Fiona Erskine

Engineer. Writer. Swimmer.

About me

Engineer by day, writer by night.

In my day job, I’ve turned rock into fertilizer, recovered and recycled precious metals, brought medicines to market, made amazing new polymers,  exported electricity, and directed international construction projects.

I’ve written about my first job in a Leith fertiliser factory in Phosphate Rocks: A Death In Ten Objects.

Losing Control, my latest book, is set in Teesside and was published November 2024

Work means travel, and I never leave home without a book or twelve.

I love a good thriller, but where are the female action heroes?  Powerful, intelligent, honourable, compassionate women who get things done. Why aren’t they out there, solving mysteries and saving the world?  Where is the female Bourne, Reacher, MacGuyver or Bond? Well, I got sick of wondering and hoping, and decided to write the stories that I wanted to read.

Meet Dr Jaq Silver. She blows things up to keep people safe. Her adventures are available from all good bookshops and on-line.

I’m interested in white collar crime, in the scientific and technological choices that are made for us without our knowledge. I’m fascinated by industrial disasters and passionate about environmental justice.

I write about the road less travelled.

Fiona Erskine


The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

 


I swam 24km in 5 days. Hard work?

Try tuna canning, salt drying or sulphur mining...

https://fionaerskine.substack.com/p/sulphur-and-salt


Goodbye #egadiislands and thank you @swimtrek for an amazing week - 24 kilometres with wonderful guides, fellow swimmers and multicoloured fishes!


This week #PhosphateRocks e-book is only £0.99 in UK

Who doesn't love a story about a demolition gone wrong? @raine_clouds_writes @lesleykellyauthor 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Phosphate-Rocks-Death-Ten-Objects-ebook/dp/B0CTRRXKNY

PS: The audio book narrated by @rain.goblin is pretty special too


A quarter of my sales this month were overseas for the very first time!

Massive thanks to all those fine Canadians for topping the list. Say Hi if you see this.

https://fionaerskine.com/


On my way to Harrogate today

https://open.substack.com/pub/fionaerskine/p/harrogate

Say hello if you'll be there


What makes the perfect handbag and how much is it worth?

https://fionaerskine.substack.com/p/the-perfect-handbag


https://fionaerskine.substack.com/p/i-have-some-news

Goodbye @oneworldpublications and thank you for everything - it was such an honour to be published by you and I loved working with the team.

Now, like #JaqSilver I'm going solo

Big thanks to @kidethic for my beautiful new covers


Such a treat to interview #TerryDeary about his first adult crime book #ActuallyImAMurderer (it’s great!) at @backofthebeyondbooks


Happy International Women in Engineering Day! 
Thanks to @Chem_Processing for highlighting #TheChemicalDetective!
 #INWED2025 #INWED25 
https://www.chemicalprocessing.com/voices/women-in-chemistry/podcast/55298245/celebrating-international-women-in-engineering-day


More canine readers in @forumbookscorbridge #winter #losingcontrol


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Greetings to all my friends at @bloodyscotland! So sorry I won’t be there this year but research takes priority @SwimTrek

First book of my holiday complete. Thank you ⁦⁦@erskine_fiona⁩. An entertaining & complex story - easily transporting me from the Maltese sun I’m currently basking in to the cold dark Teeside winter. I look forward to reading more about DI Julie Cadell.

Late to the party but absolutely loving @geowriter #nightclimbing

September treat! In the Blink of an Eye is now only 99p on kindle for September! 👇

Soooooo excited for this pre-pub exclusive event in "The most magical little bookshop" @drakebookshop talking to my fave ever author, the brilliant @erskine_fiona 🤩 #StocktononTees Tickets here: https://share.google/xByL2vam4pqgVUKPl

One week left to nab WHITE CITY for less than a quid on Kindle.

https://amzn.eu/d/2g1623R

“The best crime novel I've read this year”
— The Times

“Quite breathtaking”
— Daily Mail

“Superb”
— Guardian

And, most importantly, the opinion of the Pinborough Bugle:

Don’t miss bookclub tomorrow at 10am followed by a signing at 11am with @cmacwritescrime #Durham #events

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