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Nicola Whyte

Nicola Whyte is a British author of crime fiction, short stories, and novels for both adults and children. She is best known for her debut novel, 10 Marchfield Square (2025), a cosy mystery set in a small London square. Her work has been listed for the Comedy Women in Print Prize and the Times Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition.

Books have surrounded Nicola Whyte since childhood. Crime fiction was an early favourite. “I’ve been reading crime fiction since I was a child,” she said, “but my favourites were always the detective stories and whodunnits.”

10 Marchfield Square (2025) introduces Celeste Van Duren, an elderly heiress and former socialite, who creates a residential square in London as a quiet haven. The idea was safety. When one tenant is found murdered, and his wife is blamed, Celeste intervenes. She enlists two residents to investigate: Audrey, her cleaner, and Lewis, a failed writer. Audrey “struggles financially,” Whyte explains, and Lewis “is isolated, and struggling to deal with the reality that hard work and skill don’t always mean you succeed.”

The novel draws from Golden Age crime traditions. Whyte explains that her inspiration came from a real place: Pickering Place, near St James’s Park. “The idea for Marchfield began to form immediately,” she said. Though fictional, the square’s layout and closed setting nod to traditional detective fiction.

Whyte’s approach to writing changed over time. “Planning the middle, really,” she said, helped her avoid overwriting. She links this to practical concerns. “If you translate a book into German, it adds almost a third to the length… So those two things together really focus me on not overwriting.”

Nicola Whyte now lives near Stonehenge in Wiltshire with her family.

Photo credit: nicolawhyte.com
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