A St Albans-based author held a launch party to celebrate the release of her debut paranormal crime thriller novel.
Laura Laakso, who was born in Finland but has lived in St Albans for 12 years, celebrated the release of her book ‘Fallible Justice’ with a party at the Inn On The Park in Verulamium on Wednesday, November 7.
The novel is a murder mystery set in modern-day London, but with magical races coexisting alongside humans. When an aristocrat is declared guilty of murder by the otherworldly ‘heralds of justice’ his daughter turns to private investigator Yannia Wilde to prove her father’s innocence.
Laura, who is 33 and lives in London Colney with her flatmate and three dogs, said: “I’ve got book deals for three but I plans for another five at least. This is the first one in the series.
“The book launch was brilliant - there were about 50 people and we had the most amazing cake. One of my friends made it and people thought it was a limited edition hardback of the book.
“I read a bit from the book and there were a couple of short speeches by Louise Walters, my publisher, and my friend from Australia who it’s dedicated to.
“He sent an email with a little message that was read out loud and I cried and everyone cried.”
Yannia Wilde, the novel’s protagonist, is one of the elusive ‘Wild Folk’, known for their ability to channel nature. She works for the London-based Wilde World Investigations, in a world where justice is infallible and the punishment for murder committed with the aid of magic is death.
Accompanied by her bird shaman apprentice Karrion, she has four days to solve the case before it’s too late.
Laura said: “I’ve been working on the series for two years. It took me 15 months to write the first draft. I’ve been so busy this year and prolific in writing the books that my publisher told me I’m not to write anything else this year.
“I have a whole computer file full of ideas that I’d like to explore so we’ll see what happens.”
In her day job Laura works as an accountant and wanted to be a mad scientist when she was little, but sees being a writer as the next best thing.
The novel’s sequel, Echo Murder, is due to be published in June 2019. Fallible Justice is available to buy on Amazon.
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