09-05-2025
New historical mystery-thriller series to be launched at literary festival
A new historical mystery-thriller series by an Oxfordshire author will be launched at a Headington literary festival this weekend.
Amanda Roberts, who lives in Islip, will unveil her third novel, Lady of the Quay, at HeadLitFest on Saturday, May 10.
The one-day festival will be held at Headington Quarry Village Hall.
Headington Quarry Village Hall (Image: Greg Blatchford) Set in 16th-century Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland, the book begins the Isabella Gillhespy series, which follows the only daughter of a wealthy merchant who finds her inheritance is not what she expected after the unexpected death of her father.
Ms Roberts, a member of the Royal Society of Authors and the Historical Novel Society, was inspired to set her new series in Berwick-upon-Tweed after a family holiday in the town in 2021.
The Elizabethan ramparts and the town's unique past, marked by its strategic importance and frequent changes in ownership between the English and the Scottish from the 11th century to 1482, sparked her imagination.
Ms Roberts' first novel, The Roots of the Tree, is a true family story that follows her mother's struggle with the discovery that her biological father was not the man she had known all her life.
Her second novel, The Woman in the Painting, is a dual-timeline historical novel set in 2019 and 1645, in her home village of Islip - the site of a little-known battle between Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army and three of the King's regiments.
The book was awarded the silver medal in the Coffee Pot Book Club Historical Fiction Book of the Year Awards in the time slip/time travel/dual timeline category.
The narrative of Lady of the Quay, as summarised on the book jacket, reads: "1560, Berwick-upon-Tweed, northern England.
"Following the unexpected death of her father, a series of startling discoveries about the business she inherits forces Isabella Gillhespy to re-evaluate everything she understands about her past and expects from her future.
"Facing financial ruin, let down by people on whom she thought she could rely, and suspected of crimes that threaten her freedom, Isabella struggles to prove her innocence.
"But the stakes are even higher than she realises.
"In a town where tension between England and her Scottish neighbours is never far from the surface, it isn't long before developments attract the interest of the highest authority in the land, Sir William Cecil, and soon Isabella is fighting, not just for her freedom, but her life.
"She must use her wits and trust her own instincts to survive."
Ms Roberts is also a member of West Oxfordshire Writers and Oxford Independent Authors.
