No Laughing Matter

"And then the lights went out. Not just the main lights, but every piece of electrical equipment in the tent. I was swallowed by the vast, silent void, my senses shocked. A loud crack, like a pistol shot, broke the silence..."

HOW CAN AN ELEPHANT DISAPPEAR INTO THIN AIR DURING A CIRCUS PERFORMANCE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DESERT?

Laughing Matter, an Impossible Crime by S. B. Watson, is out now for just 99 cents, or FREE with your Kindle Unlimited subscription.

When Whinnaker sets his circus up on the edge of the South Australian desert, a forty-minute drive from Whyalla, the crowds know they will be amazed, bedazzled, and entertained. There will be clowning around, gravity-defying acrobatics, and spellbinding magic... but they aren't expecting an elephant to disappear into thin air, and they certainly aren't expecting a murder to take place right under their noses!
How did Ling, the star Asian elephant, vanish from the big top tent without a trace? How was a murder committed at the very same time? Will the police be able to solve both seemingly impossible mysteries?

Roll up! Roll up! Mystery hounds and sofa Sherlocks of the world. We need your help solving this mind-bending puzzle. Two spectacular crimes committed in front of a crowd of witnesses. This is no laughing matter!

Laughing Matter is the first Kindle-Only "Bang for your Buck" Novelette of the year, available exclusively from Black Beacon Books.

Three Crime Novelettes

Black Beacon Books is pleased to announce the three novelettes that will be published this year as part of our Kindle-Only Novelettes range. The idea of this range is provide an opportunity for authors to publish tales that sit between the short story and the novella in terms of length, because here at Black Beacon Books, we recognise that this a wonderful length for storytelling and yet one that is undervalued in the publishing world. These novelettes will be exclusively electronic; Kindle and Audible. 

The novelette acceptances for 2026 are... drum roll...

Laughing Matter by S. B. Watson.

An impossible crime featuring a disappearing elephant in the Australian desert.

Torched by Benedict J. Jones.

A fiery hardboiled romp across London.

You Only Fall Once by Bruce W. Most.

A New York City police procedural that defies gravity but not belief.

We'll be kicking things off with S. B. Watson's novelette, which despite the title is no laughing matter!

More news very soon.

Index Case by Sam Dawson

Announcing a new novel! 

Black Beacon Books is thrilled to announce that we'll be publishing the latest novel by British author Sam Dawson in September. This medical thriller is a virus you definitely do want to catch! 

 

Rob is an epidemiologist, dedicated to fighting disease and all too aware that  the UK is unprepared for the deadly pandemic that's about to hit. As he plans how his family will survive, he ponders the traces of  long-dead villages and plagues past, and begins to wonder: is it time to be part of the problem, not the solution?

Cover art by the wonderful Greg Chapman

Illustrations by Sam Dawson

INDEX CASE  by Sam Dawson isn't just another novel - it's a pandemic in itself. A thoroughly-researched medical thriller, a critical analysis of public policy, a survival handbook, a guidebook to some of the historical highlights along the south coast of England, and ultimately a philosophical treatise. All of this wrapped up for the intrepid reader in one gripping novel with Rob, an epidemiologist, preparing his family for the deadly pandemic that's about to hit.

 

Cover Reveal: The Fourth Black Beacon Book of Mystery

The puzzle has been solved! We've uncovered the mysterious art by Malgorzata Mika for The Fourth Black Beacon Book of Mystery. This art is inspired by the Oscar Tremont story "The Case of the Ghost Slipper", which the editor will be contributing to the anthology. For the fifth volume, one of our contributors will have the opportunity to have his or her puzzle-solving protagonist appear on the cover. Preference will be given to a protagonist who has appeared in at least two previous volumes.

Without further ado, the cover for The Fourth Black Beacon Book of Mystery...

A NOTE TO AUTHORS: The submissions window is open until the end of February. Simply visit our submissions page and follow the guidelines carefully.

Buy the previous volumes HERE.

Seventeen Scary Stories

We kept you up all night with the spooky tales in The Black Beacon Book of Horror and Samhain Screams, and we'll be doing it again in October 2026. Right in time for Halloween! 

As always, and perhaps even more so than usual, choosing a handful of tales to publish from the roughly two hundred we received was a challenge. We managed to narrow it down to these seventeen scary stories. 

Black Beacon Books is proud to announce the table of contents for The Black Beacon Book of Horror 2...

Floop by Jeff Wood
The Crawling Ink by Rodney Hatfield Jr
The Weathervane by Sam Dawson
How are they Holding the Silverware? by Shelly Lyons
Miranda's Moon Garden by Cameron Trost
An Eye is Upon You by Matthew R. Davis
A Darkness at Devil Reef by Mike Adamson
Summoning Demons by Robert Runte
In the House of the Seamstress by David Turnbull
In Her Eyes They Will Scream by David Schembri
Grace by Esme Lee Wilmot
Your King and Country Want You by L. P. Ring
The Ice Lions by Stuart Olver
The Affair of the Third Clairvoyant by Rob Nisbet
An Elegy on the Lossie by Malina Douglas
Countdown to Prom Night by Diana Olney
Volume 7 by Dino Parenti

Best Wishes for 2026

Black Beacon Books wishes you, our faithful readers, the very best for 2026. Now, we know you're hungry for more gripping tales of mystery, suspense, and horror again this year. Rest assured, you will be fed! 

On the 30th of January, to celebrate his 45th birthday, Cameron Trost offers you his first novel featuring Oscar Tremont, Investigator of the Strange and Inexplicable. Dead on the Dolmen will put the little grey cells of even the most experienced armchair detective to the test.

Halloween will be as spooky as ever with The Black Beacon Book of Horror 2, featuring tales which have been hand-picked to chill you to the bone.

And then, Christmas will bring the mystery full circle. We're currently taking submissions for The Fourth Black Beacon Book of Mystery.

There may also be a surprise or two along the way as we're now open to submissions for Kindle-only novelettes. 

Are you ready to rock 2026 with us?

 

Merry Christmas 2025!

Black Beacon Books would like to wish each and every one of you a Merry Christmas. Thank you for being part of our adventure once again in 2025, and as you know, we have more great books planned for next year. Do you need a spooky read or two to give you the Yuletide chills? 

 

Who can solve this murder mystery?

As you know, Dead on the Dolmen, will be published in January. This is the first novel featuring Oscar Tremont, Investigator of the Strange and Inexplicable. Cameron Trost and Black Beacon Books are offering you, the intrepid armchair detective, the chance to win a print copy of the novel by solving the mystery! What's the catch? Simple. You read the first eighteen chapters as a PDF and then you send an email to camerontrost@hotmail.com with the name of the person you believe is the killer along with your postal address. If you're right, you'll be sent a free copy of the novel once it's published.

Even if you don't identify "the Ankou", you can still earn yourself a free copy if you spot a typo or inconsistency in the manuscript.

Ready for the challenge? Send the author an email requesting your PDF beta copy and see if you can solve the puzzle...