The Angry Widow – a new book by Chiswick author Simon Thomsett

Simon Thomsett; The Angry Widow

Two lives from different worlds collide one cold, dark morning

Chiswick author Simon Thomsett is launching his new book at the Chiswick Book Festival 2026.

He will be one of 21 local authors on Wednesday 9 September in the Boston Room of George IV who will each have two minutes, to the second, for an elevator pitch to persuade the audience to read their book.

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The Angry Widow has all the makings of a TV thriller – it opens with a surreptitious exchange in a less frequented car park as a gun is handed over from the boot of a car and quickly proceeds to the murder of a man the assassin does not know, in front of his wife.

That’s why she’s angry. Understandably. That, and the message from a strange woman which preceded it.

The killer is an unlikely assassin. Hayden has not committed murder before. He lives with his mum and has a soft spot for their elderly neighbour, who he started doing odd jobs and errands for during Covid.

The victim also seems unlikely – an apparently law-abiding City worker and model husband and father. Except there’s more to him than meets the eye. Naturally.

And more than that I cannot tell you for fear of spoiling it, except to say The Angry Widow is a page turner – I was invested in the characters from the get-go and wanted to know what happened next.

“I hope it’s a page-turner” says Simon. “I’ve had some reviews on Amazon that have used the word.

“I wanted to make the characters recognisable and wanted to be inside their heads, telling a good story. I take the Elmore Leonard approach – get to the point and don’t waffle”.

The Angry Widow; The Rules

As far as I know, Simon is not connected with the underworld, it is all out of his imagination, except that he did tell me the scene where the gun is handed over resulted from a real, chance conversation with someone who was connected, or at least, had access to guns.

“The police have a real problem with replica guns which have been made usable”, Simon told me, but would not be drawn on how he’d met this bloke.

The murder is in the context of an environmental campaign, which Simon does have some personal experience of.

“I have some scepticism about some of the environmental lobby. I used to be a member of the Ecology Party, before it became the Green Party, which is now something completely different.

“I may have some sympathy about the potential for ego to take over. I think Just Stop Oil have gone too far, and it doesn’t rally people to your cause”.

It is important to him that that his books are based in current issues, what’s going on in the news now.

Simon’s first book, The Rules, which he published two years ago, was also a crime thriller, a coming of age story with a boxing theme. Both books are available online:

The Rules – amazon.co.uk

The Angry Widow – amazon.co.uk

When not writing novels, Simon writes theatre reviews for The Chiswick Calendar and is often to be found hanging about the Tabard theatre and the Bush theatre in Shepherd’s Bush..

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“I have always written”, he told me. “When I was younger, I wrote two or three plays when I came out of drama school, but I needed to make a living”.

He started out as a stage manager and technician then became a venue director and producer, notably at the Hackney Empire, Fairfield Halls and most recently the New Victoria Theatre in Woking, but has always wanted to write and publish novels.

“I promised myself that when I stopped full-time work, which I did in 2022, I would do it”.