An award winning writer, Mel’s debut novel, A Murder for Miss Hortense, is the first in a new crime series starring Miss Hortense, a retired Caribbean nurse from the Windrush generation.  The novel won the 2026 CWA Whodunnit Award and was highly commended in the Val McDermid Debut Award 2026.

Mel’s second novel, Miss Hortense and the Last Rites, was published in the UK in July 2026.