About me

Wenn Sie dies lieber auf Deutsch lesen möchten, klicken Sie bitte hier

If you fancy reading Night and Day for FREE, please sign up to my mailing list here

Does this hairband and anorak combo qualify as abuse?

I was born in Tunbridge Wells, England and then moved all over the south of England before spending five years in Brisbane, Australia.  I’m now living back in Britain, in Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands, and is where Jane Austen’s Mr Darcy came from. I haven’t met him yet, but I cling to the dream. I mainly write mysteries and crime but I sometimes dabble in other genres.

Like many writers, I have always wanted to write stories. I can remember announcing this to my mother when I was eight years old. I seem to remember she wasn’t overly impressed. Sigh.

I started reading fairy tales, adventure stories and mysteries for children when I was around 6 or 7, and graduated to Agatha Christie and Patricia Wentworth (still my faves) when around 10 or 11.  I have never looked back.

I wrote my first novel Ghosts! Ghosts! Ghosts! in 1970. Sadly no longer available due to my mum keeping it in a drawer with my old school books, a knitted bookmark, and a tea-cosy I made, and her house getting flooded. I do, however, still have a picture of the self-made cover for the book:

Unfortunately Canva wasn’t around in those days so I had to make do with the back of a cereal packet…

Like many writers I am surrounded by cats most of the time, not necessarily my own. I love listening to music, which often inspires my writing, and I love learning languages, which all get muddled in my head, and emerge in single mixed sentence in times of need, ie ‘Vielen dank, ich liebe bardzo molte bene este livres de Mysteriosa, dobranoc och ursäkta.’

I covered up my name to protect the innocent. And noticed that it says number 1 so I loved a series, even when I was a child

I have often tried writing other types of fiction and non-fiction, but I always get bored and throw in a murder, so I have given into my inner nature and now devote myself mainly to killing people. On the page, of course.

When not plotting how to kill people, I can often be found trawling the aisles of my local grocery stores in pursuit of everyday items with lethal potential.  Other interests include literary studies, history, reading about poisons, researching psychoses and serial killers, cooking from ‘recipes’, growing ‘herbs’ and digging deep holes in the garden. 

My Books

I always assumed no ‘real’ publisher would be interested in my work, so self-published my first eBook in the Friendship Can Be Murder series, Criss Cross, in 2013 and the follow-up,  Cross Check in 2014.  Book 3  Check Mate, appeared in February 2016.

Also In 2016, I introduced my new murder mystery series set in London in the 1930s. These are very much of the classic Golden Age style, and feature amateur sleuth Dottie Manderson and police officer William Hardy. The first book was Night and Day. Book 2 is The Mantle of God. In April 2018, the third book in the Dottie series, a novella Scotch Mist was published and followed in November 2018 by a full-length novel called The Last Perfect Summer of Richard Dawlish, quickly followed by Book 5, The Thief of St Martins, Book 6, The Spy Within and Book 7 Rose Petals and White Lace. If you’re interested in finding out more, please take a look at my Dottie Manderson series page.

I also released a new stand-alone (ie not part of a series) full-length novel called Easy Living: a story about life after death, after death, after death. It’s a little bit paranormal-type fantasy, a little bit romance, a little bit mystery.  I love stories that cross generic boundaries and have a broad reach. Maybe try it out?

Please say hello on Instagram: caronsbooks

Facebook: CaronAllanFiction

Mastodon.social: caron_allan

Pinterest: caronallan

or Twitter: caron_allan

Coming soon

I hope to release Book 8 of the Dottie Manderson mysteries to be called Midnight, the Stars and You, and book 2 in the Miss Gascoigne series, called A Wreath Of Lilies. there might be a new book added to the Friendship Can Be Murder series, book 4 to be entitled Dirty Work, and hopefully (this feels like too many now! ;D ) one or two standalone novels. 

If you fancy reading Night and Day for FREE, please sign up to my mailing list here

Thanks for dropping by!

***