Yorkshire is a surprising place of stark contrasts. My home, the city of Leeds in West Yorkshire, was once a hub of industry including engineering and tailoring factories. Today’s emphasis is on banking, insurance, shopping and eating. Leeds is home to my detective, Kate Shackleton who trod the mean streets and…
On Saturday morning I arrived back from my first Bouchercon, held in New Orleans, a unique city full of life, music and amazing sights. Bouchercon is a volunteer-run World Mystery Convention that drew around 1900 people, authors, mystery fans, book dealers and vendors from across North America. I was on…
Goodreads giveaway, open to entries until 23 September (UK and Ireland) Last November, I was in Whitby doing a little extra research for Death at the Seaside, the eighth Kate Shackleton novel, to be published as a paperback original on 6 October 2016. Whitby is a former whaling port, once…
Once again the weather was glorious for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival held the fourth weekend of July at the Old Swan Hotel, Harrogate. For those of you who might not know, Old Peculier is a beer brewed in nearby Masham. A few months ago I visited the…
To mark the re-publication of Halfpenny Dreams (originally called Sisters of Fortune), my brilliant publisher will be giving away ten copies on Goodreads, UK and Ireland. Halfpenny Dreams began with a wish to set a story in that area of Leeds called the Bank, where the poor Irish lived from the…
Last weekend, I had the great pleasure of taking part in Newcastle Noir at the Lit&Phil Library. This hugely enjoyable festival is in its second year and attracted high calibre writers along with enthusiastic and informed readers and bloggers. The organisers, Jacky Collins, Kay Easson and Ariane Bogain put together…
SISTERS ON BREAD STREET SIXPENCE IN HER SHOE HALFPENNY DREAMS These three novels were first published before the Kate Shackleton books, under my own name, Frances McNeil. Sisters on Bread Street draws on stories from my mother Julia’s life. Born in Leeds to a German Jewish father and an…
A Maharajah on the Moors, a priceless jewel, an inexplicable murder To celebrate US publication of Murder on a Summer’s Day and the New York Post’s choice of the book as a “must read”, here is the story behind the novel … The idea for Murder on a Summer’s Day…
A WOMAN UNKNOWN is on the short-list of five for a Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award: the Simon & Schuster Mary Higgins Clark Award. The awards are named after Edgar Allan Poe. They are presented every spring in New York City, to “honor the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction,…
I am delighted to welcome to Bookish Jottings, best-selling author Frances Brody for a chat about her delightful sleuth, Kate Shackleton, the enduring appeal of crime fiction and where she gets her inspiration from! Thank you so much for joining us here at Bookish Jottings, Frances. It’s lovely to have…
