Editor Martin Edwards has commissioned an entertaining range of stories from the membership of the world's most celebrated group of crime and mystery writers, the Crime Writers' Association (CWA). Founded over 70 years ago by John Creasey, the Crime Writers’ Association supports, promotes and celebrates this most durable, adaptable and successful of genres, while supporting writers of every kind of crime fiction and non-fiction. In this new collection, enjoy 23 original, thrilling mysteries packed full of enthralling characters, drama and intrigue, by the following authors: Martine Bailey, Christine Poulson, Dea Parkin, Martin Edwards, C.J. Carver, Kate Ellis, Shawn Reilly Simmons, Phil Lecomber, L.C. Tyler, Glenda Young, Antony Johnston, Simon Dinsdale, Renita D’Silva, Paul Gitsham, Yvonne Eve Walus, Brian Price, Pam Plumb, Nick Guthrie, Margaret Holbrook, Andy Sykes, Cath Staincliffe, Roland Moore and Rachel Amphlett.
The Flame Tree Beyond and Within short story collections bring together tales of myth and imagination by modern and contemporary writers, carefully selected by anthologists, and sometimes featuring short stories from a single author. Overall, the series presents a wide range of diverse and inclusive voices with myth, folkloric-inflected short fiction, and an emphasis on the supernatural, science fiction, the mysterious and the speculative. The books themselves are gorgeous, with foiled covers, printed edges and published only in hardcover editions, offering a lifetime of reading pleasure.
Martine Bailey writes crime and historical mysteries. Her debut, An Appetite for Violets, was credited by Fay Weldon as inventing a new 'culinary Gothic' genre. Her latest books, Sharp Scratch and Isolation Ward, draw on her early NHS career and MSc research, to explore whether personality tests could catch a killer.
Christine Poulson’s stories have been short-listed for various awards including the Short Mystery Fiction Derringer, the Margery Allingham Prize and the CWA Short Story Dagger. She is the author of a series of crime novels featuring medical researcher Katie Flanagan, most recently, An Air That Kills. Find out more at christinepoulson.co.uk
Dea Parkin writes fiction and poetry and has won prizes from the Lancashire Authors Association. Her day job is editing and she critiques and edits novels at her editorial consultancy Fiction Feedback, sponsor of the CWA’s Emerging Author Dagger. Besides writing, her passions are history, travel and tennis.
C.J. Carver won the CWA Debut Dagger and the USA Barry Award for her first novel Blood Junction. She has written a further seventeen critically acclaimed novels. Spare Me The Truth, the first in the Dan Forrester series, and The Snow Thief have both been shortlisted for the Ngaio Marsh Award.
Kate Ellis is best known for her Devon-based crime series featuring DI Wesley Peterson, the latest of which is The Killing Place, and her Joe Plantagenet series. Winner of the CWA Dagger in the Library, she has also published a trilogy set in the aftermath of WW1. Find out more at: kateellis.co.uk.
