Latest News from Veronica Heley in London

As I've said more than once on this blog, Veronica Heley is one of my favorite writers. I recently read the new releases in each of her series and they are excellent.  I'm a long-time Ellie Quicke fan and Murder With Mercy is a great addition to that series. 

I then read False Diamond from Veronica's Abbot Agency series and found it equally gripping.

So I asked Veronica to give us an update on her doings and let us now what books to be looking for next from her.  Here's her report:

London Book Fair has come and gone. Oh, the buzz! The bustle! The search for a decent cup of coffee! (Yes, I know where to get one now.) And ah, the moment of agony when you think you have forgotten your pass for the day!

However, all went well. The first thing I have to tell you is that Severn House want another Bea and another Ellie after I’ve completed my current contract. So I will be delivering False Impression at the end of this month – which is a Bea Abbot, of course – and start straight away on the next Ellie which will be, incredible to relate, her 16^th story! How about that!  And yes, I have thought up a title, but it’s too soon to share that with you.

Meanwhile, Severn House has decided to bring out e-books of four of the historical novels I wrote years ago, starting with the first one on the lst June. This will be

MY LORD, THE HERMIT, in which a wrongly convicted man has to build a church in silence, with his own hands . . . until a feisty heiress crosses his path and a neighbouring lord invades her lands. I enjoyed writing this story, which is set in the baron-bashing, lawless times of the middle ages. It was first published in l980 by Corgi and, because I’d only written crime before, my agent thought there might be confusion in my readers’ minds about the name so I was asked to think up a pseudonym. The book came out as ‘by Victoria Thorne’. I think the publishers are now going to catalogue it as ‘Veronica Heley writing as Victoria Thorne’.

At the end of this month Ellie Quicke’s 15^th story will be published in the UK (three months later for the States, Australia, etc.) This story is called MURDER IN TIME, when Ellie comes face to face with the man who raped the schoolgirl Vera twelve years before. Abdi didn’t want anything to do with her then, but now he finds he’s unable to have any more children and thinks he can give Vera a cheque and take Mikey off into the blue. As you can imagine, that doesn’t go down well with either of them, so there’s trouble ahead. A man also died the night of the rape and solving that old mystery might just help Ellie to work out who did what to whom.  I have a pull of the cover for this already, and Mark will, I hope, be putting it on the website soon. It’s got a frame of jagged glass around the edges, a half moon and a man’s shadow thrown across the lawn. I think it’s nice and scary and I hope you agree.

Veronica's breathless pace never ceases to amaze me. And she manages time for church and community events as well. the latest is helping start an afternoon tea club for the over 65s in their area.  She says, "It’s going really well. The only thing is, I have to remember not to have any lunch beforehand."

Posted by Donna Fletcher Crow

 An Unholy Communion, The Monastery Murders
A Jane Austen Encounter, Elizabeth & Richard Literary Suspense
A Tincture of Murder, Lord Danvers Victorian True-Crime
Glastonbury, A Novel of The Holy Grail
www.DonnaFletcherCrow.com