Welcome to 2025

Best wishes for 2025 from the Black Beacon Books crew.

We have three anthologies planned for this year:

- The Third Black Beacon Book of Mystery

- Steampunk Sleuths

and the last one will be announced later this month.

Stay tuned!

 

Steampunk Sleuths Update

The table of contents for our first novelette anthology has been finalised. Steampunk Sleuths will be published on the 18th of July next year and will feature the following stories set in a steampunk world. Each adventure will have an appropriately quirky crime or mystery at the centre of its plot, and as well as steam-powered vehicles and clockwork machinery, you might just bump into pirates, samurai, vampires, and extra-terrestrials!

Tears of the Dragon by S.B. Watson

Murder in Whitby by Karen Bayly   

The Untimely Death of Clockmaster Tollsmead by Cameron Trost

The Copper Train by Diana Parrilla

The Strange Case of Private Ornshaw and the Martian Detective by David Turnbull

The Third Black Beacon Book of Mystery - Publication Date

Black Beacon Books is pleased to announce the publication date for The Third Black Beacon Book of Mystery. The puzzles will be ready for you to solve (with the help of our host of talented investigators) on Friday the 18th of April, 2025.

These are the cases you'll be cracking...

The Painting and the Password by Cameron Trost
Death Goes Gourmet by Edward Lodi
Webster's Wallet by Robert Petyo  

A Veiled Truth by Karen Keeley

Gunning for a Promotion by Jon Matthew Farber

Take Care of Zozo for Me by Christina Hoag

A Study of Death by Teel James Glenn

Storm in a Teapot by Chris Hook

The Roman in the Fountain by Ron Fein

The Lunt by S. B. Watson

The Adventure of Woodbury Barrow by Cameron Trost

In the meantime, you can get your fix of mystery in the first two volumes.

Trailblazing Women - Karen Bayly

Karen Bayly shares the real-life inspirations behind her steampunk adventuress Artemis Devereaux with us over on her website and Black Beacon Books gives you, Dear Reader, the chance to win a print copy of her novels, Fortitude and Courage, simply by answering the question at the end of this post.

TRAILBLAZING WOMEN by Karen Bayly

In my latest novel, Courage, Artemis Devereaux stops over in Terra Australis, after flying her dirigible Taygete solo over much of the world. She had done similar journeys previous, but never solo, and I was determined she should fully spread wings after her journey toward independence in Fortitude.

Like all authors, some of my character’s drams and skills represent my own. I have wanted to learn to fly since my teens. However, the cost of flight tuition was more than I earned. Other avenues such as air force pilot weren’t open to women when I was young enough to take advantage of the opportunity. Now, I still can’t cover the cost of flight tuition, but even if I could, my failing eyesight might make things difficult.

Read Karen's full post on her website blog in order to answer the question below. Answer the question as a comment on this post or on any of our social media posts for the competition. A winner will be randomly selected at the end of the month.

Question:

What is the name of the reporter who beat the fictional record set by Phileas Fogg?

A Glimpse of the Ghostly: Cameron Trost

The Black Beacon Book of Ghosts will send shivers up your spine this Halloween. The anthology is out now in print and for Kindle. You can also add it to your Goodreads bookshelf. To get you in the mood and give you a little insight into the workings of their minds, our contributing authors are sharing their own haunting experiences with you. Read on, if you're not fainthearted!

Victoria's Most Haunted Mining Town - Cameron Trost

While my contribution to The Black Beacon Book of Ghosts is set in Brittany, one of my favourite ghost towns is in Australia. Several years ago, I discovered the old mining town of Walhalla and was so fascinated by it that I wrote a novelette set there; the Oscar Tremont mystery "The Ghosts of Walhalla". This town was where some made their fortunes but most died untimely deaths, and if it doesn't make you feel like you're in an episode of Scooby-Doo when you arrive there at night in your combi van, well, you lack imagination. The ghosts claimed to haunt Walhalla include those of Emily, a nurse, and Sally, a young bride who fell ill with smallpox. I'm not going to recount these tales here; you can look them up online or relive them as Oscar Tremont solves the case of the "ghosts of Walhalla" in Oscar Tremont, Investigator of the Strange and Inexplicable. But first, as Halloween 2024 approaches, grab a copy of The Black Beacon Book of Ghosts and let the spirits take control! 

Photo credit: https://historicalaustraliantowns.blogspot.com/

A Glimpse of the Ghostly: David Turnbull

The Black Beacon Book of Ghosts will send shivers up your spine this Halloween. The Kindle version is already available for pre-order at just $1.99 instead of $3.99 and you can add the anthology to your Goodreads "want to read" list today. The anthology will be officially released on the 11th of October 2024. To get you in the mood and give you a little insight into the workings of their minds, our contributing authors are sharing their own haunting experiences with you. Read on, if you're not fainthearted!

Ghost of the Necropolis by David Turnbull

On Waterloo's Westminster Bridge Road there stands an old Edwardian Office block, not far from Lambeth North tube station. If you fancy owning a piece of gothic history with a ghost story attached it is currently up for sale. The abandoned building is the last remaining remnant of what was once the Necropolis Railway.

The Necropolis Railway was opened in 1854 as a solution to overcrowding and unsanitary conditions in London's seven major public cemeteries, themselves built to tackle overcrowding in London churchyards following the population boom brought about in the city by the industrial revolution.

Coffins, corpses, and mourners would be transported from Waterloo to Brookwood, 18 miles away in Surrey, where 2,200 acres of land had been purchased for a gigantic cemetery. In true Victorian fashion you could make your journey to you final resting place in first, second, or third class, depending on your social standing.

One of the most notorious people transported from Waterloo and buried at Brookwood was Doctor Robert Knox who died in 1862. Knox had gained infamy as the surgeon who received murdered corpses from the Edinburgh grave robbers, Burke and Hare. As a result of the scandal following their trial, he'd been forced to relocate to London. His plot in Brookwood is one of the few that was concreted over. Clearly, given his experience of grave robbers, he wasn't taking any chances.

The office block was part of the Necropolis which was relocated in 1902 when South West Railways extended Waterloo station. Coffins continued to be transported to Brookwood up until World War Two, when bombing during the blitz left the station damaged beyond repair.

The building's ghost story has its origins a decade before the war started, when the railway was still fully operational. On the night of 14th March 1929 Police Constable David Ford entered the premises during a suspected burglary. Whilst carrying out his investigation he fell to his death through a skylight. Years later, when the offices were being utilised as a training centre for Transport for London, staff working late regularly reported hearing frantic footsteps running along corridors and up and down stairways, accompanied by the repeated banging of doors. It was believed to be the ghost of PC Ford eternally chasing his elusive burglar. Who knows, the new owners of the building may well find that this ghostly nocturnal chase is still going on.

A Glimpse of the Ghostly: L.P. Ring

The Black Beacon Book of Ghosts will send shivers up your spine this Halloween. The Kindle version is already available for pre-order at just $1.99 instead of $3.99 and you can add the anthology to your Goodreads "want to read" list today. The anthology will be officially released on the 11th of October 2024. To get you in the mood and give you a little insight into the workings of their minds, our contributing authors are sharing their own haunting experiences with you. Read on, if you're not fainthearted!

A Haunted Place - L.P. Ring

Back in the days before schoolwork, class schedules, or Super Mario, I was sat in the car with Mum when she pointed out her window and said “that house is haunted”. In my memory, I asked for details. In my memory, I looked at that unpainted two-storey with its dark windows, overgrown garden, and forbidding silence, and gawped at what beasts or ghouls chuckled or howled within. Truthfully, I probably did neither of those. The moment almost certainly passed in a grey blur. We continued onto the supermarket or wherever, and the kid strapped into the passenger seat said - or thought - not much of anything about that place. Much of what has grown from those few, whizzed-by seconds comes from movies, games, and books. That gloomy, ignored residence that still exists in my memory, down a stony, overgrown path behind a padlocked gate stretches upwards. It grumbles and carps, demands sustenance, and as part of our co-dependency, I toss it scraps, morsels, or maybe even the odd meal. Being honest, to echo my favorite author Stephen King, I find feeding that house fun. And if you’re reading this, I hope you do too.