What Larks for Impossible Causes

Impossible Causes was released on October 19 amid a flurry of events, podcast appearances and some cracking reviews.

In a jampacked week to celebrate the book’s hardback launch, I sat on a panel at Off The Shelf Festival in Sheffield, alongside Twitter poet Brian Bilston and novelist Stephen May, before joining authors Kirsty Logan and Lucy McKnight Hardy for an evening of dark tales at Mr B’s Emporium in Bath.

On Thursday, launch day itself, I was delighted to be invited to Goldsboro Books to sign 50 first editions for readers with a collecting bent. Then, on Saturday, we took over Waterstones in Berkhamsted for an Impossible Causes themed day of tarot reading and and evening toasts, totally selling-out of stock of the book.

The early reviews have been generous, featuring in a broad range of publications from Heat Magazine to Literary Review, the former calling the book “highly atmospheric”, and the latter “dense and claustrophobic” – which in the world of Lark is a great compliment!

The Observer lauded the story for being “fresh and interesting”, The iPaper called it “undeniably creepy” and Saga described the writing as “tense, controlled and vivid.” The book has already featured on a couple of lists, Netgalley’s books of the month for October, alongside titles by Nicci French and Zadie Smith, and iNews‘ ‘Best Crime Books for 2019’.

I was also asked to speak on a couple of podcasts this month – to hear more about the background to the book, tune into Better Words and The Crime Fiction Lounge.

Upcoming events include a pre-show talk at the Blue Room, Lincoln in November, ahead of their production of The Crucible, a play which had a strong influence on Impossible Causes, and an appearance at Short Stories Aloud at Blackwells, Oxford in January. See you there!

(In the meantime, all the reviews are here).