Syd Moore

"Rosie Strange doesn't believe in ghosts or witches or magic. No, not at all. It's no surprise therefore when she inherits the ramshackle Essex Witch Museum, her first thought is to take the money and run. Still, the museum exerts a curious pull over Rosie. There's the eccentric academic who bustles in to demand she help in a hunt for old bones, those of the notorious Ursula Cadence, a witch long since put to death. And there's curator Sam Stone, a man about whom Rosie can't decide if he's tiresomely annoying or extremely captivating. It all adds up to looking like her plans to sell the museum might need to be delayed, just for a while. Finding herself and Sam embroiled in a most peculiar centuries-old mystery, Rosie is quickly expelled from her comfort zone, where to her horror, the secrets of the past come with their own real, and all too present, danger as a strange magic threatens to envelope them all."--Provided by publisher.

Strange Magic

Strange Sight is the second novel in a witty commercial trilogy with the winning combination of witches and magic ... and Essex Girls

Strange Sight

Sadie Asquith has been fascinated by the dark past of Essex's witch hunts for as long as she can remember. And for good reason: between 1560 and 1680, over 500 women were tried for witchcraft in the county of Essex. But as she researches a book on the subject, Sadie experiences strange, ghostly visions. She hears noises at night, a sobbing sound that follows her, and black moths appear from nowhere. It's as if, by digging up the truth about the witch hunts, she has opened an unearthly connection to the women treated so cruelly and killed centuries before. And something else in the modern world is after her too: Sadie is sure she's being followed, her flat is burgled and she finds clues that reveal her own past isn't all that she believed. Can she find peace for the witches of Essex's history and can she find a safe path for herself?

Witch Hunt

On a drunken night out with friends in the seaside town of Leigh-on-Sea, widowed teacher Sarah unwittingly creates a séance. Sarah and her son Alfie are then subjected to a terrifying series of hauntings and Sarah becomes convinced that the ghost is that of 19th century Sea Witch, and Sarah's namesake, Sarah Grey. Sarah delves into the local legend which tells how the witch made her living from the pennies that sailors threw her for a good wind. Allegedly, when the Captain of THE SMACK forbade his men to give her money, she cursed the crew. Every man bar the Captain then perished in a violent storm. The Captain swore vengeance on the witch and the next day her headless body was found in a bleak spot known locally as the Drowning Pool. Sarah discovers that her much-derided and irritating headmaster, Andrew, has his own reasons for uncovering the origins of the legend and together they attempt to get to the bottom of the centuries-old mystery. When a series of old letters surface, Sarah discovers that nothing and no-one is as it seems, certainly not Andrew and maybe not even the ghost of Sarah Grey ...

The Drowning Pool

Witches, ghosts and things that go bump in the night are never far from Adder’s Fork, where the world renowned Essex Witch Museum has its home. Enjoy these six short spooktacular stories, inspired by Rosie Strange and Sam Stone’s work at the museum…if you dare! These stories focus on characters that interact with Rosie and Sam in the Essex Witch Museum series and take place across a number of different time frames. Whether it be Rosie's old relatives, academic George Chin or the residents of Adders Fork - spooky incidents abound at every turn. These short stories are ebook only, but in 2019 six more stories will be added to form a paperback edition of twelve stories, titled Twelve Strange Days of Christmas.

The Strange Casebook

The fourth instalment in Syd Moore's spooktacular witch detective series Halloween in Essex and the Mystery and Suspense creative writing course at old Ratchette Hall is off to a satisfyingly creepy start. But things take a turn for the worse when the course administrator is discovered dead, clutching a marble finger to his chest. For why would anyone, undead or alive, want to kill mild-mannered Graham? Luckily Rosie Strange and Sam Stone are on the case. Soon, however, they are digging up more questions than answers: who are the unearthly howls emanating from neighbouring Witch Wood every night? How has a stone crusader, on display in the church, managed to lose a finger? And, more sinister yet, why is one of the tombs missing a corpse?

Strange Tombs - An Essex Witch Museum Mystery

It’s summer in Adders Fork. The sun is out, the sky is blue and things are going swimmingly for Rosie Strange, thank you very much. The Essex Witch Museum has been relaunched with a new Ursula Cadence wing and picnic grounds. Then developers roll into the sleepy village to widen the road. When the centuries-old Blackly Be boulder, said to mark the grave of a notorious witch but now in the car park of the Seven Stars, is moved, all hell breaks out. Within hours a slew of peculiar phenomena descends and, when a severed head is discovered atop the boulder, the locals can take no more and storm the Museum to demand someone take action. Can Rosie and Sam unravel the mystery? And what of the ancient treasure that could drastically change someone’s fortunes and offer a motive for murder?

An Essex Witch Museum Mystery

Strange Fascination

If on a Winter's Night a Traveller Passes By

Stop Press: 'Death Becomes Her' was shortlisted for the Crime Writers Association Short Story Daggers. Nothing says Christmas more than a good old fashioned ghost story on a dark winter's night, so sit back and enjoy a little pinch of Yuletide mayhem. These extraordinary tales, one for each day of Christmas, explore the odd, the peculiar and the downright chilling, from a Strange encounter with an Icelandic Shaman, to a psychic policewoman, lively winged beasts and warnings from the recently departed. Some of these stories appeared in the ebook The Strange Casebook, 2018.

The Twelve Strange Days of Christmas

Rosie Strange is back in the latest of the fabulously creepy Essex Witch Museum Mysteries Secretly Rosie Strange has always thought herself a little bit more interesting than most people – the legacy her family has bequeathed her is definitely so, she’s long believed. But then life takes a peculiar turn when the Strange legacy turns out not just to be the Essex Witch Museum, but perhaps some otherworldly gifts that Rosie finds difficult to fathom. Meanwhile Sam Stone, Rosie’s curator, is oddly distracted as breadcrumb clues into what happened to his missing younger brother and other abducted boys from the past are poised to lead him and Rosie deep into a dark wood where there lurks something far scarier than Hansel and Gretel’s witch… Praise for the Essex Witch Museum Mysteries: ‘I gleefully submitted to a tale of witchcraft, feminism, mysterious strangers, historical atrocities, plucky heroines and ghastly apparitions – and came away more proud than ever to be an Essex girl.’ Sarah Perry, author of The Essex Serpent ‘Confident, down-to-earth Essex girl Rosie is an appealing character, and there is plenty of spooky fun in this spirited genre mashup.’ Guardian

Strange Tricks

From the twice CWA Dagger shortlisted author of The Twelve Strange Days of Christmas come thirteen twelve stories to transport you to the macabre world of inexplicable phenomena. As the dark winter nights get longer, prepare to lose yourself in the world of the strange. With a tale for each day of Christmas and a rather unlucky 13th, Christmas is not the only spirit in these pages. ‘Tis the season for sacrificial feasts, cultish communities and a train with a rather final destination. So wrap up warm and let yourself get lost in the world of the strange, the scary and the supernatural…

Syd Moore

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