New British Books This Week + the Author with the Golden Typewriter

July 26, 2025

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In a past email, we talked about some of the pens favored by famous British authors—but as far as we know, only one British author ever worked on a gold-plated typewriter.

That author was James Bond creator Ian Fleming. In the 1950s, fresh off the success of Casino Royale, he treated himself to a custom gold-plated Royal Quiet Deluxe typewriter, which he used to write From Russia with Love. Fittingly flashy for the man who invented 007, the typewriter became a symbol of his growing literary fame—and yes, it still exists today. No one’s completely sure who bought it, but there have been rumours that it was former Bond actor Pierce Brosnan.

His nephew, Fergus Fleming, even wrote a book about it called The Man with the Golden Typewriter, a fascinating collection of Ian Fleming’s letters that offers a behind-the-scenes look at Bond’s early years.

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New British Books This Week

A Rock & a Hard Place by JD Kirk

When 1980s rock star Johnny Freestone is found dead on Scotland’s North Coast 500, DCI Jack Logan suspects foul play—and must untangle a web of rivalries, secrets, and shattered dreams to uncover the truth behind the singer’s final encore.

Get it: Amazon

Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson

(BRITISH AUTHOR) With only seven days to live after a violent attack, 27-year-old Jet Mason returns to her wealthy Vermont hometown—and, with the help of a childhood friend, sets out to solve her own murder before time runs out.

Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)

Ink Ribbon Red by Alex Pavesi

At a birthday gathering in the Wiltshire countryside, six friends play a murder-themed storytelling game—but as secrets surface and tensions rise, the fictional motives they invent begin to look dangerously real.

Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)

Murder at the Colosseum by Jim Eldridge

In 1900 Rome, archaeologist Abigail Wilson and her detective husband Daniel return for a speaking engagement—only to be pulled into a double murder at the Colosseum, where ancient history and modern violence collide in their latest Museum Detectives mystery.

Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)

The Poison Puzzle by Emily Organ

In 1889 London, Emma Langley uncovers a secret society linked to her husband's past—and when a member turns up dead, she and Penny Green must decode a trail of clues through historic landmarks to expose a killer determined to protect buried secrets.

Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)

The Rookery by GJ Bellamy

In June 1921, a surveillance operation at Estreham House turns deadly when a group of foreign agents—known collectively as a "slither"—unwittingly hosts an assassin in their midst, forcing Sophie and her team into a deadly game of spy vs spy on the streets of London.

Get it: Amazon

A Brush with Death by Rachel McLean and Millie Ravensworth

When the members of the newly named Lyme Regis Women's Swimming Club discover a local artist’s body near the Cobb, Annie Abbott and her friends are ready to dive into another mystery—despite her daughter, DC Tina Abbott, insisting she has the case under control.

Get it: Amazon

One More to Die by Joy Ellis

When a car crash on a remote fen road leads to a puzzling murder, Detective Kate Carter uncovers a chilling pattern linking vintage records, long-buried bodies, and a stalker who knows her every move—turning her from investigator to target in the haunting landscape of the Lincolnshire Fens.

Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)

Lord Frederick’s Return by Catherine Kullmann

In August 1816, newly returned from India with his young daughter, Lord Frederick Danlow finds unexpected hope for love with the poised and capable Susannah Ponsonby—until a family scandal threatens to ruin his chances of happiness and tests the strength of their growing bond.

Get it: Amazon

“The rule seemed to be that a great woman must either die unwed ... or find a still greater man to marry her... The great man, on the other hand, could marry where he liked, not being restricted to great women; indeed, it was often found sweet and commendable in him to choose a woman of no sort of greatness at all”

Dorothy L. Sayers, Gaudy Night

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