True terror is a murderer you can’t stop.
London 1882. A carpenter is killed by a train – an eerie, brutal crime. Flamboyant medium Mrs Ashton and her sapphic partner Braddie seek justice for the widow.
A charismatic new medium takes London by storm. Dock-lass Maisie sees her frightening prophesy of vengeance. A noble family is devastated, but worse is to come.Outgunned and bewildered, the three confront a deadly conspiracy. They risk losing everything.
A reckoning from beyond the grave.
Praise for Book 1: The Crooked Medium’s Guide To Murder
“witty, atmospheric and queer-hearted”
“humour, mystery and a wonderfully crooked sense of morality… delivered with charm.”
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My grandmother told me I read too much. I remember walking in the garden when I
was small, telling myself stories. It was over thirty years of wanting to be a novelist before I tried… and succeeded.
The Crooked Medium’s Guide to Murder was much loved. It arose because I wanted to write about Britishness and specifically about Englishness; about our complex relationship with the past; I wanted leads who were morally grayer but still capable of kindness. Personally, it was time for a
novel with queer leads. And these difficult times I needed to write something with some uplift. I always intended more than two books. The Crooked Medium’s Guide to Terror is spookier, and more dangerous. It throws all three women out of their comfort zone.
I spent nearly all my childhood in Bristol, and I’m now an adoptive Londoner. I live with my partner, and it’s lovely my two adult children come back from time to time. Our garden rages wild.
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Giveaway to Win 4 x Signed Books by Stephen Cox (Open to UK Only)
Prize includes – Our Child of the Stars, Our Child of Two Worlds, The Crooked Medium’s Guide to Murder and the Crooked Medium’s Guide to Terror.
My thoughts: Mrs Ashton and Braddie have returned to London, one definitely more reluctantly than the other. But it’s good that they have as their boxer friend Samson needs their help – his sometime employee has been murdered and his death has been dismissed as suicide or an accident. The man leaves behind a fiancée who insists that he would never do such a thing just before their wedding.
Is it somehow connected with a mysterious new medium in town who hosts a seance at the home of a noble family where they are threatened with retribution? Maisie is present at this event and swears something was very off about it. As Mrs Ashton is investigating, the heir to the family is kidnapped. Could something in Lord Hanbury’s past be responsible for the terrors his family are suffering?
Drawn into a dark world of evil spirits and vengeful women with hidden faces, the three investigators must keep their wits about them. Mrs Ashton seems to be losing some of her extraordinary powers, but her mind remains sharp, Braddie ready at her side and Maisie digging into things in her own way. With a little help, they just might tame the beast and solve the case.
Another clever, twisting and twisted adventure for some of my new favourite characters, this time battling a creature only one of them can see, and a woman who claims to not want to be an adversary, yet at times seems to intend harm.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
**Terms and Conditions –UK entries welcome. Please enter using the Gleam link above. The winner will be selected at random via Gleam from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or
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the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for
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ramblingmads 