Martin Davies
Martin Davies studied English and History at the University of York and subsequently pursued a career in television, working for the BBC and other media companies. He now works as a consultant to the broadcasting industry, specialising in the area known as access services – subtitling, sign-language interpretation and audio description.
Martin Davies studied English and History at the University of York and subsequently
pursued a career in television, working for the BBC and other media companies. He
now works as a consultant to the broadcasting industry, specialising in the area
known as access services – subtitling, sign-language interpretation and audio
description.
He has travelled widely, and often writes significant sections of his novels while on
the road, in cafes or on buses.
Martin also runs well received creative writing workshops across the country, aimed
in particular at first-time writers and those trying to combine writing with busy lives.
The Conjuror’s Bird, his first UK novel, was selected for the Richard & Judy
Book Club and sold over 150,000 copies. Its successor, The Unicorn Road was
selected as one of The Times/WH Smith Top 100 paperbacks of 2009. The Year
After, set in the English countryside in the aftermath of the First World War, is a
book-club favourite. Havana Sleeping, an espionage thriller inspired by events
surrounding an unsolved murder in Cuba in the 1850s, was shortlisted for the
2015 CWA Historical Dagger award.
In addition, there are now six novels in his Mrs Hudson series, about Sherlock
Holmes’ housekeeper and her helper, Flotsam. The most recent is Mrs Hudson
and The Christmas Canary.
Latest book: MRS HUDSON AND THE CHRISTMAS CANARY
Across London, eminent gentlemen are receiving unexpected deliveries of live hens.
Early Christmas gifts? A prank? Or something more sinister? When one of the
recipients disappears from the street outside his home, his friends suspect fowl play.
Sherlock Holmes, however, seems more interested in strange goings on in Sussex,
where someone is vandalising Christmas trees in the grounds of a famous stately
home – the location, some twenty years earlier, of the apparently impossible theft of
the Christmas Canary, a priceless golden ornament.
When Holmes and Watson are summoned to Scotland by the Home Office, it is up to
Mrs Hudson and her irrepressible protégé, Flotsam, to explain the bizarre poultry
deliveries, to solve the mystery of the missing ornament, and to oversee its rescue
from the clutches of a particularly spiteful villain.
MRS HUDSON AND THE MALABAR ROSE
Sherlock Holmes and Mrs Hudson are faced with a new challenge...
Dangerous magicians! Precious gems! Dastardly Plans! Sherlock Holmes is just the man...But what if Holmes isn't the only brains at Baker Street?
As snow falls on Baker Street, the wintry city is abuzz with excitement: the Malabar Rose – a fabled and enormous ruby – has been sent as a gift to Queen Victoria by the Marharajah of Marjoudh. An extraordinary condition is attached: the gem must be displayed at London’s sumptuous Blenheim Hotel. How can the safety of this priceless jewel be assured? The authorities wisely enlist the help of Sherlock Holmes and his colleague Dr Watson… but fortunately for them, they are also on the receiving end of help from Holmes’s redoubtable housekeeper Mrs Hudson and her able assistant, Flotsam the housemaid.
The Malabar Rose isn’t the only exotic attraction stirring up excitement in the city, however. World famous magician the Great Salmanazar will be amazing the lucky few who can secure tickets at a once-in-a-lifetime spectacular. Not only that, but the world’s most beautiful woman – the glamorous, if rather risqué, fire dancer Lola Del Fuego – will be joining him on the bill.
With all this excitement and a peculiar disappearance in Ealing, Mrs Hudson and Flottie have their hands full this festive season. Their investigations take in snow-shrouded streets, a toyshop full of wonders, a tumultuous Covent Garden as the New Year rings in and even theatre dressing rooms in Stepney
HAVANA SLEEPING
Murder, slavery and intrigue confront a British diplomat posted to Cuba in the 1850s.
Havana in the 1850s is a city as dangerous as it is exotic. The murder of a humble night watchman at the British Consulate seems to worry neither the Consul nor the police.
But one person cared for the old man. The enigmatic courtesan Leonarda will not rest until she understands the mystery of his death.
In wintry England, George Backhouse is plucked from obscurity in the Foreign Office and given an unexpected promotion. His task: to travel to Cuba and take a stand against the illegal slave trade still flourishing there.
But Havana is a tinderbox of intrigue. As the great powers of the region conspire against each other with increasing ruthlessness for control of the island, Backhouse comes to see that the most innocent of actions could spark a devastating war.
To protect their interests, the powers-that-be in Whitehall are prepared to turn a blind eye to many things. Leonarda will not.
But what of George Backhouse?
THE YEAR AFTER
There, it’s almost as if nothing had changed. Cards in the library after dinner. The Boxing Day shoot. The New Year ball. Margot.
But Tom hasn’t forgotten the death of an old friend, a German professor, at Hannesford, shortly before the outbreak of war. A strange meeting in Germany has raised a question in his mind: in all his visits to Hannesford before the War, all those years observing the glittering life of its owners, did he really see anything at all?
Bibliography:
MRS HUDSON AND THE CHRISTMAS CANARY (Canelo, 2022). MRS HUDSON AND
THE BLUE DAISY AFFAIR (Canelo, 2021). MRS HUDSON AND THE SAMARKAND
CONSPIRACY (Canelo, 2020). MRS HUDSON AND THE LAZARUS TESTAMENT
(Canelo, 2018; Mondadori in Italy). HAVANA SLEEPING (Hodder & Stoughton, 2015).
THE YEAR AFTER (Hodder & Stoughton, 2011; DTV in Germany). THE UNICORN
ROAD (Hodder & Stoughton, 2008). THE CONJUROR'S BIRD (Hodder & Stoughton,
2005; US edition by Shaye Areheart; also published in German, French, Russian,
Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Polish and Italian). MRS HUDSON AND THE MALABAR ROSE (in the US by Berkeley, 2008; in the UK by Canelo, by Mondadori in Italy).
MRS HUDSON AND THE SPIRITS' CURSE (in the US by Berkeley, 2004; in the UK by
Canelo; also published in Dutch, Spanish, Italian and Danish).
