CrimeWave: Sarah Vaughan & Alex Hay BRIGHTON

What better way to finish our 2026 CrimeWave run than with our September Thriller Of The Month author, Sarah Vaughan, alongside Alex Hay, author of our Thriller Of The Month back in May 2024, with his debut The Housekeepers?
Our September Thriller Of The Month by Sarah Vaughan is Based On A True Story:
All families have secrets. But it's the lies that can K*ll.

A lavish 70th birthday party. A body found on a storm-lashed beach. And a secret that someone is dying to tell...

Famed children’s author Dame Eleanor Kingman has summoned her family and friends to her exquisite manor house on the cliffs. They're celebrating her birthday – and her latest number one bestseller in her series of books based on a mother fox and her cubs.

But the night before the party, Eleanor receives an email: an email that threatens to expose the lie she’s kept up for over half a century.

Someone knows her secret. Is it her estranged literary agent? Is it her ex-husband, to whom she no longer speaks? Is it the nanny she fired all those years ago, who always did have a knack for storytelling? Or is it one of her three daughters, all of whom have a stake in the publishing empire she has built...

With a TV crew arriving to film a documentary of her life, Eleanor needs to find out who sent the email – and preserve her multimillion-pound career.

But when push comes to shove, and it's time to tell the truth - will anyone actually believe her?

Alex Hay's latest book is The Midnight Guests, which came out in June:

1926. Diana Gold, owner and impresario, throws open the doors to the most opulent new hotel in London. As the champagne flows and the chandeliers shimmer, millionaires and gamblers rub shoulders with film stars and royalty.

Though, things at the Hotel Artemis aren't quite what they seem - including the two guests Diana expects at midnight. Powerful and dangerous, they've dragged her from the gutter and taught her all she knows. Now Diana must take perfect care of them - unless they take care of her first.

But when a body is found in the hotel's finest suite, the lavish opening night begins to spiral out of control. And over twenty-four fateful hours, the staff and guests of the Artemis will find out why they are really there.

Both books will be available to purhase at the event.