Severn House

Our Authors

Judith Cutler

Born and bred in the Black Country, Judith was first published in her teens. For many years a English lecturer in a tough inner city FE college, she also taught creative writing in a prison, on an idyllic Greek island and at Birmingham University. With her two first series of novels set in the Midlands, she earned the nickname Brum's Queen of Crime.

Since then few parts of the country have escaped her criminal attention, though she has yet to feature her Cotswolds neighbours. Her short stories regularly appear in anthologies and in the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. Her latest series features antiques dealer and restorer Lina Townend, whose father, Lord Elham, lives in the Kentish village where Judith once lived - though she had to build Bossingham Hall especially for him, and no one else has quite glimpsed it. Once the Secretary of the CWA, she is married to Edward Marston.

Author Website

Burying the Past

Detective Chief Superintendent Fran Harman's professional and private lives collide when a skeleton is unearthed in her garden

Fran is preparing for her forthcoming wedding to Assistant Chief Constable Mark Turner, but renovations at the rectory they plan to move into are disrupted by the discovery of a skeleton buried in the vegetable patch. As investigations into its identity progress, it's also clear that Mark's two grown-up children are less than ecstatic at the prospect of their father's forthcoming nuptials. In fact, at least one of them seems to be behaving very strangely indeed . . .

Guilt Trip

Troubles never arrive singly for antiques dealer Lina Townend and her business partner Griff Tripp . . .
The local antiques fair Lina Townend and Griff Tripp set up stall at may be a disaster, but when a local director swoops in and begs Griff to star in her latest production, Lina hopes it will take Griff's mind off a problem he won't share. Lina's own good luck is non-existent - her relationship is going nowhere and her business is faltering. But there's worse to come: 'pranks' played on the Curtain Call cast turn nasty. Could the play's name be a terrible omen?

Guilty Pleasures

A Lina Townend mystery

The last way antiques dealer Lina Townend wants to spend a summer's afternoon is helping at a church fete. However, Robin, the vicar, is an old friend, so Lina ends up selling bric-a-brac. But a harmless event turns into a crisis when someone tries to steal a tatty old snuff box. Tatty it might be, but it's valuable enough for the would-be thief to attack Griff, her dear mentor, to frame Lina for a crime, and to kill an old friend. And maybe other people, too . . .

Ring of Guilt

A Lina Townend mystery

Antiques dealer Lina Townend (bright, sharp, and pretty) is making a name for herself as a restorer, with a national reputation for honesty. So when she spots a dead body in a field, she calls the police only for it to promptly vanish. And it seems that her luck has entirely deserted her when she's accused of stealing two Anglo-Saxon rings, and no one seems to believe she's innocent. So when her love life looks up, Lina's delighted and unprepared when things take a frightening turn for the worse . . .

Silver Guilt

A Lina Townend Mystery

Lina Townend is making a name for herself as an antiques dealer, in partnership with her old friend, Griff Tripp. When she is accused of stealing an item she is selling for her father, the disreputable Lord Elham, her plight attracts the attention of Piers, a handsome fellow dealer. But is Piers all he seems? And what about the kindly policeman investigating the case? There's only one person she can really trust, Griff. But when violence threatens him, Lina has a difficult decision to make . . .