Jane Casey, The Secret Room

Sunday Times bestselling author, Jane Casey, will introduce her latest gripping new thriller featuring DS Maeve Kerrigan and DI Josh Derwent, The Secret Room. Delving into how to create a main character, Casey will reflect on the different approaches of Dorothy L Sayers and other classic crime authors in developing compelling detective characters.

Thursday 12th June, 7.00pm

Venue: Witham Library, 18 Newland Street, Witham, CM8 2AQ

Tickets: £10 / £8 concessions (Students, Under 27s and Unwaged)

Box Office: essexbookfestival.org.uk or Mercury Theatre 01206 573948

The Secret Room by Jane Casey

‘With every breath in my body, I’m BEGGING you to read Jane Casey’s books!’ – Marian Keyes

‘Simply one of the best writers of detective fiction today’ – Liz Nugent

The latest gripping new thriller featuring DS Maeve Kerrigan and DI Josh Derwent from the Top Ten Sunday Times bestselling author.

A locked room mystery that will confound and surprise you…

Wealthy, privileged Ilaria Cavendish checks into a luxury London hotel. Within the hour, her lover finds her submerged in a bath of scalding water, dead.

At first glance it looks like an accident, because no one went into the room with her and no one came out, but all the signs point to murder.

For DS Maeve Kerrigan, the case is a welcome distraction from her personal life. But then her partner, DI Josh Derwent, is arrested. Now, Maeve faces the toughest challenge of her career as she juggles both cases – if she fails, her world will never be the same again…

Order a copy of The Secret Room by Jane Casey from the Essex Book Festival online bookshop at bookshop.org

Jane Casey

Photo of Jane Casey credit Jonathan Goldberg

Jane Casey has written fifteen crime novels for adults and three for teenagers. A former editor, she is married to a criminal barrister who helps to ensure her writing is realistic and as accurate as possible.

This authenticity has made her novels international bestsellers and critical successes. The Maeve Kerrigan series has been nominated for many awards: in 2015 Jane won the Mary Higgins Clark Award for The Stranger You Know and Irish Crime Novel of the Year for After the Fire. She also won Irish Crime Novel of the Year in 2019 for Cruel Acts, which was a Sunday Times bestseller, and in 2024 for A Stranger in the Family. Jane’s standalone thriller The Killing Kind has been adapted for television. Born in Dublin, Jane now lives in southwest London with her husband and two children.