The dark evenings are here, and Hallowe’en reminds us of the time we went to the Whitby Goth Weekend to research Days Like Shadows Pass, book five in the DCI Tom Raven series. We dressed in our best Goth outfits and had the most fun ever researching a book.
In July 1890 a much more famous writer than us visited Whitby. Bram Stoker stayed at a guesthouse at 6 Royal Crescent on the West Cliff. He was working on a new story with a character called Count Wampyr.
It’s easy to see how Whitby would have inspired Bram Stoker. With its ruined abbey, dramatic cliff tops, and jet jewellery industry, it’s the perfect location for a tale of Gothic horror. No doubt Stoker would have climbed the 199 steps leading to St Mary’s church. He would have seen the weather-worn graves, some of which were empty, commemorating those lost at sea. And he would have heard about the shipwreck in 1885 of the Russian vessel Dmitry which ran aground on Tate Hill Sands with a cargo of silver sand.
His novel Dracula was published in 1897. Count Dracula famously travels to England in a ship called the Demeter which is shipwrecked in a storm off the coast of Whitby. He comes ashore in the shape of a big, black dog.
And all hell breaks loose…
This first edition of Dracula is in the abbey museum.
And so, to Days Like Shadows Pass…
We couldn’t set a book in Whitby without paying homage to Bram Stoker’s Dracula, a novel which we both greatly enjoy.
Many of the characters in our novel are named after those from Dracula. Nathan=Jonathan, Mia=Mina, Lucille=Lucy, Dr Sandhu=Dr Seward, Reynard=Renfield, Mr Swales=Mr Swales!
The book also introduces the hound of hell, better known as Quincey, named after the American character in Dracula Quincey P. Morris!
Next month we will publish the final book in the DCI Tom Raven series. The Raven’s Call comes out on 30 November 2025. You can pre-order the Kindle edition here. The paperback and audio editions will be available from 30 November!
An exciting new series
We can now reveal that our new series will be the Carys Morgan series, set in Pembrokeshire, Wales.
A holy island. A haunted detective. A shocking murder.
When the body of a young woman is found on the altar of the abbey church on Caldey Island, Detective Inspector Carys Morgan is plunged into a world where evil lurks in holy places.
On this small island, reached only by boat, everyone is a suspect. Carys must navigate a closed world of islanders, monks, and pilgrims, each hiding a secret behind walls of silence and faith.
When a second body surfaces in the monastery fishpond, it’s clear the murders follow a chilling religious pattern. The next victim may already be chosen and Carys finds herself in a race to prevent more ritual killings.
But beneath her determination lies a secret of her own. Carys must confront not only the darkness in others, but the one she brought with her.
The Caldey Island Murders launches a gripping new Pembrokeshire crime series – where ancient faith meets modern evil on the wild Welsh coast.