Coming Soon: a new “Brenda and Effie” adventure from Paul Magrs

By John Freeman on March 16, 2026 • ( 0 )

Daffy delights Brenda and Effie – the marvellous creations of Doctor Who novelist Paul Magrs – are back at last, with the release of The Deadly Boutique, in all good bookshops from 6th April.

An exclusive Brenda and Effie chapbook, The Deadly Boutique was published by Snow Books in time for the Whitby Literature Festival last year. Copies are available from the Whitby Bookshop but the 78-page book has now got a wider release, available to preorder now from AmazonUK (Affiliate Link).

For those who came in late – very late – the Brenda and Effie stories merge comedy, fantasy, high art, and popular culture. They centre around Brenda who, after a long and eventful life, has settled here in Whitby, to run a guest house by the sea. But it isn’t long before Brenda – who, it turns out, is the bride of Frankenstein – has teamed up with Effie, the white witch from the antiques shop next door. Together they get themselves involved in a series of supernatural investigations, including a romantic run-in with a certain immortal Count…

As a creation of Dr Frankenstein, Brenda’s character grapples with profound themes of identity, humanity, and womanhood, asking what it means to be human.

Seven “Brenda and Effie” stories – much praised by fans, including David Barnett, 15 years ago, for The Guardian, were originally published, beginning with Never the Bride. They became fast favourites for many, the series republished with new covers by Matthew Bright by Snow Books in 2020.

We’ve also had an audio adaptation, The Brenda and Effie Mysteries: The Woman in a Black Beehive, released by Bafflegab; and Obverse Books published A Treasury of Brenda and Effie, nine new stories by Greg Maughan, Jay Eales, Tony Jones, Andrew Lawston, Matthew Bright, Morgan Melhuish, Neil O’Brien, Nicholas Campbell and Selina Lock, with a prologue by Paul Magrs.

In The Deadly Boutique, we return once again to Whitby, home to two of the most remarkable women you’ll ever meet. There’s Brenda, who keeps herself to herself, quietly running her lovely, spick and span guest house – but who sometimes seems older than time itself. And then there’s Effie: a bit of a law unto herself, really. They seem to be settling down nicely, but then a strange Mr Danby opens his curious beauty parlour, The Deadly Boutique, up Frances’s Passage. And things there are most certainly not what they seem.

Join the intrepid ladies as they discover why Jessie Sturgeon, the surly waitress at The Christmas Hotel, suddenly looks so vivacious – and whether Mr Danby’s mysterious methods are any match for Brenda…

Paul Magrs (the ‘g’ in Magrs is silent by the way – pronounced ‘Mars’) writes fiction for adults, Young Adults, and children in a variety of genres. The production company Free@Last TV has optioned the Brenda and Effie Mystery novels for TV. His recent Radio 4 play, The Goblin King and Me, is available to listen to here. He recently opened Panda’s Books and Records in The Old Police Station, Levenshulme.

• The Deadly Boutique is available to preorder here from AmazonUK (Affiliate Link) | ISBN: 978-1913525354 | Buy it via ukBookshop.org (Affiliate Link)

• Follow Paul Magrs on Patreon | Bluesky | Facebook

• Subscribe to The Brenda and Effie Mysteries here on the Bafflegab Productions site

The Brenda and Effie Books

Paul Magrs has previously said the books can be read in any order, but because we’re pedantic…

• Never the Bride (Brenda and Effie Mysteries Book 1)

After a long and eventful life, Brenda has settled here in Whitby, to run a guest house by the sea. But it isn’t long before she has teamed up with Effie, the white witch from the antiques shop next door. Together they get themselves involved in a series of supernatural investigations including a visit to the Deadly Boutique and a romantic run-in with a certain immortal Count…

• Something Borrowed: 2 (Brenda and Effie Mysteries, 2)

There’s trouble in store for Brenda in this second outing for Whitby’s fearless supernatural investigators. Poison pen letters are flying about and the garden furniture at the Hotel Miramar seems to be possessed. Not only that, but there are old flames re-igniting and deadly deities from the dawn of time making themselves apparent! Brenda has no choice but to pull herself back together – quite literally!

• Conjugal Rites (Brenda and Effie Mysteries Book 3)

Trouble has a way of finding Brenda and Effie. Whether it’s long-held secrets coming out on the local radio phone-in, or ancient superheroes meeting a grisly end at the Christmas Hotel, there’s always some new devilment to deal with. And then – to make matters worse – here comes Frank! Brenda’s first and most notorious gentleman friend…

• Hell’s Belles (Brenda and Effie Mysteries Book 4)

Penny is running away from a life of domestic strife and into mysterious Whitby – where she hopes to find herself. But in her quest for self-discovery, Penny may have stumbled on something far more sinister: the gateway to hell. For Whitby is no ordinary seaside resort, and all that keeps the evil at bay are Brenda and Effie – two very unusual old ladies. When a film crew comes to town to remake the sixties schlock horror movie Get Thee Inside Me, Satan, Brenda and Effie suspect something strange is afoot. Female lead Karla Sorenson is reprising her role and she doesn’t look like she’s aged a day. Surely that’s not possible? Then there are the disturbing rumours surrounding the original movie – a cult classic that is, quite literally, spell-binding. As events spool out of control, Penny’s new boss Robert draws her deeper into the movie’s peculiar mystery. But can it be stopped before all hell breaks loose?

• The Bride that Time Forgot (Brenda and Effie Mysteries Book 5)

A new mystery bookstore has opened up in Whitby and a particular Edwardian lady novelist is suddenly all the rage. Brenda and Effies investigations draw them away from vampire-infested Whitby into a terrifying and primordial alien land where something very alarming indeed happens to Effie

• Brenda and Effie Forever! (Brenda and Effie Mysteries Book 6)

Brenda and Effie have made a brief escape from Whitby and are whooping it up on the continent. A brief encounter with a Parisian Phantom and his hunchbacked boyfriend sends the pair hurrying back to the North Yorkshire coast, where they have a whole new set of menaces to contend with. Here come the ineffable forces of darkness! Vengeful vampires! The long-dead Bronte sisters! And a Panda!

• A Game of Crones (Brenda and Effie Mysteries, Book 7)

In this new volume of adventures for Brenda and Effie we do battle with vampires and mummies and haunted cats! We uncover the mystery of both Elephant Men and meet Tolstoy the Long-Eared Bat out of Hell! Brenda also gets to go back to her roots with Baron Frankenstein, and we even share an investigation at the Christmas Hotel with the famous Sherlock Holmes. Whitby has never felt so hectic, and everyone here is very glad to welcome you back..!

• Fellowship of Ink (Brenda solo adventure)

It’s the 1930s and Brenda (of Brenda and Effie fame!) finds herself in an old university town. She’s a housemaid and this time she hast to team up with CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien to battle demons from other dimensions and solve strange mysteries.

• A Treasury of Brenda and Effie (from Obverse Books Direct)

That night I dream about Whitby.

It’s the place that Effie says I belong to. I’m sitting in a cosy room, with a small window overlooking a storm-lashed town. I can hear the sea, an endlessly restless noise. The fire crackles in the grate and I’m sipping a very sweet and delicious drink from a tiny glass. The woman called Effie is sitting across the room from me, but goodness – she looks ancient. She’s like a wizened old hag sitting there.

Effie is talking in between sips of sherry and she’s making plans. Plans of action, of attack. We’re involved in a kind of… yes, series of adventures. She’s talking like the whole world is depending on our working together to foil not one but several kinds of evil menace.

What a bloomin’ palaver!

Nine brand new stories about Brenda and Effie’s adventures in Whitby by Greg Maughan, Jay Eales, Tony Jones, Andrew Lawston, Matthew Bright, Morgan Melhuish, Neil O’Brien, Nicholas Campbell and Selina Lock, with a prologue by Paul Magrs.

About the Author
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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.