First Class Murder is finally out in the world! Its gorgeous orange cover has steamed into shops across the UK and Ireland, and on Saturday 1st August I held a launch event for it at Waterstones in Cambridge.

In preparation I baked some excitingly bright orange train-shaped biscuits and a coffee and walnut cake (in honour of Hazel – I’ve decided that the 30th July, official publication date for First Class Murder, can double as her birthday), and bought some bright orange cups and napkins, as well as the beautiful new bookmarks that my publishers have created.

Beautiful orange train biscuits, all ready to go!

I’d heard that quite a few people would be there, but I wasn’t quite prepared to arrive at a quarter to three and find . . . this.

First Class Murder readers all ready to go!

The turn-out was incredible – lots of people came from London or even further away, and one fan, Florence, came from Amsterdam with her family. I was signing for a very long time (we actually sold out of copies of the book – apologies if you were one of the people who didn’t manage to get a book signed, but book plates will be on their way to you soon!), and it was amazing to talk to everyone. So many of you are genuine fans of the series, now – I’m so honoured that this is a book that you’ve been waiting for, and that you’re excited about.

Working on activity sheets at the First Class Murder launch

Thank you to everyone who came – here I am with fan and blogger, Sophie, who did a lovely write-up of the afternoon on her website.

With reader Sophie

And here I am with my very own Wells & Wong pillars!

With my First Class Murder pillar!

The Cambridge Waterstones booksellers were incredible – thanks especially to Sylvie and Jess, for staffing what was a very busy event. They’ve been such supporters of the series from the beginning, and I love working with them.

So here’s to a happy day, and a wonderful launch for First Class Murder. Thank you so much for coming, if you did, and if you didn’t get the chance to, don’t worry – I’ll be announcing my autumn events line-up soon. Keep checking this site!