I started writing this series because a quiet bookshop is never as quiet as it looks
I have spent more of my life in bookshops than out of them — behind the counter, propped in the poetry aisle, or elbow-deep in a box of returns that smelled faintly of someone else’s dog. Somewhere in all that shelving, I started noticing how much drama hides behind a quiet till: the regulars who never speak to each other, the overdue fines nobody ever really lets go of, and the way a good mystery and a bad Tuesday can look exactly the same from behind the counter.
The Bendigo Bookshop Mysteries started as a way of writing all that down without getting anyone in real trouble. Four books in, I still can’t walk past a returns trolley without wondering what’s really in it.
I’m not trying to solve real crimes, and if you ask me to identify a body I will absolutely make something up. What I offer is a properly plotted mystery, a strong pot of tea, and the promise that the vicar probably didn’t do it.
I live within walking distance of a very good secondhand bookshop, with a cat who has strong opinions about my plots.
The series
- Death by Due Date
- Overdue
- Shelf Life
- Spine Chiller
All titles fictional
Behind an actual bookshop counter, taking far too much interest in the regulars’ alibis.
Spine Chiller introduced the shop, the cat, and the first body in the biography section.
Shelf Life — the one with the book club nobody wanted to leave.
Overdue — proof that a really persistent fine can motivate almost anyone.
Death by Due Date, and a fifth case already refusing to behave.