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Harriet Evans

@harrietevansauthor

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Lady novelist, jumpsuit enthusiast
🍏The Treasures pb out now
🕵🏻‍♀️new Dora Wildwood hb out Oct
✍️Substack The Lady Novelist
📚SoA Policy & Comm Chair

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🕵🏻‍♀️❄️Finished copies of Murder on the Royal Crescent are in, and if you don’t think they are stunning i don’t know what to say to you ❄️🕵🏻‍♀️

it’s a month to go till publication and I am pinching myself with excitement. What means most to me is that most people who’ve read it didn’t guess whodunnit. Hurrah!

Extremely thrilled that this beautiful book is on the agents’ hotlist list in the Bookseller (rights via @curtisbrownforeign @agentstephthwaites for Frankfurt and I hope that loads more of you will get to read about what Dora gets up to in Bath on an icy December in 1936.

Coming in October, my top 5 peppermint cream recommendations, something I take very seriously.
It’s just amazing and cheering after working so hard all year to have this book in my hands and to hear people liked it. And what people 😭
‘The new novel in the gorgeous Dora Wildwood series (is) even better than the first, and that’s very high praise’ @marian_keyes

‘I urge you to pre order this, the second in the series of Dora Wildwood novels… The writing is pure joy, Mitford-light, deeply intelligent, every sentence something to savour’ @laurat1704 (Laura Thompson, and if AC and Nancy M’s biographer thinks you’re doing something right then hurrah)

‘A triumphant return for Dora Wildwood, and the perfect seasonal treat for lovers of mystery’ @sarah_hilary999

‘I love it. LOVE IT. An absolute triumph’ - my friend Sally who loved d is for death so much I have been dreading giving it to her

Perhaps my favourite of all is that @veronicahenryauthor messaged to say she is reading it in bed with a cup of tea. That is exactly what it should be for.

Thank you Rosa, Harriet, Rosey, Juliet and @vikingbooksuk
But a special huge, huge thanks to two people, neither of whom i have ever met, @josiestillustration and @alicepattullo Josie is the designer who also did the lettering. LOOK AT IT. I think it’s an almost perfect piece of design And of course Alice is the insanely talented artist.

Pre order. Also, be more Dora.
Love Harrie (& snoop) by @harrietevansauthor

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17 days ago

🕵🏻‍♀️DORA IS BACK!🕵🏻‍♀️

I am very excited to reveal the title and cover (and actual existence of) my new crime novel
❄️MURDER ON THE ROYAL CRESCENT!!!!!!❄️
out on 29th October!
The wonderful Rosa Schierenberg has bought two new Dora Wildwood mysteries for @vikingbooksuk & I’m so happy that I get to continue Dora’s adventures, at my brilliant publishers.

Let me tell you a bit more about it:

‘Set over a glittering December in Bath 1936, Murder on the Royal Crescent is Nancy Mitford meets Miss Marple and is the second novel featuring Dora Wildwood, following the acclaimed D is for Death, which was longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger.
Christmas, 1936, and when a body is found on the iconic Royal Crescent in Bath it is an awful reminder of the unsolved murder of a young woman in the same spot exactly twenty years ago.
Dora Wildwood is persuaded to leave her desk at the London Library to investigate and finds herself plunged into a world of hidden treasures, rare books, family secrets, Georgian crescents and Jane Austen obsessives. Alongside Scotland Yard’s very own Detective Inspector Stephen Fox, (he of the magnificent forearms), Dora must untangle the secrets obscuring the clues to the fiendish mystery of how both murders were committed, and why, before the winter dark engulfs them all…’

I absolutely love writing crime, Dora is a piece of me & I am so proud of these books& grateful I get to wear two hats. The good news is Book 3 is a fair way to being finished too, and who knows what’s in store for Dora, the Library, Fox, and the vexed question of what’s the best savoury to have at a cream tea. (Me)
So if you want some:

🕵🏻‍♀️Top Christmas detection
🫅Abdication chat
🍫Peppermint Creams
👯An Austen vs Bronte schism
🦔Hedgehogs!
🕵🏻‍♀️And stories about clever girls solving things (which I personally think the world needs more of)

in THE MOST stunning jacket by the incredible @alicepattullo (I can’t believe it!) then please pre-order MURDER ON THE ROYAL CRESCENT now.
There will be much more to say but it’s only June I honestly think that’s your Christmas shopping sorted.
Love & peppermint creams
Harrie and Dora xx
#murderontheroyalcrescent taken in The Royal Crescent by @harrietevansauthor

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4 months ago

🍎🏡I am absolutely thrilled to be sharing the paperback jacket for The Treasures, out on 2nd July🏡🍎

The hardback was the most beautiful design and the perfect launch for this trilogy and I couldn’t see how Viking could top it. Well they have!

We all have treasures that we keep that remind us of where we came from, things handed down by loved ones, keepsakes that tell a story. These are Alice and Tom’s treasures. This is the story of one family over many decades and the story of Sevenstones, the house they make.

On my desk in front of me I have some little owls which I’ve always collected, a rosary my dad randomly acquired somehwere (methodist minister’s son, not sure what he was doing with a rosary), a resin capybara (resin animals huge in 9/10 year old world), a friendship bracelet with Harrie on in ombre shades i got given for my bday & a quartz elephant from my darling much missed mother in law.

Thank you so much @vikingbooksuk , to designer extraordinaire @charlottedesignsbooks and the extraordinary illustrator @ananyaa.co And of course to Harriet and Sam and Olivia and Rosey and Georgia. And @staceyhallsauthor of course for the banging quote ❤️❤️

The Treasures is out on 2nd July. I am thrilled too that as you can see @goodhousekeepinguk readers have selected it to be one of their Good Books, it means more to me than I can say, and the lovely reader reviews are on the inside. I blush. More on that later.

Link to pre order above. It will be SO beautiful as an object and I can’t wait to hold it in my hands.
Love and apples, Harrie by @harrietevansauthor

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6 months ago

Episode 6 recap! Including the now obligatory ad break, contact me if you would like to buy some ad space like it’s 1999!Raise your hand if you were strangely moved tonight by the decency of slebs in this harsh world. Raise your hand also if you regret saying you had feelings for Ross. Both my hands are up #celebritytraitors by @harrietevansauthor

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5 hours ago

Jerry hates running. Jerry wants to be Miss Marple. Jerry is playing her own game wherein older women are ceaselessly mocked but older men get revered and respect because patriarchal norms are reflected back at us through the prism of tv game shows. Jerry wants us to call her granny. I am so confused. EPISODE 5 #traitors by @harrietevansauthor

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a day ago

Had a gorgeous 24 hours in Bury St Edmunds @burylitfest I was staying in the room Charles Dickens stayed in but I only found this out after so I didn’t take any pics. Went for a walk around the town and the Abbey and found the location for my gothic witch novel I want to write and a fellow apostrophe fan, thank you, nameless legend, not all heroe’s wear capes.
Then had two sessions, first chaired by the awesome @isabelle_broom with @jodiechapman and @emilyitami on Family Matters and we could have stayed there for hours. But I couldn’t! Because then I had to interview Louisa Young about The Golden Hours, the new instalment of the Cazalet Chronicles by her aunt Elizabeth Jane Howard. There are no words to say how much those books have meant to me as a reader and as a writer. And I was super nervous as the more I read the book the more I loved it and the more I read about LY the more I Heart her. As you can see it went badly. Please buy The Golden Hours, it is all of human life done by a master storyteller and one of my books of 2026. And I cannot wait to read Jodie’s California Gold and Emily’s Kakigori Summer.
I turned on to the M11 in good time to sit in motionless traffic for 90mins after a collision (no one hurt but the car in front of me started rocking alarmingly after a while!? Good Lord pls) and did not get back till past midnight after I took the wise decision to stop at Reading services and get a Burger King. I watched Ross Kemp and Prince William whilst eating my burger and wondering who buys those long wellie socks always on sale in service stations. I feel like we discussed all of human life during the day and let me tell you if you want to see all of human life then stop by Reading Services at midnight. Thank you for having me Bury and wonderful @mskatesawyer and to @waterstonesburyst and @harrisharrisbooks for selling those books ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ by @harrietevansauthor

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5 days ago

Such a good episode tonight and actually the task wasn’t rubbbish. A few shocks though. Mostly that Hannah is still there. And that one can forget James Blunt is always in on the joke. And that James acaster owns a Barbour. And that the programme I most want to see ever is a remake of three men in a boat set in Texas with Jerry, Romesh and Rob. X by @harrietevansauthor

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7 days ago

Well well here we are again. I like this lot. But yet still the BBC keeps covering up the truth about Bonnie, Clyde, Rob’s teeth quantity and whether James Blunt really does line his children up every morning and shout at them like a leisure wear Ibiza vibes Captain von Trapp
(Miranda, I love you.) by @harrietevansauthor

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8 days ago

I’ve been ill for about a week and barely left the house (hence living on sofa hence the traitors recaps, hi hundreds of new followers, madness) but if you’re going to go out and about again do it in style. Go to Cookham to an oxfam coffee morning and meet a truly inspirational woman and give a talk to lots of nice people, sell a surprising amount of books (thanks @the_little_bookshop_cookham ) then go to the Stanley Spencer Ga!llery and look at lots of wonderful paintings and the world’s best LEAVE ME ALONE sign. Got the train back, last days of summer on our terrace before the scaffolding goes up and the roof is done. Autumn is here! Macaroni cheese for supper? Yes please. See you tomorrow? by @harrietevansauthor

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9 days ago

Day 2! Still waiting to hear about Jerry’s uncle catching Bonnie and Clyde BBC! #celebritytraitors @ukthetraitors (no I’m not doing this every time 😉😉) by @harrietevansauthor

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14 days ago

What a beautiful week. I’ve finished my rewrites. And Claudia’s cape and red gloves are BACK. What a time to be alive! #celebritytraitors @ukthetraitors by @harrietevansauthor

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15 days ago

🕵🏻DORA PROOF GIVEAWAY🕵🏻
‘Mysterious notes. Georgian crescents. Dogs in jackets. Nurses dealing cocaine and stolen hedgehogs, broken limbs, two murders and one attempted murder with no obvious cause of death, the same three Christmas carols all the damned time! The king has abdicated, Crystal Palace has burned to the ground, and England are all out for two hundred and fifty-six. What’s this case about, Dora? Why on earth have you dragged me into this?’

December 1936: Detective & librarian Dora Wildwood leaves London for Bath, to do a favour for her godmother and catalogue her eccentric brother’s overflowing house on the world famous Royal Crescent. But no sooner has she arrived than a dead body turns up - in exactly the same place as an unsolved murder, precisely twenty years ago…

!!it is 6 WEEKS until Murder on the Royal Crescent, my latest murder mystery, is published. To I am giving away x2 proof copies, one to you and a friend. So please:

Like!
Share!
Tag a friend who then follows me!

I have been very, very lucky to receive advance praise from some writers I adore for this book. Thank you so much, @jonadin @joannamillerauthor @alexhaybooks @kristenperrinwrites @lauracwood and also @jofinney77 at Good Housekeeping! for your support. I am hugely grateful

the link to pre-order is in the b

(as I was writing this the man at the next table who was taking photos of his food (his scrambled eggs ffs, if it was a sugarspun faberge egg studded with caviar then fair enough but scrambled eggs get a life pal) dropped his phone in said scrambled eggs, and I snorted with laughter and wiped the rest of this post which I have no had to rewrite)

Good luck! Entries close Friday 25th Sept. UK only I’m so sorry.
Love and thanks, Harrie

#ChristmasReading #murdermystery #cosycrime #detectivefiction taken in The Royal Crescent by @harrietevansauthor

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