Alison Gray is no stranger to my blog, so I was really pleased last week to hear she had released Peony Rose, the final instalment of her DS Abby Foulkes crime series. Getting this book finished is in itself a huge achievement, and it’s very fitting that it was published in the same week we mark World Cancer Day.
As many of you will know, Alison isn’t on social media now, so it’s up to us to spread the word.

Alison Gray and I first became friends on Facebook, then the following year we met up in real life to go to the Edinburgh Book Festival, so she’s been there since the start of my life in the writing community.

Peony Rose is the fourth of her series, which moves to and fro between the Aegean and the northeast of England. They’re all lovely reads; Alison’s writing style makes you feel as if she’s right there in the room with you when you’re reading.

Here are the four Abby books:

You can find them all HERE on Alison’s Amazon author page. In Peony Rose, Abby is on maternity leave, juggling a baby, a nine-year old and a long-distance relationship, but she still manages to investigate when a woman goes missing.
The book can be read as a standalone, but if you’re new to the series, why not start with Hotel Hibiscus Fruit, and get the whole story?

While we’re here, I’ll just give a mention to Alison’s standalone suspense novel Out of the Tower, one of my all-time favourite reads and the first of her books I read. I raced through it almost in one sitting.

Out of the Tower is set in west central Scotland, my old stamping ground, and tells the story of seven-year-old Jemima, whose father and uncle disappear very mysteriously. When Jemima is old enough, she leaves home to find out more…

Alison Gray was born and grew up in Scotland during the 1960s and 1970s. She has lived in the northeast of England since the 1980s.

Her first novel, Out of the Tower, was shortlisted for the Constable Trophy, a competition for the best unpublished novel by a writer from the north of England. It was described by the judges as powerful, strong, heartfelt, admirably tense, a work of great promise.

The Abby Foulkes mysteries are set in Newcastle upon Tyne and the Aegean. The second mystery – Lady’s Slipper – won Indie Book of the Day Award in November 2015 and the third – Forget-me-not Blues – was picked as an Official Selection in the Mystery Category of the 2017 New Apple Summer E-Book Awards.

Her book Growing the Light outlines a journey through primary breast cancer, looking at conventional and alternative treatments, and Living a Spiritual Life in the 21st Century is a collection of spiritual learnings, reflections and applications in life as we live it in the 21st Century.

Alison’s books can all be purchased here, and you can find out more about them by putting her name into the search box at the top of the blog sidebar above right.