Judith Flanders Books In Order
Book links take you to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn money from qualifying purchases.Publication Order of Sam Clair Books
A Murder of Magpies / Writers' Block | (2014) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
A Bed of Scorpions | (2016) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
A Cast of Vultures | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
A Howl of Wolves | (2018) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books
A Circle of Sisters | (2001) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Sharp Practice | (2002) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Victorian House / Inside the Victorian Home | (2003) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Discovery of Neverland | (2005) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Consuming Passions | (2006) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Invention of Murder | (2011) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Victorian City | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Making of Home | (2014) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Christmas: A Biography / Christmas: A History | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
A Place for Everything | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Judith Flanders is a mystery fiction author from the United Kingdom that is best known for the “Sam Clair” series of novels.
The author was born in 1959 in London, England and when she was two, her family moved to Montreal, Canada where she spent her childhood. In 1972, she dismally failed in her effort to master Hebrew and went back to the United Kingdom.
At some point, she went to Skidmore College where she graduated with a degree in History before she spent more than twenty years working for the likes of Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Thames and Hudson, and Penguin Books.
She would then begin writing and in 2001 she published the nonfiction work “A Circle of Sisters.” This was a blockbuster work as it would make the shortlist for the Guardian First Book Award immediately after it was published.
Judith would then publish several other works that would earn her nominations for several awards including the History Book of the Year by the British Book Awards.
She made her fiction writing debut in 2014 with the publishing of “A Murder of the Magpies” in 2014, which would become a blockbuster work that was the first of the “Sam Clair” series of novels.
In addition to writing, Judith is also active as a visual artist, reviewer of dance, and arts journalist. She also contributes reviews, features, and articles for a range of magazines and newspapers.
She will often interact with her readers and fans through the newsletter on her website.
Judith Flanders’ novel “A Murder of Magpies” is an impeccably crafted and whip-smart work that takes you on a whirlwind tour of Paris and London.
For Samantha Clair, it had been another ordinary day in the office checking jacket copy for any glaring mistakes and wondering how to tell her leading novelist that what she had written was rubbish.
She has scheduled lunch with Kit Lowell the gossipy author who has been writing about a scandal at a recent fashion industry event. But the contents of the book will cause a lot of trouble long before it even goes to print.
When police inspector Field comes to Samantha’s place of employment, he begins asking if Samantha had received a strange package and she gets alarmed. Samantha’s life is completely upended as she finds herself deep inside a criminal investigation.
It does seem that there is someone determined to ensure that Kit’s manuscript does not hit the shelves. If Sam does not put the pieces together in time, the detractors will surely have their way.
It makes for a delicious and hilarious work that is tremendously entertaining and will have you engrossed from the first page to the last.
“A Bed of Scorpions” by Judith Flanders is a work set in London during the summer. The flowers are in bloom and for Samantha Clair, the book editor life could not be better as she heads off to lunch with Aidan Merriam her art dealer friend.
She was humming along merrily until she is informed that his partner had been discovered dead slumped on his desk in the gallery with a smoking gun in hand.
Inspector Jake Field is the man charged with investigating the case which complicates things as he is Sam’s new boyfriend. Meanwhile, her ex-boyfriend Adan requests for her help and she finds herself yet again in the middle of another investigation.
It is not long before she finds herself stretched to the limits particularly when it comes to her loyalties. With nothing but her trusted stock of irrelevant information she got from novels, her cynicism, and satire, Sam finds herself in a race against time.
In a story in which the killer is determined to take her out, it makes for an uproarious work with plenty of turns and twists.
Judith Flanders’ novel “A Cast of Vultures” is another interesting work that opens with fires being set in Samantha Clair’s neighborhood.
The latest one was just a few hundred meters from her flat in a house that had been occupied by squatters who had lived there so long they practically were part of the neighborhood fabric.
In the ashes has been found a body and the police initially believed it was that of the arsonist.
In the meantime, Viv her friend asks for her friend to investigate the disappearance of a civil servant who was a kind man and a very good neighbor.
Ultimately, they learn that the body in the ashes belonged to the civil servant and soon rumors start flying saying that he dealt drugs.
Sam decides to investigate to get to the bottom of the mystery, even as all manner of dangerous and strange happenings continue to be reported.
Combined with complications at work, she has too much on her plate making for a multi-layered mystery that will have you on the edge of your seat.