Hester Musson and Stacey Thomas Shortlisted for the 2024 HWA Debut Crown Award

We’re thrilled to announce that Hester Musson and Stacey Thomas have been shortlisted for the 2024 HWA Debut Crown Award for their historical novels, The Beholders and The Revels respectively. The Beholders is summarised by HWA as “a curious, mysterious read filled with secrets. Expert scene setting and prose that keeps you trapped inside that old house with intriguing characters”, while The Revels is summarised as “electric prose brings this tale of a witch hunt from the bowels of history and displays it in gory, yet glorious detail”.

Chair of the HWA, Ayo Onatade, said: “Debut authors continue to show that historical fiction is alive and kicking and that it is always a delight to become engrossed in such wonderful stories”. The winner of the Debut Crown Award will be announced on November 20th 2024 at a ceremony in central London.

Congratulations, Stacey and Hester!

The Beholders by Hester Musson

June, 1878. The body of a boy is pulled from the depths of the River Thames, suspected to be the beloved missing child of the widely admired Liberal MP Ralph Gethin.

Four months earlier. Harriet is a young maid newly employed at Finton Hall. Fleeing the drudgery of an unwanted engagement in the small village where she grew up, Harriet is entranced by the grand country hall; she is entranced too by her glamorous mistress Clara Gethin, whose unearthly singing voice floats through the house. But Clara, though captivating, is erratic. The master of the house is a much-lauded politician, but he is strangely absent. And some of their beautiful belongings seem to tell terrible stories.

Unable to ignore her growing unease, Harriet sets out to discover their secrets. When she uncovers a shocking truth, a chain of events is set in motion that could cost Harriet everything, even her freedom…

The Revels by Stacey Thomas

England, 1645.

After his half-brother dies, aspiring playwright Nicholas Pearce is apprenticed to Judge William Percival, an infamous former witch-hunter who is under pressure to resume his old profession.

In a country torn apart by civil war, with escalating tensions between Catholics and Protestants, Royalists and Roundheads, and rumours of witchcraft, Nicholas hides a secret: the dead sing. He hears their secrets, but will he find the courage to speak up and save innocent lives, even if it means putting himself in great danger?