Home

Welcome to my website. I’m thrilled to let you know that the three books in my “cosy” crime series of Brittany Murders are now available as a Kindle box set. A big thank you to my publisher, Joffe Books!

I’m a British journalist turned novelist based in London and Paris. After completing my bestselling series of gritty police procedurals set in Norfolk, I decided it would be more fun to write these “cosy” mysteries featuring two amateur detectives in rural Brittany. I hope you enjoy the change of scene and pace in these more relaxed stories featuring amateur sleuths Jennifer and Pippa in my favourite part of France.

The series puts the Brits in Brittany and focuses on how the interests of Breton farmers, local villagers and foreigners collide. (A lot of us Brits still live in France, despite Brexit). The first, entitled The Brittany Murders, involves unexpected drama at a Christmas pantomime. The second book has murder, metalheads and motorbikes, and explores how the far right is spreading its poison into deepest Brittany.  The final one features, well, an unusual use of baguettes amid heightened village tensions. Each book in the series can be read as a standalone.

Peter Conradi, the Paris-based Europe editor of the Sunday Times, described The Brittany Murders as “A murderous but enjoyable romp set in a Brittany village that skewers the ages-old antagonism between the French and the English. A really fun read.”

My crime novels are all published by Joffe Books in ebooks and paperback versions. I explain more about how I turned to “cosy” crime in a blog post, Drop the Dead Dog, here.

As 2025 comes to a close, I’ve resumed my work on an international thriller about the hacking of nuclear weapons, Sleeper, which is set in the near future. I had to take an unscheduled break after Donald Trump exploded my original plot which I thought you couldn’t make up…. My two female protagonists soon learn that in a nuclear escalation, the first casualty is trust.

And watch this space for my latest creative twist. I wrote this blog about preparing to shoot the short film Coming Home, for which I wrote the screenplay, in mid-July 2025. It’s about two strangers who fall for one another in Paris, only to discover they share a past neither can escape.

Meanwhile, please click on the Books page and on the rest of the site to find out more about my work.

On social media, you can follow me on Bluesky @annepenketh.bsky.social and on Instagram as @penkaroo

22 thoughts on “Home”

  1. I read both your articles in the Guardian about your struggle with Alzheimers. I’m surprised you didn’t mention CHC funding. There are thousands of us trying to get it for our relatives with dementia. Please sign our petition and maybe think of writing another article for the Guardian. We need the publicity. Thankyou.
    https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/238047

    Like

    Reply

    • Hi Karen, thanks for getting in touch. I did indeed mention it (although not in so many words) in yesterday’s piece but that was cut from the newspaper version. The online version is here on my site. I totally agree with you about how difficult it is to obtain CHC funding, and Mum is one of the thousands so far deprived of state help. I’m going to sign the petition right now.

      Like

      Reply

  2. I just spotted your name on a Guardian article and realised I knew you as a child. Our parents were friends and holidayed in Cornwall. I have memories of long bike ride rides with you and picking up discarded flowers from the compost at the back of church yards! I lived in Sale. Now I live in Canada just east of Toronto. I’m a retired kindergarten teacher with 5 grandsons. My name when you knew me was Jillian Toose. Think we might have met once when we were at uni in London. Best wishes , Jill

    Like

    Reply

  3. Hi Penk!!
    This is Marianne (ex CBC/NBC etc). Remember? I missed you on SKY News today but Rod said you were great. Would love to hear from you.
    Love
    Marianne

    Like

    Reply

  4. Dear Anne Penketh I was very interested in your comments on tomorrow’s French elections on Sky News today. I shall certainly be looking out for your articles in the Guardian. I’m also looking forward to buying your crime novel from my local bookshop when I’m next back in the UK.
    By the way, is your surname Lancastrian or Cumbrian? It’s obviously Celtic; “pen” or course means “head” as it does in Welsh and “keth” is a cognate of “coed” in Modern Welsh, means “woods”.

    Like

    Reply

    • Dear David, thanks for your comment, and indeed my last name is Celtic and the family hails from Lancashire, hence my accent too. I’ll be appearing again on Sky News from 5.30 UK time this afternoon. I hope you enjoy Murder on the Marsh, the next in the series is due out soon! all best, Anne

      Like

      Reply

  9. I just finished Murder on the Marsh and really enjoyed the book. I like the “peek” into everyone’s life. There were enough characters to make the story engaging but not so many to be confusing. I really appreciate how a good writer can tell a story, make me feel like I’m there, then braid it together in the end.
    My thanks and respect,
    Karen

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.