Sharna Jackson

In her own words ...
 

I’m trying to help kids thrive – especially those who are disengaged, disadvantaged and generally don’t think arts, culture, reading and writing is for them.

It is. I’ll make it so.

I was born and raised in Luton, lived in Brighton, London, Kent and Sheffield but now, I write from Rotterdam on my old ship – Anna Maria was built in 1897.

Before writing books full-time, I had a wide range of jobs including the founding Creative Director at Hopster and I created the Tate Kids website, back in 2007. In 2013, The Bookseller named me as one of their Rising Stars – alongside Hellie Ogden at Janklow & Nesbit, who is now my agent. It was clearly meant to be.

I was most recently the Artistic Director at Site Gallery, and was on the board of Sheffield Doc/Fest in addition to being a member of BAFTA’s Children’s and Learning and New Talent committees and the Children’s Media Conference advisory board. It was a busy time.

High Rise Mystery

After finding their community art teacher murdered on their tower block estate (‘The Tri’), sisters Nik and Norva are determined to solve this terrible crime. Swinging into action even before the police have arrived, the whip-smart detective duo develop a list of suspects and a plan to identify motives and methods. But over the following days, the evidence starts to point in a confusing direction, one that they really don’t want to contemplate…

This fantastic, urban-set mystery is fast-paced, funny and exciting. Nik and Norva are two brilliant new detectives with great senses of humour, and readers will be rooting for them from page one. There’s also a great supporting cast of characters, from quirky neighbours to new police officer and the girls’ former babysitter Katie, and it's ultra-refreshing to have characters of colour in a contemporary, ordinary life setting that many readers will relate to.

High-Rise Mystery is the perfect ‘whodunnit’. As the two girls sift through red herrings and reveal a series of tower block secrets, short snappy sentences and sparkling dialogue will keep readers turning the pages. A mystery as hot as the summer heatwave in which it’s set!