A Moment With… Stephen Cox

It’s a pleasure to welcome Stephen Cox to Novel Kicks as we say Happy Birthday to his book, The Crooked Medium’s Guide to Murder. 

London 1881. Can two crooked women stop a murder?

Extravagant medium Mrs Ashton and her lover, blunt working-class Mrs Bradshaw, run a spiritualist scam. Mrs Ashton secretly reads minds.

Believing that Mrs Ashton is genuine, grieving Lady Violet craves the truth behind her mother’s untimely death. But Lady Violet’s powerful husband Sir Charles hates spiritualists. Has he killed before?

Uncovering this MP’s wicked crimes will put all three women in terrible danger…

To solve a shocking murder, look both sides of the grave.

“I loved this book! Victorian murder mystery meets “ghost” story, with delicious sprinklings of compassion and mischief…”

Caroline Day, author of Sunday Times Bestseller Hope Nicely’s Lessons for Life.

To chat about why he chose the 1880s, it’s over to you, Stephen. 

Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 to 1901. That’s as long as the time between the end of the Second World War and the 2008 banking crisis. Or the Suez Crisis and the mid-Pandemic. Unless you are Disney, you need to pick an actual period.

I quickly decided on the early 1880s. It was a decade of great change, and yet as so often in Victorian times, a stubborn stasis. I’m always checking to see what type of bicycle or pen could be used, or when electric light might have reached a provincial town.

It gives me at least ten years as a playground. And maybe my dodgy medium Mrs Ashton might run into Mr Holmes, two such egos are bound to clash, and I know who I would bet on.

You have to admire the Victorians’ energy, ingenuity, and can-do attitude, and their extension of education and the vote. You have to note their crippling social hierarchy and conformity, and their frequent indifference to suffering.

In a sense, the British superpower was feeling its age. A recession and a banking crisis, cheap imports from America hitting farmers and the landed gentry, and the rise of Germany as a new military power. London, the biggest city in the world, was growing with the rural poor and foreigners looking for work. Gladstone, who campaigned against expensive foreign wars, nevertheless annexed Egypt in 1882 to protect the Suez Canal.

Strikes, the Irish asserting themselves in Parliament and a Fenian bombing campaign, women’s rights, and the long battle for justice in Ireland are not issues, they’re things woven into real lives. For example, how Maisie survives with a drunken Irish father who can’t work. As outsiders, Mrs Ashton, Braddie, and Maisie move from noble houses to the slums, and they deal with people high and low.

The official line was an affirmation of respectable religion, yet Doubt was in the land. Fervent preachers tried to reach the vast numbers of the poor; a few people began to explore Eastern religions to meet spiritual needs; and the first avowed atheist MP was eventually allowed his seat. Spiritualism was a more personal and domestic religion, mostly led by women. In the world I write, it’s very much on a rising tide. Mrs Ashton is a Christian spiritualist of a broad and generous kind. Braddie’s prophets are Darwin, and working-class radicals. Maisie follows no flag but her own.

The fine detail of Victorian life fascinates me. While children starved, or became sex workers, Parliament refused repeatedly to let a man marry his deceased wife’s sister (although such marriages were legal across Europe and the colonies.) Anglicans would sue rebel churches which had lace on the altar cloth and other such “Romish” practices.

It is a time when three unconventional women may have adventures, not with swords and guns, but their words, their cunning, and their skills. And in Mrs Ashton’s case, her mysterious “gift” – she can sometimes read min

About Stephen Cox–

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 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. It was time for a novel with queer leads. And in quite desperate times, I needed to write something with some uplift. It’s the first book intended to start a series.

My first books, Our Child of the Stars and Our Child of Two Worlds are set in the 1960s USA. It’s about Gene and Molly, a childless couple, and Cory, the little boy from the stars that they adopt, under such challenging circumstances. The books got lovely reviews and are available on both sides of the Atlantic. 

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

Say hello to Stephen via his website, Bluesky, Facebook and YouTube. Click here to sign up to his newsletter. 

The Crooked Medium’s Guide to Murder is book one in the Crooked Medium series and was released on 1st September 2025. Click to buy on Stephen’s website, Amazon UK, Amazon US and Waterstones. 

Click to pre-order book 2 in the Crooked Medium series.

*****

Win 4 Signed Books by Stephen Cox. 

Do you live in the UK? Would you like to win 4 books by Stephen Cox? Well, you’ve come to the right place.

The 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.

For all the information on how to enter, click on this Gleam link.

UK only.

*Terms and Conditions –

UK entries welcome.  Please enter using the Gleam link above. 

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 organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data.  

I (Novel Kicks) am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.

by

Laura

I'm Laura. I started Novel Kicks back in 2009 as I wanted a place to discuss books and writing - two loves of my life. As someone who has anxiety, these two things give me, and I am sure countless others, a much needed escape.
There is a monthly book club, writing exercises, prompts, reviews, author interviews, competitions and guest posts. I cover many genres and I hope there is something for everyone.
I grew up by the sea in Dorset and currently live in Poole with my husband, Chris and three cats. I love writing and have a BA (Hons) in Creative Writing from Falmouth University. I am writing my first book. If only I could stop pressing delete. Chris has threatened to stop it from working. Haha.
I have always loved creative writing since I was in first school and would very much like to meet my teacher, Miss Sayers, to say thank you for all the encouragement she gave me then.
When not writing, I love reading, cats, Disney, singing (I can't sing but this doesn't stop me,) and falling into a good TV show or film. If I could step into any fictional world, it would be amongst the characters in ABC's Once Upon a Time.
I love reading many genres and discovering new authors.