I have a lovely announcement for you this afternoon, Detectives: there’s a brand-new crime anthology coming your way in October this year!

Some of you will remember the Mystery and Mayhem short story collection I was part of quite a few years ago. It was a wonderful book to work on, and it showcased a lot of brilliant children’s crime writers. These days, though, the children’s crime scene looks pretty different – and we thought the time was right to bring back the Crime Club brand for a whole new anthology starring all-new writers! I’m working with author Serena Patel and the team at Farshore Books to create The Very Merry Murder Club, which will be hitting shelves on the 28th October this year.

This time around I’ve not been able to contribute a story to the collection (I’ve got a lot of projects I’m working on at the moment that meant I just didn’t have enough time to write something else) – but I’m very happy to step aside and be your introduction to 13 authors you may not have come across before.

Those authors are: Abiola Bello, Annabelle Sami, Benjamin Dean, EL Norry, Elle McNicoll, Dominique Valente, Joanna Williams, Maisie Chan, Nizrana Farook, Patrice Lawrence, Roopa Farooki, Serena Patel and Sharna Jackson, and the book will be illustrated by Harry Woodgate.

I’m so very excited about this book – it’s been such a brilliant project to work on already with Serena and the Farshore team, and I can’t wait to share it with the world! You can read the Bookbrunch announcement post here, and you can pre-order the book now from Blackwell’s, Waterstones, Amazon or your local indie bookstore.