What is the title of your latest release?
A CRIME THROUGH TIME
What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE meets Enola Holmes, with a time travel twist. The amateur detective is Georgiana Darcy – little sister of Mr. Darcy from PRIDE AND PREJUDICE – and her adventures begin when she finds a curious artefact in the woods of Pemberley that transports her almost two hundred years into the future…
How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
Purely by chance, I completed my high school work experience at Saltram House in Devon, in spring 1995, around the time that the Hollywood adaptation of SENSE AND SENSIBILITY (with Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet and Hugh Grant) was being filmed there. When I needed a location to send my baffled 1799 heroine, I remembered that film production in 1995 and it seemed perfect!
Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?
Absolutely. Georgiana has led a sheltered, privileged life, but she is very curious about the wider world, and I would love to hear her opinions on social advancements and modern science.
What are three words that describe your hero?
My hero is Quinn Quinlan and he is Irish, witty and kind.
What’s something you learned while writing this book?
That Jane Austen was once a friend and correspondent to the mistress of Saltram House – the Countess of Morley – and she even sent the Countess one of her precious author copies of Emma.
Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
Wait until I’m done. I like to get the story down while it’s fresh in my mind.
What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
I love an old-fashioned Enid Blyton-style picnic out in the countryside. Farmhouse sandwiches, Scotch eggs, garden tomatoes, strawberries, fruitcake and elderflower cordial. I skip the ginger beer.
Describe your writing space/office!
I don’t have one, as we are very short on space. Both my husband and I work from home, and we live in a tiny house that has only four rooms – two up, two down. Plus, we have two daughters and four pets (including a rescued, middle-aged corn snake), so there’s nowhere to put a desk. I generally write from my bed!
Who is an author you admire?
Jane Austen. Her novels and letters reveal her brilliant understanding of human nature, as well as her ferocious wit.
Is there a book that changed your life?
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, not just because it inspired me to write A CRIME THROUGH TIME, but also because it was the first book for adults that I ever read. When I had worked my way through the children’s section at my local library, the librarian guided me to the Classics section, handed me a copy of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, and said, “Why don’t you try this?” I loved it so much that I burned through the whole Classics section and ended up taking an English Literature degree at university, and then a Creative Writing Master’s.
Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published). Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
My wonderful agent Eve White phoned me and I literally jumped for joy. Then I cried with relief.
What’s your favorite genre to read?
Cozy crime.
What’s your favorite movie?
I still love The Goonies and have fond childhood memories of watching it with my brothers.
What is your favorite season?
Autumn. I live in a beach town that’s popular with holidaymakers, but it gets very quiet in the autumn (and much easier to find a parking space!)
How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
On my birthday, I love wandering through the coves only accessible at low-tide and collecting sea glass with my family. The pieces of sea glass I treasure most are the aqua-colored Codd bottle stoppers and marbles, which are over a hundred years old, and were found by my daughters. To me, they are priceless.
What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
I am very into comedy podcasts and I love Cover to Cover, with former Chelsea Lately comedian Chris Franjola, as well as Unraveled with Olivia Faiola and Alex Conn.
What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
I like anything with tomatoes.
What do you do when you have free time?
I’ve recently started watching reality TV and have come to love The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. My streaming service initially only had Season 9 onwards, but I subscribed to Hayu, so I could watch all the previous ones. It’s quite nice watching in reverse, as every season the elderly pets get stronger and less grey, and the wives seem to get progressively more in love with their husbands.
What can readers expect from you next?
The Sequel to A CRIME THROUGH TIME, which is called THE HAUNTING OF A BRONTE. Georgiana time-travels to Thorp Green Hall in 1845, where she meets Anne and Branwell Bronte, who are governess and tutor to the children of the peculiar Robinson family. Soon after Georgiana arrives, people begin to die.
Miss Darcy Investigates #1
Cosy, quirky and utterly gripping, A Crime Through Time is the debut from Amelia Blackwell – the start of a series where crime, time travel and Jane Austen collide.
Pemberley, 1799. When Miss Georgiana Darcy attempts to escape an unwanted marriage proposal, she isn’t expecting to end up quite so far from home. But after encountering a mysterious object in the nearby woods, she finds herself transported almost two hundred years into the future.
Saltram, 1995. At a grand country house where a film crew are busy shooting the latest Jane Austen adaptation, a terrible crime has been committed. And Miss Darcy – newly arrived, impeccably dressed and thoroughly confused – is the only witness.
It soon becomes clear that, somehow, Georgiana was meant to solve this riddle. With the help of a distractingly handsome Irishman named Quinn and a border collie named Watson, she sets out to stop the killer before they can strike again. But trouble is brewing back at Pemberley and time, it seems, is not on her side . . .
Mystery Historical | Mystery Woman Sleuth | Mystery Time Slip [ Pan, On Sale: March 31, 2026, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781035054114 / ]
Amelia Blackwell has a master’s degree in Creative Writing, a corn snake called Colin, and a deep love of the works of Jane Austen. Although the Boleyns appear in her family tree, it’s through marriage, not blood, which is probably just as well. Georgiana Darcy’s most persistent suitor, Baron John de Halighwell, takes his name from one of Amelia’s distant great-grandfathers, who lived in a mansion that even Lady Catherine de Bourgh would admire. Amelia lives with her husband and children in a tiny house by the sea in Cornwall.
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