Martine Bailey

Martine is a writer of crime, mysteries and the gothic. Martine’s debut, An Appetite for Violets, takes sharp-witted cook Biddy Leigh on a murderous trip to Italy. Fay Weldon described its mix of crime, gastronomy and history, as a new genre, the ‘culinary gothic’. It was a Booklist top ten crime fiction debut of the year.

The Penny Heart (A Taste for Nightshade in the US) is a Sunday Times Best Summer Read that draws on cooking, trickery and revenge. The stars, riddles and murder align in The Almanack, a historical mystery featuring fifty authentic riddles. In its sequel, The Prophet, destiny and murder weave an intricate web around Tabitha’s new life.

More recently, Martine has created a crime series based on her own experiences in the NHS in the 1980s. Sharp Scratch sees Lorraine Quick explore whether psychometric tests might be used to catch a killer. The sequel, Isolation Ward, takes Lorraine to an isolated asylum in Yorkshire where a series of disturbing deaths uncover secret memories and desires.

While studying English Literature Martine played in various bands on the Manchester music scene before working in the NHS. Over her career she assessed staff for Ashworth top security psychiatric hospital and completed an MSc on the ‘Psychic Prisons’ that can trap psychiatric staff in negative behaviours.

As an amateur cook, Martine won the Merchant Gourmet Recipe Challenge and was a former UK Dessert Champion, cooking at Le Meurice in Paris. To lend her historical mysteries authenticity she learned to cook using historic methods with food historican Ivan Day and experienced Georgian food and fashion at first hand with an historic re-enactment society.

Martine’s literary influences include Ruth Rendell, Sarah Waters and the gothic tradition. Married with one son, Martine lives in Cheshire, England, having lived for some years in New Zealand where she gained a Creative Arts Scholarship. She was also Writer in Residence at Hosking Houses Trust, Stratford-upon-Avon and Hawkwood College, Stroud.

Her short story, ‘A Mouthful of Restaurant’, appears in the 2017 CWA Anthology, ‘The Mystery Tour’.

Martine was longlisted for the Mogford Prize for Food and Drink Writing in 2020.