is free and there will be tea and biscuits. This is aimed at the general public and writers and readers of historical crime fiction.

(Please note this is not the launch party of The Kill Fee – I will be sending out invitations to that later!)

For more information and to book your free ticket click here.

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CWA Historical Dagger shortlist

I am delighted to hear that The Jazz Files is on the short list for this year’s Crime Writers’ Association Endeavour Historical Dagger award. The Daggers are sort of the Baftas of British crime writing. The winner will be announced at a swanky dinner in London on 11 October. In the meantime Poppy Denby and I are toasting each other with pink champagne and wondering what to wear!

This is what the judging panel said about the book:

“This first entry in a new series featuring a female journalist in 1920s London is, like its heroine, buoyant and stylish but with a core of steel. Poppy Denby arrives in London from the north of England determined to make it as a journalist and gets her chance when she has to finish a murdered reporter’s investigation into the death of a suffragette. The Roaring Twenties are beautifully evoked.” – the CWA judging panel http://thecwa.co.uk/the-jazz-files/

If you haven’t already read The Jazz Files, why not remedy that now? The sequel, The Kill Fee, will be coming out on 16 September. You can click on the book covers on the right hand side of this page to buy them. Cheers!

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The Kill Fee available to pre-order

If you loved reading about Poppy and her friends in The Jazz Files you will be delighted that book 2 in the series, The Kill Fee, is now available for pre-order. It will be published in September (UK) and November (USA).

“Do you know who that is, Poppy?” asked Delilah
“I do indeed.”
“So what does it feel like to be in the arms of an assassin?”

The Kill Fee - Fiona Veitch Smith

Poppy Denby’s star is on the rise. Now the Arts and Entertainment Editor at The Daily Globe, she covers a glamorous exhibition of Russian Art at the Crystal Palace. During the exhibition a shot rings out, leaving an injured guard and an empty pedestal in the place of the largest Fabergé Egg in the collection. The egg itself is valuable, but more so are the secrets contained within – secrets that could destroy the royal families of Europe.

Suspects are aplenty and Poppy, her editor Rollo, and the other staff of the Globe are delighted to be once again in the middle of a sensational story. When they are offered a ‘kill fee’ to drop the story, they know they are onto something explosive. But soon the investigation takes a dark turn when someone connected to the exhibition is murdered and an employee of the newspaper becomes a suspect. The race is on to find the egg before the killer strikes again…

Pre-order your copy here!

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The Yellow Wallpaper

I’m blown away by the latest review of The Jazz Files on Day 5 of Poppy’s blog tour. This reviewer has seen things in the book – things I’ve layered deep into the text – that (so far) no other reviewer has seen. I’m delighted! You can read the review here.

The Yellow Wallpaper which she refers to is a short story by the feminist writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman who wrote the story in light of her own post natal depression in which a woman imagines someone crawling behind the wallpaper in her convalescent room. It is a powerful story of insanity that could have been prevented if women and their ‘problems’ were treated differently. You can read it for free on the Project Gutenberg website.

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Jazz Files on tour

I’m going on tour with The Jazz Files! But this time I don’t have to worry about forgetting my underwear (which friends will know I’m notorious for!) It’s a blog tour, starting today on Whispering Stories. The rest of the tour is listed below. I do hope to bump into some of you on my travels 🙂

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