Join the CRA
Joining the CRA is FREE. There are no lengthy forms to fill out and we need nothing but your email. You will receive a regular newsletter but no spam.
Denise Beddows
Sub-genre: Espionage, Historical, noir, Procedural
Denise Beddows is also a member of the Society of Authors and Chiltern Independent Authors. She has previously self-published, under her own imprint (Misbourne Books), fourteen titles, mainly fiction and true crime, and, writing as DJ Kelly, local history and biographical fiction (Titanic Press), but is now contracted to Spell Bound Books. As a Chief Immigration Officer with a background in research, investigation and intelligence analysis, she took early retirement in 2010 in order to concentrate on writing. She is the founder of Chiltern Kills Crime Writing Festival and actively supports Chalfont St Giles & Jordans Literary Festival.
UNDAUNTED
Being told by internationally renowned spy fiction writer John Le Carré that ‘Ladies cannot write spy novels’ might be off-putting for some female aspiring authors. However, when this happened to me, undaunted, I decided to continue writing in my preferred genre. That crushing comment could so easily have set me on an entirely different literary path. Yet, having a background in investigation, research and intelligence analysis myself, and being mindful of the fact that MI5 has had two female Directors General, one of whom herself writes highly successful spy thrillers, I decided to continue writing about the diverse challenges which present themselves to The Security Service. I am glad I did.
If I harboured any self-doubt, this was dispelled when my first espionage novel The Hunt for WOTAK became an Amazon No 3 best seller in its genre. In this stand-alone adventure, MI5’s Counter-espionage team seeks to identify and neutralise a sinister entity who is holding the UK to ransom during a global pandemic. Regular character, Operational Intelligence Officer Harry Edwards, has no idea of the great personal cost this operation will involve.
The next two books in the series also made it into Amazon’s top 5 list. These were: When the Grey Wolf Sings, in which a London-based former KGB officer seeks revenge for the brutal death of his best friend but puts himself and his family in grave danger; and A Long Road to Revenge, in which a deadly Russian nerve agent is being used against seemingly unconnected individuals in London, and two unlikely allies team up to avenge the murder of their loved ones.
Book number four, however, quickly hit Amazon’s number 1 spot. In Shearwater Point, efforts by successful American lawyer Dom Caffrey to trace his birth parents in Northern Ireland uncover a dark history of human exploitation at a coastal beauty spot, and coincide with a planned terrorist attack against a world leader by a secretive neo-Nazi organisation. In 2023, Shearwater Point was awarded the ‘Chill With a Book’ readers’ Premium Award and was voted their ‘Book of the Month’ for January 2023.
The success of this series of stand-alone espionage novels has led to a deal with Spell Bound Books who plan to re-publish the first four novels next year as a boxed set, under the series title The Thames House Files. They will also publish The Kohat Connection. This fifth book in the series recounts how, when the wrong body is repatriated, Cheshire widow Laura Roberts travels to Pakistan’s Taliban-controlled Khyber region seeking the truth about her husband’s death, whilst MI5 uncover a trail of secret activities by Russia’s private mercenaries, leading from the north west of England to north west Pakistan. The Kohat Connection will be published on 7 October 2023 as a kindle and on 14 October in paperback. Three more works in progress for this series are set in Moscow, Cornwall and various English counties. Denise has also recently embarked on a new series of books – The Pennsylvania Avenue Files – featuring FBI special agent Mike McVeigh.
Other Awards
Books by Denise Beddows
-
The Kohat Connection 
-
Shearwater Point
-
Running with Crows – The Life and Death of a Black and Tan
-
A Wistful Eye – The Tragedy of a Titanic Shipwright
-
The Famous and Infamous of The Chalfonts & District -
The Hunt for WOTAK
-
Odd Man Out – A Motiveless Murder?
-
The Cheetham Hill Murder – A Convenient Killing?
-
Bulstrode – Splendour and Scandals of a Buckinghamshire Mansion
-
Buckinghamshire Spies and Subversives
-
A Long Road to Revenge
-
When the Grey Wolf Sings
Advertisement
