Fiction

After spending sixteen years as an ecologist, crawling through undergrowth and studying nocturnal habits of animals (and people), Dr Sarah Yarwood-Lovett naturally turned her mind to murder. She may have swapped badgers for bears when she emigrated from a quaint village in the South Downs to the wild mountains of the Pacific Northwest, but her books remain firmly rooted in the rolling downland she grew up in.

Forensically studying clues for animal activity has seen Sarah surveying sites all over the UK and around the world. She’s re-discovered a British species thought to be extinct during her PhD and updated London’s Natural History Museum; she’s debated that important question – do bats wee on their faces? – at school workshops; and she’s given evidence as an Expert Witness along with barristers and solicitors. Along the way, she’s discovered a noose in abandoned warehouse and had a survey de-railed by the bomb squad. Her unusual career has provided the perfect inspiration for a series of murder mysteries with an ecological twist – and, these days, Sarah’s research also includes consulting detectives, lawyers, judges and attending murder trials. Her first book, A Murder of Crows was published by Embla books, a division of Bonnier in July 2022. Her second book in the Dr Nell Ward series, A Cast of Falcons published in October 2022. The third, A Mischief of Rats, was published in February 2023. The fourth, A Generation of Vipers, was published in August 2023.