Out of the Ashes: A DI Maya Rahman novel

Vicky Newham is a writer, teacher and story coach. She lives on the Kent coast in the UK.

She is the author of The Wootton Windmill Mysteries under the pen name of Izzie Harper. The first book in this series is Murder at the Christmas Carols which will be released on November 21st 2022. This series was inspired by her love of cozy mysteries and Golden Age crime, and by a gorgeous old Kent windmill which is near to her home.

She is also the author of the DI Maya Rahman series of police procedural novels set in multi-cultural East London. The first in the series, TURN A BLIND EYE, was published in April 2018 and was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey Debut Dagger in 2019. The second, OUT OF THE ASHES, was published on May 30th 2019.The East London setting of the novels, and the characters, were inspired by the 4 years that Vicky spent living and working in the Tower Hamlets area.

Vicky grew up in the Sussex countryside. She likes to joke that it was the erratic opening hours of the village shop and the rubbish local bus service which inspired murderous thoughts! After her A-levels, she exchanged mud and fields for London pavements. Here, she studied and taught psychology for many years before moving to Kent, where she now lives with her cockerpoo dog.

Vicky is interested in what makes people tick and what pushes ordinary people to commit violence and murder. She's also fascinated by the secrets, gossip and curtain-twitching of small town and villages.