Rebecca Connolly and Shadow Mountain Publishing announce 'Webs of Ink'

London's self-made "Lady Detective" recruits a young Agatha Christie in a mystery drawn from history

SALT LAKE CITY, UT, UNITED STATES, November 3, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Rebecca Connolly, author of more than two dozen novels, and Shadow Mountain Publishing are celebrating today's release of "Webs of Ink," a 1920s London mystery that pairs real-life private investigator Maud West with a young Agatha Christie. The novel has already earned a starred review from the American Library Association's Booklist.

Maud West is known across London as the city's Lady Detective, a reputation she built largely by writing her own newspaper accounts. The notoriety brings her work, but not the kind she wants. Instead of high-profile investigations, she gets divorce cases, missing persons and blackmail. Then a frightened woman arrives at her office claiming a strange man is following her, and the case runs straight into a gang operating right inside the city. Soon, Maud is the one being hunted.

Meanwhile, Agatha Christie is a new mother with her first detective novel in print and a growing hunger to watch real investigative work up close. Maud's exploits in the papers have caught her eye, so when a message arrives from Maud herself proposing a partnership, Agatha says yes. Maud is too public a figure to move unnoticed, and a crime novelist makes the perfect inconspicuous ally.

Connolly said the pairing started with a podcast. "I have wanted to do a book on Maud West for years," she said. "I learned her name through a podcast on the Edwardian era, and she fascinated me." Looking for someone to put beside her, Connolly landed on a contemporary. "I realized that Agatha Christie would have been around at the same time, though she is younger," she said. "And why wouldn't she be inspired by a female detective as cool as Maud West?"

The book also sits across more genre lines than her previous work. "Historical fiction and mystery? And maybe also women's fiction, since the women involved are devoted wives and mothers while doing other things," Connolly said. "I was so proud to write these powerful ladies in a time where careers and homemaking seemed to be in direct opposition with each other, and yet they made it work."

Booklist's starred review praised how the novel folds the real details of both women's family lives and working methods into the mystery, and singled out the warmth the two bring to the people around them. Connolly's reaction was to hand the credit to her characters. "I love hearing that the partnership of Agatha and Maud is being received so well, and that others think they are the dynamic duo I believed they could be," Connolly said. "There may be stars about the book, but I think the stars are actually Maud West and Agatha Christie, and I hope I get to write more of them."

In addition to Booklist's praise, Library Journal also awarded the novel a starred review, “Connolly’s new novel imagines two real-life great investigative minds who never met. Maud and Agatha were trailblazers in their respective professions and make a dynamic duo, hopefully with more adventures in their future. Readers who enjoy Kelly Oliver’s ‘Detection Club’ series will find much to appreciate here."

What Connolly wants most is for one name in particular to travel. "I want people to be fascinated by these women and excited by the idea of them working criminal cases together, and I want Maud West talked about more," Connolly said. "She was amazing, and more people should be obsessed by her like I am."

"Webs of Ink" is now available in all formats wherever books are sold.

About Rebecca Connolly
Rebecca Connolly is the author of more than two dozen novels. She calls herself a Midwest girl, having lived in Ohio and Indiana. She's always been a bookworm, and her grandma would send her books almost every month so she would never run out. Book Fairs were her carnival, and libraries are her happy place. She received a master's degree from West Virginia University.

About the Publisher
Shadow Mountain is a general trade publisher of fiction and nonfiction. It is the publisher of the New York Times best-selling series "Fablehaven" and the sequel series "Dragonwatch" by Brandon Mull. It is also known for its Proper Romance^® line of sweet romances. Nonfiction titles include cookbooks from popular bloggers Six Sisters' Stuff as well as the New York Times best-selling history book "7 Tipping Points that Saved the World." Best-selling fiction titles include Jason F. Wright's "Christmas Jars" — now a major motion picture — and the award-winning "The Rent Collector" by Camron Wright. Shadow Mountain cultivates stories worth telling, questions worth exploring and beauty worth sharing to improve the lives of families, children and society.

Brianna Cornell
Shadow Mountain Publishing
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