Once Upon a Crime has now been out for just over a week – and I’ve been so thrilled at all of the support I’ve had from it from bookstores and fans.

I’ve loved seeing your photos of it, and hearing what you think of it. It’s so wonderful, when I’m not able to travel!

And on Tuesday I found out that Once Upon a Crime was NUMBER SIX in the full children’s and YA charts in the UK (making it the number one children’s paperback!) and NUMBER TWO in the full children’s charts in Ireland. An incredible first week for an anthology of stories!

I’m now stepping away for the rest of the year to go on leave. I’ll be back in 2022, excited to finish work on the Ministry of Unladylike Activity and share lots more news about it with you.

While I’m away, this website and all of my social media accounts will be looked after by my social media support Kat, while my author website will be monitored by my publicity support Fritha. Please be patient with, and nice to, them both – I’m so grateful that they’re able to help out!

If you’d like to hear me talk about Once Upon a Crime, I recorded my Instagram Live Q&A, and you can watch it here.

I also did an interview with YouTuber Gavin Hetherington, and you can watch our chat below:

Oh, and don’t forget to pre-order the Very Merry Murder Club kids’ crime fiction anthology I co-edited with Serena Patel – I didn’t have time to write a new story for it, but I did help choose each of the authors who are in it, and I know that their stories will be perfect for you if you love my books! It’s out in October, and I’m very excited about it already.

Be kind, be thoughtful, be curious and brave – and I’ll be back in 2022!