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Orenda Books signs RWR McDonald’s gripping, glorious debut mystery, The Nancys and the Case of the Missing Necklace

Karen Sullivan, publisher of Orenda Books, is delighted to announce the acquisition of World English Language rights ex ANZ for RWR (Rob) McDonald’s debut mystery, The Nancys and the Case of the Missing Necklace, in a two-book deal negotiated with Craig Sisterson.

Eleven-year-old Tippy Chan is thrilled when her uncle Pike returns to her quiet New Zealand town with his boyfriend Devon to look after her while her mum is away on a Christmas cruise. An avid fan of her uncle’s old Nancy Drew books, Tippy is desperate for a real mystery – and when her teacher is found dead beside Riverstone’s only traffic light, she finally gets her chance. Teaming up with Pike and Devon, she forms a secret detective club, The Nancys, and sets out to uncover the truth. What begins as a bonding and sightseeing adventure quickly turns dangerous: a wrongful arrest, a close encounter with the killer, and Tippy’s mother intervening all raise the stakes. Undeterred, The Nancys must use their wits and courage to stop the murderer before they strike again – whatever the cost.

Karen says, ‘Gripping, gloriously camp, immensely moving, and at times unbearably tense, The Nancys and the Case of the Missing Necklace is a funny, often heartbreaking debut that balances a simmering mystery with laugh-out-loud moments and poignant relationships, all set in small-town New Zealand. Tippy, Uncle Pike and his boyfriend Devon are divine creations, and readers will fall for their charm immediately as the trio navigates chaotic investigations that carry real jeopardy – coached throughout in masterful innuendo, clever side-stories and warm-hearted humour.

‘Originally published as The Nancys in ANZ, winner of the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel and shortlisted for a Ned Kelly Award, The Nancys and the Case of the Missing Necklace has been transformed to heighten the Nancy Drew connection, recrafted to deliver even more tension and momentum, and now features a brand-new prologue – ensuring Tippy’s adventures sparkle with heart, peril and laugh-out-loud fun. We’ll be celebrating with Nancys tote bags for booksellers and a glittering Christmas marketing campaign.

‘Brimming with exuberance but also meaningful themes that add an extra layer of emotional depth, this is the perfect book for darkening nights, and with a delicious second book in the series scheduled for 2026 – and the promise of more to come – we are genuinely thrilled to bring this book and wonderful author to Orenda.’

Rob McDonald says, ‘From Riverstone, New Zealand (population 3,687) to the world, it feels like something out of one of Nancy Drew’s wildest cases! I’m stoked that The Nancys has found a home with Orenda Books, and I love that the multitasking mystery club is now sleuthing its way into the hands and hearts of readers in the UK and North America. Kia kaha, Tippy, Uncle Pike and Devon; Category is Nancy Drew realness.’

Craig Sisterson says, ‘Delightful, charming, raucous, heartfelt, exuberant; not descriptors I commonly – or ever – turned to in more than 15 years of reviewing and judging many hundreds of crime novels, but they were top of mind after I first tore through RWR McDonald’s terrific debut, a refreshing and utterly unique tale in our wonderful crime and thriller genre. 

‘There’s just a real je ne sais quoi to this marvellous tale of an unlikely investigative trio: 11-year-old Tippy Chan, her visiting uncle Pike (who could body double for Santa Claus), and his fashionista boyfriend Devon, all banding together to battle Tippy’s grief at the death of her father by solving mysteries in Riverstone. Delightful, yet not lightweight, it also explores serious issues of grief and belonging. I’m so stoked that the brilliant team at Orenda Books is bringing this award-winning Kiwi crime tale to a northern hemisphere audience, so readers over here can experience what I and many antipodeans felt when we first read RWR McDonald’s superb tale of lovably unruly characters and chaotic events, dark deeds in a small town, perfectly seasoned with humour and heart.’

RWR McDonald’s The Nancys and the Case of the Missing Necklace is published on 20th November, by Orenda Books.

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My Five All-Time Favourite Books by Olivier Norek

I’m not drawn to any genre in particular, but rather to certain writers and their style. That’s why my bookshelves are so eclectic that it looks like someone put the books there at random, with no logic or order.

For now, here’s a selection of five of my favourite books today. Yesterday my choices would have been different, and tomorrow they will be different again.

The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart by Mathias Malzieu

Imagine a boy with a clock for a heart; a delicate clock which can’t deal with emotions without risking malfunction or complete breakdown. What would happen if this boy fell in love – truly, madly, deeply? How many more minutes could that clock keep ticking? This is a fantastic tale, and yet it tells nothing but the truth. Malzieu’s writing is poetic, funny and sensitive.

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The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Or: the power of a writing style. In other words, the construction of a cathedral over multiple generations isn’t very interesting to me in itself, but the quality and the power of Ken Follett’s writing keeps you captivated in his story and you want to read to the end, trembling along with the builders, waiting to see the final stone set in place, the final word written.

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The Ice People by René Barjavel

A book with a story so incredible and so wide-ranging that no film director has yet had the courage to take it on. Imagine that the traces of a civilisation pre-dating ours were discovered on Earth. The chance to see how a civilisation is born, lives and dies, how it could give us the intellectual tools we need to avoid the same mistakes. And we see how, despite all the warnings, we keep repeating the same errors. On top of that, it has the best plot twist of all time!

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Reads Like a Novel by Daniel Pennac

This is not a novel, but a book to make you love novels – to remind you what a big part reading should play in our lives, because it makes them richer and more beautiful. And Daniel Pennac also reminds us of the inalienable rights of the reader which topple literature off its pedestal and, in doing so, give it back to humanity: “The right not to read. The right to skip. The right not to finish a book. The right to read it again. The right to read anything. The right to mistake a book for real life (in French, ‘le bovarysme’, named after the titular character of Madame Bovary). The right to read anywhere. The right to read out loud.”

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The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
Chandler’s private detective Philip Marlowe is one of my favourite heroes. He’s a hero who knows, however, that this investigation (whichever one it is) will only bring him trouble at best. Fistfights are likely, and gunshots are inevitable. Marlowe knows all this, and he also knows that he lost all faith in humanity a long time ago. But he always says yes to the lost souls who walk into his office anyway. In the heart of darkness, there are people who could redeem the entire human race. You can smell the cigarettes, the cold coffee, the whiskey, the crumpled clothes from sleepless nights and arguments … Perfection!

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Olivier Norek is the author of The Winter Warriors, translated from the French by Nick Caistor, and published by Open Borders Press, an imprint of Orenda Books.

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Wolves and Werewolves in Fiction – My Top Favourite Reads by Michael J. Malone

The Howling is the third book in the Annie Jackson Mystery series … and sees Annie once again thrust into danger. This time she’s been tempted out of seclusion by an old foe – with the promise that if she finds a child this person was forced to abandon at birth, they will help Annie end the curse that blights her life once and for all. 

The boy, now a man, dreamed of being a wolf – dreams linked to another boy centuries ago who was burned at the stake for succumbing to his wolfen urges.

The Howling is not a werewolf novel as such – but the human/wolf connection is an enduring fictional trope – and what’s not to love? In no particular order, here are some examples of this fictional device …

The Wolf’s Hour by Robert McCammon

First published in 1989, The Wolf’s Hour combines history, folklore, and myth. McCammon’s hero is Michael Gallatin, who was born into the Russian aristocracy, but was changed and raised by a pack of werewolves. Offering his ‘talents’ to the Allied cause, Michael becomes a secret weapon aimed at the destruction of Hitler and his Thousand Year Reich. This book manages to be both a historical thriller and a brilliant re-imagining of the traditional werewolf tale, by a superb author who has been criminally overlooked in recent times.

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The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan (Part one of Last Werewolf Trilogy)

For two centuries Jacob Marlowe has wandered the world, enslaved by his lunatic appetites and tormented by the memory of his first and most monstrous crime. Now, the last of his kind, he knows he can’t go on. But as Jake counts down to his demise, a violent murder and an extraordinary meeting plunge him straight back into the desperate pursuit of life.

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The Wolf’s Gift by Anne Rice

“Anne Rice reinvented the vampire legend. Discover what she’s done with the werewolf myth.”
After a brutal attack, journalist Reuben Goulding finds himself changing. His hair is longer, his skin is more sensitive and he can hear things he never could before. Now he must confront the beast within him or lose himself completely. He flees the authorities, DNA analysts and the media, while trying to unpick the mystery of the mansion where he was attacked and turned into a werewolf.

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The Werewolf of Paris by Guy Endore 

A horror novel as well as a work of historical fiction, The Werewolf of Paris follows Bertrand Caillet, the eponymous werewolf, throughout the tumultuous events of the Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune of 1870–71. Some literature experts have compared this book with Dracula by Bram Stoker, identifying it as the Dracula of werewolf fiction. Apparently, inspiration for the novel came from the true story of the French general, Francois Bertrand –  the infamous ‘necrophilic sergeant’ or ‘the vampire of Montparnasse’. Between 1848 and 1849, Bertrand experienced so-called brutal fits that led to acts of necrophilia and cannibalism in several French cemeteries. 

What do you think? Are there other werewolf novels that you’ve read and loved and would like to share with the world?

Michael J. Malone is the author of The Howling, the third book in the Annie Jackson Mysteries series, which include The Murmurs and The Torments, published by Orenda Books.

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What is the Enceladons Trilogy Really About? by Doug Johnstone

When I started writing my Skelfs series, one of the things I was trying to do, probably subconsciously, was write about a better way to live. The world is such a shitshow these days, in pretty much every aspect, and I felt like I had to start addressing that in my writing. 

When I decided to start writing science fiction, this was still in my mind, for sure. I wanted to write a first contact story, but about ordinary people experiencing the extraordinary in the form of an alien life, and what that might really look like.

So right from the start Sandy and the other Enceladons – octopus and jellyfish creatures from one of Saturn’s moons – were set up as living a very different kind of life, with very different ideas of society, connection and community. They were peaceful, curious and in need of help. Of course, my ordinary human characters helped them, but the authorities viewed them as a threat and tried to capture, torture and kill them.

The whole series has been a quiet tirade against human exceptionalism. The idea that humans are better than other life on earth, or separate from their environment, is honestly at the heart of everything that’s wrong with the world right now. When you think of something or someone else as less than you, you can do anything you like to them. Imperialism, slavery, animal cruelty, climate change, social inequality, war – all of it stems from this idea, and it makes me sick.

So there has to be another way, right? That was the idea behind the Enceladons. If the first book – The Space Between Us – was about treatment of the ‘other’, then the second – The Collapsing Wave – was about how the military and imperialist forces try to destroy everything they perceive as a threat.

The Transcendent Tide goes further. Placing the Enceladons close to an indigenous Inuit community in Greenland allowed me to expose further the critical failings of modern capitalism. What we in the West think is an inevitable way of life is, actually, catastrophically evil. We have to be able to see a better way of living before we can do anything about it, and that was certainly in my mind as I wrote the final part of the trilogy. I tried to be hopeful, even as terrible things were happening, and ideally the reader will finish the book with a glimmer of that hope for the future of life on the planet.

There are no easy answers in The Transcendent Tide. But at least I’m asking the questions and hopefully making people think.

Doug Johnstone is the author of The Transcendent Tide, the third book in the Enceladons Trilogy, out today in paperback.

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My 5 Favourite Psychological Thrillers – Eva Björg Ægisdóttir

In recent years, I’ve become a huge fan of psychological thrillers. They’re very different from the detective stories I devoured in my teenage years, which often followed a more realistic approach, where we watched the cases unfold through the eyes of the police. Although I still love a good detective novel, there’s something addictive about psychological thrillers. I love how unpredictable they can be, how the characters are often damaged and complex, making you constantly question their motives. The following books feature some of my favourite fictional characters, often deeply unreliable and sometimes not very likeable, but I love them anyway.  

1. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn


This book was one of the reasons we saw a wave of thrillers featuring unreliable narrators. What Gone Girl has, though, and what many of the other books didn’t, is a brilliantly written dissection and satire of a marriage and of female stereotypes. Amy Dunne is both terrifying and brilliant. Even though she might be a terrible person, I was rooting for her all the way. Flynn’s writing, with its biting social commentary and layered characters, set a new standard for the genre. I’ve read this book many times now, and it never loses its impact.

2. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn


Yes, another Gillian Flynn novel. I think that few authors do psychological damage quite like the author, and there is just something about her writing style I simply love. Sharp Objects dives deep into family trauma, small-town secrets, and self-destruction – something I always love in a crime novel. Camille is a troubled journalist protagonist. She is very raw and real, and the ending still makes my skin crawl.

3. None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell


I have devoured every Lisa Jewell book in recent years, and I love how dark they’ve become. This story of a podcaster and her mysterious subject is chilling precisely because it feels like it could happen to anyone. Jewell plays with the idea of truth and storytelling in a way that leaves you doubting everything you read and it becomes so uncomfortable, but at the same time I couldn’t stop reading.

4. The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides


This one has a premise that hooks immediately: a woman who murders her husband and then stops speaking entirely, leaving only a painting of herself. The twists in this one are masterful. and Michaelides balances suspense with deep character study. It’s the kind of book you want to finish in one sitting and then re-read to catch what you missed.

5. I Remember You by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir


I love a good supernatural story when it’s done in a subtle, realistic way … where it feels like it really could happen, so I have to include Yrsa’s Icelandic thriller. There aren’t many books that have made me afraid to go to sleep, but this one did! I Remember You blends ghost story and psychological suspense beautifully. The atmosphere is terrifying, set in a cold, isolated location, but the scariest parts aren’t the surroundings but the people. 

Eva Björg Ægisdóttir is the author of the chilling standalone psychological thriller, Home Before Dark, translated by Victoria Cribb.

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Orenda Books signs Kate Rhodes’ breathtaking, gripping Deadman’s Pool

Karen Sullivan, publisher of Orenda Books, is delighted to announce the acquisition of World English Language rights for Kate Rhodes’ Deadman’s Pool, book eight in the Isles of Scilly series, in a two-book deal negotiated with Teresa Chris Literary Agency.

The book opens with DI Ben Kitto ferrying the islands’ priest to St Helen’s, as winter storms lash the Isles of Scilly. Father Michael intends to live as a pilgrim in the ruins of an ancient church on the uninhabited island, but an ugly secret is buried among the rocks. Digging frantically in the sand, Ben’s dog, Shadow, unearths the emaciated remains of a young woman. The discovery chills Ben to the core. The victim is Vietnamese, with no clear link to the community – and her killer has made sure that no one will find her easily. The storm intensifies as the investigation gathers pace, and soon Scilly is cut off by bad weather, with no help available from the mainland. Ben is certain the killer is hiding in plain sight. He knows they are waiting to kill again – and at unimaginable cost.

Karen says, ‘The Isles of Scilly series has been one of my own personal favourites since Hell Bay was published in 2018, and one of the few series I have always read in hardback. DI Ben Kitto is a complex, memorable character, who has returned from London to his birthplace within the close community of Bryher, wrestling with grief and trauma, but always seeking justice. With his dog, Shadow, and in later books, new-found love, he investigates local crimes that inevitably have their roots in the community, and the dark secrets that lurk behind closed doors.

‘When the series became available – picking up at book eight, Deadman’s Pool, with book nine to follow in 2026 – I leapt at it. With its immense sense of place, intricate, locked-island plots, and compelling, believable characters that we grow to love, this has always felt like an Orenda Books series, and I am thrilled to welcome Kate Rhodes – a reader, bookseller and librarian favourite – to the team, and to be offered the opportunity to breathe new life into a series that has so much more to give.

‘Deadman’s Pool is without question the best yet, with the islands cut off by a storm, a killer in their midst, and a masterfully created ticking-clock tension and sense of peril. Readers of and new to the series will be blown away.’

Kate Rhodes says, ‘I’m delighted to be working with a really ambitious, innovative independent publisher like Orenda. I admire their wide international reach, and their strong focus on quality crime writing. But above all, they offer exceptional encouragement and care to all their authors. I feel lucky to have joined their excellent list.’

Teresa Chris says, ‘I am delighted that Kate is going to be published by the prestigious award-winning Orenda team’

Deadman’s Pool, by Kate Rhodes, will be published on 25th September 2025, by Orenda Books, with book nine in the Isles of Scilly series published a year later. For more information, please contact Karen Sullivan: Karen@orendabooks.co.uk.

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Behind the Scenes of Double Room by Anne Sénès

What inspires me? It’s hard to say. A lot of daydreaming, some reading, a few travels, and the occasional Eureka!

It all begins in London, and I know several very different Londons.

There’s the London I discovered with my grandma when I was a young adult. The London where I lived with my husband (who was travelling, more often than not) and our newborn son. The London I found in the pages of countless novels, in old films and musicals, in Mary Poppins and Paddington. The London I explored for my research when I was working on my PhD. In short, a London that is vibrant, full of colours, sounds, smells, laughter, rules and freedoms, good and bad surprises, mews, avenues and parks.

And then there is Paris, where I grew up – a city I no longer love. But one day, while visiting a friend, he took me to La Mouzaïa, a little borough I didn’t know. And there I saw Stan’s house – the one with Alice and the white rabbit painted on its walls.

I had already started writing the novel, and suddenly it felt right for Stan to move there: a quiet place, but one full of mystery.

To be honest, like Stan, I never really liked Alice in Wonderland. Partly because I was jealous of Alice (I’m still waiting for a rabbit to come and fetch me), and partly because, as a child, I found everything in that book frightening. I could – and probably should – read it again, but for some reason, I don’t feel like it.

As for the plot, I wanted a male character. A composer. Someone who wouldn’t see or feel the world like the rest of us. Synaesthesia made sense, then. Stan’s sensitivity is extreme – and so, when Stan loves, he loves in an extreme way. Love that borders on madness. Absolute.

To the point where he recreates his dead wife’s voice.

What would we do for love? What would we do to keep alive the ones we love? To make sure they’re always there to chat with us, to hold us, to comfort us? How far are we willing to go to keep their ghost close?

This is where Oscar Wilde and Maupassant inspired me. Their fantastical short stories always play on that feeling: Is it real? Am I going mad? Who are these shadows? It’s eerie, and I love that sensation. We play with our fears, as if we were still children – ready to close the book and return to the safety of reality. But what if that’s no longer possible?

That is exactly what happens to Stan. As he wanders back again and again down memory lane, he forgets to live in the present. He loses himself in a past that, like all pasts, never truly existed. We all reshape our memories – brightening or darkening them depending on our mood. And suddenly, the mundane becomes extraordinary.

And we all fear and depend on our AI machines. We all wonder whether Alexa or Siri is spying on us. Remember that chat with your friends about going to Greece in the summer? And that same night, you start getting ads for dreamy little houses to rent by the sea on a remote Greek island? It’s happened to all of us. It stirs something strange in us. And sometimes, we can’t help but see these smart devices as our best friends – the ones we trust with our eyes closed.

Double Room is made of all these ingredients.

But above all, it’s what you see in it.

Anne Sénès’ English debut novel, Double Room, translated by Alice Banks, is published by Orenda Books.