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Dottie photo dump. She gets cuter, naughtier and more affectionate by the day. I’m going to be doing a live reading of The Retreat for Halloween - time and date tba - and will introduce Dottie to everyone during that.

Fake cigarettes and real alcohol. The Oasis reunion started early at @chilternkills yesterday when our kid @edjamesauthor and I were put in charge of the karaoke. We rolled with it. We were supersonic. And now I feel like I fell off a wonderwall.

Such a brilliant one-day festival. It’s taking place again next October and there will be more karaoke (I hope!)

Some facts about The Magpies:

It’s the final day of my September Celebration of my backlist - and of course the last post has to be all about my first solo novel, the book that changed my life: THE MAGPIES.

1. I wrote the first version in 2000 and it was rejected by every publisher my then-agent sent it to.

2. It was finally self-published in 2013, after being edited and updated, and was an immediate success, hitting No.1 on the Kindle charts, allowing me to become a full-time writer after nearly 20 years of trying.

3. Since it was published I must have saluted approximately 3000 magpies. If I ever forget, my writing career will be over.

4. The book’s female villain, Lucy, has cameos in lots of my other books and made a full return in the two sequels, A Murder of Magpies and Last of the Magpies. She is also back in my January 2025 novel, The Psychopath Next Door.

Have you read The Magpies and the two sequels? If not, they are available on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, paperback and audiobook.

Just search Amazon for ‘magpies edwards’ and you will find them. The paperback of the sequels is only available through my website - see link in bio.

The penultimate post in my September Celebration of my backlist: today is all about KEEP HER SECRET.

After three books set in the USA (The House Guest, The Hollows, No Place To Run) Keep Her Secret marked my return to the UK…via Iceland.

When Helena falls over the edge of a cliff, saved by her backpack which hooks on a jagged rock, she blurts out that she deserves to die…then shares her extremely dark secret with new boyfriend Matthew.

But Matthew isn’t the only person listening. And when someone turns up at Helena’s home threatening blackmail, the new couple take drastic measures - then have to figure out how to escape the nightmare they’re trapped in.

KEEP HER SECRET was a blast to write because it’s all about ordinary people losing a grip on their own lives and watching everything spiral out of control. There is nothing I enjoy more than putting my characters through the wringer.

It also has a killer twist and probably my best last line.

Have you read Keep Her Secret? If not, it’s available on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, paperback and audiobook. Just search Amazon for ‘keep her secret edwards’.

World’s best ears. #mainecoon #authorspets

With one week to go, my September Celebration of my backlist continues with THE DEVIL’S WORK.

‘You don’t have to be a psycho to work here…but it helps.’

After the neighbours from hell, the girlfriend from hell and the holiday from hell, I asked myself which hashtag relatable scenario to write about next. Having recently quit my day job to become a full-time writer, the answer seemed obvious: the office from hell.

Sophie has recently returned to work, taking a role as a mid-level manager at a children’s publisher. But someone in her workplace appears to have it in for her. Is it her overbearing new assistant, Cassie? Or could it have something to do with the boss, whose granddaughter was Sophie’s best friend at university - who went missing years ago.

The Devil’s Work has one of my most complex plots and some of my favourite set-pieces, including a PR event that takes place in a closed-down shopping mall, with various influencers and publicists fleeing a hoard of zombies… Great fun to write and with one of my best twists. If you’ve ever worked in an office and had nightmare co-workers, you’ll feel for poor Sophie.

Have you read The Devil’s Work? If not, it’s available on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, paperback and audiobook. Just search Amazon for ‘devil’s work edwards’.

Yes, my September Celebration of my backlist is still going, and today it’s the turn of THE HOLLOWS.

The Hollows was a hard book to write. Not because of the story itself, but because of the pandemic, and lockdown, and home-schooling. April/May 2020. That surreal, awful period when we were all stuck at home, and I was supposed to be writing my latest book while also supervising my children’s schoolwork and going crazy with stress. I was also distraught because I’d had to cancel my trip to Australia to visit my daughter and hadn’t seen her for over a year…

This book, about a dad and his daughter who lives in another country going on holiday together, was my way of spending time with her and escaping, in my imagination at least, the horrors of that first lockdown - although it’s interesting how parts of the pandemic crept into the story eg the creepy characters in the woods wearing masks. The biggest issue was finding the time and headspace to write it. In the end, I booked an AirBnB and spent a week working frantically, bashing out about 50,000 words, around half the book.

It’s a miracle The Hollows turned out as well as it did. This is my tribute to Stephen King, set on a creepy cabin resort in Maine. There’s even a cat called Cujo in it, and a pair of young villains who are among my most evil. It’s also about dark tourism and what happens when you upset the locals in a dangerous part of the world…

Have you read The Hollows? If not, it’s available on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, paperback and audiobook. Just search Amazon for ‘the hollows edwards’.

We’re over halfway through my September Celebration of my backlist. Today, it’s another of my favourites: THE RETREAT.

This book is about the danger of believing in scary stories. Although it’s not a political book (well, unless everything is political) I wrote it shortly after Brexit and the election of Trump. It made me think about how politicians, and the media, use terrifying stories to change our beliefs and behaviour. These tales are often about the ’other’, and about threats to our safety and way of life. 

The characters in this book are driven by fear - although exactly what that fear has made them do isn’t revealed until the end.

The Retreat is also my first book about a writer: Lucas, author of Sweetmeat - which I later wrote as a novella, which is available now on Kindle. Sweetmeat, and its fictional Netflix adaptation, pops up in at least three of my other novels. I do love an Easter egg.

Have you read The Retreat? If not, it’s available on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, paperback and audiobook. Just search Amazon for ‘the retreat edwards’.