I love to write stories with a little bit of magic at their heart and often more than a little of the strange. My novels include A COLD SEASON, PATH OF NEEDLES, THE HIDDEN PEOPLE, THE CROW GARDEN and MISTLETOE.
“Hugely enjoyable – perfect reading for a dark winter’s night” – The Richard and Judy Book Club, of A Cold Season
I also write as Ava Morwood
Dark, suspenseful contemporary thrillers, laden with the eeriness of folklore and the secrets buried in the British landscape. UNTIL WE DROWN is published by HarperNorth. See AvaMorwood.com for details!
“This spine-tingling novel is a suspenseful twist on Hans Christian Andersen’s dark tale The Little Mermaid, where love, loss, and the lure of the water collide in a terrifying crescendo.”
And as A. J. Elwood
Latest title: THE OTHER LIVES OF MISS EMILY WHITE.
“A. J. Elwood has carved a solid reputation with her spooky and hauntingly beautiful historical fiction. This novel is no exception, and its brilliance surely cements her place as one of the finest British writers working today in any genre” – Tim Lebbon, author ofThe Silence
The Buxton Mermaid, encountered by Libby in UNTIL WE DROWN.
The lore of the Peak District, a landlocked region, led me down the rabbit hole that become UNTIL WE DROWN. It seemed as if every pool, no matter how insignificant, had at least one mermaid tale attached to it, and sometimes two or three. That’s before I even discovered the delights of the Buxton Mermaid…
But after that, I researched some fantastic watery tales from different cultures and times, ones that didn’t make it into the book.
If you’re interested in just how macabre some of those old stories can be, I put together an overview of the Dark Side of Mermaids in this article for Ginger Nuts of Horror, under my pen name, Ava Morwood. They certainly wouldn’t make it into a Disney movie…
Ginger Nuts also recently reviewed UNTIL WE DROWN, and had some lovely things to say.
“There’s a lyricism here that feels almost like poetry … She writes about landscape the way a swimmer writes about water, with intimate knowledge and respect for its power. The Peak District becomes a character in its own right, with those rolling hills hiding dark pools, all that green earth sitting atop caves and tunnels and stories that refuse to stay buried.
“Until We Drown is a siren song. You’ll hear it before you understand it. You’ll follow it before you know where it’s leading. And when you finally surface, gasping, you’ll wonder how you ever breathed air that didn’t taste of salt.”
The full review is here (though beware, it does give away some plot points!).
