
‘…important and powerful…’- Daily Mail
Disturbing…How to Play Dead is horrifying in its reflection of reality for many women – and men – Natasha Cooper – The Literary Review
She’s watching over them. And he’s watching her…
Ria Taylor is everything to everyone. Wife and mother, the centre of her family. And the manager of a refuge for women whose partners have driven them out of their own homes.
But one night, with her husband away, Ria receives a terrifyingly sinister message. Someone is watching her. Someone who seems to know everything about her. She knows what she should do – seek help, just like she tells her clients to. But Ria is the help. As events escalate, and terror takes hold, Ria must decide whether to run or hide…
Buy How to Play Dead here…

‘Wildly exciting’ – Daily Mail
Caroline Atkinson is powerless and angry. She has lost more than most – her marriage, her reputation, even her children. Then one day, she receives an unusual delivery: lost luggage belonging to the very man who is responsible, her estranged husband Jack.
In a leather holdall, Caroline unearths a dark secret, one that finally confirms her worst suspicions. Jack has kept a detailed diary of all his affairs; every name, every meeting, every lie is recorded. He even marks the women out of ten.
Caroline decides it’s time to even the score. She will make this man pay, even if it means risking everything…
Buy Perfect Ten here…

‘Frighteningly real…’
One child lost, one child found – what’s the connection?
DS Jan Pearce is still searching for her missing son. When she finds a little girl, Elise, alone in a pram in a busy town centre, she must unravel a mystery that takes her to the edge of her emotions. Then another child, Dara Price, goes missing.Lisa Connelly, Elise’s mother, has been forced into a life of prostitution and has been leaving her little girl alone. Her gangland boss is holding her prisoner but she wants her little girl back.
Jan finds herself balancing her search for her son with finding Dara. To make matters worse, her right hand man, Mike Waring, is on another case so she and her temporary partner, profiler Damien Booth, must solve the puzzle and find Lisa before time runs out for Dara.Playlist for a Paper Angel is the second in the DS Jan Pearce series of novels and is the sequel to Random Acts of Unkindness.

‘Riveting read…’
DS Jan Pearce has a big problem. Her fifteen year old son, Aiden, is missing. Jan draws together the threads of missing person cases spanning fifty years and finds tragic connections and unsolved
questions. Bessy Swain, an elderly woman that Jan finds dead in a local gangster’s property on her search for Aiden, and whose own son, Thomas, was missing, may have the answers. Jan uses Bessy’s information and her own skills and instinct to track down the missing boys. But is it too late for Aiden?
Press Release

‘Unmissable crime fiction…’
One year old Maisie Lewis is missing. DC Jan Pearce is in hiding from what she left behind, but is drafted onto the case when it escalates. What forced Jan to come back to Manchester to start a new life? Who is she hiding from? A chain of paper dolls and a series of sinister messages leads Jan to the truth and into the dangerous territory of her past – but is it too late for little Maisie?

‘Can you keep a secret?’
Can you keep a secret? Three women on the peripherals of war did – the most dangerous secret of all
MI6 spy Kate Morden has a big problem. She’s involved in a case where someone has killed an informer and discovered more than they bargained for. Kate investigates and finds her dead father, also a spy who taught her all she knows about coding, is involved.
Juliette Watson holds the key to the mystery. She knows what the apocalyptic secret is but she’s not telling, until she confides in Iraqi artist, Sanaa Yazidi, who she meets in the desert.
Spanning from the start of the 1991 Iraq war to present day, through London, Cyprus, New York and Baghdad, three women on the peripherals of war chase down a ticking clock to save humanity.
The Truth Keeper is the first in the Kate Morden series of spy thrillers.

‘Dystopia at its best…’

A social and psychological perspective of identity construction
I completed a PhD on narrative psychology and this focused on the way health is constructed and reconstructed through narrative and discourse. The people who participated in my study were asked to tell the story of their health life – a story with a beginning, a middle and an end. Part of the outcome of the study was that when asked to tell a story people will include many aspects of their life to explain how the central focus came about, or was constructed. Compared with answering an interview or a survey, which are largely controlled by the interviewer and leave little room for the surrounding influencing environment of people lives, stories give us a fuller landscape and picture of how people live.
The book is called ‘Identity, Health and Women’ and this was really how I came to love storytelling and listening to other people’s stories. (written as Jacqueline Christodoulou)
Short Stories
Vernal Equinox: My story The Reunion is featured in this anthology
My short story Undercurrent was published on the 7th January 2016 in the anthology ‘Tales from Elsewhere‘
Winter Solstice: My story Killing Anna is featured in this anthology
I’m delighted that my short story ‘Utopia +10’ is included in the ‘Now We Are Ten’ celebratory anthology from Newcon Press.
I’m delighted to announce that my short story ‘Really Me’ is published in the Retreat West Short Story Winners Anthology ‘The Colour of Life’.
The story is on the competition theme of Insomnia and introduces Vanessa, someone who is not all she seems. There are several different themes covered in the anthology.
The short stories in this anthology, which is a compilation of six short story competitions winner and runner up stories, were judged by high profile writers and reviewers, and I am honoured to be published beside such competent work.
I’m very proud to announce that my short story ‘Brick Heart’ is in the Stories for Homes anthology 1 and my story I never Wore a Watch is in the Stories for Homes Volume 2 anthology. All royalties from this anthology go to Shelter charity.
The ebook of Stories for Homes has been available for a while. The paperback version was launched on the 13th December is London, but is available now ISBN 1493534246. Volume 2 is available here
Brick Heart is about an elderly woman facing housing problems, and the range of emotions she goes through. I never Wore a Watch examines the intersectionality of homelessness and learning difficulty, again through an elderly woman’s story. Every story in these anthologies shines a light in the importance of home, and what it means to people.
Lookout for Stories for Homes on FaceBook and Twitter @storiesforhomes #storiesforhomes where details of events, reading and launches will appear.
And most of all, buy a copy and help stop homelessness.
I’m a huge fan of flash fiction and I had a go myself. You can find one of my pieces in the ‘100rpm’ anthology. This was a really interesting project as the brief was to take a song that means a lot to you and write a piece of flash fiction inspired by the song.
My piece, Brambles and Silk, is based on Christina Aguilera’s song ‘Fighter’. (written as Jacqueline Christodoulou)
Short Story – A Clean Break
best! Magazine
ISSN 0954-8955
Short Story – Living in Hope (Jacqui Christy)
Shorts from Lancashire (New Fiction)
ISBN 1874304475
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shorts-Lancashire-Suzi-Blair/dp/1874304521/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407669204&sr=8-1&keywords=shorts+from+lancashire
Poem – They Never Said It Would be Like This (Jacqui Christy)
And God Created Woman (Aural Images)
ISBN 095216776X 9780952167761
http://www.amazon.co.uk/And-Created-Woman-Susan-White/dp/095216776X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407664225&sr=8-1&keywords=and+god+created+woman+susan+white
Poem – My Mother’s Father (Jacqui Christy)
Pathways Anthology (Anchor Books)
ISBN 1859301665
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pathways-Michelle-Abbott/dp/1859301665/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407669399&sr=8-1&keywords=pathways+michelle+abbott
Articles
A Thousand Word Photos – Snow Angel
How Bruce Springsteen, Adele and Magic help me to write…
When Writing for Nothing is Writing for Something: Stories for Homes – Huffington Post
Refugee Crisis: Tear Gas or Kindness – you decide- Huffington Post
Continuing Professional Development – what is it good for? – Engineering jobs
Seven Levels of Facebook – Huffington Post
Slipped Discs and Pain Scales – Two Views
How Crime Writing Found Me – Strictly Writing
Balls in the Air – Bea magazine
Square Peg in a Round Hole – F Word
Are We There Yet? – F Word