Welcome to my website…

…where you’ll find all the latest information about my novels as well as news of events and writing classes, and my contact details if you’d like to drop me a line.

My first novel was published (in Dutch, bizarrely) back in 2004, and eight more have followed since then. I’m currently working on my tenth. Most of my work is based on historical fact or true stories, often inspired by genuine mysteries or unexplained events.

The Conjuror’s Bird, my first UK novel, was selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club and sold over 150,000 copies. Its successor, The Unicorn Road, was selected as one of The Times/WH Smith Top 100 paperbacks of 2009. The Year After, set in the English countryside in the aftermath of the First World War, is a book-club favourite. Havana Sleeping, an espionage thriller inspired by events surrounding an unsolved murder in Cuba in the 1850s, was shortlisted for the 2015 CWA Historical Dagger award.

In addition, there are now five novels in my Mrs Hudson series, about Sherlock Holmes’ housekeeper and her helper, Flotsam. The sixth, Mrs Hudson and The Christmas Canary, is available to pre-order in paperback and ebook formats.