The Paige Harper Mysteries

Christine Tipper

Author Newsletter

June 2026

Bonjour, dear readers!

What an exciting week it has been at Tipper HQ! I’ve been wanting to share this news for quite some time, and I’m absolutely thrilled that the day has finally arrived. Pour yourself something comforting — a cup of tea, perhaps, or indeed a café au lait — and settle in. There’s quite a lot to tell.

Feature

Paige Harper parle français!

I am beyond delighted to announce that Exe River Murders — the first adventure in the Paige Harper Mysteries — is now available in French as Meurtres sur l’Exe : les enquêtes de Paige Harper. It genuinely still makes me smile every single time I see that title on the screen.

What makes this release particularly special — and rather close to my heart — is that I translated the book myself. Before I ever became a novelist, I spent many years working as a professional literary translator, and that career shaped not just how I write, but how I think about language, character, and the rhythms of a good story.

Literary translation is one of the most demanding and rewarding crafts I know. It is never simply a matter of swapping words between languages; it is about capturing the spirit of a story — the wit of a character, the atmosphere of a place, the particular way a sentence lands on the ear. When you are translating someone else’s work, you carry enormous responsibility. When you are translating your own, it becomes something altogether different: an intimate conversation with yourself across languages.

Rendering the Exe Valley into French — those winding riverbanks, the damp autumn light, the very particular English cosy atmosphere — was a challenge I absolutely relished. Some things translate beautifully. Others require ingenuity, patience, and the occasional cheerful argument with a bilingual dictionary. I hope French-speaking readers will feel entirely at home with Paige, even as she moves through a very English world.

If you have friends or family who read in French — or if you are a French speaker yourself and have been waiting patiently — please do share the news. Paige (and Sprite!) would be delighted to reach a wider audience. For the moment, it’s available as an ebook. Plans for a paperback version are afoot.

From the Writing Desk

Something New is Brewing…

Between celebrating the French launch and keeping Sprite away from the review copies, I’ve also been quietly beavering away on something entirely new. A new series is taking shape — characters, settings, threads of a mystery — and I am very excited about where it is heading. This week I’ve been writing the confrontational scene between the killer and the investigator. It certainly raised my heart beat a notch or two. More news in due course. I promise it will be worth the wait!

As always, thank you for being part of this community. Your warmth and support mean the world to me — and to a certain small Norfolk Terrier who considers herself very much part of the correspondence.

Let the adventures continue.

Christine Tipper

Author of The Paige Harper Mysteries

www.christinetipper.com

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A Letter from

Christine Tipper

Paige Harper Mysteries & Beyond

Week of 25 May 2026

Hello, lovely readers! Welcome back to another week of mystery, mayhem, and the occasional biscuit. It’s been a busy one here, and I have lots to share — from a seaside adventure with a certain sulky Norfolk Terrier, to some wonderful new books that I think you’ll absolutely devour. Let’s dive in!

Sprite here. I have allowed Paige to borrow the keyboard for a moment, but I shall correct her version of events shortly.

This week, Paige and I made a special trip to Exmouth Beach — and yes, eagle-eyed readers of Book 4 will recognise it immediately. I’m pleased to report that, unlike our last visit within the pages of the series, we did not stumble across a dead body. Paige was visibly relieved. Personally, I had mixed feelings — a good mystery does get the nose going.

However, I must register a formal complaint: the beach was packed. Absolutely heaving. Families with ice cream. Children with kites. Dogs — well, other dogs, who were all perfectly pleasant, I suppose — bounding about everywhere. I had precisely three inches of personal space and had to share my favourite patch of damp sand with a toddler who seemed to think my tail was a toy.

Despite the indignity of the crowds, I must admit — the sea air was rather glorious. The waves were satisfyingly dramatic, the seagulls kept a respectful distance (they know better), and Paige bought chips. She gave me a chip. I forgave her for the crowds. Mostly.

We’ll be back, Exmouth. Just perhaps at dawn next time. — Sprite 🐾

There’s nothing quite like a fresh stack of cosy mysteries to brighten a week, and the genre has been delivering some absolute gems lately. Here’s what has been catching my eye — and keeping me up far past my bedtime.

🍰 Culinary Cozies — For Lazy Days & Lazy Beaches

Is there anything better than a cosy mystery that also makes you hungry? The culinary corner of our beloved genre is absolutely thriving at the moment, with a wonderful crop of foodie whodunits perfect for tucking into alongside an actual tasting session. I’m not a great cook, but I love reading about food. Why not try out a recipe?

I know, I know — you want news about the new series. Last week I hit what I call ‘the sticky middle’. I’d written the build up chapters, knew where I wanted to end up and got stuck. I felt clueless. How could I bridge the gap between where I was and where I wanted to be? After some intense brain-storming, and a fair amount of panicking, the pieces of the puzzle clicked into place. Phew!

Don’t forget to visit the website for all the latest news, the full Paige Harper series, and updates on what’s coming next.

Let the adventures continue.

With warmth & murder most cosy,

Christine Tipper

(and Sprite, who adds a dignified nod)

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© 2026 Christine Tipper. All rights reserved.

This week’s wander

Returning to Rougemont

A little puzzle for you

Which of the five Paige Harper Mysteries features a scene at the Rougemont Castle gatehouse? Cast your mind back through Paige’s adventures and see if you can place it. I would so love to hear your guesses.

🐶   Sprite’s Corner

A nose for adventure

Paige and Sprite spent a glorious afternoon at Rougemont Gardens this week, and I am reliably informed it was a tremendous success on all fronts. The wisteria is just past its best but still putting on a show, the lawns are at that particular shade of early-summer green that makes you want to lie down on them, and the benches are well placed for the contemplation of important matters — sandwiches, mostly, if you ask Sprite.

For those new to us, Sprite is Paige’s Norfolk Terrier — a small, sturdy, opinionated little soul with the soft heart of a poet and the focused determination of a very small hunting dog who has just remembered she is, in fact, a very small hunting dog. She made the acquaintance of a Spaniel called Bertie, conducted a thorough investigation of a particularly interesting hedge, and had what Paige can only describe as a meaningful moment of eye contact with a squirrel.

If you have not yet visited Rougemont Gardens, do put it on your list. There is something about that pocket of green tucked beneath the old castle walls that feels rather like stepping into a chapter of a book — which, of course, it has been.

From the writing desk

A new series stirring

Visit the website

www.christinetipper.com

Browse the Paige Harper Mysteries and read more from Sprite’s Corner

The Blog of

Christine Tipper

Author of The Paige Harper Mysteries

4 May 2026

The Story in Their Hands

How a portrait artist in Swindon reminded me that the best clues are hiding in plain sight

———

I went to a talk last week that hasn’t quite left me. It’s been rattling around my head ever since, the way a good idea does when it’s looking for somewhere to land. And since it hasn’t landed yet, I thought I’d share it with you and see where it takes us.

The talk was in Swindon, given by the portrait artist Duncan Shoosmith. If you haven’t come across his work, I’d encourage you to look him up — he’s a seriously talented painter with a gift for capturing people as they really are, not just how they sit in a chair. He spoke about his process, the way he builds a portrait layer by layer, and I found myself completely absorbed. There’s something endlessly fascinating about watching someone explain how they see.

But the part that really caught my attention — the part I haven’t been able to stop thinking about — was when he talked about hands.

Duncan spoke about them with the kind of reverence you might reserve for a landscape or a dramatic sky. He described the challenge of getting them right — how a hand slightly too large or a finger slightly too stiff can throw an entire portrait off balance. But more than the technical challenge, what struck me was his conviction that hands carry as much character as a face. Perhaps more, because people don’t guard their hands the way they guard their expressions.

And that’s the thought that followed me home.

What Hands Give Away

As a writer, I spend a lot of time thinking about how people reveal themselves. Dialogue is the obvious place — what characters say and, more importantly, what they don’t. Body language comes in close behind. But hands? Hands are something else entirely. They’re a kind of unconscious autobiography.

Think about what a pair of hands can tell you about a stranger before they’ve said a single word.

Bitten-down nails might speak of anxiety, or impatience, or a restless mind with nowhere to go. Ink stains on the fingers could mean a journalist, an artist, someone who still writes longhand in notebooks. Rough, calloused palms suggest a life spent outdoors or in a workshop — a gardener, a carpenter, someone who builds things rather than talks about them. And then there are those immaculate, carefully manicured hands with not a cuticle out of place, which can tell you something about a person’s need for control, for order, for surfaces that say everything is fine here, nothing to see.

A wedding ring on a chain around someone’s neck rather than on their finger. Paint under the thumbnails that never quite scrubs away. A hand that shakes when it reaches for a glass. A hand that doesn’t shake when it should.

As readers, we pick up on these things instinctively. They feel real because they are real — we all read hands in daily life, even if we don’t realise we’re doing it. We notice the firm handshake and the limp one. We register the hand that hovers near a pocket, the one that grips a handbag strap too tightly, the one that rests easily on a table with nothing to hide.

The Writer’s Close-Up

In cosy crime — where the pleasure lies in the noticing, in piecing things together before the big reveal — hands are an absolute gift. A character who wrings their hands in one scene and clenches them in the next is telling you something long before they open their mouth. Are they nervous? Guilty? Trying very hard to hold themselves together? The reader gets to decide, and that’s part of the fun.

I love writing those small, telling moments. The suspect who drums their fingers on the table during questioning — not because they’re anxious, but because they’re bored. The witness who smooths their skirt over and over, as though the fabric might keep everything neat and tidy if they just press hard enough. The person who reaches out to touch someone’s arm and then pulls back at the last moment, the gesture aborted before it quite arrives.

And I especially love what hands can reveal about relationships. The way two people hold hands speaks volumes — fingers loosely linked and swinging, or white-knuckled and tight, or barely touching at all. And if someone doesn’t take the hand that’s offered to them? Well. Now you’ve got a scene.

Portraits and Pages

What I took away from Duncan Shoosmith’s talk — apart from a deep admiration for anyone who can draw a convincing thumb — is a reminder that the best details are the quiet ones. A portrait isn’t just a face. A character isn’t just dialogue. A mystery isn’t just a body in the library (though I do enjoy a good body in a library).

The richness is in the periphery. The story lives in the details that most people overlook — and hands, it turns out, are full of stories. They carry a person’s history, their habits, their secrets. A painter captures that on canvas. A writer tries to capture it on the page.

So here’s my challenge to you, whether you’re a writer or a reader or simply someone who enjoys a good puzzle: the next time you’re sitting across from someone — in a café, on a train, at a dinner party — have a look at their hands. What story do they tell? What do you notice that you might have missed?

You might find there’s a character in there somewhere, waiting to be written.

And if the hands in question happen to be clutching a Norfolk Terrier, a teacup, and a suspiciously underlined train timetable all at once — well, that’s probably just Paige.

———

Let the adventures continue,

Christine x

www.christinetipper.com

© Christine Tipper 2026 · Author of The Paige Harper Mysteries

Steve Higgs

Albert Smith’s Culinary Capers & Albert Smith’s Mystery Thrillers

Steve joined the British Army at seventeen, rose to become a commissioned officer, picked up a degree and a master’s along the way, and only started publishing fiction after leaving the military in his forties. His first novel, Paranormal Nonsense, launched what would become an astonishingly prolific career — he now has well over 170 books to his name across multiple series.

But it’s the Culinary Capers series that really captured readers’ hearts. Albert Smith is a retired detective who, after losing his wife, decides to travel Britain learning to cook the regional dishes each area is famous for. His companion is Rex, a former police dog who was kicked off the force for being too headstrong. Together they tour the country, discover new recipes — and, inevitably, stumble into murder. Each book even includes the history of the featured dish and a recipe you can make at home.

What I particularly love is that Rex narrates parts of the story directly to the reader. His running commentary — battling alley cats, refusing baths, enlisting the help of seals — is genuinely funny and surprisingly touching. Steve has said that Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum books were a major influence, and you can feel that same blend of action, humour and heart running through everything he writes.

The Antique Store Detective and the Riverside Murders

by Clare Chase — A Bella Winter Mystery, Book 4

Clare Chase is one of those authors who makes you feel as though you’ve stepped right into the story. Her Bella Winter series — about an antique store owner in the fictional village of Hope Eaton who has a knack for stumbling into mysteries — is cosy crime at its most charming, and this fourth instalment is her best yet.

Bella is asked to sell a beautiful marble statue of a mother and child — a family heirloom belonging to Margie Fleming. But the day before the sale, Margie is found drowned in the river, exactly as her sister Bethan died a year earlier. Everyone assumes it’s a tragic accident. Bella isn’t so sure. When they move the statue, there’s a bloodstain beneath it. Someone has been hiding a terrible crime, and Bella is determined to find out who — and why.

What I love about Clare’s writing is how vividly she draws her settings and characters. Hope Eaton feels like a real place you could visit — with its antique shops, riverside walks and village gossip — and Bella is the kind of sleuth you’d genuinely want as a friend: warm, curious and quietly determined. The plot is full of clever twists and red herrings, and reviewers have been calling it her most intricately plotted mystery to date. If you enjoy a cosy whodunit with an atmospheric English village setting, this is absolutely one to pick up. Available now on Kindle, in paperback and on Audible.

How to Cheat Your Own Death by Kristen Perrin — Annie Adams heads to London to visit her mother, only to find a young artist dead in circumstances that eerily mirror a case from the 1960s described in her Great Aunt Frances’s journals. When threatening notes start arriving, it becomes clear that history is repeating itself in the most dangerous way.

The Primrose Murder Society by Stacy Hackney — Set in a residential hotel in Virginia for the over-55s, where the cocktail hour starts at ten in the morning and the residents’ favourite pastime is gossip. When a young woman and her daughter move in, old secrets start surfacing. Warm, witty and full of characters who refuse to act their age.

A Death in the Dark by Ellie Alexander — The second in the Novel Detectives series, where a bookshop owner doubles as an amateur sleuth. This time there’s a death at the local high school, and a kindly coach with no memory of the night in question. Bookish, clever and properly cosy.