CHERRY SLICE

CHERRY P.I. is the debut novel from UEA Crime Writing MA graduate Jennifer Stone. It is also cosy crime for the millennial generation; Miss Marple meets THE ONLY WAY IS ESSEX, with a splash of Janet Evanovich; a mystery as compulsive as Love Island, with just as many twists and turns, and a sleuth you won't be able to forget.

I jabbed at the remote but for some reason, it wouldn't go back. Our phones leapt alive in a chorus of beeps but I was too shocked and riveted to the screen to pick mine up. I was trying to convince myself that it was some sort of trick or stunt. That we hadn't been watching properly.
However, as the rest of the evening on Expose and every other media outlet unfolded, it became clear Kenny Thorpe was dead.

When Kenny Thorpe, contestant in Big Blubber, the hot new celebrity weight-loss show, is murdered on live television in front of 3 million viewers, the case seems pretty watertight. After all, everyone saw whodunit. Barry Davis even confessed. It was, like, totally shocking, but in the end, justice was done and there's no reason production company Expose should stop making their totally addictive reality tv, is there?

Cherry Hinton knows there's more to this than meets the eye. As an investigative reporter, she went undercover on their dating show Caravan of Love but after getting in too deep with one of the other contestants, she was caught knickerless in front of the nation (or at least, several hundred thousand viewers). Humiliated, fired from her job, and losing out on the potential love of her life, she has fled to Brentwood, where she opens a cake shop, and tries to forget all about Expose.

Until Kenny Thorpe's sister walks into her shop with a letter from her brother's murderer that's about to turn Cherry's world upside down. Is Barry innocent? What is Kenny's connection to infamous gangster Leon Solvent? Is Expose to blame, and is there a killer still on the loose? Cherry is the only one in a position to find out.

CHERRY P.I. is the first in a proposed series of Essex-based crime novels, featuring Cherry Hinton as investigative journalist, cake-baker and amateur sleuth. It's riotously funny and infused with essential Essex-ness that all of us will recognise. It's also a cracking detective story with a heroine who's sure to take the country by storm. I have long searched for a British Stephanie Plum – an amateur detective who's mouthy, determined and definitely still learning as they go – and in Cherry Hinton, I found a detective with all that humour and moxie, and an authentic British identity.

Jennifer Stone was born in Essex, and spent her formative years living within its borders and enjoying the delights of the multiple nightclubs and alcopop-swigging opportunities available. After a stint in North Wales acquiring a degree and a further spell in Leeds, training to be a teacher, she returned to the south of England to teach English in a variety of schools. She is currently head of English at a boarding school in Suffolk and has just completed her MA in Creative Writing (Crime) at UEA. She lives with her wife and their small son.

Jennifer has been a crime-reader for years and has always wanted to write a crime novel of her own. She told me her aim was to write a book that her hairdresser would love – a crime novel that felt fresh and contemporary, with characters women could relate to, and a story they might discuss over the roar of a hairdryer. Exploring the exploitative nature of reality television, issues of gender and sexuality, weight loss and what we're willing to sacrifice to fit in or stand out, CHERRY P.I. does just that.