Kirkcudbright move was Denise’s happy ending

AN author from Kirkcudbright has revealed that many features of the town appear in her latest book.

Denise Brown’s new murder mystery for young adults, No One Keeps A Secret, will come out on August 1.

It’s set in a Scottish coastal town and delivers twists, secrets - and a dead body in an abandoned theme park. The blurb says: “A small town with big secrets. And three teens who should never have found the corpse.”

Its her fourth book with publisher Hashtag Press, and follows hot on the heels of success with It All Started With A Lie released last year, which was a finalist in the prestigious Crime Fest Award - YA Book of the Year in May 2025 and shortlisted in the Spark! Book Award.

And this week Denise confirmed the fictional town is inspired by where she lives, saying: “The harbour, the trawlers, the bandstand: they can all be found in Kirkcudbright. Scottish nights are held throughout the summer, complete with unbeaten tug-of-war team, and Oona the unicorn is real too.

“There is even a willow tree shelter and if readers visit on the last Sunday of the month, they’ll be able to visit the farmer’s market too.”

Denise relocated to Dumfries and Galloway from Essex in 2015 with her work.

Of the move, she said: “I’d been struggling since my extremely traumatic divorce in 2006 and had no idea how I was going to make it happen, but I’d told the universe that I wanted to be in Scotland. So, when the construction company that I worked for won a major project in Dumfries, I applied for the role of admin manager and was successful!

“I’d been visiting the area for years by this point, and Kirkcudbright is such a pretty little town with a lot going on, and great schools, that I couldn’t believe my luck when I discovered a property available to rent.”

Describing how her life has changed, she added: “Life in Kirkcudbright happens at a much slower pace than in Essex. I went from navigating the M25 five days a week (often spending hours stuck in traffic) to driving past vibrant green hills and not a traffic jam anywhere!

“When I want to take time out from my laptop, I can walk my dog down to the harbour or through the woods. Everyone says hello and stops to chat because no one is desperate to beat the rush hour or to smash their next deadline or to make their next appointment. And more importantly, there’s a strong sense of community here; everyone looks out for one another.”