Previously available as "Before You Write a Word", Before You Write Your Novel sets out the essential techniques and approaches that lay the perfect foundation for writing your first novel. This concise and readable guide addresses the major stumbling blocks of fiction writing: the importance of planning and structure. This book covers the essential components of novel writing including narrative, story, plot, pace, chronology, character arc and engagement techniques, as well as r...

Two bodies are discovered on the same night in the same part of London: both shocking, both inexplicable – neither entirely human.Police Commissioner Sir Richard Mayne's prized Detective Force is being mocked by the press on one side and investigated by Parliament on the other. His notorious investigator Inspector Albert Newsome seems afflicted by a dangerous mania and Sir Richard himself is expected to stand before parliament to defend the practices of his men. So when two houses ...

BASED ON THE LONG-RUNNING BBC RADIO 4 McLEVY DRAMA SERIES...WHILE THE STREETS OF LONDON HAD SHERLOCK HOLMES, THE DARK ALLEYS OF EDINBURGH HAD INSPECTOR JAMES McLEVYELEGANT AND CONVINCING' The Times | 'ASHTON IS THE DIRECT HEIR TO ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON' Brian Cox | 'EXCELLENT' The Sherlock Holmes Society | 'DRIPPING WITH M...

London, Autumn 1916. When he slips out of a house in the early hours of the morning, Simon Wilder is too preoccupied to realise that he is being stalked. As he walks along the street, lights begin to dim as a warning that there's another Zeppelin attack. Guns begin to pound away as British aeroplanes attack the Zeppelin. Suddenly, it bursts into flame and lights up the whole sky. The crowds cheer as the great fireball drops slowly down and crashes in a field but the one person unable to wa...

“Readers rejoice and scoundrels take heed—the streets of Victorian London just got a little safer. Newcomers are sure to be absorbed into these warm, witty, and richly atmospheric historicals, and devotees will not be disappointed.” —Library JournalPrivate Enquiry Agent Cyrus Barker takes on his biggest case ever in Will Thomas's Anatomy of Evil—the attempt to find and stop the killer terrorizing Whitechapel: Jack the RipperCyrus Barker is...

Brimming with wit, atmosphere, and unforgettable characters, FATAL ENQUIRY reintroduces private enquiry agent Cyrus Barker and his assistant, Thomas Llewellyn, and their unforgettable world of Victorian London.Some years ago, Cyrus Barker matched wits with Sebastian Nightwine, an aristocrat and sociopath, and in exposing his evil, sent Nightwine fleeing to hide from justice somewhere in the far corners of the earth. The last thing Barker ever expected was to encounter Nightwine aga...

Undertaker Violet Harper confronts the dire predictions of a fortuneteller in Queen Victoria’s court in this gripping tale by the author of Stolen Remains.Queen Victoria, still mourning her long-dead husband Prince Albert, has found solace in John Brown, an enigmatic palace servant who dabbles in the occult and keeps the grieving queen entertained with his tarot card readings. Undertaker Violet Harper is invited to attend one of Mr. Brown’s infamous readin...

In June 1916, a young woman named Charlotte Reid is found murdered in a cinema. Harvery Marmion and Joe Keedy are assigned the task of finding the killer who so elusively fled in the dark. Before long, two more victims, of striking similarity but differing backgrounds, are found dead around the city. Meanwhile, miles from home, Marmion's son Paul prepares for life on the front line as he marches towards the Battle of the Somme.

A trail of beribboned murders. A ticking bomb. A city about to explode.July, 1858: London swelters under the oppressive heat of the hottest summer on record, and trouble is brewing. Forensic scientist Professor Adolphus Hatton and his trusty assistant, Albert Roumande, have a morgue full of cholera victims. The dead are all Irish, the poorest of London's poor. They came in their thousands ten years ago, forced into the London slums by the terrible famine. Now they l...

'Jean Brash is my favourite character and David Ashton's writing is as delicious, elegant and compelling as she is*'** Siobhan Redmond (Jean Brash in BBC Radio 4's McLevy series)*Jean Brash, who first appeared in BBC Radio 4's Inspector McLevy mysteries, is a formidable woman in her prime. Once a child of the streets, she is now Mistress of the Just Land, the best bawdy-hoose in Edinburgh and her pride and joy. But...

A city, gripped in the fear of terrifying crimes, will be pushed to breaking point.London, 1914. A killer is at liberty in the dark alleys of the city. His victims have one thing in common: all the blood has been drained from their bodies. Who could do such a thing – and why would he want his victims' blood?As the killer's reign of terror continues, Detective Inspector Silas Quinn of Scotland Yard's Special Crimes department realises that, in order to catch...

A police inspector investigates a grisly murder at a movie premiere in this dark historical mystery set in pre–World War I London.London, April 1914. Against his better judgement, Detective Inspector Silas Quinn is attending the premiere of the new motion picture by notorious American film-maker Konrad Waechter.But the glamorous event is interrupted by the piercing screams of a young woman in the street outside. She has been viciously mutilated in a horrifi...