15 | September | 2026

About the book The Crooked Medium’s Guide to Terror:

Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 14, 2026
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1.2 MB
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True terror is a murderer you can’t stop.

London 1882. A carpenter is killed by a train – an eerie, brutal crime. Flamboyant medium Mrs Ashton and her sapphic partner Braddie seek justice for the widow.

A charismatic new medium takes London by storm. Dock-lass Maisie sees her frightening prophesy of vengeance. A noble family is devastated, but worse is to come.

Outgunned and bewildered, the three confront a deadly conspiracy. They risk losing everything.

A reckoning from beyond the grave.

Praise for Book 1: The Crooked Medium’s Guide To Murder

“witty, atmospheric and queer‑hearted”

“humour, mystery and a wonderfully crooked sense of morality… delivered with charm.”

Buy, read, and discuss this book:

Author’s Website | Amazon (USA) | Amazon (UK) | Kobo

About the author Stephen Cox:

Author Bio – My grandmother told me I read too much. I remember walking in the garden when I was small, telling myself stories. It was over thirty years of wanting to be a novelist before I tried… and succeeded.

The Crooked Medium’s Guide to Murder was much loved. It arose because I wanted to write about Britishness and specifically about Englishness; about our complex relationship with the past; I wanted leads who were morally grayer but still capable of kindness. Personally, it was time for a novel with queer leads. And these difficult times I needed to write something with some uplift. I always intended more than two books. The Crooked Medium’s Guide to Terror is spookier, and more dangerous. It throws all three women out of their comfort zone.

I spent nearly all my childhood in Bristol, and I’m now an adoptive Londoner. I live with my partner, and it’s lovely my two adult children come back from time to time. Our garden rages wild.

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My Thoughts

I came into the world of Stephen Cox’s The Crooked Medium with book two, and while I had no trouble navigating the story—it absolutely works as a standalone—I suspect my experience would have been even richer had I read the first book beforehand. (I’ve since purchased it, so I can remedy that at my leisure.)

What hooked me immediately were the characters. Braddie and Mrs. Ashcroft are partners in every way, and I loved their relationship as much as I loved the reason Mrs. Ashcroft is a “crooked” medium: she genuinely possesses a supernatural gift, but it’s telepathy rather than the Sight she claims to have.

It’s the smaller details of their relationship, though, that made them sing from the page. These are two women who had argued over where to exchange vows in a time when their relationship could not even be openly acknowledged. One had wanted a church wedding—even if the church was closed—while the other had lobbied for something open-air. Their eventual compromise, a ruined abbey open to the sky but centered around women, was both romantic and wonderfully symbolic.

Cox is as good at world-building as he is at plot. The mystery is well-paced and, I confess, kept me guessing, while the people left behind by the victim’s death felt substantial enough to deserve stories of their own. I especially enjoyed period details such as mentions of D’Oyly Carte and unfamiliar slang like “hinny,” little touches that gave this American reader the pleasure of encountering Victorian Britain rather than merely being told that the story was set there.

I also appreciated that while earning enough to live—and creating the life they want—is important to our detecting duo, neither woman has lost her compassion. That compassion, particularly toward other women, gives the novel warmth beneath its spiritualism and murder.

I was so thoroughly immersed that I came away from the final pages half-expecting horse-drawn coaches, gray weather, and the scent of strong tea. Instead, I was subjected to unrelentingly sunny Florida skies and the realization that my coffee had gone cold.

At roughly five hours of reading time, The Crooked Medium’s Guide to Terror is a quick read, but an immersive one, with just the right blend of spiritualism, crime-solving, period atmosphere, and British wit.

Goes well with: steak-and-kidney pie and a pint of porter.

Giveaway (Open to UK Residents Only)

Win 4 x Signed Books by Stephen Cox

Prize includes – Our Child of the Stars, Our Child of Two Worlds, The Crooked Medium’s Guide to Murder and the Crooked Medium’s Guide to Terror.

*Terms and Conditions –UK entries welcome. Please enter using the Gleam box below. The winner will be selected at random via Gleam from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organizer and used only for fulfillment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data. I am not responsible for dispatch or delivery of the prize.

Win 4 x Signed Books by Stephen Cox (Open to UK Only)