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I’ve been to 15 Harrogate festivals in a row but I think this year’s was the best yet. Just the best time with the best people. My team retained our quiz title, I was on the most amazing panel, I was given the most beautiful bound hardback of The Wasp Trap by @nye.lynnjacksonauthor, spent three days chatting and laughing and didn’t even get stung by any wasps! I also met loads of really enthusiastic, friendly readers and signed lots of books. Living the dream. Bring on 2027!

It’s the Theakstons Crime Festival in Harrogate this weekend. I’ve been every year since 2012 and it’s always the highlight of my calendar. People sometimes say Harrogate is cliquey but it’s just groups of friends who don’t get to see each other often enough hanging out and catching up, and I guarantee we are all friendly. So if you’re going for the first time and don’t know many people - like me my first year - I’d like to reassure you that you will have fun and make new friends. 

I’m always really happy to chat to readers and other authors so if you see me please don’t be shy - come up and say hello.

I’ll be appearing on the panel of my dreams at 3.30pm on Friday, with Lisa Jewell, John Marrs, TM Logan and CM Ewan (who I always get mistaken for, so it could get confusing). Otherwise, I’ll be hanging around the tent, probably drinking too much Prosecco, avoiding wasps, wearing my latest selection of band T-shirts and trying to help my team defend our quiz trophy. 

Who else is going to be there?

Really fun event at Bath Waterstones last night with Tim Sullivan. I look like I’m making a serious point in the first pic but was probably talking about cats or something. Thank you to everyone who came along on a hot, busy night and bought our books. I highly recommend Tim’s new one, The Tailor.

Thanks to @ruthywriter for the photos.

Meet the cast of the One of the Family audiobook.

The outsider. The daughter. The housekeeper. The right-hand man. The sister.

I’ve just finished listening to it and was hugely impressed by the narration. This book has five points of view, each of them voiced by a different actor. Patrick, Holly, Morag, Zack and Miranda. Everyone in this book has secrets. Everyone has a skeleton in their closet.

You can listen to it now if you have Audible or Spotify.

Have you listened to the audiobook? Did you enjoy it? If you know someone who likes listening to psychological thrillers, please share this with them.

And yes, audiobooks are real books!

Time for a giveaway! My Sunday Times bestseller, The Wasp Trap, is out in paperback today in the US and to celebrate I have three signed copies up for grabs. The Wasp Trap is about a dinner party from hell, so to enter, all you need to do is like this post and comment by telling me which person you would most like to invite to dinner. You need to be following me too.

3 winners will be chosen at random. Closing date 21 July 2026. Open worldwide.

You might even win the copy Dottie sunk her teeth into! (See picture 2.) 

**For an extra entry, share this post to your stories.**

Six friends reunite in London to celebrate the life of their recently deceased ex-employer, a professor who brought them together in 1999 to help build a dating website based on psychological testing.

But what is meant to be a night of bittersweet nostalgia soon becomes a twisted and deadly game. The old friends are given an ultimatum: reveal their darkest secrets to the group or pick each other off one by one.

“The Traitors with shotguns.” - Instagram reviewer

Good luck!

Anyone who knows me knows that I am slightly obsessed with Lana Del Rey. Best singer-songwriter of the 21st century. The first pics here were taken at Anfield last summer, and the third features one of my many Lana T-shirts, taken after my team won the Harrogate quiz in 2025. That Anfield gig is mentioned in One of the Family, but there’s a much bigger Lana reference in this book. The mother is called Elizabeth Grant - which is Lana’s real name - and the family are referred to numerous times as ‘The Grants’ - the opening track on her most recent album.

I’m not doing this because I hope that one day she might read this book… but it would be the best thing that ever happened to me if she did 😂

Got skeletons in your closet? You’ll never guess all the dark secrets in this book…

One of the Family is out today in Canada, plus of course it’s already out in the UK. (US on Aug 4.)

Holly seems like the perfect girlfriend. Clever, funny, beautiful – Patrick feels like he’s hit the jackpot.

Until he meets her family.

Her dad has a mysterious new girlfriend. Her sister is unwelcoming. Her brother is clearly lying about something. And Patrick gets the sense all of them share a dark secret – even Holly.

When he finds out about the body that was found nearby on their last family holiday, Patrick sets out to find the truth.

But as skeletons tumble out of the family’s closet, Patrick realises he needs to be careful. Because in this family, loyalty is everything – and at least one of them is willing to kill to keep their secrets…

Sherlock is 3 today! We took him for a sausage and a puppacino and he wolfed them down. The cafe staff even put a candle in his sausage! Happy birthday to my faithful and very clingy companion.

My sister and I took my dad for a day out in London to celebrate his 80th birthday. Spectacular views from the Shard, great food at Borough Market, spotted Lily Allen (who I saw live last week) at the National Portrait Gallery, then in the evening saw Adam Buxton (very funny) with one of my BFFs, fellow author Caroline Green. Back home today… hopefully Sherlock hasn’t been pining too much!

A fun visit to Hastings to see family. Popped into Waterstones to sign some books. Bumped into fellow crime writer and Lana stan Chris Bridges. Tried to do that heart thing all the kids do. Took a ride in my new motor (not actually mine, sadly). Hit No.1 in crime fiction with Psychopath Next Door!