Tag: Crime Fiction

Cover for Black Earth, the first novel in the Stoke Rising trilogy, revealed

Posted : Monday 20th July 2026

Four decades on from Margaret Thatcher’s ‘The Enemy Within’ speech, Firefinch revealed the cover for Black Earth, the first novel in a gripping state-of-the-nation trilogy from former serving Met Homicide Detective turned crime-writer Kate London. Black Earth is the first in the Stoke Rising series spanning the three decades from the miners’ strikes of the early 80s to the rise of New Labour and the far right in the early 00s, seen through the eyes of one Detective and one family at the heart of a country divided. An exceptional literary crime novel, it will captivate fans of Red Rising, This is England and Adolescence. It will cement Kate London as a unique talent in the crime space.

The novel has already drawn critical acclaim from peers, as well as former Labour leader Neil Kinnock, who praised its ‘authentic knowledge of policing and combines it with convincing understanding of the intricacies of the 1984 Miners’ Strike’. He called the novel ‘completely intriguing.’ Author of He Said/She Said, Erin Kelly called it ‘Everything crime fiction should be: gripping, gritty, multi-layered and moving’ while author Anna Mazzola ‘loved it’, calling it ‘a scorching start to a distinctive new detective series… gripping, gritty and powerful‘.

1959. A group of boys from the mining village of Murton run out to play together. When a tragedy occurs, it changes the lives of these boys and everyone around them forever, sending shockwaves that reverberate through their lives.

1984. Detective Constable Ian Wheedon has been running away from himself since he was a boy. He worked in Merseyside covering serious crime, but now lives in a remote police house working as a local cop. His brother, Stephen, is on the front lines of the miners’ strike in Stoke.

The force is already stretched to breaking point when Ian is called in to investigate the brutal murder of a childhood friend. The case brings Ian face-to-face with his past, his family, and with the life he left behind. As tensions erupt and tempers fray, the community fractures. When Stephen’s son Christopher goes missing, it becomes a race against time to solve the case. Ian and his family must fight for the answers they need and the future they want, before it’s too late.

Watch the trailer here:

Murder at 30,000 Feet publishes to rave reviews

Posted : Thursday 16th July 2026

Flight 868 is a ticket to paradise, a non-stop service to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Over a dozen tipsy passengers are off to a destination wedding.  A team of high school baseball players are headed to a tournament. The plane is packed with people looking forward to the trip of a lifetime.

But under cover of turbulence, a killer strikes – and when the lights come back on, a passenger is found brutally murdered. As holiday dreams turn into nightmares, a bewildered air marshal must solve the crime. For this is no ordinary flight and there’s only one certainty: the killer is on the plane – and the only way out is down…

The thriller of the summer just landed. Murder at 30,000 Feet is a high-stakes locked-room mystery you won’t be able to put down. But don’t just take our word for it – early readers have been raving about it!

Cover for The Art of Poison unfurled

Posted : Monday 6th July 2026

The clandestine love affair and scandalous murder trial of Madeleine Hamilton-Smith shocked Victorian society. Now the events are reimagined in a brilliant debut novel from playwright, Katherine Tozer, coming January 2027.

A novel of love, murder, scandal and revenge, The Art of Poison is for fans of Kate Summerscale’s The Suspicions of Mr Whicher and Hallie Rubenhold’s The Five, as well as readers of historical fiction by Sarah Perry, Stacey Halls and Tracy Chevalier.

Glasgow, 1855. When handsome Pierre Emile L’Angelier, a marauding Jerseyman with a passion for ferns, sets his cap at twenty-year-old debutante Madeleine Hamilton Smith, it’s not the first time he’s had ideas above his station. For Madeleine, bored and wayward, he is an exciting distraction, and they embark on a clandestine affair. But Emile treacherously hoards her letters and when she throws him over for a more eligible suitor, he threatens to send them to her father.

When Emile is found dead of arsenic poisoning, Madeleine is arrested, her explicit correspondence exposed at a trial that scandalized Victorian society. But was she a victim of her class, gender, and the expectations of women? And what if someone else had a motive for murder and revenge…?

Based upon meticulous research, this is a dramatic re-telling of one of the most notorious murder cases of the Victorian era.

Find out more about The Art of Poison here,

Credit: Tim Flach

Firefinch acquires Stoke Rising trilogy from ‘the new rising star of crime fiction’, Kate London

Posted : Tuesday 9th September 2025

Kate Parkin and Margaret Stead at Firefinch are delighted to announce the acquisition of three novels by crime writer Kate London. Firefinch will publish the first novel in the Stoke Rising series, Black Earth, in July 2026. They acquired UK & Commonwealth rights excluding Canada and including audio, in three novels from Alice Lutyens at Curtis Brown.

The Stoke Rising series spans three decades, from the miners’ strikes of the early 80s to the rise of New Labour and the far right in the early 00s. The first novel in the series, Black Earth, is set against the background of the miners’ strikes of 1984 and a family divided, as one brother is on the front lines of the strike in Silvertown and the other a serving police officer. It will cement Kate London as a uniquely talented writer to watch.

Kate London is a former detective on the Met’s homicide command. She resigned in 2014 to focus on her writing. She is the author of four books in the Tower series, which have been adapted and broadcast by ITV.

Kate London said: ‘I am very excited that my new series has found a home with Firefinch. These stories are set in my home town and are very close to my heart. Margaret Stead was my first editor, and I know that together we can tell powerful stories.’

Alice Lutyens said: ‘I feel that Kate has found the perfect home for the resonant and thrilling Black Earth with this dynamic and exciting new publishing venture, Firefinch’

Margaret Stead said: ‘Kate is one of the most creative and collaborative authors I’ve ever worked with. These new novels are very close to her heart as she was raised in Stoke. As a former Detective she knows the world of policing first hand. She’s also a writer of dazzling range and true humanity. She’s a joy to work with and we’re absolutely delighted to have convinced her to join Firefinch with this ambitious new series.’

Black Earth by Kate London will be published by Firefinch Publishing in July 2026