Environmental campaigner Carol Hedges has taken time off from her workload in Harpenden to produce a new novel.

Honour & Obey is the sequel to Diamonds & Dust which was published last year and was on the longlist for the CWA Historical Dagger and the Walter Scott Prize.

It tells how a young woman’s body is discovered lying in an alleyway off Carnaby Street in London. Sent to investigate, Detectives Stride and Cully do not realise that her brutal murder is only the beginning of a killing spree that will terrify the whole of Victorian London.

Honour & Obey is Carol’s 14th novel and features St Albans - Emily Benet, the young seamstress and one of the two heroines, comes from the city.

Mother-of-one Carol, of Coldharbour Lane in Harpenden, began her writing career with stories for teenagers and one of her 11 novels, Jigsaw, was shortlisted for the Angus Book Award and longlisted for the Carnegie Medal.

She switched to adult novels with Diamonds & Dust and is currently writing the third book in the series, Death & Dominion, which features the same two detectives.

Carol is known locally for spearheading the Westfield Action Group which was set up to fight the development of allotment land alongside Harpenden homes.

She has since set up the Harpenden Independent Partnership, a group of residents concerned about local councils making decisions “without proper consultation”.

Honour & Obey is published by Crooked Cat Books and is available both as a book and ebook.