A gripping 1920s-set whodunnit, this debut features a queer sleuth who must solve a murder in a mansion on London’s Hampstead Heath without revealing his sexuality, lest he be arrested as a criminal.

Nominated for the 2026 Crime Writers of America Dagger Award and winner of the 2026 Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ+ Mystery, the debut title of The Selby Bigge Mysteries series will leave readers eager for the next installment. Perfect for fans of Nicola Upson’s Josephine Tey novels.

London, 1929.

Selby Bigge is a bank clerk by day and a denizen of the capital’s queer underworld by night, but he yearns for a life that will take him away from his ledgers, deathly interactions with colleagues and a dreary bedsit in which his every move is scrutinised by a nosy landlady. So when he meets Patrick, son of knight of the realm and banking millionaire Sir Lionel Duker, he is delighted to find himself catapulted into a world of dinners at the Ritz and birthday parties at his new friend’s family mansion on Hampstead Heath.