Top Cambridge authors Mandy Morton and Nicola Upson release new books

Cambridge authors and partners, both personally and professionally, Mandy Morton and Nicola Upson both have new books being published this month.

Nicola, a graduate of Downing College, Cambridge, will be launching The Christmas Clue at the Cambridge branch of Waterstones on 25 September, while Mandy’s latest effort, Six Tails at Midnight, will be on sale at the same event, as she will be hosting a Q&A.

Marcia Lewis will also be taking questions at the event about how her parents invented Cluedo, as The Christmas Clue is a festive murder mystery starring Anthony and Elva Pratt, the real-life couple who invented the much-loved board game.

Mandy, who is also a professional musician and a journalist for national and local radio, says: “I was very pleased to be asked to write another Christmas novella in my No2 Feline Detective Agency series.

“This particular book was a joy to work on; setting the story in the Cambridgeshire Fens brought back happy memories of a series I produced for BBC radio many years ago.

“The Fens are shrouded in mystery and legend, with stories of ghosts and murderers, and in this book I couldn’t resist tapping in to some of that history.”

She continues: “Although I try to make my books lots of fun for my readers, there’s always a serious thread that runs through them; in this particular case capital punishment rears its ugly head as I allow my characters to be bucketed back into the past where a day out at a public hanging was a source of entertainment.

“Thank goodness we’ve moved on from those days, but strangely it’s now the internet that supplies the horrors of the day for those who find other people’s misery an attraction.

”For those who love cats, the world I’ve created should be satisfying, but Hettie and Tilly’s escapades are much more human than many of the people I have met over the years.

“My cat characters wear cardigans, run bakeries and are very good at solving murders without any assistance from the likes of you and me.

“Cats can be spiteful, cruel, vicious, and downright nasty but they can also be cute, loving and mild-mannered – the perfect combination for a series of crime novels.”

Mandy and Nicola regularly do events together as ‘Partners in Crime’, giving their readers an insight into how two very different books and series are written in the same house, where plots are openly discussed, murderers are created, and both become each other’s first readers and critics.

The pair will be undertaking a ‘Clueless at Christmas’ tour, visiting many local venues – including Linton, Huntingdon, Histon and Great Shelford – in the autumn.

The tour will be in celebration of Christmas crime fiction, of the type of book to be read on Christmas Eve in front of an open fire, evoking all that is magical about the festive season.

Mandy adds: “We are particularly pleased to be visiting so many of our local libraries as we are huge supporters of their work, especially as they are going through some tough times.”

Nicola says of her latest book, The Christmas Clue: “The idea for The Christmas Clue came when I was writing another book, The Dead of Winter, and researching the country house parties that were so popular all over England between the wars.

“Two names kept cropping up: Anthony Pratt and his wife Elva, who created Cluedo together in 1943.

“The game’s playful murder premise was inspired by Anthony’s love of detective novels and fascination with true crime, and by the murder mystery weekends that he witnessed during his years as a musician.

“He and Elva developed the game on a dining room table in Birmingham as an antidote to the worries and boredom of wartime.

“I was so taken with the couple’s story that I wanted to include them in The Dead of Winter, but I knew that they were too good to squander as minor characters.

“They deserved their own story, and The Christmas Clue is that book – a snowy, country house Christmas mystery, starring Anthony and Elva as the detectives who step in when a murder mystery game goes horribly wrong.

“I’ve loved Cluedo since I was a child. It was the board game of choice in my family, and I still have the 1970s version that I played then, complete with my mum and dad’s handwriting on the old detective notes, and my own workings-out, which seem to be nothing but question marks.

“I’m not much better at it today, but its combination of luck and logic still make it addictive – and I have a lot to thank it for.

“Not only did it give me hours of pleasure and lots of happy memories, but it introduced me to crime fiction long before I read Agatha Christie and her contemporaries, and in particular to the classic English detective story and its obsession for knowing – or concealing – who did what, where and how.”

Nicola adds: “I’ve never had as much fun writing a book as I did this one, over a couple of months in the run-up to Christmas last year.

“Mandy was writing her own Christmas mystery at the same time, so we entered into the Christmas spirit a little earlier than usual in the house, but it was a magical time that somehow harked back to simpler, old-style celebrations – and I think we both enjoyed them all the more for that.

“The icing on the (Christmas) cake came for me when The Christmas Clue got the seal of approval from Anthony and Elva’s daughter, Marcia Lewis, who will be at the Waterstones launch.

“She’s taken my fictional recreation of her parents in exactly the spirit it was meant, and it will be special for Cluedo fans to have the chance to talk about the game with the person who knows so much about how it all began and the people who created it.”

The book launch takes place on Thursday, 25 September, from 6pm. Tickets, priced £8 general admission (£5 for Waterstones Loyalty Card-holders), are available from waterstones.com/events/an-evening-with-nicola-upson/cambridge-151226.