I’m pleased to announce that a new Sophie Sayers short story, Nowhere to Hide, will be published in a new charity anthology called The Little Shop of Murders on 1st April 2023. By chance, that date marks the sixth anniversary of the publication of my debut novel, Best Murder in Show, Sophie’s first adventure. so I’ll have two reasons to celebrate!
The ebook is now available to preorder, and the paperback will be available on the launch date. Read on to find out more about the project, to which 15 bestselling crime writers have contributed stories. All profits will be donated to support three excellent charities for children, including Read for Good, for which I worked for three very happy years.
Read on to find out more about the anthology, the authors, the stories, and the charities, and how to order your copies.
The Blurb
Book shops, boutiques and small businesses are the lifeblood of small towns and villages, but what secrets lie behind those pretty display windows and in the alleyways behind these charming streets?
Step inside for a personal retail experience like no other!
The Little Shop of Murders collects together fifteen superb cozy mysteries written by some of the finest authors in the genre.
All author and publisher profits from the sale of this book go to children’s charities, helping those most in need.
The Stories and Their Authors
(in alphabetical order by author surname)
The Gift of Dragons by ACF Bookens
Don’t Toy with Me by Diane Kelly
It Was Our Song by Nikki Knight
Blooms and Blackmail by London Lovett
Wild Irish Dreams by Lise McClendon
The Lady of the House by Flora McGowan
Murder in the Bookshop by Rachel McLean
Requiem for a Violin by Geraldine Moorkens Byrne
Nightly Nuisance by Kathryn Mykel
Secondhand Murder by J New
Architect of a Murder by Carlene O’Connor
A Man With No Imagination by Millie Ravensworth
Always and Furever by Eryn Scott
The Forget-Me-Not Antiques Mystery by Victoria Tait
Nowhere to Hide by Debbie Young
My Story
As you will probably have guessed by now, all 15 stories are set in high street shops and celebrate local shopping communities. My story, Nowhere to Hide, is set in and around the Hector’s House bookshop, Carol Barker’s village shop, and the repurposed public phone box. Two new characters join regulars from the Sophie Sayers series – arch-rivals as they found free community libraries in neighbouring villages. As a longstanding supporter of the Little Free Library movement, running two free community library boxes on my front wall and one in our village bus-shelter, I had plenty of experience to draw on, and I had great fun writing this story!
The Charities
The authors hail from the UK, the USA and Eire, and so the profits will be divided between children’s charities in all three of those countries.
Read for Good – https://readforgood.org/ (UK)
Read for Good motivates children to read for fun because we know that loving reading changes lives. Our regular supply of beautiful, brand-new books and visits from professional storytellers, offer children in hospitals, schools and other settings, the chance to escape to other worlds in their imagination. Children in schools are motivated to read using our free Readathon kits, which encourage them to choose whatever they like to read – from comics to classics, and audio books to blogs – all whilst raising money to get books to children in hospital, and books for their school.
The Children’s Reading Foundation – https://www.readingfoundation.
The Children’s Reading Foundation is a national nonprofit with community-based reading foundation chapters and early childhood education programs across the country and in Canada. The foundation serves families, schools and communities by providing proven programs, tools and research to help nurture a child’s development from birth through third grade in ways that foster essential early literacy, math and social-emotional skills.
Ronald McDonald House Ireland – https://rmhc.ie/ (Eire)
The mission of Ronald McDonald House Charities Ireland is to provide a Ronald McDonald House to support families whose children are seriously ill in hospital. The Ronald McDonald House provides accommodation and a caring and supportive environment for families whose children are seriously ill and are hospitalised or undergoing medical treatment at Children’s Health Ireland, Crumlin.
The Editors
The anthology is the brainchild of authors Iain Grant and Heide Goody, who collaborate on many writing projects. They also write separately in various genres.
“This is a really important time to release a book like this,” says Heide. “People need entertainment more than ever and raising money to support children in need is another way to put smiles of faces. I’m also delighted that this book highlights the importance of local shops and the community that grows up around the high street.”
For a Limited Time Only
For maximum benefit to the charities, the authors have agreed to make their stories exclusive to this charity anthology for one calendar year from the launch date. Only if they all agree at the end of the year, will the anthology remain available. To be on the safe side, pre-order your ebook copy now, or make a note in your diary to order the paperback on 1st April.
How to Order Your Copy
The ebook will be available exclusively for Amazon’s Kindle, and the paperback will be available to Amazon and also to order from bookshops.
It will also be available in all Amazon country stores around the world.
If you have any problem obtaining your copy, please let me know and I will point you in the right direction.
Hello Debbie,
I’m looking forward to this new book & have already placed my order!!
Best wishes, Michelle
Thank you, Michelle! I’m looking forward to it too – I haven’t yet read the other 14 stories in there, but it promises to be great fun!
Best wishes, Debbie