Actually, we’ve already met Andrew Lowe. He joined us on Crime Fiction Lover a year ago to tell us about Creepy Crawly and his Jake Sawyer series. Hugely successful as ebooks, they were published in print by Vinci Books. And, while that series continues, Vinci is now also launching The Whispering Bones as a paperback – the first in Andrew’s new Lennox and Blackwood series.
Whereas the Jake Sawyer novels are set in the Derbyshire Peak District, DCI Oswald Lennox and PC Olivia Blackwood work in the capital, London. If you like the dark procedural vibe, embroidered with all sorts of macabre details, The Whispering Bones is something you’ll savour just as much as Andrew’s earlier novels as he takes us into the urban setting. We asked him to fill us in on some of those details…
What are crime fiction lovers going to love about The Whispering Bones?
Readers who love smart serial killer thrillers will enjoy the procedural authenticity and the sheer strangeness of the case. But Lennox and Blackwood are the key. I wanted to write about an uneasy partnership where the dynamic might seem familiar at the start (a senior and a junior) but as the plot deepens and we learn more about L&B’s individual lives – along with a shared backstory that brought them together – the reader will soon realise that there are high personal stakes as well as the outcome of the investigation.
There’s almost a horror vibe as I read the blurb for this one. Tell us more about the serial killer and their ritual-like MO?
I don’t want to give too much away, but the challenge for Lennox and Blackwood is to understand why the killer needs to arrange small animal bones at the scenes of his crimes. There are chapters from the killer’s point of view – anonymously – which let me show the reader he has an unusual (but real) neurological condition that speaks to the book’s title and is the key to exposing the root of his ritual-like behaviour.
Who is DCI Oswald Lennox, what inspired him and how did you develop this character?
Lennox is an early-fifties Detective Chief Inspector who is coming to the end of an illustrious career. He is urbane, highly intelligent and unquestionably brilliant, but also tortured/traumatised by his teenage son’s suicide ten years earlier – an unfathomable puzzle for a man so accustomed to solving mysteries. Haunted by what he might have missed in his son’s behaviour, Lennox is developing an oppressive, OCD-like meticulousness about his methods. Also, he is noticing strange episodes of vagueness, memory loss and hand tremors, which he puts down to stress… Inspiration-wise, I wanted to write a character who is still a compelling investigator but is being forced to reckon with impending obsolescence and issues of health and mortality.
PC Olivia Blackwood is going to work with Lennox on this case, but she also has a secret purpose. Tell us a little more about her, and her role in your story?
Blackwood is a mid-thirties PC who is taking a second shot at detective training and is paired with Lennox as a mentor to get her over the line. She is sharp and funny with a keen mind and a messy private life, and while her ADHD makes her volatile and sometimes inappropriate, it also means she sees subtle cues and connections that make her exceptional as an investigator. Her close childhood friend Abigail went missing when she was a teenager and the case has obsessed Blackwood ever since. When she realises that Lennox was the lead investigator back when he was a DI, Blackwood sees an opportunity to build his trust and ultimately re-open the case. This is the backstory that will develop through all the books in the series.
What we know about the story so far sounds very chilling. What is the setting and what kind of atmosphere have you tried to evoke?
The novel is generally set in London, but focused on that curious borderland where North London segues into South Hertfordshire: places like Radlett, Borehamwood, Hadley Wood, Harpenden. I like that liminal vibe – not quite urban, not quite rural, but something more than suburban. The comfortable affluence, tree-lined streets, golf courses. But there’s also farmland, dense woodland. A slightly unsettling remote air. I like that David Lynch-style vibe of surface respectability with something darker lurking underneath.
The Whispering Bones and The Vanishing Room are already out for Kindle on a soft launch. What has the feedback been like so far? What are people telling you about them?
Very good. I’m delighted by the feedback. My other series is also dark crime but in a more rural setting so I wanted something more city-focused with all the metropolitan airs. My reader feedback and reviews are telling me that there’s crossover – many readers enjoy both series – but they like the focus here on the Lennox and Blackwood character relationship and backstory.
You’re already well known for your Jake Sawyer novels. What made you want to start a new series, and what can you do here that you couldn’t perhaps do in the Sawyer books?
As I mentioned earlier, I wanted to switch the setting to something more London-based and metropolitan and also explicitly focus on the relationship between the two lead characters and explore how they dovetail. It’s always tempting to just keep writing more and more in your series, but now I have both running concurrently it means I can flip between the two which keeps the writing challenge interesting.
The serial killer thriller subgenre is well established. Are there any particular books and authors, or even films and TV shows, that gave you inspiration or were influential when you started to think about this new series?
Many, yes. Red Dragon by Thomas Harris is my favourite crime thriller still – along with things like Birdman by Mo Hayder. That’s the mood I was aiming for. I also think The Bridge TV series was an inspiration for the relationship and the neurodiversity aspect. Also, films like Se7en which spawned many imitators but is still easily the best in its genre for the investigator relationship, the personal elements of the investigators bleeding into the case, the backstory of a mercurial killer etc…
What’s next for Andrew Lowe, Sawyer and Lennox and Blackwood?
The new Sawyer novel, Blood Never Sleeps, is out on 9 April 2026. The second Lennox and Blackwood novel, The Vanishing Room, will be out later this year in print – but it’s available now on ebook. I’m working on the third Lennox and Blackwood, The Holloway Screamer, which should be out on ebook later in 2026 and print in 2027. The first four Sawyer books are also out as audiobooks with Lennox and Blackwood to follow, and they’re also in the process of being translated into German, French and Spanish. Once I have the third Lennox and Blackwood out there, I’m going to add a third series into the mix, but not sure on timing yet.
Is there anything we’ve forgotten to mention?
When I’m not writing, I coach authors and edit existing manuscripts. If any upcoming authors are interested in working with me, they can find me on reedsy.com.
The Whispering Bones launches in print on 12 February and we’ll bring you our review very soon. You can also secure your copy using the buttons below.
