A mum from east Hull who has “been in love with books for as long as I can remember” has had one of her own published. Lynn Shaw writes as Eva Marlow – a combination of her mum’s name, Eva, and her late husband’s mother’s maiden name, Marlow – and the pseudonym pays tribute to both influential women, she says.
“English was my top subject at school and I used to write poems for the school magazine,” said Lynn, for whom stories were her favourite escape in childhood. She began writing seriously in her 20s, quietly gathering ideas, shaping characters and tucking away plots, but working as a nurse and bringing up three children – her two daughters, now aged 51 and 41, and a son, 49 – meant everyday life got in the way of her writing.
“A lot of notes I made were tucked away on an old floppy-disk; my younger daughter found them but we couldn’t do anything with them. My son lives in Poland and one of his friends works in police forensics there – he got them off for me.
“So they have been on quite a long journey.” Lynn’s debut work is titled The Mountain Grey Murder, is set in Hull, and weaves familiar local detail into a character-driven mystery that involves the health service and bees!
About 20 years in the making, Lynn’s plot had sat patiently waiting for its moment. “I lost my husband, Fred – we’d been married just short of 34 years – a few years ago and my health had deteriorated a bit,” said Lynn, who was prompted to revisit the story that had been put to one side.
The Mountain Grey Murder is available now on Amazon in paperback and eBook. The author has also had great support from Clutterbooks, in Hornsea, where copies of the whodunnit are carried on the local authors shelf.
Lynn, who is now busy working up her next novel, another whodunnit and locally set, said she was delighted with the reviews she was getting. She said she thought her parents – and Fred – would have been pleased and proud.
“If I ever went missing when I was young, my mother would know I’d be at the book counter. I’ve always read a lot – I’d read the back of a cornflakes packet if there was nothing else.
“My first two children were young when I started writing. I didn’t own a typewriter, I couldn’t afford one, so I’d do it all longhand.
“I told Fred about my ideas for The Mountain Grey Murder and he thought it was brilliant.” Lynn’s daughter, Janet, said: “Publishing a debut novel at 73 is a milestone in itself, but what makes Mum’s story especially meaningful is that she’s finally achieved a dream she’s carried for decades.
“For years, those stories lived in notebooks, on scraps of paper, and in the back of her mind, waiting for the right moment. The Mountain Grey Murder is the first of these long-held ideas to make its way into print—a story that has grown and evolved alongside her, finally finding its place in the world.”
The Mountain Grey Murder novel invites readers into a world where the sudden, bizarre death of a victim is merely the first thread pulled from a tightly woven tapestry of secrets. As Detective Inspector Martin Collins and Detective Constable Jenny Allen delve into the peculiar circumstances, they uncover not just a single tragedy, but a chilling pattern of “accidents” and “suicides” stretching back years, all centred on the same seemingly ordinary establishment.
The synopsis says: “This is a story about the meticulous unravelling of hidden lives, the quiet judgments that fester into deadly resentments, and the terrifying conviction of a killer who believes they are merely correcting the scales of justice. It explores how the most mundane details – a choice of décor, a family secret, a specific deadly weapon – can become crucial pieces in a puzzle of profound darkness.
“Join Collins and Allen as they navigate a labyrinth of deceit, confront the uncomfortable truths of human nature, and race against time to unmask a killer hiding in plain sight. Be warned: the truth, when it finally emerges, is as disturbing as it is meticulously planned.”
Janet added that her mum was the third cousin of Dan Billany, widely regarded as Hull’s “long lost literary hero”. Janet said: “Dan Billany was a gifted writer and teacher from Hessle Road whose novels, including The Cage and The Trap, were written during WWII.
“His disappearance in 1943 while serving in Italy remains one of Hull’s most poignant wartime mysteries. His manuscripts were found years later and published posthumously, securing his place as one of the city’s most important literary voices.”
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