Date with Destiny

In Julia Chapman's final instalment of the Dales Detective series, Delilah and Samson have a wedding on the horizon, while a criminal with nothing to lose is stalking a local celebrity. A must-read for enthusiasts of Richard Osman and Robert Thorogood, this is cosy crime fiction at its very best.

Cosy and twisty

If book series are for you, make sure to catch Date with Destiny by Julia Chapman (Pan). Sob, it's the last in the Dales Detective Series and for fans, it's a good 'un.

Moving her story along at a cracking pace, Chapman has an enviable talent for sharing the ups and downs of country life. Fans of The Archers will lap it up

Bags of Northern charm and wit

Beautifully written whodunnit with fabulous Yorkshire characters, winding love affairs, sheep, murder and mugs of tea, set against the background of the Dales

On her way to literary pastures new Julia Chapman rounds off her Dales Detective series with this rollicking tale of everyday crime life among rural folk

Julia Chapman is the pseudonym of Julia Stagg, who has had five novels, the Fogas Chronicles set in the French Pyrenees, published by Hodder. She is also the author of the Dales Detective series which follows the adventures of Samson O’Brien and Delilah Metcalfe as they solve cases in the Yorkshire Dales.

Born with a wanderlust that keeps her moving, Julia has followed her restless feet to Japan, Australia, the USA and France. She spent the majority of that time as a teacher of English as a Foreign Language but also dabbled in bookselling, pawnbroking, waitressing and was once ‘checkout chick of the month’ at a supermarket in South Australia. She also ran an auberge in the French Pyrenees for six years with her husband.

Having spent many years wandering, she is now glad to call the Yorkshire Dales home. Its distinctive landscape and way of life provide the setting for her latest set of novels, the Dales Detective series.