The Earth Hums in B Flat caused a media storm when it was released last year. Narrated by 12 year old Gwenni, living in a small Welsh village in the 1950s, it is a story of family secrets best left buried and the power of the imagination. Mari was the top Waterstone's New Voice, an Amazon Rising Star and one of the Independent's Rising Stars. The book was picked as a R4 Book at Bedtime, as one of Amazon's Top 10 Fiction titles of 2009, and shortlisted for both the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award and the USA's Indies Choice Book Awards 2010 Adult Debut Book of the Year (results for both next month). She has been immersed in books all her life, working as a librarian in academic, school, public, private and prison libraries. She has also been a book reviewer, researcher, translator, copy writer and web editor.

'The Earth Hums in B Flat is a richly evocative, warm but unsentimental tale of a child detective struggling to piece together clues about the lives around her. These lives, and the characters who live them, are so vividly drawn and Mari Strachan's careful unraveling of the secrets they hide is extremely compelling. I loved this novel.' - CATHERINE O'FLYNN