Syd Moore – författare

Step forward Daphne Devine - you are about to change the course of the war ‘A breathtaking historical thriller.’ Erin Kelly, author of The Skeleton Key'Vivid and thoroughly entertaining... More, please.' Guardian, best crime and thrillersJune 1940. As World War Two rages, Daphne Devine remains in London, performing each night as assistant to stage magician Jonty Trevelyan, aka the Grand Mystique.Then the secret service call.For, aware of Hitler’s belief in the occult, the war office has set up a hidden cohort to exploit this quirk in the enemy’s chain of command.Daphne and Jonty find themselves far from the glitz and glamour of the theatre, deep inside the lower levels of Wormwood Scrubs prison. Here, they join secret ranks of occultists, surrealists, and other eccentrics co-opted to the war effort. There is one goal: to avert invasion on British shores.Soon Daphne realises she must risk everything if there is any chance of saving her country'Quirky, clever and compelling.' Anna Mazzola, author of The Clockwork Girl'A rattling good read.' Barbara Nadel, author of Belshazzar's Daughter

No mission is without its element of danger, and for Daphne Devine there is always the chance she would never see home again.But nothing had prepared her for this…Back in enemy territory, Daphne and one-time lover Jack have been sent to deliver The Grimoire, a centuries-old book filled with mysticism and spells. Posing as a rare book dealer, she will hand the book to a prominent SS officer and send the Nazi’s into a spiral where their very beliefs are turned against them.But this is war, and behind every corner a betrayal is lurking and your enemies are often closer than you think. There are some things we cannot foresee, and these are the things that can kill us.Is this the mission where there can be no return?

Step forward Daphne Devine - you are about to change the course of the war ‘A breathtaking historical thriller.’ Erin Kelly, author of The Skeleton Key'Vivid and thoroughly entertaining... More, please.' Guardian, best crime and thrillersJune 1940. As World War Two rages, Daphne Devine remains in London, performing each night as assistant to stage magician Jonty Trevelyan, aka the Grand Mystique.Then the secret service call.For, aware of Hitler’s belief in the occult, the war office has set up a hidden cohort to exploit this quirk in the enemy’s chain of command.Daphne and Jonty find themselves far from the glitz and glamour of the theatre, deep inside the lower levels of Wormwood Scrubs prison. Here, they join secret ranks of occultists, surrealists, and other eccentrics co-opted to the war effort. There is one goal: to avert invasion on British shores.Soon Daphne realises she must risk everything if there is any chance of saving her country'Quirky, clever and compelling.' Anna Mazzola, author of The Clockwork Girl'A rattling good read.' Barbara Nadel, author of Belshazzar's Daughter

1940. Britain has invaded neutral Iceland, but Daphne Devine has bigger problems. She has sailed into allied territory to track down a clairvoyant suspected of collaborating with the Nazis.As an undercover operative, Daphne must thread her way through a land steeped in shadow and riddled with secrets. But when a new lead pulls her North into Strandir, land of sorcerers, what she uncovers sets off a deadly chain reaction. The stakes are raised, and suddenly it’s not just her life on the line, but the fate of her entire team.In a world of deceiving occultists and age-old magic, Daphne must use every ounce of cunning and craft at her disposal to outwit enemy agents if she wants to emerge unscathed and get her team out alive.

Rosie Strange doesn't believe in ghosts or witches or magic. No, not at all. It’s no surprise therefore when she inherits the ramshackle Essex Witch Museum, her first thought is to take the money and run.Still, the museum exerts a curious pull over Rosie. There’s the eccentric academic who bustles in to demand she help in a hunt for old bones, those of the notorious Ursula Cadence, a witch long since put to death. And there’s curator Sam Stone, a man about whom Rosie can’t decide if he’s tiresomely annoying or extremely captivating. It all adds up to looking like her plans to sell the museum might need to be delayed, just for a while.Finding herself and Sam embroiled in a most peculiar centuries-old mystery, Rosie is quickly expelled from her comfort zone, where to her horror, the secrets of the past come with their own real, and all too present, danger as a strange magic threatens to envelope them all.

The La Fleur restaurant has a slew of unusual phenomena. Bonnet-clad apparitions pass through walls, blood leaks from ceilings and rats besiege the dining room. Experts from the Great Essex Witch Museum are called in to quell these strange sights. But before Rosie Strange and Sam Stone can do their thing events turn darker. For La Fleur’s chef has been strung up and slaughtered like a pig. More oddly, the only witness, the owner’s daughter Mary, swears blind a ghost did it.   Rosie and Sam must find out what’s happening before Mary takes the fall. But intuitions and tip-offs lead them stumbling into the dark waters of the past, exposing secrets of a wider conspiracy, as well as secrets all Rosie’s own. With strange chills Rosie and Sam learn that seeing isn’t always believing, while thoughts of truth may be just as illusory.

It’s summer in Adders Fork. The sun is out, the sky is blue and things are going swimmingly for Rosie Strange, thank you very much. The Essex Witch Museum has been relaunched with a new Ursula Cadence wing and picnic grounds. Then developers roll into the sleepy village to widen the road. When the centuries-old Blackly Be boulder, said to mark the grave of a notorious witch but now in the car park of the Seven Stars, is moved, all hell breaks out. Within hours a slew of peculiar phenomena descends and, when a severed head is discovered atop the boulder, the locals can take no more and storm the Museum to demand someone take action.Can Rosie and Sam unravel the mystery? And what of the ancient treasure that could drastically change someone’s fortunes and offer a motive for murder?

The fourth instalment in Syd Moore's spooktacular witch detective seriesHalloween in Essex and the Mystery and Suspense creative writing course at old Ratchette Hall is off to a satisfyingly creepy start. But things take a turn for the worse when the course administrator is discovered dead, clutching a marble finger to his chest. For why would anyone, undead or alive, want to kill mild-mannered Graham?Luckily Rosie Strange and Sam Stone are on the case. Soon, however, they are digging up more questions than answers: who are the unearthly howls emanating from neighbouring Witch Wood every night? How has a stone crusader, on display in the church, managed to lose a finger? And, more sinister yet, why is one of the tombs missing a corpse?

Rosie Strange is back in the latest of the fabulously creepy Essex Witch Museum MysteriesSecretly Rosie Strange has always thought herself a little bit more interesting than most people – the legacy her family has bequeathed her is definitely so, she’s long believed. But then life takes a peculiar turn when the Strange legacy turns out not just to be the Essex Witch Museum, but perhaps some otherworldly gifts that Rosie finds difficult to fathom. Meanwhile Sam Stone, Rosie’s curator, is oddly distracted as breadcrumb clues into what happened to his missing younger brother and other abducted boys from the past are poised to lead him and Rosie deep into a dark wood where there lurks something far scarier than Hansel and Gretel’s witch…Praise for the Essex Witch Museum Mysteries:‘I gleefully submitted to a tale of witchcraft, feminism, mysterious strangers, historical atrocities, plucky heroines and ghastly apparitions – and came away more proud than ever to be an Essex girl.’ Sarah Perry, author of The Essex Serpent‘Confident, down-to-earth Essex girl Rosie is an appealing character, and there is plenty of spooky fun in this spirited genre mashup.’ Guardian

Stop Press: Two stories, 'Easily Made' and 'Death Becomes Her', were nominated for a Crime Writers Association Short Story Dagger!Nothing says Christmas more than a good old fashioned ghost story on a dark winter's night, so sit back and enjoy a little pinch of Yuletide mayhem.These extraordinary tales, one for each day of Christmas, explore the odd, the peculiar and the downright chilling, from a Strange encounter with an Icelandic Shaman, to a psychic policewoman, lively winged beasts and warnings from the recently departed.Some of these stories appeared in the ebook The Strange Casebook, 2018.

‘A treat for anyone looking for an antidote to the usual saccharine Christmas fayre.’ NB magazineFrom the twice CWA Dagger shortlisted author of The Twelve Strange Days of Christmas come twelve thirteen stories to transport you to the macabre world of inexplicable phenomena.As dark winter nights draw in, prepare to lose yourself in the world of the peculiar. With a tale for each day of the festive period and an unlucky thirteenth, Christmas is not the only spirit in these pages. ’Tis the season for sacrificial feasts, cultish communities and sinister rituals. So wrap up warm and get ready to be terrified and delighted as you journey from the spooky to the downright strange.

A chilling, haunting ghost story set in the modern day which delves into the real-life legend of a 19th-century sea witch… Relocated to a coastal town, widowed teacher Sarah Grey is slowly rebuilding her life, along with her young son Alfie. But after an inadvertent séance one drunken night, her world is shaken when she starts to experience frightening visions.She tries to explain them away. But Alfie sees them too and Sarah believes that they have become the targets of a haunting attack.Convinced that the ghost is that of a 19th Century local witch, Sarah delves into local folklore and learns that the witch was thought to have been evil incarnate. And when a series of old letters surface, Sarah discovers that nothing is as it seems, not even the ghost who haunts her very home… Perfect for fans of The Midnight House, The Familiars and The Lighthouse Witches. Previously published as The Drowning Pool in 2011