A secret cannot stay locked away forever

Bodkin Bell, orphan, pickpocket and survivor, doesn't know where she came from, but she knows she's different. Gaslights flare as she walks past. Cutlery spins. Shocks fly from her fingertips.

For years, she was ‘Little Spark’, the star of an electrifying travelling act – until it went too far and she ended up in a London gaol.

Now she’s been offered a way out. A chance to serve at Point Mote, a vast, desolate house marooned on the misty Kent marshes. There, she will assist a reclusive family of cunning inventors in the creation of automata: miraculous, lifelike machines for which gentlemen collectors will pay handsomely.

But this house of wonders hides mysteries too. As Bodkin starts to question why she is really there, she unearths secrets that have been buried bone-deep for years – and a truth beyond all imagining. One that was never meant to be found.

The first in a sparkling new 1950s seaside mystery series, featuring sharp-eyed former nun Nora Breen.

In a house like Gulls Nest, curiosity might prove fatal . . .

After thirty years in a convent, Nora Breen has thrown off her habit. Her fellow sister Frieda has gone missing and it’s up to Nora to find her. Nora’s only clue is that Frieda was last seen at Gulls Nest boarding house. So she travels down to the seaside town of Gore-on-Sea, takes a room and settles in to watch and listen. Over dubious – and sometimes downright inedible – dinners, Nora gathers evidence about the other lodgers. At long last, she has found an outlet for her powers of observation and, well, nosiness.

When one of the lodgers is found dead, Nora decides she must find the murderer. Not least because she suspects the victim knew Frieda. Could solving this mystery help her to understand what has happened to her friend?

‘Kidd has imagination to die for and a real command of plot and character.’ Guardian

Readers love Murder at Gulls Nest
????? A story that hooks you in and races you along. I loved it.
????? The character observations are wonderful. Highly recommended.
????? I fell in love with Nora from the moment I met her.
????? She really has a magic way with words and it puts this “cosy” into a class of its own.

The first in a sparkling new 1950s seaside mystery series, featuring sharp-eyed former nun Nora Breen.

In a house like Gulls Nest, curiosity might prove fatal . . .

After thirty years in a convent, Nora Breen has thrown off her habit. Her fellow sister Frieda has gone missing and it’s up to Nora to find her. Nora’s only clue is that Frieda was last seen at Gulls Nest boarding house. So she travels down to the seaside town of Gore-on-Sea, takes a room and settles in to watch and listen. Over dubious – and sometimes downright inedible – dinners, Nora gathers evidence about the other lodgers. At long last, she has found an outlet for her powers of observation and, well, nosiness.

When one of the lodgers is found dead, Nora decides she must find the murderer. Not least because she suspects the victim knew Frieda. Could solving this mystery help her to understand what has happened to her friend?

‘Kidd has imagination to die for and a real command of plot and character.’ Guardian

Readers love Murder at Gulls Nest
????? A story that hooks you in and races you along. I loved it.
????? The character observations are wonderful. Highly recommended.
????? I fell in love with Nora from the moment I met her.
????? She really has a magic way with words and it puts this “cosy” into a class of its own.

1628. Embarking on a journey in search of her father, a young girl called Mayken boards the Batavia, the most impressive sea vessel of the age. During the long voyage, this curious and resourceful child must find her place in the ship’s busy world, and she soon uncovers shadowy secrets above and below deck. As tensions spiral, the fate of the ship and all on board becomes increasingly uncertain.

1989. Gil, a boy mourning the death of his mother, is placed in the care of his irritable and reclusive grandfather. Their home is a shack on a tiny fishing island off the Australian coast, notable only for its reefs and wrecked boats. This is no place for a child struggling with a dark past and Gil’s actions soon get him noticed by the wrong people.

The Night Ship is an enthralling tale of human brutality, providence and friendship, and of two children, hundreds of years apart, whose fates are inextricably bound together.

1628. Embarking on a journey in search of her father, a young girl called Mayken boards the Batavia, the most impressive sea vessel of the age. During the long voyage, this curious and resourceful child must find her place in the ship’s busy world, and she soon uncovers shadowy secrets above and below deck. As tensions spiral, the fate of the ship and all on board becomes increasingly uncertain.

1989. Gil, a boy mourning the death of his mother, is placed in the care of his irritable and reclusive grandfather. Their home is a shack on a tiny fishing island off the Australian coast, notable only for its reefs and wrecked boats. This is no place for a child struggling with a dark past and Gil’s actions soon get him noticed by the wrong people.

The Night Ship is an enthralling tale of human brutality, providence and friendship, and of two children, hundreds of years apart, whose fates are inextricably bound together.

London, 1863. A strange puzzle has reached Bridie Devine, the finest female detective of her age. To recover a stolen child, Bridie must enter the dark world of medical curiosities. The public love a spectacle and this child may well prove the most remarkable spectacle London has ever seen.

Things in Jars is a Victorian novel unlike any other, one that explores what it is to be human in inhumane times.

Unintentional psychic Maud Drennan arrives to look after Cathal Flood, a belligerent man hiding in his filthy, cat-filled home.

Her job is simple: clear the rubbish, take care of the patient. But the once-grand house has more to reveal than simply its rooms. There is a secret here, and whether she likes it or not, Maud may be the one to finally uncover what has previously been kept hidden . . .

* In the US, this book is published under the title Mr Flood’s Last Resort

1950. A teenage girl is brutally murdered in a forest. But, somehow, her baby survives.

1976. A mysterious and charming young man returns to the remote coastal village of Mulderrig, seeking answers about the mother who, it was said, had abandoned him on the steps of a Dublin orphanage.

With the help of its oldest and most eccentric inhabitant, he will force the village to give up its ghosts. Nothing, not even the dead, can stay buried forever.