Cover reveal: The Shade In the Sands

Horror | Ancient Egypt | My Love Affair With The Victorians Continues.

Damn! I thought just as I’d sent my husband a copy of the final, final, final book cover photo. He was down in London, and I’d just asked ‘so, what do you think?’ No response.

Damn him having a job where he can’t look at it for a couple of hours. I am not the most patient person. I had to wait, but my partner in crime did like the cover in the end.

I’ve teased this, but it wouldn’t surprise me if most of you reading this have no idea what I’m going on about. This is the cover for my next book. My fifth book!

It’s my first short story collection and it centres around ancient Egyptian horror in the 19th and early 20th century.

You may be familiar with The Shabti and The Maiden’s Hand which were published on Substack in the last 18 months and Six Geese a-laying which was published as part of a Christmas collaboration in December 2024 thanks to

Garen Marie

. Not only am I going to be publishing these three stories, but there will be a completely new novelette (the title for a story that’s too long for a short story but not quite a novella) and maybe a bonus short story… because why not?

This collection is inspired by various museum trips, Arthur Conan Doyle’s Lot 249, M R James’ The Mezzotint and of course, everything I’ve read by Daphne Du Maurier.

If you’re a fan of stories about haunted artefacts, ghosts at the pyramids of Giza and ancient curses, you will probably enjoy this book. If you love Gothic horror and paranormal mysteries, you will probably enjoy this book.

When’s it coming out?

It’s due for release on Friday 5th December 2025.

If you want to make sure you don’t forget about it, you can pre-order it on Kindle now, but please don’t worry, I will remind you on release day 😄.

This book will be available to buy on ebook and paperback everywhere, so if you use Apple Books, Kobo, Google books or Everand, it’ll be on there! You will also be able to order it online from B&N (US) Bookshop.org (US), Waterstones (UK) , Blackwells (UK and many, many more.

And finally… the cover reveal:

If you’d like a taste of what’s going to be in it, I’ve linked a couple of stories here.

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