I’m not sure how I missed this when it came out two years ago, but the lovely Miss Jane featured the first two books in the series in her Mystery Monday video review. Lovely to hear that Poppy has another fan.

Today is a very exciting day for me, it’s the launch of the Poppy Denby audio books! Hurrah! If you are looking for something to wile away a long journey on holiday or lounging by a pool, then why not download one now? (They are also available in audio and MP3 cds). Narrated by the fabulous Helen Keeley and published by Lamplight Audiobooks,

I am thrilled to hear Poppy and her friends brought to life. I hope you will be too. Please note, the first three books, The Jazz Files, The Kill Fee and The Death Beat are available now. The Cairo Brief will be released next month. Download your books here.

Smith (The Jazz Files) returns to formidable and spunky Poppy Denby, arts and entertainment editor for the Daily Globe, in this inspirational whodunit set in post-WWI London. As Poppy goes from covering a Russian art exhibit to looking for a murderer and a missing Fabergé egg, she takes on charming and possibly nefarious Andrei Nogovski of the Russian embassy. With help from Rollo Rolandson, her boss; fellow reporter Ike Garfield; aunt and suffragette Dot Denby; and best friend Delilah Marconi, Poppy follows leads and discovers that people aren’t always what they seem. Interspersed with Poppy’s story are flashbacks that center on a young Russian aristocrat and the nanny who saves her from the fate of the rest of her family. The audience follows them as they cross the Russian landscape and wait to see how their story intersects with Poppy’s mystery. The complicated plot, involving a myriad of both White and Red Russians, is offset by the list of characters at the beginning, reminding readers of numerous important names and their allegiances. Smith weaves together a diverse cast, including both male and female characters in positions of power, and depicting a variety of ethnicities and abilities without resorting to stereotypes. Embark with upstanding, uplifting Poppy and her friends on a mystery involving jewel thieves, Russian royalty, murders, sword fights, car chases, and secret tunnel. Full review here.

For all Poppy Denby fans in North America, The Kill Fee, the second adventure of our intrepid female reporter sleuth, is now available in book shops on your side of the pond. Enjoy! It’s available on Amazon and high street bookshops.

There is lots of celebration here in Poppydenbyland as Poppy’s latest adventure, The Kill Fee, is published today in the UK. Friends of Poppy in the USA will sadly have to wait until November – or order today from the UK site!

In this adventure Poppy is hot on the trail of a jewel thief and gets caught up in a murderous plot to kill off White Russian aristocrats. Dark secrets from the Russian Revolution surface in the jazz clubs and theatres of London 1920. Can Poppy track down the culprit before more more people die?

The Kill Fee is the second book in the Poppy Denby Investigates series. Book 1, The Jazz Files, has been nominated as one of the best historical crime novels published in the UK in 2015/16 and is up for the CWA Endeavour Historical Dagger Award.

Lovereading.uk have described the book as:

‘An atmospheric, lively romp through 1920 in this wonderfully blended mix of crime fiction and historical fact […]The Kill Fee, full of the dastardly and dazzling, just roars along; it is a thoroughly captivating and entertaining read.’

Click here to get your paws on The Kill Fee.

If you’ve enjoyed getting to know Poppy Denby and her friends in The Jazz Files, you’ll be delighted to know that book 2, The Kill Fee, will be published on 16 September. There will be a launch party at Blackwell’s Bookshop, Percy Street, Newcastle, on Thursday 22 September, 6 – 7.30pm. If you are in the Newcastle area you are welcome to come to this free event. There’ll be free drinks and nibbles, live jazz and a reading from Poppy’s next adventure. For details of how to get to Blackwell’s,check out their website here

This year I shall not be wearing a feather boa as I do not want a repeat of the allergic reaction I had last year, the day before the Jazz Files launch, immortalised below by my cartoonist friend Chris Chris Bambrough.

I am delighted to hear that The Jazz Files is on the short list for this year’s Crime Writers’ Association Endeavour Historical Dagger award. The Daggers are sort of the Baftas of British crime writing. The winner will be announced at a swanky dinner in London on 11 October. In the meantime Poppy Denby and I are toasting each other with pink champagne and wondering what to wear!

This is what the judging panel said about the book:

“This first entry in a new series featuring a female journalist in 1920s London is, like its heroine, buoyant and stylish but with a core of steel. Poppy Denby arrives in London from the north of England determined to make it as a journalist and gets her chance when she has to finish a murdered reporter’s investigation into the death of a suffragette. The Roaring Twenties are beautifully evoked.” – the CWA judging panel http://thecwa.co.uk/the-jazz-files/

If you haven’t already read The Jazz Files, why not remedy that now? The sequel, The Kill Fee, will be coming out on 16 September. You can click on the book covers on the right hand side of this page to buy them. Cheers!

If you loved reading about Poppy and her friends in The Jazz Files you will be delighted to know that book 2 in the series, The Kill Fee, is now available for pre-order. The book will be published in September (UK) and November (USA).

“Do you know who that is, Poppy?” asked Delilah
“I do indeed,” she answered.
“So what does it feel like to be in the arms of an assassin?”

Poppy Denby’s star is on the rise. Now the Arts and Entertainment Editor at The Daily Globe, she covers a glamorous exhibition of Russian Art at the Crystal Palace. During the exhibition a shot rings out, leaving an injured guard and an empty pedestal in the place of the largest Fabergé Egg in the collection. The egg itself is valuable, but more so are the secrets contained within – secrets that could destroy the royal families of Europe.

Suspects are aplenty and Poppy, her editor Rollo, and the other staff of the Globe are delighted to be once again in the middle of a sensational story. When they are offered a ‘kill fee’ to drop the story, they know they are onto something explosive. But soon the investigation takes a dark turn when someone connected to the exhibition is murdered and an employee of the newspaper becomes a suspect. The race is on to find the egg before the killer strikes again…

Pre-order your copy here!

Today I am giving the manuscript for Poppy’s second adventure a bit of spit and polish. In my notes I have come across this article about a Faberge Egg worth £20 million that was bought for a song at a car boot sale and then nearly sold for scrap. This was the article that gave me the idea for Poppy Denby 2, The Kill Fee, which will be coming out in September. To find out what intrigue Poppy unearths with the Romanov Royal family and stolen Faberge Eggs, you’ll have to wait for the book! I’m a tease, I know 😉

In the meantime, you can read about the £20 million egg here.