Kay Blythe

Kay Blythe writes historical mysteries set in the turbulent 1920s, featuring travelling dressmaker and avid amateur detective Jemima Flowerday. Frustrated by the barriers keeping women out of professional crime detection, Jemima finds her own way in. She embraces the new freedoms opening up to women in the aftermath of the Great War, including the opportunity to investigate murder in whichever country house she happens to find herself in.

Jemima Flowerday novels published to date are Murder at Merrybeggars Hall, A Poisoning at Castle Gloaming and Death Comes to Firebrace Court. The books are unashamedly plotty and reward close attention, with their twists, mysteries and the whiff of red herring. Kay has a particular weakness for Old English names and the strange, evocative place-names she has mentally collected over the years. Digging into their etymology, imagining the landscapes and stories that lie behind them, is part of the pleasure of creating Jemima’s world.

Kay is also Natalie Meg Evans, author of fourteen historical novels. Her novel The Dress Thief was shortlisted for an RWA RITA Award and won the Greek Public Book Award for Best Foreign Novel. Her books have been published internationally and translated into several languages.

As Kay Blythe, she brings her fascination with history, social change and the lives of women to the Golden Age world of crime. She lives in rural Suffolk alongside two rescue dogs, a veteran Belgian Malinois and a youthful German Shepherd.

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