Emilie Castera

One half of “The Anonymums”.

Inspired by our friendship, our countless parenting fails, and lifelong passion for cosy crime, together with co-author, Eve Goodfellow, I write The AnonyMums book series where school mum friends unwittingly solve murders whilst navigating school politics and sleep deprivation.

Our first book, A Bloody Merry Murder, has been long and shortlisted for several writing competitions (most notably the Crime Writers’ Association Emerging Author Dagger, but also shortlisted for the I Am Writing Cosy Crime Competition) and was published on September 25th 2025.

From daily journaling, to creating a village gazette and starting what would not be classed as a (very poor) Young Adult romance, the written word has always been close to my heart.

I met Eve at work in 2011 and we became firm friends when we got pregnant with our firstborns at the same time. We bonded over this body and soul knackering life changing experience but soon found we had many other things in common but the biggest one being the love of a good book (preferably of the murdery kind).

Our motherhood journey inspired us to write about the funny side of parenting struggles. The idea of a Thursday Murder Club meets Motherland soon became obvious to us and A Bloody Merry Murder was born (slowly with no pain relief or epidural).