Author Bobby Cussens reveals the real reason she wrote the murder mystery — and her hopes for a Christmas No.1.
The author of Shotley Bridge Murders has revealed that the reason she started penning the crime story was to make friends giggle – but the project quickly deepened into something more powerful.
Bobby Cussens’ debut crime novel Shotley Bridge Murders has already climbed into the Top 40 globally for Women’s Adventure Fiction, and is currently available on Amazon and in selected local stores in County Durham.
Cussens told BBC Radio Tees that she never set out to write a novel — instead, she began writing as “a way to make friends smile” in her home village of Shotley Bridge.
“I realised I was writing Heather’s story, and then it just became a compulsion,” Wilson told Scott Mackin’s afternoon programme today.
“I’d get these images in my head and I had to write them down. It got uncomfortable if I didn’t. That’s what drove me to finish the book.”
Shotley Bridge Murders is a gripping murder mystery set in County Durham where a brutal killing shatters the calm of a tight-knit community — and sparks a hunt for a killer hiding in plain sight.
Shotley Bridge Murders uses real local locations — including The King’s Head, Wood Street, Muggleswick, Derwent Reservoir and the historic streets of Shotley Bridge — woven into a modern crime mystery led by Detective Constable Heather Hudson.
Wilson also reveals that she became completely obsessive about getting the local details right.
She said: “I was literally measuring the exact number of metres between points in the village. Shotley Bridge is a hidden gem with so much history — it felt like an honour to capture it.”
Cussens is the pen-name of local businesswoman Julie Wilson who helped to build nationwide bereavement notification service Settld with her daughter — helping thousands of families deal with death-admin before the business was acquired in 2024.
After the business sold, Wilson says she suddenly found herself “at a loose end.” Writing, she says, was the next obvious chapter.
“Many people who write secretly want to write a novel. I didn’t realise I was doing it until halfway through. And then it just took over.”
The book is the first in a planned five-part series, with 26,000 words already written in the second book. Wilson describes Shotley Bridge Murders as sitting firmly within the northern crime tradition of Ann Cleeves, LJ Ross and Val McDermid.
The police procedural novel introduces Detective Constable Heather Hudson, a young mother whose first major case plunges her into a world of deception, small-town secrets, and professional peril.
Cussens told BBC Radio Tees that she had one goal before Christmas Day.
“We’re number 35 globally in Women’s Adventure Fiction. The dream is to hit No.1 by Christmas.”
Shotley Bridge Murders is now available in paperback and e-book on Amazon and is stocked in local stores including Forum Books, Corbridge; Wot Nots, Shotley Bridge; Collected Books, Durham and The Limetree Gallery, Stanhope.
