Charlotte Vassell Books In Order

Publication Order of DI Caius Beauchamp Books

Charlotte Vassell
Charlotte Vassell studied History at the University of Liverpool and completed her Master’s in Art History at the School of Oriental & African Studies before she trained as an actor at Drama Studio London.

Other than treading the boards, she has also worked in executive search, advertising, and as a purveyor of silk top hats.

She has always wanted to be a writer but she doesn’t think that she was too serious about it. She self published a horrible urban fantasy years ago that nobody ever needs to read.

Charlotte had the initial idea for “The Other Half” in 2015, however it was not until she got furloughed during the pandemic that she had the chance to finally sit down and write this horrible cast of characters into existence.

It took her eight years in total to write. She began the first draft of what became “The Other Half” in April of 2020 and had it finished by July. This is a result of her obsessiveness, as once she begins writing she finds it tough to do anything else. She had made two prior attempts at it, one in 2015 and another in 2017, however she didn’t quite find the right dynamic between Rupert and all his friends to push the story forward and abandoned these early drafts while focusing on her acting career.

One thing that she does is to try and challenge herself to read 20 different works (plays, history, and poetry) as a bit of a palate cleanse. She never gets to 20 though.

She wrote the novel on her laptop on her dining room table while blaring out a bunch of mopey lady indie/electro music.

Charlotte had loosely planned the novel out, so it was quite the surprise to learn that the murderer was somebody else entirely.

Charlotte’s background in History, Art History, and acting has helped her nerdiness shine through. Many of the recurring motifs are really just the stuff which lives in the back of her head which she has come across in her education. She does think that acting has made her a much better writer. You cannot pull apart plays and not get deeply engrossed in the mechanics of good storytelling.

“The Other Half” is the first novel in the “Detective Caius Beauchamp” series and was released in 2023. You know how they live. But this is how they die.

Rupert’s 30th birthday party is a black tie dinner at the Kentish Town McDonald’s, catered with expensive champagne and cocaine. The following morning, Clemmie (his girlfriend) is discovered murdered on Hampstead Heath, with just a single stiletto heel jutting out from underneath a bush.

Who murdered Clemmie? The blithe and sociopathic boyfriend? Maybe it was his impossibly wealthy godmom? The gallery owner with whom Clemmie was having an affair? Or maybe it was the result of something else entirely?

Every single party goer has got an alibi. Naturally. This investigation here will be about whose dad knows who and Instagram influencers, Classics degrees and aristocrats.

Detective Caius Beauchamp is smart, sharply dressed, and is thoroughly modern, he finds Clemmie’s body while on his early morning jog. While he searches for the dark truth beneath the luxurious life of all these London socialites, this wall of staggering privilege and wealth threatens to shut his investigation down before it can even begin. Can he peer through the tangled mess of connections in which the other half live (as well as die) before the case can get wrenched out of his hands?

Filled with shocking twists, bitingly funny, and much too familiar, this is a truly stunning debut novel.

“The Other Half” was longlisted for a 2024 John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger.

This is a stunner of a debut from your next favorite mystery writer. It’s a laugh riot, with wit and expertly done characterization. Many of these characters are ridiculous and vapid (particularly Rupert) with their over the top names. The mystery is the main attraction, however it is the satirical undertones that keeps you engaged at everything going on. The story flows well and is a good combination of character stories and police procedural.

“The In Crowd” is the second novel in the “Detective Caius Beauchamp” series and was released in 2024. A fabulous whodunit about these two cold cases where things go missing: one 14 year old girl and a multi-million dollar pension fund.

Early this one morning, this men’s rowing team finds a body floating face down in the Thames. Many years prior, the chief executive of this clothing manufacturer walked off with this multi-million dollar corporate retirement fund and vanished without a trace. Now, finding this body has reopened that cold case.

DI Caius Beauchamp, meanwhile, has got his own evening at the theater upended by the find of this dead body just a few seats away from him. Two decades prior, Eliza Chapel (the 14 year old student at this girls’ boarding school in Cornwall) vanished in the middle of the night under rather dubious circumstances. A second cold case reopened with a second body.

While DI Beauchamp, along with Amy Noakes and Matt Chung (his associates), investigates these parallel missing persons cases, he finds he’s ensnared in the unexpected political machinations of some duke-in-waiting.

Here is yet another masterful mystery novel from the pen of Charlotte Vassell which is every bit as pointed as it is poignant.

Caius is a thoroughly likable character and it’s great seeing all of the Major Investigation Team be developed further in this novel. It will be interesting to see what they get up to in future books. You even have two cracking mysteries for them to solve thrown in. This novel is just as well written, intelligently plotted, smart, funny, and a cut above many of the other whodunnits. Each character has a distinct voice of their own letting you know right away who they are, either you like them or hate them. The mystery portion of the novel is just as exquisite as book one, while being clever, salacious, believable, and punchy.