Rachel Sargeant, Gloucester-based author of thrillers and crime fiction, is thrilled by the local response to her new Gloucestershire Crime Series. As well as having readers from the county getting in touch to say how much they’ve enjoyed the books, Rachel has been invited to give talks to the Gloucester Book Club and to Brockworth Library Book Club and to hold book signings at Painswick Rococo Garden and Coffee House 43 Hucclecote.
Sales have been going great at the Arts Café Painswick, Alison’s Bookshop Tewkesbury and Painswick Rococo Garden, with all three ordering more copies. The Gloucestershire Arts and Crafts Centre Westgate Street Gloucester has recently joined the list of stockists, and another outlet in Cheltenham is in the pipeline. Thanks to a post in the Gloucestershire Writers’ Network Facebook Group, Rachel discovered BBC Upload. Not only did she have the opportunity to read out a chapter of Her Deadly Friend on BBC Radio stations in Gloucestershire, Bristol, Somerset and Wiltshire, presenter Adam Crowther recorded an interview with her and requested more chapters for future episodes.
The books feature Steph Lewis of West Gloucestershire Police, a fun-loving, no-nonsense detective inspector with secrets to keep. The opening chapters of book one, Her Deadly Friend, are inspired by Painswick Rococo Garden. The action in book two, Her Charming Man, moves to Gloucester Cathedral and Sharpness. One chapter features the work of the Severn Area Rescue Association, and Rachel will be at the SARA Sharpness Lifeboat Open Day on Sunday 25 August 2024 to hold a book signing, a percentage of sales from which will go to SARA.
