Eliza Mace: Authors behind runaway success crime series discuss Wales, Eliza’s development and what’s coming next

Molly Stubbs

From Y Gwyll to Cleddau, The Pembrokeshire Murders to Steeltown Murders, C. L. Taylor’s The Lie to Clare Mackintosh’s The Last Party, there’s no shortage of crime dramas set in Wales. There’s no shortage of crime fiction, TV shows and movies at all. And yet, with more literature from this genre than we can shake a lead pipe at, it still seems we’ll never get enough.

For crime writers, this means carving out a unique space in a landscape filled with legendary detectives, dark secrets, and shocking twists. With their novel, Eliza Mace, Sarah Burton and Jem Poster aim to do just that.

In the late 1870s, a 16-year-old Eliza Mace lives quite comfortably, if not entirely happily, in her mother’s manor. Though the formidable Mrs Mace would prefer her daughter to behave as befits a lady, our heroine prefers taking walks in nature with her uncle, James, and spending time with her parents’ tenants, the Morgans.

However, growing up becomes unavoidable when Eliza learns that her father has frittered away the family fortune, causing rifts that ripple out into the local community. Can you see where this is going? After Eliza’s father goes missing, it’s down to his daughter and the new constable in town, Dafydd Pritchard, to find answers.

Following Eliza Mace’s paperback release on the 27th February, I sat down with Sarah and Jem to learn more about their inspirations, creative choices, and their titular teenage detective.

“A crossing place”

Why Wales provides such an attractive backdrop for gruesome murders and cunning detectives is obvious. Close-knit communities abound with secrets, swathes of rugged nature offer ample places to hide bodies, and a unique cultural heritage shuts out inexperienced investigators.

For Eliza Mace’s authors, though, the decision to set their story in the Welsh marches began a little closer to home.

“We chose the Welsh borders as the location probably for the same reasons that we came to live here,” they tell me, noting that they’ve lived in Presteigne for over 20 years. “It’s a crossing place, a margin, and liminal spaces have always interested us.

“Eliza is also at a crossing place – between childhood and adulthood; between distinctions of class and gender; she lives in the countryside but, with the spread of the railways, cities are nearer to her than they’ve ever been.”

However, you’d need a keen eye to notice the hints to this location. I was interested as to why the authors never explicitly state that Eliza lives in Wales, when selecting a Welsh setting so often factors into the procession and outcome of events in crime literature.

It turns out that this decision has more to do with the form, or as Sarah and Jem put it, “Tight third-person narratives tend not to state facts which are obvious to the character from whose perspective the story is told.”

But, as mentioned, there are ample nods to the Welsh setting, not least our freezing winters. The weather plays a far greater role in Eliza Mace than the location, and this was definitely deliberate.

“The very cold weather puts pressure on the Mace family, exposing their financial difficulties – there’s no coal because the bill hasn’t been paid; not enough manpower to get the ice to the icehouse because they’ve had to lay off servants,” the authors explain. “These problems all have knock-on effects leading up to and following Eliza’s father’s disappearance.”

Nowadays, most of us don’t need to worry about paying our servants or stockpiling coal for winter. But in the 1870s, these were common concerns among families without the pretty pennies necessary to get by.

Anyone who’s laboured their way through GCSE history can tell you that, for the Welsh, wealthy English landowners often had much to do with this poverty. On this, though, Sarah and Jem don’t dwell.

“Although Eliza’s father is English, we don’t labour that point. He’s very unpopular because he’s a bad landlord. On the other hand, Eliza’s mother has roots in the area, having inherited the estate from her parents – the hatred isn’t shown to extend to her.”

Harsh realities

Alright, so there are no good old-fashioned Welsh vs. English arguments in Eliza Mace. But, on rich vs. poor, the authors do dwell. Speaking of Mr Mace being a lousy landlord, he attempts to set up man traps — think Wile E. Coyote setting up a bear trap for Road Runner but…for a man — to ward poachers from Mace Manor’s grounds. In the dead of winter, this could spell death for his tenants, and the non-fictional inspirations for this act make it even more harrowing.

“It was an exhibit in the Judge’s Lodging in Presteigne which drew our attention to the harsh penalties given to poachers, who were often just trying to feed their families,” Sarah and Jem recall. “It is much easier for us, today, to sympathise with a poor man taking a rabbit from a rich man’s land than to sympathise with an urban thief stealing something to sell – albeit to feed his family.”

All of this seems a bit heavy for a 16-year-old Eliza, even if coming of age and understanding life’s harsh realities are big themes in the book.

Not to mention, teenage protagonists are pretty rare in adult crime fiction. My first suspicion was that the popularity of another teenage detective, Enola Holmes, had influenced the choice to make Eliza a younger protagonist. But Sarah and Jem had another reason in mind.

“We want to give room to show her development as a person not just across this book, but across the series. In many crime series, the detective is essentially the same person throughout. We wanted a character who would be developing significantly with her changing circumstances.”

Thankfully, after her father’s disappearance, Eliza meets a character who’ll see her through these changes. Dafydd Pritchard, a detective from Cardiff, is on hand to hone Eliza’s keen instinct for a clue. But Eliza also teaches Dafydd a thing or two.

As the authors explain, “Each of them has specialised knowledge. Eliza’s is local and Dafydd’s is professional. This helps when information has to be given, but it’s also more interesting because they challenge each other’s assumptions.”

Head and heart

While Eliza Mace readers are treated to a very satisfying conclusion to end this ‘whodunnit’, Sarah and Jem are adamant that Eliza’s story is not done yet.

Probing for sneak peeks as to the second instalment, I was told that Wales may not be the main backdrop, with Bristol, London, and Cambridge all becoming key locations.

“In future books, we’ll see Eliza stepping further and further away from home,” they reveal. “But she’ll always come back.

“She’s always going to have to negotiate, both with herself and with the world, and we’ll see this even more clearly in book 2 when finding a way out of the Marches means accommodating some of her mother’s expectations. But like most real-life individuals, Eliza will always have to find a path between head and heart.”

Having both head and heart is a good summary of Eliza Mace, offering a tantalising mystery tied up in emotional twists.

If you’re in the mood for historical crime fiction that delivers tension and a tenacious leading lady, this might be the one for you.

The paperback version of Eliza Mace was released on 27 February 2025 and is available from all good bookshops.

If you want to know more, read our full review of the novel here.