My Favourite Possessions by Helena Dixon

This week Helena Dixon returns to my blog to introduce the first book in her new series. The Secret Detective Agency was published on 27 March 2025 and is doing very well in the Amazon charts.

Helena also had the excitement of seeing a huge poster of this book’s cover displayed at the London Book Fair 😄. I’ve read the first title in the series and will put my review at the end of this post.

Thank you to Morton for inviting me onto her blog. This year is a huge year for me as it sees the launch of seven books. No, it’s not a misprint, I did say seven and I think I must have had a brainstorm when I agreed to write so many! Last year I wrote over 500,000 words – six books. I promise that I’m slowing down for this year. The result of that is that I have four more Miss Underhay books including book 20 in the series which is out in May. I’m also launching a new series of cosy mysteries, The Secret Detective Agency, set in World War Two. The first book came out on March 27^th.

I was offered a choice of topics to write about for this blog. One was a favourite recipe. That wouldn’t work since I’m a throw whatever is in the fridge into a pot kind of cook. I have severe dyscalculia and working with weights, cooking times and temperatures is not one of my strengths.

Then it was suggested that I could write about a colour that features most in my life and possibly in the book. Hmm, I have a favourite colour but it’s not in the book and apart from my love of daffodils and yellow roses doesn’t really feature in my life. I don’t have any yellow rooms or objects.

The final choice was a favourite possession. By now I had a sinking feeling. I have things which are meaningful and important to me. I think everyone does, but I have never been attached to objects. When we moved from the Black Country to Devon almost four years ago, I got rid of almost everything. I had to cut things down in order to fit them into the removal van and since I had to empty my mother-in-law’s house too. She moved with us, there wasn’t much space.

Then shortly after we moved our house was severely damaged by three storms that swept in one after the other and removed the gable wall of my house. An event like that makes you focus on what matters. I had no time before we were evacuated to think about what I should take. Once everyone I loved including my dog was safe, I found I had grabbed my handbag and my laptop. That was it. Until the structural engineers and the fire service allowed us back in then everything else was, for that moment in time, gone. Does that mean my laptop is my favourite possession? Or was it just that I knew I needed it to work and to contact my insurers, builders etc.

I continued to think, and my favourite possessions are the ones with me every day. My rings, wedding, engagement, eternity and my dress ring, a present from Mr Nell when we were young and broke. Finally, my most important possession, the one that means the most to me is my crucifix. A present from my parents when I was sixteen when I became a Christian. I never take it off unless I have surgery, and it’s replaced as soon as I am conscious again. It’s my constant reminder that life is about faith, service, kindness, compassion, understanding and generosity but mostly love.

About Helena Dixon

Helena Dixon is a Black Country wench living in Devon. Married to the same man for forty years she has three daughters, two grandsons, a cactus called Spike, and a crazy cockapoo. She was winner of The Romance Prize in 2007 and Love Story of the Year 2010 as Nell Dixon. She now writes historical 1930’s and 40’s set cozy crime

Helena enjoys hearing from readers and you can read her news and contact her via her website at https://www.nelldixon.com visit her blog at https://www.nelldixonrw.blogspot.com find her on Twitter/X @NellDixon and friend her on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nell-Dixon/228642037151856 Or look for her on Instagram and Threads.

About The Secret Detective Agency

The Secret Detective Agency is a cozy mystery set against the backdrop of World War 2.

Meet Miss Jane Treen – the coffee-drinking cat lover dressed head to toe in tweed, who just happens to be a secret super sleuth!

London, 1941: Miss Jane Treen is at her desk, strong black coffee in hand and fluffy ginger cat by her side, when her top-secret government work is interrupted by an urgent call to Devon. A woman has been found dead in a lake in a place where she shouldn’t have been. Jane needs to gather the clues and find the killer before someone else from the agency gets hurt…

Shy and handsome code-breaker Arthur Cilento is bewildered by the arrival of the efficient Miss Treen and her cat Marmaduke. She bursts into his life unexpectedly, forcing him out of his comfort zone. The reluctant colleagues huddle near the warmth of a crackling fire in Arthur’s country home, working to piece together the murderous puzzle at hand.

In the sleepy Devon village, someone is hiding something: but is it the busybody vicar and his sister, the dutiful housekeeper and her secretive son, the stern librarian, or someone else altogether? And who were the people with the woman in the lake on the day she died?

No sooner have Arthur and Jane have drawn up a list of suspects, than a parcel reveals a clue that sends them in hot pursuit of a coded diary stashed in a village church. But as the heavy wooden door slams behind them and a key turns in the lock, one thing is sure: they need to unravel the truth and crack this code before the killer decides their number is up…

But if they can catch the culprit in time, might this unusual pair become the finest crime-solving partnership since Holmes and Watson hung up their hats…

You can get a copy in ebook, paperback or audio https://geni.us/B0DQLTGRGFauthor

Book Two The Seaside Murders is published on 30 April 2025.

Morton’s Review of Book One The Secret Detective Agency

The start of a new series for Helena Dixon and I look forward to many more adventures with Jane, Arthur and Benson.

A glimpse into wartime Britain with its bombing raids, blackout and rationing. It made me think about my grandparents lives in the war, as my grandfather was a fire warden at this time in Birmingham.

Jane takes her war work very seriously, but comes to value Arthur’s logical mind.

As someone who has cat allergies and chest problems, I may have told Jane to live in a hotel with her cigarettes and cat rather than to move into my home, but Arthur seems too polite.

A great start to what I think will be a very popular series.