Debut novelist Hazell Ward, from Wrexham, has reimagined one of Britain’s most infamous unsolved crimes in her breakout novel The Game Is Murder.
Ward’s debut has become a genuine publishing success. Penguin Michael Joseph published the hardback in 2025. It earned a six-figure pre-empt within hours of submission. The novel went on to become a USA Today bestseller, and the paperback arrives on 27 August.
Reopening the Lord Lucan Case
The Game Is Murder draws inspiration from the Lord Lucan mystery and the murder of Sandra Rivett. In the novel, Ward challenges the assumption of Lord Lucan’s guilt. She also questions why police so quickly accepted Lady Lucan’s account. Meanwhile, checks into Sandra Rivett’s own background stayed cursory at best.
Ward highlights how class shaped the investigation from the start. “The Lucans were so larger than life that they outshone Sandra completely,” she writes. “Working class women get murdered all the time – more often, in fact, than aristocratic women.” Lord Lucan, she argues, simply fit the profile of a suspect more easily than anyone else involved.
A Debut Written Later in Life
Ward’s own story is just as compelling. She is a working-class mother of four from Wrexham. For years, she worked as an adult education teacher. Eventually, though, she decided to pursue her real ambition: writing. Once her children moved on, she completed an MA in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University. She then began a full-time PhD under Nick Royle. She completed both the PhD and her novel at the age of 60.
During her PhD, Ward submitted a short story to a Welsh writing anthology. As a result, the CWA shortlisted her for its Short Story Dagger, alongside established, award-winning authors. At the awards ceremony, a literary agent offered to read her novel. Ward then won the award outright. Shortly afterwards, that same agent offered to represent her.
An Ambitious Reimagining of a Classic Whodunnit
The Game Is Murder gathers thirteen guests at a dinner party. It invites the reader to solve the Lucan case alongside them. Throughout, the novel plays with the conventions of crime fiction. It introduces rules, authorial interruptions and unreliable testimony. For a debut, it is a remarkably ambitious undertaking. The result is an engaging, playful and thrilling read.
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