Nicola Upson is the bestselling author of the Josephine Tey series and Serenity Booksellers are delighted to welcome her to Romiley on Thursday 3rd December.

The event will celebrate the paperback release of her standalone yuletide thriller The Christmas Clue – a festive murder mystery set in a snowed-in country house starring the real-life couple who invented Cluedo. Nicola will be in conversation with owner Kelly and the talk will be followed by an audience Q&A and booksigning.

Tickets are just £6.00 (or £10.00 including a copy of the book) and light refreshments are included.

Doors: 6.00pm, starts: 6.30pm

About the book:

“A perfect Christmas crime story – atmospheric and chilling” – Elly Griffiths

Christmas Eve, 1943. Anthony and Elva Pratt arrive in a snowy English village to run a murder mystery game – and instead discover a real murder.

The Pratts had planned for festive cheer, despite the wartime shortages: with Elva’s map of the hotel and Anthony’s prop weapons to use as clues, the guests in their parlour game would move through the rooms to figure out whodunnit.

But when Anthony discovers the cook’s sister Miss Silver beaten to death, they instead find themselves investigating a shockingly real crime. The hotel manager Mr Browning is trying to keep the peace but the guests are agitated, Colonel Colman is about to take over the hotel for the war effort – and the mysterious Mrs Threadgold hasn’t been seen at all.

In games, there’s only one victim – but this is real life. Can the Pratts puzzle out this Christmas mystery before it’s too late?

About the author:

Nicola Upson was born in Suffolk and read English at Downing College, Cambridge. Her debut, An Expert in Murder, was the first in a series of crime novels to feature Josephine Tey – one of Britain’s finest Golden Age crime writers – and was dramatised for BBC Radio 4. Nicola is a member of the Detection Club, and several of her novels have been listed for the CWA Gold and Historical Daggers. Sorry for the Dead and The Christmas Clue were both Waterstones Thrillers of the Month.