Swift Press scores new mystery series by Maureen Paton in two-book deal

Swift Press, an independent publishing company, has scored a “superb” new historical crime series by journalist and author Maureen Paton. Her first novel, The Mystery at Rake Hall, set in post-war Oxford, follows a fictionalised version of university don and author C S Lewis, who finds himself an unlikely detective solving a mystery surrounding a hostel for unmarried mothers. Publisher Mark Richards bought world rights to the first two books in the series from the author directly. 

Richards said: “As soon as I opened The Mystery at Rake Hall I knew I was in for a treat: at its heart is the gentle but exceptionally intelligent figure of C S Lewis, about to start work on the children’s books that will cement his place in literary history, but who risks career infamy by investigating the strange disappearance of one of his students. Maureen Paton has brilliantly conjured post-war Oxford, where the after-effects of the conflict are still being felt, and given us a panoramic view of the time and place through a wide variety of wonderfully-drawn characters.”