New crime thriller's setting based on Caldey Island

Sarah Ward, who grew up in Wales, has set her new book on a fictional version of Caldey Island.

The Birthday Girl follows Mona, a carefree artist who is staying at The Cloister on Eldey, a remote Welsh island. She is staying on the island to work on her illustrations.

Also staying at The Cloister is Beth, a mother to a toddler who is enjoying a weekend escape on Eldey, and Charlotte, who was hoping for a romantic getaway with her husband, but also has a trip with his troubled teenage stepdaughter.

One of these guests at the hotel is a serial killer who poisoned three of her friends at her 11th birthday party and when one of the hotel guests is found dead, the hotel’s night manager, Mallory Dawson, believes that the serial killer is among them.

The three female guests fit the profile of the serial killer – known as The Birthday Girl – according to Mallory, a former police detective. Delve into the world to find out which one would risk everything to kill again.

Caldey Island (Image: Newsquest)

The book has been described as ‘sharp, elegantly written, and dripping with suspense. A wonderfully crafted ‘closed room’ mystery that had me turning the pages at record speed,’ by author J. A. Corrigan.

Fellow author Catherine Cooper describes the book as ‘Christie-esque.’

Sarah Ward is a critically acclaimed crime and gothic thriller writer.

She had an Observer book of the month with A Patient Fury, and The Quickening, which she wrote under the name Rhiannon Ward, was named as a Radio Times Book of the Year.

She is also on the board of the Crime Writers Association, Derby Book Festival and Friends of Buxton International Festival and is an RLF Fellow at Sheffield University.

The Birthday Girl by Sarah Ward is priced at £9.99 for paperback and £1.99 for an E-book.