Robin Stevens's Blog, page 6

Happy National Crime Reading Month – and Happy Pride Month!

It’s June! This really is the perfect month for my detectives – because it’s not only Pride Month, but it’s National Crime Reading Month too!

I’m delighted to say that I’m one of the NCRM ambassadors again this year. It’s an initiative from the CWA and the Reading Agency, encouraging everyone to get out there and read more crime fiction, especially children’s crime fiction! If you’re on my website, you probably already read a lot of crime – but I do think that this is a great month to read or reread my series. They’re not only mysteries, they’re mysteries that star a lot of queer detectives – most notably, of course, Daisy Wells, who came out in my very favourite book of the series, Death in the Spotlight. Here’s an article I wrote about it – a few years ago, now, but I still stand by it!

To celebrate Pride Month I always create a Progress Pride flag made up of editions of my books from lots of different countries, to show my support for my queer fans all over the world. Here’s 2023’s version – I hope you can read with pride this month, and I hope that wherever you are you can have some moments of joy too. As Daisy shows us all, queer people make the world so much better just by existing in it!

If you want to meet me in June, I’ll be at Brighton Waterstones on the 24th at 12pm – it’s a free signing, and I’ll sign books old and new, so come along and say hello!

Oh, and I’m working away on the copyedit of the second book in my Ministry series, The Body in the Blitz. It’s coming out on October 12th this year, and I can promise a lot of mystery, plenty of murder and many, many queer characters …

Ministry of Unladylike Activity is Foyles Children’s Book of the Month for June 2023!

Big news for May, Eric and Nuala – The Ministry of Unladylike Activity has been chosen by the bookseller Foyles to be their children’s book of the month for June this year!

This means that it’s going to be everywhere in Foyles branches this month – a real honour for my book, and a very exciting opportunity for more fans to discover my detectives’ first adventure!

You can buy your copy now from the Foyles website, or head into a branch – thank you again, Foyles, and have a wonderful June!

Happy paperback publication day, Ministry of Unladylike Activity!

The day’s finally here! The Ministry of Unladylike Activity is out now in paperback!

I’m out on tour for the paperback release – here’s where to meet me, if you can – and even if you can’t, keep your eyes peeled for the three editions out there. The story’s the same in each one, but the cover details are a little bit different – and there’s even some bonus content in the Waterstones edition!

I really hope you love Eric, May and Nuala’s story if you’re discovering it for the first time – and remember, there are only FIVE MONTHS before the second book in the series publishes in hardback. So get reading!!

Events – May and June 2023!

Hello Detectives! There are only a few weeks until the paperback release of The Ministry of Unladylike Activity, and to celebrate I’m going to be out and about a lot over the next two months.

21st May, 3pm, Dulwich Festival, Alleyn’s School, London. Tickets £10/£8 – book here! This is a full talk – I’ll be discussing the Ministry series and mystery writing in general! There will be a signing afterwards.

25th May, 4:30-6pm, Seven Stories, Newcastle. FREE! This is a signing to celebrate the paperback release of Ministry. Come along and bring your books!

27th May, 11am-2pm, Waterstones Durham. FREE! This is a signing to celebrate the paperback release of Ministry. Come along and bring your books!

1st June, 1pm, Hay Festival, Hay on Wye. Tickets are £7 – book here! This is a full talk – I’ll be discussing the Ministry series and mystery writing in general! There will be a signing afterwards.

24th June, 12pm, Waterstones Brighton. FREE! This is a signing to celebrate the paperback release of Ministry. Come along and bring your books!

All of these events are also on my calendar – it’s always a good idea to keep checking on it to make sure you haven’t missed anything!

I’ll be back later this summer with more events in the east of England and also in Scotland (!) – and then of course there will be a tour for The Body in the Blitz‘s hardback release. So please don’t worry if there aren’t any events near you this time round – I’m always working to make sure that I cover as much ground as I can, but I can’t always get everywhere on every tour. I promise I am thinking about it, though!

The Body in the Blitz – cover reveal!

It’s finally time! I am thrilled and delighted to reveal the final cover for the second Ministry of Unladylike Activity adventure, The Body in the Blitz!

It’s another wonderful cover by Jan Bielecki – I love the gorgeous green, I love how dynamic my three detectives look (especially May in her shorts!) and I love the addition of Pfote the cat, who will play an important role in this book!

I hope you’re as excited as I am – The Body in the Blitz will publish on the 12th of October this year, and of course you can pre-order it NOW!

The Body in the Blitz – Guess the Colour!

Congratulations to you if you cracked the case of the title of my new book! The full cover of The Body in the Blitz will be revealed next week, on the 20th of April – I can’t wait for you to see it! But before I show you what it’s going to look like, I have one more puzzle for you to solve. What colour will it be? The lovely team at Puffin have put together this graphic – but which colour have we chosen? Check back here on the 20th to discover the truth…

Title reveal – the second Ministry book will be called The Body in the Blitz!

Some news that I’ve been holding in for quite a while – we have a TITLE for the second Ministry of Unladylike Activity book, and it is THE BODY IN THE BLITZ!

We actually chose it back in October last year, during my tour for the first Ministry adventure. I asked all my audiences to suggest a title from the plot summary I gave them. In the very first school event, Tashinga suggested A Blitz of Bodies, which I knew had to be close – and then at my Bath Festival public event Colette suggested The Body in the Blitz and I realised it was perfect.

So, The Body in the Blitz it is!

From the official blurb …

Britain is at war, and a secret agency called the Ministry of Unladylike Activity is training up children as spies – because grown-ups always underestimate them.

Enter May, Eric and Nuala: courageous, smart, and the Ministry’s newest recruits. They have travelled to London for spy training, and are staying on a quiet street close to the Ministry, home to an unlikely collection of people thrown together by the war.

One day, while exploring the bombed-out house at the end of the street, they discover something that should not be there. Something that was not there when the Blitz wreckage was first combed through. Something that has been placed there recently. A body…

Could this be the missing Ministry spy that Daisy Wells is on a dangerous mission in France to find? Or could it be someone else – someone a resident of the street wanted silenced . . . ?

The Body in the Blitz will be out on the 12th of October, and you can pre-order it NOW! And if you want to know what the cover will look like … keep watching my social media accounts over the next week or so …

Ministry of Unladylike Activity 2 – Guess the Title!

I’ve got some very exciting news – Ministry of Unladylike Activity 2 is officially on the way THIS YEAR! It’ll be out on the 12th October, and I’m currently working on the second draft of it. I think it’s going really well, and I’m so excited for you to read May, Eric and Nuala’s second adventure very soon.

But first, we need to reveal its title and cover …

Over the next few weeks I’ll be posting a series of hints – first you’ll have to guess the title, then once the title is revealed you’ll have to work out what colour the book is going to be, before I finally unveil the full finished cover on the 20th of April.

And your task for today is to solve the mystery of the title of MUA 2. What will it be? Here’s your hint … and I’ll be back on the 11th to let you know if you were right …

Ministry of Unladylike Activity Paperback – special editions announced!

The Ministry of Unladylike Activity is publishing in paperback on the 25th of May – and there will be not one but THREE editions of the book available to buy!

First, we have the edition that will be available everywhere the book is sold, online and in stores. It’s got bright blue sprayed edges, and it has brand-new maps and inside illustrations (Emil the Hedgehog fans, you’re going to love them!). We’re calling it a limited edition because it’s possible that not every print run will have these sprayed edges, but you shouldn’t have any trouble getting your hands on one of these copies!

Next, we have a special independent bookstore edition! This has the same gorgeous maps and inside illustrations as the main edition, but it has red sprayed edges and a die-cut cover that opens out to reveal the message May discovers that leads her to the Ministry. This is a limited edition, and if you want to get your hands on it you need to contact your local independent bookstore in the UK and Ireland and ask them to reserve you a copy!

And finally, we have the Waterstones exclusive edition! Again, this has the maps and inside illustrations, but its sprayed edges are yellow with black magnifying glasses. And it also has some VERY special extra material: letters between my characters that expand on the story of Book 1, and give a tiny teaser about what’s coming in Book 2. There are ONLY 3,000 copies of this edition and you can ONLY get it from Waterstones, so you’ll want to order yours right now!

Thanks to Jan Bielecki for the wonderful cover, and to Puffin for all of these beautiful books – I can’t wait to get my hands on them! Not long to go now!

Event announcement – Towers and Tales 2023

Good news for the Irish fans who’ve been asking when I’ll be back next: I can now reveal that the answer is April 29th 2023!

I’m coming to this year’s Towers and Tales in Lismore to do not one but TWO public events (they’re the same event, please don’t book both unless you REALLY want to hear me talk).

Details are below – I’ll be talking about my new series, The Ministry of Unladylike Activity, and giving you some hints about what’s next in the second book …

12pm, April 29th, Lismore Heritage Centre

4pm, April 29th, Pugin Hall

See you all soon! I can’t wait!