‘Why on earth would you need me?’ Caro asked. An unemployed, forty-something actress who hadn’t even been able to nail the ‘Mum in a cereal advert’ audition she’d been up for last week.

‘Give me that thing.’ Rosalind’s voice sounded in the background, growing louder as she wrestled the phone from Posy’s grip. ‘Caro Hooper, get yourself to Wales. Now.’

‘Hello, Rosalind. How lovely to hear from you. How are things in the middle of nowhere?’

‘There’s been a murder,’ Rosalind said, bluntly. ‘Well, an attempted one, anyway.’

‘Haven’t we done that one already?’ Caro asked. All the same, she could feel her pulse kicking up a gear at the idea of another investigation. ‘Don’t want to get typecast now, do we?’ Not that she’d been given the choice so far.

‘Yes,’ Rosalind replied. ‘But this time, we think they’re trying to kill me.’

Acknowledgements

For all that writing is a solitary job, turning a book from an idea to a finished, readable thing really does take a village. And because of that, I have many, many thank yous to say.

Thank you to my agent, the inimitable Gemma Cooper, for emailing me at three in the morning with the germ of an idea that eventually became The Three Dahlias. Also for the endless text messages through lockdown, as we escaped the real world for a while imagining Aldermere and the world of Dahlia Lively instead.

Thank you to Dave Carter, for advising me on all things police – and allowing me a little dramatic license! (It goes without saying that all mistakes or misinterpretations of police procedure, unintentional or otherwise, are my own.)

Thank you to the whole team at Constable, for believing in my Dahlias and bringing them to print so beautifully. Most especially: thank you to Krystyna Green, for taking a chance on this book, to Martin Fletcher for expertly editing it, and to Amanda Keats for guiding it through the publishing process.

Thank you to Hannah Wood, for creating such a gorgeous cover for my story, and to Liane Payne for taking my very rough floor plans and maps and turning them into something that actually makes sense, and looks pretty, too.

Thank you, always, to my family. To Simon, for debating poisons with me, and for his general unending support. To Holly and Sam, for simply being the best children anyone ever had. To my parents, my brothers, my cousins, my aunts and my uncles, for being so encouraging and excited at the idea of me writing a murder mystery. (Special mention to Uncle Al, who has been asking me to write one for a decade, and now gets to have this one published just in time for his birthday. Happy birthday, Uncle Al!)

And thank you to my friends, my readers, and everyone – online and in person – who has cheered me on to the finish line of publication day.